SolarWinds Web Help Desk vs Zendesk comparison

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SolarWinds Web Help Desk

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

SolarWinds Web Help Desk and Zendesk compete in the IT service management sector. Zendesk generally holds an advantage with its feature-rich platform that appeals to businesses focusing on customer service.

Features: SolarWinds Web Help Desk includes robust ticketing, asset management, and integration with IT tools, making it ideal for IT-focused companies. On the other hand, Zendesk offers customizable workflows, multi-channel support, and extensive third-party app integrations, which are preferred by users in dynamic customer service environments.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds could enhance its user interface and reporting capabilities and expand its multi-channel support features. Zendesk may improve by offering more affordable pricing options, simplifying setup processes for smaller teams, and enhancing offline support features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds Web Help Desk is known for its quick deployment and straightforward implementation process, backed by efficient customer support. Zendesk offers cloud-based deployment for easy adoption and provides comprehensive customer support, which appeals to businesses looking for scalable solutions.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds Web Help Desk generally involves a lower initial cost, offering significant ROI for IT management-focused businesses. In contrast, Zendesk, while more expensive initially, delivers greater ROI through features enhancing customer interaction and satisfaction. Zendesk's extensive capabilities attract those prioritizing comprehensive customer engagement, offsetting its higher cost.

To learn more, read our detailed SolarWinds Web Help Desk vs. Zendesk Report (Updated: September 2025).

SolarWinds Web Help Desk vs. Zendesk

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Helped 870,697 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

14th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zendesk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

8th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM Customer Engagement Centers (6th), CRM (18th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (7th), Sales Force Automation (8th), Reporting (14th), Knowledge Management Software (4th), Community Platforms (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of SolarWinds Web Help Desk is 1.5%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 4.6%, up from 4.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Help Desk Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Zendesk	4.6%
SolarWinds Web Help Desk	1.5%
Other	93.9%

Help Desk Software

Featured Reviews

GANESAN K

Senior Technical Engineer at Safezone Secure Solutions Private Limited

Has supported daily operational workflows and improved approval management across departments

We actually do the reselling. We created a self-service portal for the customers, and this particular function does impact reducing IT staff workload overall. From technical standpoints, comparing SolarWinds Web Help Desk with TeamViewer, we need ease of configuration and ease of allocating, creating new fields or creating new layouts for many specific use cases. An organization can have a number of use cases when it comes to a ticketing tool. It's not a security solution; it's more of a service solution where you will be configuring the needed categories and needed fields for each department. On a scale of 1-10, I rate SolarWinds Web Help Desk an 8.

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JohanSkibdahl

CEO at Etcetera Networks

Automating customer support with advanced AI capabilities and seamless communication

Zendesk has been invaluable in automating communications such as email and phone calls. It allows us to handle more support cases with fewer people due to its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities. This intelligent tool can manage complex queries before users even realize they are interacting with a non-human. Additionally, we have integrated Zendesk with Datto and Klaviyo, enhancing our workflows.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"SolarWinds supports case and incident reporting. This includes logging incidents and tracking them efficiently. Additionally, it is compatible and approved by the ITIL foundation and standards, meeting world-class standards."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the assets management module."

"It is easy to use."

"SolarWinds is scalable as far as adding devices and servers."

"It has a pretty good search function. If you do the advanced search, you can basically search for anything in any field. If I do a search on the request field and just put in some terms I'm searching for, I can usually find the ticket that I'm looking for."

"Once installed, it runs like a charm and doesn't ever crash."

"The biggest advantage for SolarWinds Web Help Desk is the user interface; we were able to configure a different UI for administrators, employees, and HODs based on their hierarchy level."

"Its agility and simplicity are the most valuable features. This tool is very user-friendly."

"One of the most valuable features is the ease of use. If you take the standalone product, it is so easy to use, but if you want a tailor-made Zendesk Guide, you can't do it yourself. However, you can use a template that already exists—they have a lot, and they're very cheap, around 300-400 euros—and use it on all your brands. It's a very easy product to use."

"Zendesk Support has a lot of good APIs."

"It's very convenient to use."

"The product offers very good management. It has a great ability to assign tickets based on content."

"It has good management, the ability to sign tickets based on content, the multi-channel support, the self service portal, the integration with Salesforce, the setup process, and the product features as we are currently using them."

"The initial setup is simple and straightforward."

"We rarely had issues with Zendesk."

More Zendesk pros

Cons

"This solution needs to have mobile application support added."

"A little outdated compared to newer products that include protection and detection."

"It would be good if there were training and tutorial videos on the Web Help Desk."

"The working part, the deployment part, and the configuration part was a little bit complex."

"We would like to see automation included in the next release. We would like to eliminate the L1, and L2 support, by at least 80%. To do this, we need automation with AI (Artificial Intelligence) in combination with ML (Machine Learning)."

"The interface feels clunky to me compared to some other systems that I've used. I used ManageEngine Service Desk prior to this at my previous job and that had stuff like categories that we use that I don't see in SolarWinds."

"You couldn't give administrative access to new hires."

"If I write an article, and I have a team of 30 people, and they all have a Zendesk account, when I write an article, I send them an email. "Hey guys, I just wrote this article. It's one of the most popular topics this month on which we are not covered. Please check it and make sure that you include it in your resolutions". The issue is, once I send it to those 30 people, and they open it, the next morning, that article is the most popular article."

"Zendesk Guide's customization could be improved. I would like it to be easier and maybe open-sourced, so that if you have a developer in your company, you can do it yourself. Right now, that isn't allowed, so you need to have it done via the integrator. Another improvement—this is nit-picking—is that it could be less easy to make changes. Some things are so easy that they sometimes look a little amateur-ish. Most of the templates are built-in so they can be used directly, so they are very simple."

"The price of the solution should be reduced."

"The dashboard could be better."

"The solution itself wasn't easy to set up."

"The data you get when logged in to Zendesk Support differs from the data you get when you programmatically query Zendesk Support through its API because of a sync time delay."

"Report generation is still slightly tricky and not very customizable as per my inquiries."

More Zendesk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"When you compare with ManageEngine and ServiceNow, SolarWinds is reasonable."

"They charge by the technician. It costs $117 per technician per year."

"From what I hear, Zendesk's pricing is a little expensive."

"The price is very competitive."

"You have to pay extra for better support. So it's not only the license that you pay for, but you have to pay extra for the support as well."

"There are different plans that are offered. We are using the entry-level plan. The overall price of the solution should be reduced. The price is too high."

"We pay for the solution on a yearly basis and my understanding is that the cost is about $30,000. That's the cost for 24 to 25 agents."

"Zendesk's licensing is not cheap. For Enterprise, we are paying $200 per agent. It's a per-month cost, so it's pretty steep. There are some services you need to pay extra for. For example, with Zendesk Guide, we had to buy the most expensive offering in order to get Multibrand and everything. We also had to pay a lot of money for themes."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Retailer

16%

Performing Arts

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

21%

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	29
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Web Help Desk?

Areas of improvement can be enhanced regarding configuration. We had the deployment metrics and usability, ease of use, and ease of access. These were the three functionalities we were looking for ...

What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Web Help Desk?

For Zoho, we did OP Manager, Audit Security, AD Security and Asset Management, Patch Management. These things we are dealing with Zoho. We are not dealing with solutions such as Zoho Mail or Zoho P...

What advice do you have for others considering SolarWinds Web Help Desk?

What do you like most about Zendesk Support?

I found the user experience with vendors on Zendesk to be straightforward, especially when it comes to understanding and searching for specific tickets. The search and navigation tools are easy to ...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zendesk Support?

Zendesk's pricing is reasonable. It is not the cheapest solution nor the most expensive, but it provides value for money.

What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?

I'm going to piggyback on what I said regarding Freshdesk concerning what could be better in Zendesk: incorporate more AI. I know many CRM tools are already on the way to do that.

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Product Reports

SolarWinds Web Help Desk

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Also Known As

No data available

Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell

Overview

SolarWinds Web Help Desk simplifies service management with unified ticketing, asset, knowledge, and change management. Key features include:

Maintain asset inventory by managing the use, availability, and health of IT assets, and tracking this over time.
Control change management, It regulates and manages change requests through automated approval workflows and panel voting options.
Employs robust reporting and monitoring using a built-in reports and dashboards to track ticket status, technician performance, and customer support needs.
Automate ticketing management that Automate service request management through ticket creation, assignment, routing, and escalation.
Centralize your knowledge management, Leverage a built-in help desk knowledge base to create and maintain KB articles and promote end-user self-service for common issues.
Meet your SLAs, it has "SLA breach approaching" notifications and date-specific SLA reminder alerts that help customize escalation and de-escalation workflows.

SolarWinds

Zendesk Support is intuitive, and it's built with support agents in mind. Everything they need lives in a single, dynamic help desk interface so it's easy to be productive and manage customer interactions.

Sample Customers

Instacart

Mailchimp, Tesco, Vimeo, Instacart, Mediaocean, Slack, Uber

SolarWinds Web Help Desk vs. Zendesk