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SugarCRM Platform vs Zendesk comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

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

SugarCRM Platform
Ranking in CRM Customer Engagement Centers
11th
Ranking in CRM
27th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Marketing Automation (16th), Sales Force Automation (8th)
Zendesk
Ranking in CRM Customer Engagement Centers
2nd
Ranking in CRM
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
70
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (3rd), IT Service Management (ITSM) (3rd), Reporting (7th), Knowledge Management Software (3rd), AI Customer Support (9th), AI IT Support (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the CRM Customer Engagement Centers category, the mindshare of SugarCRM Platform is 4.6%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 9.0%, up from 6.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM Customer Engagement Centers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Zendesk9.0%
SugarCRM Platform4.6%
Other86.4%
CRM Customer Engagement Centers
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1345677 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager / IT Planning & Architecture Services at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Easily customizable, automation enhances the marketing campaigns but support is the main hiccup for us
It has been effective in managing customer relationships. It has sales email campaigns, plus integration with Active Directory. And there are centralized reports for the CEO and the general managers. We work with automation for these marketing and email campaigns. It sends out emails to prospective customers related to sales offers automatically. And it copies the sales team so that they can follow up. They are tracking the sales leads. So, the automation within SugarCRM enhances the marketing campaigns. For now, my work is done because I am the IT strategy and planning manager. I just try to deliver the solution according to the requirements of the business. From my side, it's implemented already, the requirement related to the sales funnel. But if they have any other requirement from the business side, they will submit it to me, and then I will look for a suitable solution.
AmandaSanchez - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises
Macros and automation have streamlined workflows and reduced manual effort across support teams
The ability to communicate on the Zendesk ticket through the actual user software, so TOPs, would have been helpful. Somehow seeing a user's ticket history within our app would have been beneficial. That is the only thing that I do not think existed at the time that might have been helpful. Some people struggled with Zendesk, but it was always easy enough to show them how to use it and what they were missing. The only times we really had people report concerns about it was when they did not understand that it could do that or how to use it in that way.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Good, basic out-of-the-box solution, however, in my estimation not a long term play as the design flow and user interface make it a true chore to enter data."
"It works well with Jira. You can customize it to fit your needs."
"Affordable and commercial open source solution is good for organizations with budget constraints."
"Available source code, good documentation, training programs, and a relatively active community, provide the hallmarks for a successful open source effort."
"The performance and stability are fine."
"Saying that, it has a small server footprint and is easy to set up."
"The most valuable aspect of this solution is its low cost, and it works well."
"It has sales email campaigns, plus integration with Active Directory."
"Our CS team has been able to quickly and effectively run through customer inquiries using the Zendesk platform."
"Zendesk is a great product for managing and maintaining requests from users."
"The ROI is amazing."
"It forced the organization to rethink sub-par work processes and enabled us to work smarter."
"This is one of the better solutions on the market for SMBs."
"It's very great for tracking your customer service activities, building reports, and gaining satisfaction from responses."
"I'd say that the integration options that Zendesk offers are the most valuable features to our team."
"This feature allowed our team organize and assign certain members to a particular group."
 

Cons

"Sugar Enterprise could improve by removing bugs and glitches. For example, a comment was made but in the comment section, it was never displayed. However, the problems we faced might not be the fault of the solution."
"Functionality and features are well suited for small business companies only."
"I would like to see more integration on a mobile platform in the next release."
"Putting so many things into SugarCRM became a much-hated task, mainly because of the horrible UI."
"The UX was such that it limited the use of it."
"While it is already user-friendly, a slight enhancement in UI design, especially in terms of color combinations, could make the platform more visually appealing and comfortable to use."
"It lacks customization, and this is the main reason that we are switching to a different solution."
"Pipelines, forecasts, and reporting in general, are not that good in the free version."
"There could be improvements in integration, which can be achieved with APIs or tools like Zapier."
"Zendesk has not positively impacted my organization."
"The price of the solution should be reduced."
"If you are only using it for the knowledge base, it may not be the best product."
"Merging tickets is very time consuming; maybe the system can automatically merge tickets that are related and on the same topic."
"We had to modify extensively the reporting features to be meaningful to our business."
"Additionally, "Internal note" is never just an internal note, it is sent to all recipients on the ticket, which has led to quite a lot of miscommunication and frustration."
"The look and feel could use a little more polish."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"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."
"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."
"From what I hear, Zendesk's pricing is a little expensive."
"The price is very competitive."
"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
Financial Services Firm
17%
Construction Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Engineering Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Construction Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business37
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zendesk Support?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Zendesk shows that pricing is really affordable compared to other customer management software. The setup is pretty simple as well, but if ...
What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?
Regarding my main use case for Zendesk, it is really easy to use, but one of the cons I have with it is that it takes some time to load information. Most of the time, if a particular candidate has ...
What is your primary use case for Zendesk Support?
On a day-to-day basis, I use Zendesk to track, manage, and work on my cases. I also use it to upload information securely, and this is not only limited to documents but also to images and reports. ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Redglaze Group, TengoInternet, Hilco, Bancvue, Vet Adivsor
Mailchimp, Tesco, Vimeo, Instacart, Mediaocean, Slack, Uber
Find out what your peers are saying about SugarCRM Platform vs. Zendesk and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
917,884 professionals have used our research since 2012.