SysAid vs Zendesk comparison

SysAid and Zendesk are both solutions in the Help Desk Software category. SysAid is ranked #21 with an average rating of 8.0, while Zendesk is ranked #9 with an average rating of 7.5. SysAid holds a 0.8% mindshare in HDS, compared to Zendesk’s 4.6% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of SysAid users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Zendesk users who would recommend it.

SysAid

Read 10 SysAid reviews

395 Views
58 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Zendesk

Read 60 Zendesk reviews

1,504 Views
396 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

SysAid

Zendesk

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

SysAid and Zendesk are both significant players in the field of IT service management and customer support, respectively. SysAid stands out with its robust service management tools and integrated asset management capabilities, making it a potent solution for IT teams. Conversely, Zendesk excels in user-centric customer support with strong integration features and is valued for its ease of use.

Features: SysAid offers comprehensive support and asset management tools, enabling flexible workflow customization and efficient self-service portals. Its in-depth reporting and automation capabilities streamline IT processes. Zendesk provides integrated ticketing and feedback mechanisms with macro and email integration for seamless customer engagement. Its multichannel support and integration with applications like JIRA enhance its service delivery.

Room for Improvement: SysAid could enhance its Knowledge Base with richer graphical content and better customer segmentation. It should also improve its automation capabilities and mobile application functionality. Zendesk needs to focus on improving customization, refining reporting functionalities, and simplifying its user interface to make support services more flexible.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SysAid offers private, public cloud, and on-premises deployment options, though first-level support can be challenging, its second-level support is well-regarded. Zendesk primarily uses public and hybrid cloud solutions, noted for strong technical support with some mixed feedback on first-level resolution speed.

Pricing and ROI: SysAid is competitively priced, offering valuable features out-of-the-box which can lead to a noticeable ROI due to transparency and process automation. While Zendesk is seen as pricey, it delivers operational efficiencies and improved customer satisfaction through its multi-channel support and CX data integration, justifying its cost.

To learn more, read our detailed SysAid vs. Zendesk Report (Updated: May 2025).

Buyer's Guide

SysAid vs. Zendesk

May 2025

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Helped 856,873 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

SysAid

Ranking in Help Desk Software

21st

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

21st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zendesk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

9th

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

8th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM Customer Engagement Centers (7th), CRM (19th), Sales Force Automation (8th), Reporting (14th), Knowledge Management Software (5th), Community Platforms (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of SysAid is 0.8%, down from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 4.6%, up from 4.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Help Desk Software

Featured Reviews

Todd Blake

Senior IT Specialist at COMMUNITY HEALTH CONNECTIONS INC

A solution that streamlines ticket creation for the staff members of a business and enables efficient issue resolution by the IT team

SysAid is similar to Nintex AssureSign. Some of the back-end configurations of the solution are very difficult. So, we always need SysAid's help. Also, there are almost too many features that we are not taking advantage of in our company since we don't even know about them. A little bit of a streamlining or simplification of the main features would be a good improvement. I would like to see SysAid present its solution more easily. There is a lot in the solution, and it is more than what we need in our company.

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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 ( /products/klaviyo-reviews ), 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

"The service desk automation and orchestration are very good. We are implementing it at the moment. We implemented it for two of our applications already for our CRM. Whenever there's a change in the CRM, it will automate them into SysAid as well. We have two workflows from our CRM into SysAid, which is very helpful. Overall, we're very happy with the workflow."

"It's really customizable. It's very user-friendly to change very quickly. We've developed lots of custom forms and things, without any need for thousands of accounting consultants which was one of our main aims of it."

"It tracks everything that the technicians are doing. We can account for time and manage resources."

"I would say the overall flexibility of the product is its most valuable feature."

"The solution provides us with multi-layered service management along with all our support pieces integrated in one system. Our entire system is run on SysAid, from Tier 1 to Tier 3. All the other IT department functionality is captured in SysAid, like development, warehousing, and application. So, it has vertical and horizontal coverage."

"The SysAid team provided excellent service to implement the solution for us. From the very first day, we received a comp manager, and a project manager, to implement the product. They continued to inquire about our business needs and then finalized the best path for us."

"The simplicity of the solution is excellent."

"All our service management is integrated into one system. Our response time is much faster because we have a visual into what is going on."

More SysAid pros

"It's a very stable tool, very powerful."

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

"It is very easy to connect back and forth between the requester and the person fulfilling the ticket."

"The feature to move over my customer experience team tickets for different specialists is very valuable for my team."

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

"It is a scalable solution."

"One of the most valuable features is that Zendesk gives you a lot of configurability, and a lot of leeway in terms of customizing the look and theme. Zendesk offers you the facility to design your own landing page, as well as the look and feel of the entire knowledge base. At the same time, they offer themes that you can simply purchase and implement. Either way, it can really be turned into the right look and feel of the knowledge base required by our company, which is very important—if you have a bland-looking page, most of the time, people will lose interest. Zendesk also allows you to test the customizations before you publish it. It gives you a sandbox location where you can test everything new that you're trying to create and publish, which is very interesting."

"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."

More Zendesk pros

Cons

"We would like them to approve the security functionalities, e.g., management security features."

"The automation needs improvement. The workflow has some improvements to do. There's some stuff that they are working on like having cascaded fields. For example, we're categorizing tickets by location, by site and by building and then by data room within a data center. At the moment they're all separate fields."

"One of the features that I'm hoping comes at some point is that currently you can only have one Knowledge Base instance within it. For me, it would be beneficial to have multiple instances for different purposes. I'd like to have a completely separate one for customers and the only way I can achieve that right now, where I can tag articles to only be viewed by customers, would be if I use its portal function."

"The administrative side of the user interface could be a little more user-friendly. It is easier for me to export our reports into Excel, then do a server retrieval and get the information. Whereas, to do a report, you have to go through a configuration type of process, which is kind of difficult and complicated. I have been using this solution for two years now and I still haven't gotten the hang of the reports."

"There is a learning curve for the users."

"Some of the back-end configurations of the solution are very difficult. So, we always need SysAid's help."

"So far, we're very happy with the new integration. The only thing that I would like to see is for them to improve asset management so that it's more usable. We looked at it once and we didn't find it quite usable for us. That's why we didn't use it. We haven't looked into the new one yet but the asset management is something that can be improved even more and patch management is not as good as it could be."

"Monitoring needs improvement. At the moment we are looking for some advanced monitoring tools, which are using AI and machine learning as well. This product currently does not offer that."

More SysAid cons

"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."

"There is always a network issue with Zendesk. But we don’t know whether it is managed. The network issue is that when I call, it does not let us."

"They have something called Zendesk Explore, which isn't as good as what they had in place previously."

"The price of the solution should be reduced."

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

"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."

"Sometimes if there was a way to just flag the actual issue out of those email chains - that would be really helpful."

"As per me, there arent much significant issues or areas for improvement with Zendesk, as my usage of it is limited. I appreciate its ability to organize tickets effectively based on tags, allowing me to easily gather and analyze customer feedback and requests."

More Zendesk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Overall, the price is good. It's all about what you get for the base amount. From my perspective, you want to look at what you're getting out-of-the-box. SysAid does a good job of putting key stuff in the box for you."

"SysAid is a good solution, especially from a pricing perspective."

"Though I am not really sure about SysAid's prices, I know that it is competitive compared to some of the other products that our company looked at, like ConnectWise and ServiceNow."

"The pricing of SysAid is less than its competitors."

"Once you're interested, talk with SysAid. You can have them come in and look at your company and advise you on the best solution. They will tell you what comes with each separate package and also advise you what application to activate. If you want something that they don't have, they have a department that can design something based on your unique requests."

"We saw our investment back at the end of year one."

"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."

"The price is very competitive."

"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."

"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."

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Outsourcing Company

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

24%

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SysAid?

SysAid is more user-friendly, and its configuration is easier than other tools.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SysAid?

With SysAid, most of the customers are requesting a native mobile application. SysAid has fewer AI features compared to other tools.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering SysAid?

Our customers use the enterprise edition and the standard edition of SysAid. We provide local support, but there are some things we have to escalate to SysAid. When we need support, we use their su...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?

There could be improvements in integration, which can be achieved with APIs or tools like Zapier ( /products/zapier-reviews ). However, easier integration could enhance the usability. Multilingual ...

See all answers

Comparisons

ServiceNow vs SysAid

Compared 36% of the time

JIRA Service Management vs SysAid

Compared 32% of the time

Teamwork vs SysAid

Compared 32% of the time

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ServiceNow vs Zendesk

Compared 16% of the time

Freshservice vs Zendesk

Compared 7% of the time

JIRA Service Management vs Zendesk

Compared 6% of the time

BMC Helix ITSM vs Zendesk

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service vs Zendesk

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SysAid

May 2025

Download SysAid product report

Buyer's Guide

Zendesk

May 2025

Download Zendesk product report

Also Known As

No data available

Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell

Overview

Offered in both cloud and on-premise versions, SysAid is a globally-adopted IT Service Management (ITSM) solution that combines all the essential capabilities in one, feature-rich tool. From traditional ticket management to asset management, SysAid allows administrators to monitor and manage tasks in one platform, so they can deliver fast and comprehensive support from a single view. Available in 42 languages, SysAid serves over 10,000 customers across 140 countries, spanning all industries and sizes.

SysAid

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.

Zendesk

Sample Customers

Disney, Sears Holdings Corporation, LAN Airlines, Schneider Electric, On Semiconductors, Toyota, Sky, KPMG, Georgetown University Law Center, Motorola, North York General Hospital, Volksbank, Xerox, Bacardi, Del Monte Fresh Produce, Manpower, Nucor, Ecobank

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

Buyer's Guide

SysAid vs. Zendesk

May 2025

Free Report: SysAid vs. Zendesk

Find out what your peers are saying about SysAid vs. Zendesk and other solutions. Updated: May 2025.

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