Today, customer service management is one of the top needs of every enterprise. So, the only thing is customer service software that helps companies to meet their customers across the globe. We can see a deep growth in the help and service desk software offered by different enterprises.
Businesses are realizing the need for such tools to help consumers and their staff. Among them, Zendesk and ServiceNow are the popular cloud-based platforms with a pack of ticketing, workflow, automation, and UX models.
Both Zendesk and ServiceNow offer help desk service solutions to many entities. A company can choose a better help desk solution for its actions. It highly depends upon the budget needs, the size of the company, and the use cases it can rise.
ServiceNow is a popular cloud-based ITSM platform and a workflow automation solution that combines many enterprise functions. Such as incident management, HR, process handling, security, etc. Zendesk is one of the leading customer service platforms across the industry. It helps companies to offer a surprising customer experience to their users.
If youโre looking to learn how the actual help desk service works online and its other aspects. You can opt for ServiceNow Training to get a real-time learning experience & to get ahead in your career.
You can read out the following ServiceNow vs Zendesk comparison to find the better solution for your business. Both of these solutions offer different strengths on their grounds.
ServiceNow vs Zendesk
The following are a few comparison points:
- ServiceNow holds several pre-built ITSM tools that include IT Service Automation Apps, IT business apps, etc. Using the automation apps, SNow can perform various actions like asset and incident handling, change tracking, etc. Zendesk also provides a strong ticketing system, email management, and several other tools for different businesses.
- Zendesk offers several integration capacities on a usage basis. Except for the Essential plan, all other plans include public accessible apps and integration. Thus, many companies and experts use it to build private apps and integrations.
- SNow also offers some popular tools like Now Platform apps and Integration. They help to improve many business areas for an entity. Such as HR services, Security, Service management, etc.
- ServiceNow includes some popular built-in asset and product control solutions. By using them you can manage different services and products easily. But Zendesk needs to integrate with third-party apps to get these capacities.
- Both apps have one common thing which includes a customer account and managing contacts. Manging individual customer accounts are possible with the Zendesk app. But the other solution allows its users to modify the locations and addresses of customers.
- In ServiceNow, you canโt provide support to your customers through social media such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. But Zendesk provides both social media and email integration services to the account to interact with the customers.
- SNow is a cloud-based software and works in the cloud platform only. Zendesk, on the other hand, offers many native apps for iOS and Android users.

Key differences between ServiceNow and Zendesk
Here are some key points that differ between these help desk & service desk solutions.
Pricing
The comparison of initial costs and other upkeep costs of using these solutions may give you a surprise. ServiceNow, in this sense, doesnโt offer particular numbers of pricing for different products. Because it says that the subscription charges depend on company size and the IT processes they use. Thus, it offers both free trial and subscription-based services.
But Zendesk has different subscription plans apart from the free trial. It charges around 19$ per user/month initially. And the whole suite subscription starts at 49$ per user/month. The prices may vary depending on the companyโs policies.
Customers
The typical customers that use Zendesk services include freelancers, and small, mid, and large size businesses. But SNow offers support to mid-size and large-size business entities only. Both platforms support web-based and other device users like Android, and iOS.
Case Management
Both platforms provide SLA, ticketing, routing, tasks, automation, workflow control, etc. services.
Customer Support
The customer support category for both platforms is strong. In SNow, the customer support options consist of 24/7 calling support, user community, an improved knowledge base, etc.
Zendesk also outperforms with 24/7 support, CRM, email & live chat, online customer portal, knowledge base, and much more.
ITSM vs ITIL
Zendesk uses the strategy of ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) whereas ServiceNow uses an ITSM method for its services. SNow mainly depends on ITSM solutions as it focuses on customer service, employee services, and many running projects. But Zendesk utilizes the ITIL method for its customer service and ticketing services.
Employee Services
ServiceNow can add more points in this sense at the service level as it provides great employee experience and lifecycle workflows. But Zendesk only sticks up to the ticketing control system in this regard. Thus, employees will get the specific service upon request only.
Furthermore, SNow natively offers various product and asset control services to its users. But Zendesk needs third-party support to provide such solutions.
Apart from this, many companies are planning to combine both SNow and Zendesk services to build robust solutions. For example, if a company has two distinct teams including customer service and developers.
Here, using Zendesk for customer service will be useful to streamline ticket solutions by grouping tasks. On the other hand, SNow can be used by developers to manage projects and track issues much more quickly.
Thus, these are some of the key gaps between the two popular ITSM and ITIL service software. But the use of the right solution can depend on several factors for an enterprise.
Final Words
The above points will help you to know about ServiceNow and Zendesk, leading help & service desk solutions providers. There are many other products and solutions in this market, but these are the leading.
SNow offers many things like it allows creators to build needed apps and other techs using the low-code platform. Also, it automates various customer service needs actively. Zendesk also offers CRM services with some advanced features to its users.
Depending upon the subscription payment system, budget, size of business, etc. any company can adopt these solutions. Some reviews say that ServiceNow is quite more expensive than the Zendesk platform in some areas. Zendesk services are found cheaper as they charge very less.
But if someone is looking for a more service desk oriented with less ticketing service. Then ServiceNow can be a good solution here. It all depends on various factors mentioned above to adopt any of the help and service desk solutions.
Author Bio: Chinky Rai, Postgraduate in Marketing, Digital Marketing professional at IT canvass. I aspire to learn new things to grow professionally. My articles focus on the latest programming courses and E-Commerce trends. You can follow me on LinkedIn.





