Cresta vs Zendesk
Which one do AI engines recommend, and how do they differ on price, fit and features?
The short answer
Zendesk is the stronger AI pick in Contact Center: it has a visibility score of 19.7 versus 0.9 for Cresta, and ranks ahead in 33% of the answers that name both.
Choose Cresta if…
- You need ISO/IEC 42001 or ISO/IEC 27701 or PCI-DSS coverage
Choose Zendesk if…
- You want the brand AI engines rank higher (19.7 vs 0.9)
- You need SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001:2022 or ISO 27018:2019 or ISO 27701:2019 or ISO 27017:2015 or ISO 42001:2023 or FedRAMP LI-SaaS or Cyber Essentials Plus coverage
- You prefer a larger, established vendor (5,000+ employees)
- Industry leader in omnichannel customer support
AI visibility side by side
Latest weekly run · Nov 3
| Metric | Cresta | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility score | 0.9% | 19.7% |
| Change vs last week | New | up+1.9% |
| Rank in Contact Center | #34 | #6 |
| Share of voice | 0.4% | 5.3% |
| Mentions this run | 3 | 31 |
| Positive in AI answers | — | 34% |
The stronger value in each row is marked with a ✓.
Visibility score trend
Weekly runs over the last 60 days
Cresta +0.9pp · Zendesk +1.8999999999999986pp over 1 weekly runs.
Engine by engine
Zendesk leads on 3 of 3 engines
Head to head in AI answers
3 engine answers name both brands
| Prompt | Engine | Cresta | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|---|
| What are the best Contact Center tools in 2026? | ChatGPT | #15 | #16 |
| Compare the leading Contact Center platforms | Perplexity | #17 | #19 |
| Which Contact Center vendors do analysts recommend? | Perplexity | #16 | #11 |
Features, pricing & fit
| Dimension | Cresta | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | — | Per seat |
| Entry price | — | $19 per seat / mo |
| Free plan | — | No |
| Deployment | — | Cloud (SaaS) |
| Integrations | — | 1800+ |
| Compliance | ISO/IEC 42001, ISO/IEC 27701, PCI-DSS | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001:2022, ISO 27018:2019, ISO 27701:2019, ISO 27017:2015, ISO 42001:2023, FedRAMP LI-SaaS, Cyber Essentials Plus |
| Support | — | Help Center, Community, Partners |
| Founded | 2017 | 2007 |
| Headquarters | Sunnyvale, California, US | San Francisco, California, United States |
| Employees | 501–1,000 | 5,000+ |
| Funding | Series D · $270M raised | Take-private (Hellman & Friedman, Permira) |
| Best for | Large enterprises in regulated industries with high-volume contact centers | Support teams from startups to enterprises that need omnichannel ticketing with AI automation |
Plans side by side
Cresta
Pricing not available.
Zendesk
Pros and cons
Themes from the AI answers that mention each brand
Cresta
Profile in progress.
Zendesk
- Industry leader in omnichannel customer support
- Scalable platform for large enterprise teams
- Mature ticketing operations and SLA management
- Extensive marketplace and broad integrations
- Free trial available for 14 days
- Heavy, slow deployment compared with lighter tools
- High per-agent costs
- AI add-ons billed separately on top of base fee
Data collected ·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 98.8%·next run
Cite as: SlateIndex, “Cresta vs Zendesk”, https://slateindex.ai/compare/cresta-vs-zendesk, data of Nov 3, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.