Nutshell 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 CRM: it has a visibility score of 7.1 versus 6 for Nutshell, and ranks ahead in 0% of the answers that name both.
Choose Nutshell if…
- You want a lower entry price ($13 vs $19)
- You need SOC 2 or GDPR or CCPA or CASA (App Defense Alliance) coverage
Choose Zendesk if…
- You want the brand AI engines rank higher (7.1 vs 6)
- 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
- Industry leader in omnichannel customer support
- Scalable platform for large enterprise teams
AI visibility side by side
Latest weekly run · Nov 3
| Metric | Nutshell | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility score | 6% | 7.1% |
| Change vs last week | New | down−0.2% |
| Rank in CRM | #14 | #11 |
| Share of voice | 1.4% | 2.8% |
| Mentions this run | 7 | 13 |
| 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
Nutshell +6pp · Zendesk −0.20000000000000018pp over 1 weekly runs.
Engine by engine
Zendesk leads on 2 of 3 engines
Head to head in AI answers
1 engine answers name both brands
| Prompt | Engine | Nutshell | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Which CRM tools offer annual discounts? | Perplexity | #6 | #15 |
Features, pricing & fit
| Dimension | Nutshell | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per seat | Per seat |
| Entry price | $13 per seat / mo | $19 per seat / mo |
| Free plan | No · 14-day trial | No |
| Onboarding fee | Included | — |
| Deployment | Cloud-hosted on Amazon Web Services, accessed through a browser and mobile apps. | Cloud (SaaS) |
| Integrations | — | 1800+ |
| Compliance | SOC 2, GDPR, CCPA, CASA (App Defense Alliance) | 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 | Free live support on every plan, Free onboarding and data migration, Nutshell Advisor CRM consulting, Phone support on the highest-priced plan | Help Center, Community, Partners |
| Founded | 2009 | 2007 |
| Headquarters | — | San Francisco, California, United States |
| Employees | — | 5,000+ |
| Funding | Series A, led by Plymouth Growth | Take-private (Hellman & Friedman, Permira) |
| Best for | Small businesses and small sales teams that want a simple CRM with built-in marketing. | Support teams from startups to enterprises that need omnichannel ticketing with AI automation |
Plans side by side
Nutshell
Zendesk
Pros and cons
Themes from the AI answers that mention each brand
Nutshell
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, “Nutshell vs Zendesk”, https://slateindex.ai/compare/nutshell-vs-zendesk, data of Nov 3, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.