Retell AIAI Voice Agents That Automate Phone Calls
vs
ZendeskAI-powered customer service platform
Comparison · AI Agents · weekly run Nov 3
Retell AI 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 AI Agents: it has a visibility score of 4.8 versus 2 for Retell AI.
Choose Retell AI if…
- You want a free plan to start
- You need a self-hosted or on-premises option
- You need HIPAA or GDPR or ISO 27001 coverage
- Usage-based pricing suits your budget better than per seat
Choose Zendesk if…
- You want the brand AI engines rank higher (4.8 vs 2)
- You need 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)
- Per seat pricing suits your budget better than usage-based
AI visibility side by side
Latest weekly run · Nov 3
| Metric | Retell AI | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility score | 2% | 4.8% |
| Change vs last week | New | New |
| Rank in AI Agents | #42 | #25 |
| Share of voice | 0.5% | 0.9% |
| Mentions this run | 3 | 6 |
| 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
Retell AI 0pp · Zendesk 0pp over 0 weekly runs.
Engine by engine
Zendesk leads on 3 of 3 engines
ChatGPT
AI Mode
Perplexity
Retell AIZendesk
Head to head in AI answers
0 engine answers name both brands
0Retell AI ranked higher
0Zendesk ranked higher
Features, pricing & fit
| Dimension | Retell AI | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Per seat |
| Entry price | Contact sales | $19 per seat / mo |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Deployment | Cloud platform, with enterprise on-premises deployment available | Cloud (SaaS) |
| Integrations | — | 1800+ |
| Compliance | HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, ISO 27001 | 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 | Community and email support, 24/7 omnichannel support with dedicated portal (Enterprise), Dedicated implementation support (Enterprise), Named account manager (Enterprise) | Help Center, Community, Partners |
| Founded | 2023 | 2007 |
| Headquarters | Redwood City, California | San Francisco, California, United States |
| Employees | 51–200 | 5,000+ |
| Funding | Seed · $5M raised | Take-private (Hellman & Friedman, Permira) |
| Best for | Businesses that run high call volumes in healthcare, insurance, financial services, logistics and similar fields, and teams that want to build and change voice agents themselves. | Support teams from startups to enterprises that need omnichannel ticketing with AI automation |
Plans side by side
Retell AI
Pay as you go$0per minute, $0.07-$0.31 for voice agents
EnterpriseCustomcustom pricing
Zendesk
Support Team$19agent/month paid yearly
Suite Team$55agent/month paid yearly
Suite Professional$115agent/month paid yearly
Suite Enterprise + CopilotCustomcontact sales
Pros and cons
Themes from the AI answers that mention each brand
Retell AI
- Highly rated by developers and SMBs
- One of the highest customer star ratings
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 100%·next run
Cite as: SlateIndex, “Retell AI vs Zendesk”, https://slateindex.ai/compare/retell-ai-vs-zendesk, data of Nov 3, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.