Zendesk vs Zoho
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 Live Chat & AI Support: it has a visibility score of 49.3 versus 6.7 for Zoho, and ranks ahead in 86% of the answers that name both.
Choose Zendesk if…
- You want the brand AI engines rank higher (49.3 vs 6.7)
- 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
- Industry leader in omnichannel customer support
- Scalable platform for large enterprise teams
Choose Zoho if…
- AI answers describe it more positively (50% vs 34% positive)
- You need ISO/IEC 27001 or ISO/IEC 27017 or ISO/IEC 27018 coverage
- Strong value for money and low cost
- Free tier for small teams
AI visibility side by side
Latest weekly run · Nov 3
| Metric | Zendesk | Zoho |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility score | 49.3% | 6.7% |
| Change vs last week | up+0.3% | down−1.4% |
| Rank in Live Chat & AI Support | #1 | #11 |
| Share of voice | 11.2% | 2.6% |
| Mentions this run | 53 | 12 |
| Positive in AI answers | 34% | 50% |
The stronger value in each row is marked with a ✓.
Visibility score trend
Weekly runs over the last 60 days
Zendesk +0.29999999999999716pp · Zoho −1.3999999999999995pp over 1 weekly runs.
Engine by engine
Zendesk leads on 3 of 3 engines
Head to head in AI answers
7 engine answers name both brands
| Prompt | Engine | Zendesk | Zoho |
|---|---|---|---|
| What should a live chat tool integrate with? | AI Mode | #4 | #3 |
| What are the best Live Chat & AI Support tools in 2026? | Perplexity | #2 | #11 |
| Best live chat tool for enterprise | Perplexity | #1 | #7 |
| Which Live Chat & AI Support tools offer annual discounts? | Perplexity | #2 | #9 |
| Official website of the top live chat tool vendors | ChatGPT | #2 | #10 |
| Official website of the top live chat tool vendors | AI Mode | #1 | #6 |
| Official website of the top live chat tool vendors | Perplexity | #3 | #8 |
Features, pricing & fit
| Dimension | Zendesk | Zoho |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per seat | — |
| Entry price | $19 per seat / mo | — |
| Free plan | No | — |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS) | Cloud (SaaS) |
| Integrations | 1800+ | — |
| Compliance | 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 | ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 27017, ISO/IEC 27018, SOC 2 Type II |
| Support | Help Center, Community, Partners | — |
| Founded | 2007 | 1996 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, United States | Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Employees | 5,000+ | 5,000+ |
| Funding | Take-private (Hellman & Friedman, Permira) | Bootstrapped |
| Best for | Support teams from startups to enterprises that need omnichannel ticketing with AI automation | Businesses of all sizes, from startups to enterprises, wanting one suite for sales, support, finance and HR |
Plans side by side
Zendesk
Zoho
Pricing not available.
Pros and cons
Themes from the AI answers that mention each brand
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
Zoho
- Strong value for money and low cost
- Free tier for small teams
- Broad functionality and integrated app ecosystem
- Good customization options
- Scales well as businesses grow
- Less premium user experience
- Pricing varies dramatically across products
Data collected ·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 98.8%·next run
Cite as: SlateIndex, “Zendesk vs Zoho”, https://slateindex.ai/compare/zendesk-vs-zoho, data of Nov 3, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.