Zendesk vs. Jira: Which One is Right for You?

By Garima Singh | Last Updated on April 26th, 2024 11:52 am

Table of Content

Introduction
Vendor performance
User experience
Product Features
Pricing plans
Can I integrate Zendesk or Jira with other tools?
How to choose between Zendesk and Jira?
Conclusion

Introduction

If you are looking for a customer service software solution, you might wonder whether to choose Zendesk or Jira Service Management. Both platforms offer tools and features to help you manage customer requests, track issues, and collaborate with your team. However, they also have some key differences that might make one more suitable for your needs.

In this blog post, we will compare Zendesk and Jira Service Management in terms of their vendor performance, user experience, product features, and pricing plans.

Vendor performance

Zendesk is a leader in the customer service software market, with thousands of customers worldwide. Zendesk has a focus on delivering the best customer experience possible and provides a platform that is built specifically for customer service. Zendesk also values innovation and continuously improves its product to enhance the customer and employee experience.

Jira Service Management is a product of Atlassian, a company that is known for its project management and collaboration software. Jira Service Management is an IT service management (ITSM) solution that is designed to support both internal and external customers. Jira Service Management integrates with other Atlassian products, such as Jira Software and Bitbucket, to enable seamless collaboration between development and IT teams but Appy Pie Connect through its integration platform also offers Zendesk and Jira integration making it an easier process to execute.

User experience

Zendesk provides a top-tier user experience (UX) with an intuitive and easy-to-use interface. It connects customer conversations across all channels in one unified agent workspace to create a great omnichannel support experience. Zendesk also offers a low-code editor and a drag-and-drop interface that allow teams to customize their workflows and agent workspace.

Jira Service Management has a more complex and technical interface that might require more training and adoption time. It offers multiple channels for customer communication, such as email, web portal, chat, and phone, but they are not unified in one agent workspace. Jira Service Management also relies on add-ons and apps to extend its functionality and customization options.

Product Features

Zendesk offers complete features to help you deliver exceptional customer service. Some of the key features include:

Ticketing system: Manage customer requests from any channel in one place, with automated workflows, SLAs, macros, triggers, and more.
Knowledge base: Create and maintain a self-service portal where customers can find answers to their questions and reduce ticket volume.
Chat: Engage with customers in real-time on your website or mobile app, with proactive messages, chatbots, and co-browsing.
Talk: Provide phone support to customers with call recording, voicemail, IVR, callback requests, and call monitoring.
Messaging: Connect with customers on popular messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Twitter DMs, and more.
Explore: Analyze your customer service performance with pre-built dashboards and reports, or create your own custom metrics and insights.
Integration: Build custom apps and integrations on Zendesk's open and flexible CRM platform. You can also consider Appy Pie Connect, a third-party API integration platform offering Zendesk integration.

Integrate Zendesk with 1000+ Apps

Jira Service Management offers a comprehensive set of features to help you manage IT services. Some of the key features include:

Incident management: Track and resolve incidents quickly with automated workflows, alerts, escalations, and postmortems.
Change management: Manage changes to your IT infrastructure with approval workflows, risk assessments, impact analysis, and audit logs.
Asset management: Track and manage your IT assets with inventory management, configuration management database (CMDB), discovery tools, and integrations.
Knowledge management: Create and share knowledge articles with your team and customers using Confluence as your knowledge base.
Service catalog: Offer a catalog of IT services that customers can request through a web portal or chatbot.
Reporting: Monitor your IT service performance with pre-built dashboards and reports, or create your own custom metrics and insights.
DevOps: Integrate with development tools like Jira Software and Bitbucket to align your IT and DevOps teams.
Integration: Jira opens up a long list when it comes to app integration and workflow automation. With the help of Appy Pie Connect, you can connect over 1000+ apps with Jira. Jira integration with other apps results in enhanced functionality and streamlined project management.

Integrate Jira with 1000+ Apps

Pricing plans

Zendesk has much more affordable pricing plans when compared to Jira starting at $19/agent which goes up to $99/agent. It consists of foundational plans and Zendesk Suite plans. In case, you are interested in a free trial, Zendesk offers a 7-day free trial and a 30-day free trial for Suite professional plans.

Jira Service Management offers three pricing plans: Free ($0 for up to 3 agents), Standard ($7.75 per agent, $77.50 per month), or Premium ($15.25 per agent, $152.50 per month). The Standard plan includes most of the core features mentioned above. The Premium plan adds advanced features like unlimited storage space.

Can I integrate Zendesk or Jira with other tools?

Zendesk and Jira are two platforms that help you manage your customer service, support, and collaboration needs. They both have features that allow you to create, track, and resolve tickets, communicate with your customers and team members, and automate workflows.

However, you might also want to use other tools that complement or enhance your Zendesk or Jira experience. For instance, you might want to send email campaigns to your customers, sell products online, design user interfaces, or monitor your software development process. These are some examples of the tools that Zendesk and Jira can integrate with.

Integrating Zendesk or Jira with other tools means that you can share data, sync actions, and streamline processes across different platforms. This can help you save time, reduce errors, improve efficiency, and provide better service to your customers.

There are different ways to integrate Zendesk or Jira with other tools. One way is to use the apps, integrations, and partners that are available on the Zendesk Marketplace or the Atlassian Marketplace. These are third-party solutions that have been developed and verified by Zendesk or Atlassian or their partners. You can browse, install, and configure these solutions from the marketplaces.

Another way is to use Appy Pie Connect, which is a platform that offers over 1000+ app integrations that are ready to use. These are pre-built integrations that connect Zendesk or Jira with other popular tools like Mailchimp, Shopify, Salesforce, Adobe XD, Figma, Slack, Jenkins, Opsgenie, Confluence, Bitbucket, and more. You can choose from the existing integrations or create your own custom ones using Appy Pie Connect's simple interface.

How to choose between Zendesk and Jira?

Choosing between Zendesk and Jira depends on your needs and preferences. Both platforms have their strengths and weaknesses, and they are designed for different purposes.

Some of the factors that you might want to consider when choosing between Zendesk and Jira are:

Use case: Do you need a tool for customer service or project management? Zendesk is more suitable for customer service, while Jira is more suitable for project management.
Budget: Zendesk offers different pricing plans for each of its products, while Jira offers three pricing plans: Free, Standard, or Premium.
User experience: Zendesk provides a top-tier user experience with an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, while Jira has a more complex and technical interface that might require more training and adoption time.
Product features: Zendesk offers complete features to help you deliver exceptional customer service, such as a ticketing system, knowledge base, chat, talk, messaging, explore, and sunshine. Jira offers a comprehensive set of features to help you manage IT services, such as incident management, change management, asset management, knowledge management, service catalog, reporting, and DevOps.

Ultimately, the best way to choose between Zendesk and Jira is to try them out yourself. You can sign up for free trials or demos of both platforms and see which one meets your needs better.

Conclusion

Customer service and IT service are essential aspects of any business, and choosing the right platform to manage them can make a big difference in your performance, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. Zendesk and Jira Service Management are two of the most popular platforms in the market, but they are not the same. They have different features, benefits, and drawbacks that you need to consider before making a decision.

Garima Singh