HubSpot CRM vs Zendesk comparison

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HubSpot CRM

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Zendesk and HubSpot CRM compete in the customer service and CRM software category. Zendesk holds the upper hand with its comprehensive ticket management system and robust integrations, while HubSpot CRM shines with its marketing capabilities and ease of use.

Features:Zendesk offers comprehensive ticket management, multiple channel integrations such as chat and social media, and robust analytics tools. It integrates seamlessly with business applications and supports features like macros and automated workflows. HubSpot CRM is noted for its ease of use and marketing capabilities, providing a robust marketing suite including email automation and sales tracking. It efficiently consolidates contact details and automates processes with built-in integrations like LinkedIn.

Room for Improvement:Zendesk users suggest improvements in its user interface and ticket auto-assignment capabilities. There is also room for enhancement in merging tickets and reporting for efficiency. HubSpot CRM could offer better customization options and improved integration with external tools. Pricing remains a concern for both, with Zendesk considered pricey and HubSpot CRM's customization limited in lower tiers.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service:Both Zendesk and HubSpot CRM are primarily deployed on public cloud platforms, ensuring scalability and accessibility. Zendesk’s support is available 24/7 but often relies on documentation. HubSpot CRM receives praise for its effective support solutions, although it also depends on documentation at times. Both products offer good deployment options adaptable to different company needs.

Pricing and ROI:Zendesk's pricing is perceived as high, notably varying with the number of agents and additional features. It is viewed as saving time with enterprise-grade solutions. HubSpot CRM offers a free version, but advanced features can be costly. Its modular pricing model appeals to smaller companies needing specific functionalities. Both products are noted for delivering beneficial ROI, with Zendesk enhancing support efficiency and HubSpot CRM allowing flexible cost management.

To learn more, read our detailed HubSpot CRM vs. Zendesk Report (Updated: September 2026).

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HubSpot CRM vs. Zendesk

September 2026

Helped 913,683 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

ROI

Sentiment score

6.2

HubSpot CRM shows positive ROI when aligning with processes, though financial returns vary; integration and resources are key.

Sentiment score

6.0

Zendesk delivers cost savings, boosts efficiency, and enhances ticketing and reporting with easy configuration and strong support functions.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the HubSpot CRM report

I can tell you that we probably saved at least three employees full-time with the ticket management and the automation and the macros and the user follow-up being built in.

For more quotes and insights, download the Zendesk report

Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises

Time saved is definitely a benefit because it puts all of our tickets in one spot.

reviewer2795478

Technical Solutions Lead at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

I feel that Zendesk helped us set up our platform for providing support way faster than other platforms due to its easy configuration.

Filipe Abreu

Junior system analyst at Wevt clous

Customer Service

Sentiment score

7.1

HubSpot CRM customer service is praised for responsiveness and resources, though technical support and terminology clarity need improvement.

Sentiment score

6.0

Zendesk offers responsive 24/7 support, rated highly for effectiveness, professionalism, and enhancing user satisfaction despite documentation reliance.

HubSpot's customer service is excellent and fast.

MarianaPiñeres

Customer Success Manager Latam at ElectroNeek

Many users give it only a couple of minutes before moving on, so there should be ways for quick, direct access and follow-up, which is currently somewhat challenging.

Charles Dickens

President at iCIO, Inc

There is always an account rep that's available, and there is a technical account rep that is available for every account.

Kartikeya Prahlad

Sr Director of Global Inside Sales at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the HubSpot CRM report

There appears to be a lack of connection between the bot and the agents, making it feel scripted rather than helpful.

Technical Support Engineer/ QA at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

The technical support provided by Zendesk has been very satisfactory.

For more quotes and insights, download the Zendesk report

CEO at Etcetera Networks

Their support team from Zendesk is excellent, similar to what you have in Freshdesk.

Anita Orioma

Customer Success Manager at Mimshackworks Endeavors

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.4

HubSpot CRM is scalable for small and large teams, supporting growth with regional adaptability and seamless integration.

Sentiment score

7.0

Zendesk scales well, but larger teams may need adjustments; integration is straightforward, though pricing and customization can be challenging.

Handling around 100 to 150 users is fine.

Kamal Ahmad

Director at Big Billion Ventures Pvt Ltd

There are a lot of enterprises using it, however, even as a GTM for HubSpot, their target market is predominantly SMB.

Kartikeya Prahlad

Sr Director of Global Inside Sales at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

HubSpot CRM is a scalable solution.

reviewer2396643

Founder at a marketing services firm with 1-10 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the HubSpot CRM report

We have not hit a peak or a turn yet that Zendesk has not been able to go with us or been able to grow with us in the process, change or pivot that the company is making.

Dimitri Cooper

Project Manager III at City of Union City Government

Zendesk can scale from very small companies to very large ones.

CEO at Etcetera Networks

Zendesk's scalability is excellent.

For more quotes and insights, download the Zendesk report

Technical Support Engineer/ QA at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

8.5

HubSpot CRM is praised for stability, reliability, high availability, and seamless integration, with most users rating it highly.

Sentiment score

7.8

Zendesk is stable, reliable, handles high traffic well, with rare outages and praised communication during maintenance and updates.

Downtime is very rare.

Sadiq H

Campaign Specialist at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the HubSpot CRM report

They are always informing us with a status update and an ETA, and the turnaround time is usually within the same day with no extended downtime that would cause a detriment to our company.

Dimitri Cooper

Project Manager III at City of Union City Government

Zendesk is quite stable; we experience major outages only once or twice a year, making it very reliable.

For more quotes and insights, download the Zendesk report

Technical Support Engineer/ QA at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

I did not face any slowdown issue in Zendesk; it smoothly handles a lot of tickets.

RahulKumar16

Senior Software Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Room For Improvement

HubSpot CRM requires enhanced integration, customization, flexibility, scalability, and improvements in usability, features, mobile functionality, and technical support.

Zendesk needs improved customization, user-friendliness, pricing clarity, mobile optimization, and expanded communication features for better user satisfaction.

HubSpot should establish some pre-deployable packages that, when contracted, offer basic functionality.

Charles Dickens

President at iCIO, Inc

A better CRM can be achieved by providing more customization features.

Kamal Ahmad

Director at Big Billion Ventures Pvt Ltd

The response time is slow.

Parag Negi

Founder | Technology Head at janusmaad.com

For more quotes and insights, download the HubSpot CRM report

Zendesk could actually support HTML on the tickets so we could format our text better than the current options such as size, bold, italic, or underscored, because the text processing is too simple.

Filipe Abreu

Junior system analyst at Wevt clous

Zendesk is missing an AI aspect that could help provide quick answers based on the knowledge housed within the platform.

For more quotes and insights, download the Zendesk report

Technical Support Engineer/ QA at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

Zendesk is amazing, and because they are always working on a new upgrade or a new integration, they are very forward-thinking from an engineering perspective.

Dimitri Cooper

Project Manager III at City of Union City Government

Setup Cost

HubSpot CRM offers flexible, competitive pricing with modular options, though advanced packages can be costly for smaller teams.

Zendesk's pricing, viewed as expensive, varies with features and agents, and users should seek tailored solutions from Zendesk.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the HubSpot CRM report

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Zendesk shows that pricing is really affordable compared to other customer management software.

Keith Veloso

Dental Virtual Assistant at getreach.co

It is not the cheapest solution nor the most expensive, but it provides value for money.

CEO at Etcetera Networks

The experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Zendesk was quite expensive.

For more quotes and insights, download the Zendesk report

Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises

Valuable Features

HubSpot CRM provides user-friendly, integrated solutions with marketing automation, contact management, and customization, benefiting businesses of all sizes.

Zendesk offers ease of use, powerful integrations, customizable dashboards, comprehensive ticket management, and robust security with seamless data exchange.

HubSpot stands out for its ease of use, especially with sequence creation compared to other CRM solutions.

MarianaPiñeres

Customer Success Manager Latam at ElectroNeek

The main benefit that HubSpot CRM provides for me is that I can complete a campaign and rather than sending metrics to my sales team manually, I can customize them ad hoc based on the requirement.

Sadiq H

Campaign Specialist at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The most valuable feature for me is when I encounter a company or a person, I can drop in their URL, and it pre-populates various details like address information and other contacts they might have.

Charles Dickens

President at iCIO, Inc

For more quotes and insights, download the HubSpot CRM report

It allows us to handle more support cases with fewer people due to its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities.

CEO at Etcetera Networks

Zendesk is way cheaper than other ITSM platforms such as ServiceNow, providing a good platform at a lower price so we could offer good support with a low budget for the license.

Filipe Abreu

Junior system analyst at Wevt clous

Being able to put response counters on certain tickets and have certain ones that are high priority and have a tighter SLA than lower priority items, being able to categorize them as a question versus an urgent request, and being able to bucket them as feature requests or product enhancements.

For more quotes and insights, download the Zendesk report

Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises

Categories and Ranking

HubSpot CRM

Ranking in CRM

7th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zendesk

Ranking in CRM

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM Customer Engagement Centers (2nd), Help Desk Software (3rd), IT Service Management (ITSM) (5th), Reporting (7th), Knowledge Management Software (3rd), AI Customer Support (8th), AI IT Support (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the CRM category, the mindshare of HubSpot CRM is 1.4%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 1.4%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CRM Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Zendesk	1.4%
HubSpot CRM	1.4%
Other	97.2%

CRM

Featured Reviews

Sadiq H

Campaign Specialist at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Automation and integrated analytics have transformed how my team manages campaigns and deals

There are a couple of things which I would improve in HubSpot CRM. There are limitations with user limitations. I would want a feature where certain users do not need to export data and I want to be notified if anyone is exporting. That feature exists for a certain number of users, but it should also apply to lower-level users who should be notified as well. Second, the analysis and insights need to be provided on a weekly basis. For example, I would want to see that in this week we sent an email to a certain number of prospects, information about which was my highest open rate email campaign and which was my lowest engagement campaign, and insights from HubSpot AI that can be utilized. I would want to know which subject lines we gathered that received more attention as a form of data analytics information. Additionally, if I have one hundred contacts today and a couple of them are not active, for example, if eighty contacts are active and twenty contacts have never opened my email, I would want to trash them because they are not engaging. That kind of information would be very useful.

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Macros and automation have streamlined workflows and reduced manual effort across support teams

Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises

The ability to communicate on the Zendesk ticket through the actual user software, so TOPs, would have been helpful. Somehow seeing a user's ticket history within our app would have been beneficial. That is the only thing that I do not think existed at the time that might have been helpful. Some people struggled with Zendesk, but it was always easy enough to show them how to use it and what they were missing. The only times we really had people report concerns about it was when they did not understand that it could do that or how to use it in that way.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Construction Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	41
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	9

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	37
Midsize Enterprise	22
Large Enterprise	12

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HubSpot CRM?

The cost is about the same price, currently charged monthly.

What is your primary use case for HubSpot CRM?

I would describe my main use case as evaluating a couple of tools and CRMs. We found HubSpot CRM very useful in terms of ease of use, automation, setting up the user journey, and database managemen...

What advice do you have for others considering HubSpot CRM?

HubSpot CRM is only available on cloud. HubSpot CRM doesn't support on-premises or hybrid deployment. On a scale of 1-10, this solution is rated as 7.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zendesk Support?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Zendesk shows that pricing is really affordable compared to other customer management software. The setup is pretty simple as well, but if ...

What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?

Regarding my main use case for Zendesk, it is really easy to use, but one of the cons I have with it is that it takes some time to load information. Most of the time, if a particular candidate has ...

What is your primary use case for Zendesk Support?

On a day-to-day basis, I use Zendesk to track, manage, and work on my cases. I also use it to upload information securely, and this is not only limited to documents but also to images and reports. ...

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Product Reports

Download HubSpot CRM product report

HubSpot CRM

September 2026

Download Zendesk product report

August 2026

Also Known As

No data available

Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell

Overview

HubSpot CRM offers lead tracking, marketing automation, and robust integrations with a user-friendly platform and intuitive workflows, also available in a free version. Its real-time updates and seamless integration with tools like Salesforce, Outlook, and LinkedIn are highly appreciated.

HubSpot CRM provides flexibility in client data centralization, customizable reporting, and advanced sales automation. Its easy onboarding, pre-population of details from URLs, and efficient sequence management enhance user experience. However, improvement in integration capabilities, pricing structure, interface complexity, and technical support are recommended. Users also experience challenges with email automation, data organization, and mobile app functionality. More pre-packaged features could improve efficiency and user-friendly deployment.

What are the key features of HubSpot CRM?

Lead Tracking: Efficiently monitor and nurture potential customers.
Marketing Automation: Automate campaigns and workflows to save time.
Seamless Integrations: Integrate effortlessly with tools like Salesforce, Outlook, and LinkedIn.
Customizable Reporting: Tailor reports to meet specific needs.
Advanced Sales Automation: Streamline the sales process with automation.
Free Version: Access essential CRM features at no cost.

What benefits should you consider in reviews?

Real-Time Updates: Immediate access to the latest customer information.
User-Friendly Interface: An intuitive design for easy navigation.
Centralized Customer Data: Unified platform for all client information.
Scalability: Adaptable to growing business needs.

In industries like marketing, sales, and client management, organizations rely on HubSpot CRM to track opportunities, manage communication, and automate campaigns. They integrate with other tools for smooth operations and analyze customer data to enhance marketing content, monitor website traffic, and track engagement.

HubSpot

Zendesk provides a versatile platform for managing customer interactions, offering efficient ticketing, customization, and integration features across multiple channels to enhance user experiences.

Zendesk stands out for its simplicity, ease of use, and comprehensive integration capabilities with CRM tools, which help optimize workflow efficiency. Users benefit from advanced analytics and reporting features that offer valuable insights into customer behavior. Multi-channel support and self-service portals are integral components, enhancing customer interaction experiences. While security protocols and flexible configurations contribute to its broad appeal, areas for improvement include more intuitive reporting, advanced customization of triggers and automations, and enhancements in knowledge management. Users express the need for better ticket management functionalities, efficient data synchronization, and refined interface aesthetics. Performance can be impacted by extensive customization, and there’s a call for competitive pricing and simplified licensing options.

What are Zendesk's most important features?

Simplicity and Ease of Use - Facilitates smooth onboarding and daily operations.
Integration Capabilities - Seamlessly integrates with CRM tools to enhance workflows.
Analytics and Reporting - Provides insights into customer behavior and operational efficiency.
Multi-Channel Support - Manages customer interactions across various channels.
Self-Service Portals - Empowers users to access information and solve issues independently.
Security and Flexibility - Offers strong security protocols and flexible configuration options.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in reviews?

Increased Productivity - Streamlines processes to boost team efficiency.
Enhanced Customer Experience - Multi-channel support and self-service options improve interactions.
Insightful Data Analysis - Superior reporting features offer valuable business insights.
Improved Workflow - Integrates seamlessly with existing tools to optimize operations.

Zendesk is extensively applied across sectors for customer support management and technical issue resolution. In HR or IT settings, it facilitates internal requests and knowledge base creation. Organizations leverage Zendesk's integration with collaboration tools like Slack and Jira, automating workflows and delivering detailed analytics, which are particularly useful for multinational operations handling queries in different languages and brands.

Sample Customers

digimind, easyrecrue, software2, subaru, suzuki

Mailchimp, Tesco, Vimeo, Instacart, Mediaocean, Slack, Uber