N-able MSP Manager vs Zendesk comparison

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N-able MSP Manager

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

N-able MSP Manager and Zendesk are competing products in the IT service management and customer support space. While N-able MSP Manager has more favorable pricing and support options, Zendesk offers a more extensive feature set, which justifies its higher cost.

Features: N-able MSP Manager provides ticket management, service request tracking, and integrated billing, which simplify IT operations. Zendesk includes a robust knowledge base, multi-channel support, and automation tools, enhancing customer service capabilities.

Room for Improvement: N-able MSP Manager could enhance its customer engagement tools and expand multi-channel support capabilities. Additionally, improving integrations with third-party applications and refining the user interface might be beneficial. Zendesk could benefit from reducing setup complexity and enhancing user training resources. Improving cost-effectiveness and reducing reliance on extensive customization could further its adoption.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: N-able MSP Manager features rapid deployment through its straightforward setup procedures and dedicated technical support. Zendesk involves a more complex deployment due to its wide range of capabilities but compensates with comprehensive training and support resources.

Pricing and ROI: N-able MSP Manager offers a competitive pricing model with lower setup costs and strong ROI by efficiently managing services. Zendesk has higher setup costs but offers significant ROI through enhanced customer interaction functionalities.

To learn more, read our detailed N-able MSP Manager vs. Zendesk Report (Updated: March 2026).

N-able MSP Manager vs. Zendesk

March 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

N-able MSP Manager

Ranking in Help Desk Software

23rd

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

22nd

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zendesk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

4th

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM Customer Engagement Centers (4th), CRM (9th), Reporting (10th), Knowledge Management Software (3rd), AI Customer Support (20th), AI IT Support (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category, the mindshare of N-able MSP Manager is 1.4%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 4.8%, up from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Service Management (ITSM) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Zendesk	4.8%
N-able MSP Manager	1.4%
Other	93.8%

IT Service Management (ITSM)

Featured Reviews

GeorgeKanellopoulos

CTO at InTTrust SA

Ticketing has helped prioritize support tasks while contract and project management have required better integration and pricing flexibility

I don't know if N-able MSP Manager could have some additional features in the future to make it more competitive because it might already be available and I'm not aware of it.I cannot say that N-able MSP Manager dashboard is intuitive, but I don't see any big difference with ManageEngine. From the deployment perspective with N-able MSP Manager, I cannot have higher expectations because it is a SaaS solution, so it was deployed as is from the technical perspective. From the business perspective, the deployment is complex, but I cannot tell you that it is less complex than ManageEngine. The main reason that made me change my mind and proceed with ManageEngine is the availability of add-ons in combination with their pricing.

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AmandaSanchez

Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises

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

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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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like that you can do all the things with it. You can patch, and you can run the scheduled tasks. You can remote in, upload files, and download files. You can log onto a computer PowerShell, or command prompt, without having to log into RDP. I also like its ease of use."

"This is a premier product and it has been around for a long time."

"The best advantage for us, since we use all N-able products, is that the MSP portal centralizes everything."

"At a significantly lower price, I managed to get project management modules, contract management, and CMDB, which were not all available in N-able MSP Manager."

"I am impressed with the tool's integration with our mail system."

"Of the several different help desk ticket systems I have used Zendesk was the easiest to learn and use during a call."

"It has good management, the ability to sign tickets based on content, the multi-channel support, the self service portal, the integration with Salesforce, the setup process, and the product features as we are currently using them."

"The ability to easily create macros, quickly see past correspondence from a recent sender, and view analytics are incredibly helpful features that are invaluable business tools."

"I love how the tickets would auto-populate very quickly in Zendesk, especially when a call comes in."

"We loved the notifications and the way to build custom views for a specific user's open tickets and to see how long they have been open, how long it was since the last request."

"In a nutshell, it's a great tool that allows you to manage all your customer service issues in one location."

"Even though I haven't tried other solutions, I think this product is very useful and easy to use."

"Zendesk has helped us to increase productivity and has reduced the time between when a ticket is opened and when it is completed."

More Zendesk pros

Cons

"What I would like to see is a simplified solution that is packaged better, where you can easily implement or turn on the functionality that you need."

"Comparing the pricing of N-able MSP Manager to ManageEngine, it is a little bit too high."

"The tool needs to improve its customization of the user interface."

"Its reporting is lousy and bad. It is not as good as it should be. There is too much work involved to get what you want. Most times, you have to call them to customize some stuff. I just don't like that part. They need to work on their reporting. They have a way to go."

"I'd like to see a way to import contacts in bulk using an Excel sheet or another import method."

"I'm going to piggyback on what I said regarding Freshdesk concerning what could be better in Zendesk: incorporate more AI."

"It needs to improve in terms of its flexibility, price, and installation."

"It could use better analytics for trend tracking as well as the ability to tie the customer support and sales items together."

"The support is not on chat often which is quite frustrating if you want immediate answers but they do respond to tickets within 24 hours."

"Not that it was particularly difficult, but we needed direct assistance from Zendesk for the implementation."

"Customer Service: 6/10 – usually helpful but sometimes very slow. Technical Support: 6/10 – usually helpful but sometimes very slow."

"Zendesk Guide could be improved by allowing us to put our assets in one location. What happens now for each article, for example, is we have to upload the images for that article to that location, so the image reuse is still not something that they have perfected. If they could allow us to update all the images in one location, and then pull the image from there, it would be easier when working on Multibrand projects. There are no Multibrand updates available—we have to update each brand manually. For my company, I have come up with an API tool which allows me to push the content to multiple brands together, but if you don't have something like that, you have to manually do it."

"It needs to improve in terms of its flexibility, price, and installation."

More Zendesk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Don't get scared of the price tag because it's definitely worth it."

"I don't know the exact cost, but I know it's reasonable. Its cost of entry is not bad. I've had other organizations sign up for it. I don't know how much they paid, but it wasn't bad. You charge for every object. You charge for AV, and you charge for servers. There is a charge for everything or every object in that. I know we make money from it, but I don't know what it is."

"I would rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten since it's not the cheapest one in the market."

"Zendesk's licensing is not cheap. For Enterprise, we are paying $200 per agent. It's a per-month cost, so it's pretty steep. There are some services you need to pay extra for. For example, with Zendesk Guide, we had to buy the most expensive offering in order to get Multibrand and everything. We also had to pay a lot of money for themes."

"From what I hear, Zendesk's pricing is a little expensive."

"There are different plans that are offered. We are using the entry-level plan. The overall price of the solution should be reduced. The price is too high."

"We pay for the solution on a yearly basis and my understanding is that the cost is about $30,000. That's the cost for 24 to 25 agents."

"You have to pay extra for better support. So it's not only the license that you pay for, but you have to pay extra for the support as well."

"The price is very competitive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

Outsourcing Company

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Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	36
Midsize Enterprise	21
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with N-able MSP Manager?

What is your primary use case for N-able MSP Manager?

I am deploying it for my company.I inherited an implementation with N-able MSP Manager that was not quite good. I faced problems managing the contracts, translating them into technical topics, and ...

What advice do you have for others considering N-able MSP Manager?

I use N-able MSP Manager ticketing system.It has helped to prioritize tasks. At the level that I am aware of the product capabilities in N-able MSP Manager, I can't say that the centralized custome...

What do you like most about Zendesk Support?

I found the user experience with vendors on Zendesk to be straightforward, especially when it comes to understanding and searching for specific tickets. The search and navigation tools are easy to ...

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

From what I recall, the experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Zendesk was quite expensive and that is what prohibited us from expanding usage of it into more users and using more o...

What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?

I wish there was a more easily dynamic tool. Currently, it is quite difficult because not all the tools are labeled. A feature that would be beneficial is if hovering over an icon would tell you wh...

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Product Reports

Download N-able MSP Manager product report

N-able MSP Manager

March 2026

Download Zendesk product report

February 2026

Also Known As

SolarWinds LOGICnow, SolarWinds MSP Manager

Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell

Overview

Managing your business and providing excellent support shouldn’t bog you down. MSP Manager’s ease of use will free your team to deliver on your promise of great service.

Intuitive, lightweight ticketing with seamless RMM and N-central^®platform integrations.
Painless time tracking with convenient timers and functionality for recurring tickets and appointments.
Closed-loop email with automatic ticket monitoring and routing, with a streamlined Microsoft 365 setup via OAuth.
Complete customer and knowledge management with a branded portal.
Accounting integrations with QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, and Xero.

N-able

Zendesk Support is intuitive, and it's built with support agents in mind. Everything they need lives in a single, dynamic help desk interface so it's easy to be productive and manage customer interactions.

Sample Customers

Longleaf Systems, ITproMedia, Choice Technology, Halski Systems, Allixo Technologies, Nettech, Concept Technology

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