Pega CRM vs Zendesk comparison

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Pega CRM

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

Pega CRM and Zendesk both compete in the customer relationship management sector. Pega CRM is noted for its pricing and customer support advantages, while Zendesk is recognized for its extensive feature set, making it a compelling choice.

Features: Pega CRM is known for its strong automation capabilities, seamless integration options, and detailed analytics, allowing companies to streamline their operations efficiently. In contrast, Zendesk stands out with its versatile ticketing system, extensive support portals, and dynamic help desk functionalities, enhancing the management of customer support interactions.

Room for Improvement: Pega CRM requires a more straightforward deployment method, offers complex processes that can be cumbersome for users, and needs a more timely customer service response. Zendesk could enhance its ROI potential through more intensive features, address customization limitations, and improve on more detailed analytics to match the depth offered by Pega CRM.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Pega CRM involves a complex deployment process, often demanding significant customization, with a solid yet slower customer service response. Conversely, Zendesk provides a simple, fast cloud-based setup with comprehensive resources, offering swift, far-reaching customer support that attends efficiently to client requests.

Pricing and ROI: Pega CRM typically incurs higher initial setup costs, justifying it with an eventual high ROI due to improved operational workflows. On the other hand, Zendesk is more budget-friendly in initial setup costs but presents potentially lower ROI because of fewer intensive features. Pega CRM emphasizes long-term gains from its automation, whereas Zendesk offers an economical approach with moderate return potential.

To learn more, read our detailed Pega CRM vs. Zendesk Report (Updated: September 2025).

Pega CRM vs. Zendesk

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Helped 868,787 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:

Categories and Ranking

Pega CRM

Ranking in CRM Customer Engagement Centers

5th

Ranking in CRM

16th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zendesk

Ranking in CRM Customer Engagement Centers

6th

Ranking in CRM

18th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Help Desk Software (8th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (7th), Sales Force Automation (8th), Reporting (14th), Knowledge Management Software (4th), Community Platforms (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the CRM Customer Engagement Centers category, the mindshare of Pega CRM is 6.7%, down from 8.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 6.8%, down from 7.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CRM Customer Engagement Centers Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Pega CRM	6.7%
Zendesk	6.8%
Other	86.5%

CRM Customer Engagement Centers

Featured Reviews

Srinivas Ganisetti

AVP/Sr Analyst Apps at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Case management feature is valuable but the pricing is expensive

I would like to suggest the solution but it really depends on your specific requirements, your business use cases and future plans. There is a significant investment involved in this solution and therefore it is very crucial to reevaluate your future necessity including automation potential and modernization plans. I would suggest that you select any kind of solution and explore alternatives of similar functionalities at a lower cost. This might help you to achieve more with less. In my experience, I would rate it between seven to eight because it offers robust capabilities. But please be aware that other BPM tools are emerging with similar features at a lower cost. Pega CRM is perceived as bulk care compared to order tools, as many of its capabilities are potentially underutilized. I would rate it 7 out of 10.

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JohanSkibdahl

CEO at Etcetera Networks

Automating customer support with advanced AI capabilities and seamless communication

Zendesk has been invaluable in automating communications such as email and phone calls. It allows us to handle more support cases with fewer people due to its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities. This intelligent tool can manage complex queries before users even realize they are interacting with a non-human. Additionally, we have integrated Zendesk with Datto and Klaviyo, enhancing our workflows.

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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

"It also reduces the duration per call, and it ensures a first time resolution of the issue."

"The product's deployment phase was easy."

"One of the most valuable features of Pega CRM for our team's productivity is its ease of setup, thanks to its configuration-driven approach."

"The solution is very easy to use."

"We can effortlessly manage the data within it, and it offers ease of use and high flexibility to present the data across various vendors."

"The case management feature is really valuable."

"Pega offers a clear parent-child case relationship that's easily created and maintained. Dependencies can be configured, where reaching a specific stage in a parent case automatically triggers a child task in a child case, while the parent case remains on hold until a certain condition is met before moving forward. This configuration allows multiple users to work on cases in parallel. Many of these settings are readily available within Pega case settings. Overall, Pega's case management is unparalleled compared to other options."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to pull information about the customer on-the-fly so they feel the interaction is more personal."

More Pega CRM pros

"The product offers very good management. It has a great ability to assign tickets based on content."

"The feature to move over my customer experience team tickets for different specialists is very valuable for my team."

"It is a scalable solution."

"The benefits I have seen from using Zendesk include faster response times; as a CSM, faster response is the goal, which solves the customer's challenge in a timely manner, and Zendesk offers that capability, which is beneficial."

"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 stability has been very good."

"Zendesk has been invaluable in automating communications such as email and phone calls."

"The most valuable feature is the trackability of incoming requests. The system keeps a comprehensive history of work requests, making it a useful tool for our internal processes."

More Zendesk pros

Cons

"Price is always a concern for many organizations. They often think Pega is expensive, and sometimes they don't fully understand the pricing model."

"The UI should be improved."

"It would be beneficial to enhance the pricing and support implementation options as they are currently quite expensive."

"The disadvantage of the tool stems from the fact that it does not allow users to make database-level modifications."

"For many of the clients, they have a separate system or separate layer of UI and a separate layer of the business rules engine, which Pega has taken care of in the recent releases."

"They should enable the data-driven streaming feature inside it."

"The UI is lagging and needs to be improved."

"The solution has room for improvement around decisional and real-time data analysis."

More Pega CRM cons

"One of the drawbacks of Zendesk is that it doesn't provide a secure way for us to send data. So, we usually use a secure SharePoint folder link. We put that in the Zendesk ticket so that the requester has a secure way of getting to their data."

"Zendesk's stability on inbound calls could be improved as compared to Talkdesk."

"It wasn't easy to set up so we're only using a third of all of the features,"

"There could be improvements in integration, which can be achieved with APIs or tools like Zapier."

"If I write an article, and I have a team of 30 people, and they all have a Zendesk account, when I write an article, I send them an email. "Hey guys, I just wrote this article. It's one of the most popular topics this month on which we are not covered. Please check it and make sure that you include it in your resolutions". The issue is, once I send it to those 30 people, and they open it, the next morning, that article is the most popular article."

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

"They have something called Zendesk Explore, which isn't as good as what they had in place previously."

"You couldn't give administrative access to new hires."

More Zendesk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is expensive."

"The pricing is on the higher side."

"We have numerous uses of the solution in our organisation. Almost 72 applications are integrated with Pega CRM, and some of them are shutting down for various reasons including the high licensing costs. There is a strong focus in the market and offices on cost reduction."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

27%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

21%

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	29
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pega CRM?

The product's deployment phase was easy.

What needs improvement with Pega CRM?

The disadvantage of the tool stems from the fact that it does not allow users to make database-level modifications. In Siebel CRM, you have complete control over your database, you can do any datab...

What is your primary use case for Pega CRM?

Pega CRM uses a layer cake architecture. Basically, the tool is a convenient application to use even if you are not a technical person, like a business analyst. I use the solution for the CRM modul...

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?

Zendesk's pricing is reasonable. It is not the cheapest solution nor the most expensive, but it provides value for money.

What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?

I'm going to piggyback on what I said regarding Freshdesk concerning what could be better in Zendesk: incorporate more AI. I know many CRM tools are already on the way to do that.

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Product Reports

Pega CRM

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Also Known As

Chordiant

Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell

Overview

Pega BPM streamlines your operations so you can reduce costs and improve business agility. Pega is recognized by leading analyst firms as the most comprehensive and unified BPM platform.

Pega

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

The State of Maine, Aegis, Aegon, AIG Japan, ING

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

Pega CRM vs. Zendesk