Pipedrive vs Zendesk comparison

Pipedrive and Zendesk are both solutions in the CRM category. Pipedrive is ranked #17 with an average rating of 8.1, while Zendesk is ranked #19 with an average rating of 7.7. Pipedrive holds a 1.1% mindshare in CRM, compared to Zendesk’s 1.4% mindshare. Additionally, 78% of Pipedrive users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Zendesk users who would recommend it.

Pipedrive

Read 13 Pipedrive reviews

682 Views
312 Comparison Views

78% willing to recommend

Zendesk

Read 60 Zendesk reviews

515 Views
420 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Pipedrive

Zendesk

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Pipedrive and Zendesk are both prominent tools in the CRM and customer support sectors, respectively. Pipedrive seems to have the upper hand in ease of use and cost-effectiveness, while Zendesk offers superior integration capabilities and customer support features.

Features: Pipedrive is notable for its customizable CRM elements, ease of use, and comprehensive reporting capabilities. The Kanban-style view aids in managing sales processes by allowing users to effectively track deals and activities. Automation tools streamline email and communication management, enhancing productivity. Alternatively, Zendesk provides robust ticket management, extensive integration options, and a reliable self-service portal. It also features powerful reporting tools and SaaS product integrations, catering effectively to customer support management.

Room for Improvement: Pipedrive needs to improve its integration capabilities, documentation, and offer more automation choices. Users would also like to see advancements in reporting and pricing structures. Zendesk could benefit from enhanced customization, better ticket merging, and improved reporting tools. Flexibility in pricing and ease of setup are areas where users see room for development.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Pipedrive is mainly deployed on the public cloud and is recognized for its responsive customer service and technical support. Zendesk offers more varied deployment options, including private and hybrid clouds. Although its customer support is generally rated highly, its responsiveness can vary according to demand.

Pricing and ROI: Pipedrive is viewed as cost-effective, especially for small to medium-sized businesses, and provides substantial ROI despite potential challenges in transition. Conversely, Zendesk is considered more expensive, particularly at the enterprise level, with additional costs for extra features and support. Despite this, its comprehensive customer service capabilities justify the cost for many users, leading to improved efficiency and increased customer satisfaction.

To learn more, read our detailed Pipedrive vs. Zendesk Report (Updated: May 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Pipedrive vs. Zendesk

May 2025

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Helped 851,604 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

Pipedrive

Ranking in CRM

17th

Ranking in Sales Force Automation

6th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Local Government CRM (4th), Opportunity Management (5th)

Zendesk

Ranking in CRM

19th

Ranking in Sales Force Automation

7th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM Customer Engagement Centers (7th), Help Desk Software (9th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (6th), Reporting (13th), Knowledge Management Software (4th), Community Platforms (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Pipedrive is 1.1%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 1.4%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CRM

Featured Reviews

Vykintas Arlauskas

CTO, Retal Group at RETAL

An easy- to- use and scalable cloud-based CRM tool for managing and tracking

I have noticed that Pipedrive is doing a lot in terms of web cybersecurity and integration with other tools, which is good. However, we haven't integrated it with our ERP system yet, so that might pose a challenge. We'll have to see how it goes. The Integration with artificial intelligence should be available in the next release. In future releases, I would like to have a highly intelligent integration service where you can easily connect PipeDrive with other tools, even if you are not a developer. Perhaps, in the future, this could be achieved through artificial intelligence.

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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 ( /products/klaviyo-reviews ), enhancing our workflows.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Pipedrive's most valuable features are that you can keep the whole information that's related to managing your sales process and you can customize it easily. The person that we have who is customizing Pipedrive is very junior in means of software development or process development. He can easily use it, anyone can use the solution. It has a very easy user interface to customize your processes and apply them to the Pipedrive process."

"The usability of the solution is its valuable feature."

"It is a stable platform."

"Pipedrive makes it easy to understand who I'm talking to at a glance. It has all the activities, node features, opportunity interface, deal interface, and time drive deals.The sales process is extremely simple, which saves me time and energy. I can send the document for e-signature and make the most out of my deals. I can automatically send emails and phone calls. You need to do only a little API programming. It offers massive flexibility. You can run an entire enterprise on the platform. The ease of use facilitates huge adoption."

"The solution is pretty easy to use and intuitive."

"The most useful stuff for me is that it's very flexible with all the data structures...Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"The biggest and the best feature is the view that you get when you log in. You have a board like Kanban when you log in, and you've got a column on the left and several other columns that move to the right, depending on where you are in a particular deal. If it's a prospect or someone who is just looking, you move it along the process, and it really helps you keep track of where you are."

"It's very flexible and we can really fit it into our business model."

More Pipedrive pros

"What is cool about Zendesk Guide is how it works together with others Zendesk products. Especially with support and with the analytics. Put those together for a small or medium-sized company and it's a really powerful tool."

"It's very convenient to use."

"It is very easy to connect back and forth between the requester and the person fulfilling the ticket."

"Its agility and simplicity are the most valuable features. This tool is very user-friendly."

"Zendesk Support has a lot of good APIs."

"The initial setup is simple and straightforward."

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

More Zendesk pros

Cons

"The product is expensive."

"New features sometimes seem bolted on rather than being smooth."

"Pipedrive has some weaknesses against Salesforce. The documentation of Pipedrive could improve. They need more qualified documentation because I had to fix my colleague's work to correct the reports because they did not find how they can do it, or develop reports. There are some misunderstandings about how to do reporting."

"We are using the lowest version of it. As we become more sophisticated, we might outgrow the tool, but there are features that are available in the higher-level versions, which I'm unfamiliar with, that might be able to meet the needs we would have in the future. They can maybe add some of the features to the basic version or make it more reasonably priced or free."

"The platform could be even more robust."

"In future releases, I would like to have a highly intelligent integration service where you can easily connect PipeDrive with other tools, even if you are not a developer."

"Reporting capabilities of the solution could be improved."

"The tool's APIs are challenging. It should also be compliant with HIPAA, FINRA and GLBA. The data centers should be within US so that they are compliant with regulations."

More Pipedrive cons

"Zendesk Guide's customization could be improved. I would like it to be easier and maybe open-sourced, so that if you have a developer in your company, you can do it yourself. Right now, that isn't allowed, so you need to have it done via the integrator. Another improvement—this is nit-picking—is that it could be less easy to make changes. Some things are so easy that they sometimes look a little amateur-ish. Most of the templates are built-in so they can be used directly, so they are very simple."

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

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

"The solution itself wasn't easy to set up."

"Report generation is still slightly tricky and not very customizable as per my inquiries."

"As per me, there arent much significant issues or areas for improvement with Zendesk, as my usage of it is limited. I appreciate its ability to organize tickets effectively based on tags, allowing me to easily gather and analyze customer feedback and requests."

"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."

"There is always a network issue with Zendesk. But we don’t know whether it is managed. The network issue is that when I call, it does not let us."

More Zendesk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is affordable."

"The price of Pipedrive has been reasonable."

"Pipedrive keeps increasing the prices, which is becoming a bit annoying. It was reasonable when we started, but now they're increasing all the time."

"The solution's pricing is excellant. It costs 65 dollars a month for top tier plan."

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price, two or three. For us, everything is expensive because this is a startup, but for a normal company, it should be peanuts."

"Pipedrive is the most cost-effective in terms of the balance between cost and features. I would take Pipedrive over HubSpot or Zoho CRM. It's well-positioned on the market."

"The product is expensive but provides valuable services."

"As of now, the pricing and value are quite good."

More Pipedrive pricing and cost advice

"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

Educational Organization

54%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

24%

Educational Organization

10%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pipedrive?

The most valuable feature is the ability to create timelines and custom fields.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pipedrive?

The pricing is satisfactory.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pipedrive?

New features sometimes seem bolted on rather than being smooth.

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?

There could be improvements in integration, which can be achieved with APIs or tools like Zapier ( /products/zapier-reviews ). However, easier integration could enhance the usability. Multilingual ...

See all answers

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

Atlassian Confluence vs Zendesk

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service vs Zendesk

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pipedrive

May 2025

Download Pipedrive product report

Buyer's Guide

Zendesk

April 2025

Download Zendesk product report

Also Known As

PipelineDeals

Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell

Overview

Pipedrive CRM, a SOC 2 Certified Service Provider, is built around activity-based selling. It ensures total visibility through its Pipeline Management tool with a clear visual interface that prompts you to take action, remain organized and stay in control of a complex sales process, Sales Reporting that provides visual report, understands pipeline metrics, tracks and tests sales process and shows sales split by product. Pipedrive CRM boosts productivity, optimizes the Sales Process, It has an import/export feature that safeguards against human error. It is fully customizable, has multiple usage possibilities and can automatically creates contacts in your pipeline.

Pipedrive

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.

Zendesk

Sample Customers

Samsung, Amazon, SkyScanner, TDW, Vimeo, ReMax, Festo

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

Buyer's Guide

Pipedrive vs. Zendesk

May 2025

Free Report: Pipedrive vs. Zendesk

Find out what your peers are saying about Pipedrive vs. Zendesk and other solutions. Updated: May 2025.

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