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If you’re evaluating customer service tools because you’re looking to invest in one or are just looking for a change from your existing setup, you’ve likely heard about both Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub. They’re both pretty popular tools and have their own strengths.
For instance, Zendesk is known for its comprehensive multi-channel support features, helping companies assist customers across email, chat, and phone, amongst other touchpoints. It also offers powerful automations, reporting and analytics, self service features, and AI capabilities that can scale the efficiency of support teams.
HubSpot Service Hub includes a shared inbox for team collaboration, a knowledge base for self-service, SLA management, reporting and analytics, and internal tools that help teams work together smoothly.
But which is better for you, Zendesk or HubSpot Service Hub? We’ve compared the two tools across pricing, features, and pros and cons to help you make a more informed decision.
Table of Contents
- How We Did our Research
- User Reviews from G2 and Capterra
- Zendesk vs Hubspot Service Hub: Quick Comparison
- Key Differences Between Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub
- Pricing Comparison: Zendesk vs Hubspot Service Hub
- Feature Comparison: Zendesk vs Hubspot Service Hub
- AI Capabilities
- Reporting and analytics
- Automations
- Self-service
How We Did our Research
This comparison is based on a review of publicly available product information, pricing documentation, and aggregated user feedback from third-party platforms such as G2 and Capterra.
I’ve reviewed Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub across key criteria that typically matter to support teams, including pricing, core features, ease of use, setup effort, and quality of support.
In order to reduce bias, I cross-checked data across multiple sources, looked for consistent patterns in user reviews instead of isolated opinions, and avoided weighting any single platform or metric too heavily. I’m not trying to force a clear winner, rather I’m trying to present the facts in a clear and simple manner.
The goal of this analysis is to help teams understand where each tool works well, where limitations show up, and which type of organization each platform is best suited for.
User Reviews from G2 and Capterra
Let’s look at how real users rate Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub based on reviews from G2 and Capterra to give you a sense of how they compare.
| Point of comparison | HubSpot Service Hub (out of 10) | Zendesk (out of 10) |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of use | 8.6 | 8.6 |
| Ease of setup | 8.3 | 8.0 |
| Quality of support | 8.8 | 8.4 |
| Value for money | 8.4 | 8.4 |
| Functionality | 8.2 | 8.8 |
Zendesk vs Hubspot Service Hub: Quick Comparison
Before I dive into the detailed comparison between the two tools, here’s a quick overview of how Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub match up against each other.
| Feature | Zendesk | HubSpot Service Hub |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Complete customer service solution | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Support platform tightly integrated with HubSpot’s CRM |
| Pricing | ⭐⭐☆☆☆ No free plan; Paid plans start from $19 per seat per month | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Free plan available; Paid plans start from $15 per seat per month |
| Ease of use | ⭐⭐☆☆☆ Powerful but comes with a steep learning curve; can feel bloated and heavy to use | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Easier to get started, especially for teams already using HubSpot |
| Automation | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Advanced workflow automation, triggers, macros, and routing suitable for large and complex support teams | ⭐⭐⭐☆ Moderate automation focused on ticket routing, SLAs, and CRM-driven workflows |
| AI capabilities | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Built-in AI agents for email and messaging, generative replies, agent guidance, and basic automated resolutions; Advanced AI tools like custom agent builders and reasoning controls are available as a paid add-on | ⭐⭐⭐☆ AI-powered automation includes automated responses, routing, summaries, and CRM-linked insights that help teams route tickets, answer common questions, and qualify customer interactions |
| CRM | ⭐⭐☆☆☆ Light CRM through Zendesk Sell; mostly relies on external integrations like Salesforce | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Native CRM at the core of the platform, shared across sales, marketing, and support |
| Reporting and analytics | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Advanced reporting with prebuilt and live dashboards, data exports, benchmarks, and customizable views | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Built-in reports for ticket performance, agent productivity, SLAs, and customer feedback, with the ability to combine service data with sales and marketing insights |
| Integrations | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Large marketplace with integrations across CRM, collaboration, and business tools | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Wide range of integrations across CRM, marketing, sales, productivity, and support, with especially strong connections within the HubSpot ecosystem |
| Self service | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Highly customizable KB, customer portals, community forums, AI agents for ticket deflection | ⭐⭐⭐☆ KB and customer portal tied closely to CRM data, with AI bots answering common questions |
| Product support | ⭐⭐☆☆☆ Support is difficult to reach for primary plan users; personalized support services are available at the higher-tier subscription levels | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Available 24×5, covering in-app, phone, email, and chat support for both the Professional and Enterprise plans |
| Free trial | ⭐⭐⭐☆ 14 days | ⭐⭐⭐☆ 14 days |
Key Differences Between Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub
Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub are built with very different priorities, which becomes clear once you look beyond surface-level features.
1. Core Focus
Zendesk is built first and foremost as a customer support and help desk platform. Its core strength lies in managing customer conversations at scale through ticketing, SLAs, routing, and agent workflows. Everything in Zendesk is optimized around running structured, high-volume support operations.
HubSpot Service Hub, on the other hand, is an extension of HubSpot’s CRM platform. Support is treated as one part of a broader customer lifecycle that also includes marketing and sales.
Agents work from a shared customer record rather than a support-first system, which works well for teams that want support tightly connected to revenue and retention efforts.
2. CRM Capabilities
Zendesk offers light CRM functionality through Zendesk Sell, which is sold as a separate product and sits alongside its core support platform. CRM data is not native to the support experience and is usually brought in through Zendesk Sell or external CRM integrations like Salesforce. As a result, CRM and support often function as connected but separate systems.
HubSpot Service Hub is built directly on top of HubSpot CRM, which serves as the underlying data layer for all HubSpot products.
While Service Hub and CRM are priced separately, they share the same customer database by default. Tickets, conversations, deals, and lifecycle data live in one system without additional syncing or connectors.
3. Integrations and App Ecosystem
Both Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub offer large integration marketplaces, but they are optimized for different types of workflows.
Zendesk’s ecosystem is built primarily around customer support operations. Its app marketplace includes over 1,500 integrations focused on help desk workflows, support channels, telephony, and service analytics.
Some popular integrations include tools like Salesforce, Slack, Shopify, Jira, and major voice providers, making it well suited for teams running complex support stacks. Zendesk also offers strong APIs and developer tools for building custom support-specific integrations.
HubSpot Service Hub is part of a broader ecosystem that spans CRM, marketing, sales, and operations. Its app marketplace includes over 2,000 integrations,. Popular integrations include Salesforce, Slack, Zoom, Gmail, and marketing and analytics platforms that support inbound and lifecycle-based workflows.
4. Scalability
Zendesk is designed to scale with growing and complex support teams. It handles large ticket volumes, layered workflows, advanced routing, and multi-brand support well, making it a common choice for larger or more operationally mature support organizations.
HubSpot Service Hub scales best when multiple teams need to work from shared customer data. It works well for growing businesses that want a unified platform across sales, marketing, and support, but can feel limiting for teams with highly complex or specialized support operations.
Pricing Comparison: Zendesk vs Hubspot Service Hub
One of the most important factors when choosing a customer service platform is its pricing model. While it’s important to check whether the base plans fit your budget, it’s just as critical to watch for additional costs like separate add-ons, usage fees, or mandatory onboarding fees, which can quickly increase what you end up paying.
Let’s break down the pricing structure for both – Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub to give you a sense of which of the two offers better value for money.
HubSpot Service Hub offers 4 main pricing plans –
| Free forever plan (up to 2 users) | Offers basic tools like ticketing, live chat, and a shared inbox. It is designed for individuals or very small teams and includes HubSpot branding on all customer-facing assets (like your chat widget and emails). |
| Starter plan | Priced at $15/month per seat. This plan removes HubSpot branding and adds simple automation like ticket routing and basic ticket pipelines. It also includes up to 500 minutes of calling per month. |
| Professional plan | Priced at $90/month/seat. This is the tier where you unlock the Knowledge Base, customer feedback surveys (NPS, CSAT), and SLA (Service Level Agreement) tracking and reporting. |
| Enterprise plan | Priced at $150/month per seat. This plan is built for large-scale operations, offering advanced AI Agents (Breeze AI), conversation intelligence, playbooks, and advanced administrative permissions for complex teams. |
Zendesk, too, offers 4 pricing plans –
- The Support Team plan priced at $19/month per agent. This is a basic entry-level tier focused on streamlined email, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter) ticketing support.
- The Suite Team plan priced at $55/month per agent. This is the entry-level “all-in-one” plan that adds “Essential” AI agents, generative replies, and automated resolution reporting.
- The Suite Professional plan priced at $115/month per agent. This is their most popular tier, unlocking advanced analytics (custom dashboards), skills-based routing (sending tickets to the right expert), and HIPAA compliance.
- The Suite Enterprise plan priced at $169/month per agent. This plan is for global organizations, offering “Enterprise-grade” features like a sandbox environment for testing, custom agent roles, and up to 300 different Help Centers for different brands.
Although very limited, HubSpot Service Hub gives you a free forever plan. Zendesk has no such plan. It offers a 14 day free trial so you can try the tool for yourself.
Although the two tools are priced similarly in their starter or beginner plans, if you do opt for Zendesk, you must know that its starter plan is very barebones and most teams move to higher plans ($55–$115) per agent just to unlock basic automation, reporting, and routing.
Zendesk’s pricing is also not as straightforward as it seems. On the surface, the per-agent, tiered pricing looks predictable, but there are several variable and add-on costs that can significantly inflate your bill:
- Zendesk’s newer AI model charges based on automated resolutions. While plans include a limited number of automated resolutions, usage beyond that is billed at around $1.50 per resolution. This pricing isn’t clearly surfaced on the main pricing page and usually appears deeper in plan comparisons or billing documentation.
- While some basic AI is included in core plans, more capable automation, reasoning controls, and triage tools sit behind a paid Advanced AI add-on that costs extra per agent.
- Tools that many growing teams need – such as Workforce Management for staffing and forecasting or Quality Assurance for automated QA insights – are sold as separate add-ons.
- Storage and similar usage charges can add variable costs. As ticket volumes, attachments, and historical data grow, teams may need to pay for additional storage or related services, turning what looked like a fixed subscription into something harder to forecast.
- Zendesk also offers professional training, onboarding, and certification programs, which come with separate fees that many teams only discover once they commit.
Unlike Zendesk, HubSpot Service Hub’s pricing is relatively more straightforward. There’s not as many add-ons or hidden costs. Although, I will say I’m not a fan of the way the AI pricing is structured.
The way it works is – instead of a per-agent AI add-on, HubSpot uses a credit system. Professional plans include 3,000 credits/month and Enterprise plans include 5,000 credits/month. Each AI response costs 100 credits. Extra credits can be purchased as top-ups (1000 for $10).
Also note, the Professional and Enterprise plans include a mandatory onboarding fee. It’s clearly listed on the pricing page – $1,500 for Professional and $3,500 for Enterprise.
Feature Comparison: Zendesk vs Hubspot Service Hub
Now, let’s take a look at how Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub compare when it comes to some of the most important features that support teams rely on every day.
Omnichannel functionality
Let’s explore how these platforms cater to diverse customer engagement needs with their distinct omnichannel features.
Zendesk
Zendesk offers native support for a wide range of customer communication channels, all managed from a single support workspace. Core channels include email, live chat, voice, SMS, social messaging, and popular messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. These channels are designed specifically for support use cases, with built-in routing, SLAs, agent availability, and reporting applied consistently across conversations.
Zendesk also supports help centers, community forums, and embeddable widgets for web and mobile apps, making it easier for teams to deliver support across both owned and third-party channels without relying heavily on external tools.
HubSpot Service Hub
HubSpot Service Hub focuses primarily on digital and inbound channels that tie closely into its CRM. It supports email, live chat, web forms, chatbots, and Facebook Messenger, with all interactions logged directly against the customer record. Conversations flow naturally into sales and marketing pipelines, giving teams full visibility into customer history and lifecycle stages.
More advanced channels such as voice, SMS, and certain messaging platforms are typically handled through third-party integrations.
Verdict
Zendesk offers broader native omnichannel support and is better suited for teams managing high volumes across multiple support channels.
HubSpot Service Hub works best for teams focused on digital and inbound channels that want customer conversations tightly connected to CRM data and revenue workflows.
AI Capabilities
For any team looking to increase efficiency without substantially increasing costs, investing in tools with strong AI offerings is a must. Let’s look at the AI capabilities, both HubSpot Service Hub, and Zendesk have to offer.
Zendesk
Zendesk offers essential AI features to help support teams respond faster, handle more conversations, and reduce manual work. It can surface relevant help articles and past tickets, and provide full context inside each conversation so agents understand what customers want and how similar issues were resolved before replying.
It can also help draft responses and adjust tone, making it easier for teams to maintain a consistent voice while replying more quickly.
Zendesk also uses AI to automatically handle and resolve a large share of incoming support requests. It can understand customer intent, respond independently across channels, and close conversations end to end when the issue is straightforward, helping teams automate a significant portion of repetitive interactions without human involvement.
For teams that need more flexibility, Zendesk offers an Advanced AI add-on that expands these capabilities with deeper automation, greater control over workflows, and more customization options.
HubSpot Service Hub
HubSpot Service Hub uses AI, called Breeze, helps handle common questions through chat, summarizes conversations, and routes requests based on customer context, such as past interactions, lifecycle stage, or account history. Because it’s built directly into HubSpot’s CRM, AI suggestions and responses always reflect the full customer record.
Breeze also helps reduce repetitive work by directing customers to relevant knowledge base articles, escalating issues when needed, and generating summaries that give agents quick context before responding.
AI usage in HubSpot is managed through a credit-based model that includes a monthly allowance and then you can top it up as needed by buying more credits.
Verdict
Zendesk offers the more capable AI for customer support, with deeper automation and the ability to independently resolve a wide range of issues across channels, making it better suited for teams looking to meaningfully reduce ticket volume.
HubSpot Service Hub’s AI is better suited for CRM-driven support, where AI assists agents and connects service interactions to the broader customer journey.
Reporting and analytics
Reporting and analytics play a key role in understanding support performance, identifying bottlenecks, and improving team efficiency. Here’s how Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub approach reporting and insights.
Zendesk
Zendesk’s reporting and analytics are powered by Zendesk Explore, a dedicated analytics module built specifically for support operations. Teams get access to prebuilt dashboards for key metrics like ticket volume, response and resolution times, SLAs, agent performance, and customer satisfaction, which makes it easy to get a high-level view of support health.
Where Zendesk stands out is in report customization. On higher plans, teams can build custom reports and even define custom metrics. For example, you can analyze tickets by hour of day, channel, region, brand, or compare performance across teams and queues. This level of flexibility makes Zendesk well suited for teams with complex reporting needs or multiple support workflows.
Zendesk also supports data exports and API access, allowing teams to pull support data into external BI tools if deeper analysis is required.
HubSpot Service Hub
HubSpot Service Hub’s reporting is designed to give teams quick, accessible visibility into support performance without heavy configuration. It includes built-in reports for core metrics such as ticket volume, response and resolution times, agent productivity, SLAs, and customer feedback scores like CSAT, NPS, and CES.
Because reporting is built on top of HubSpot’s CRM, support data can be easily combined with sales and marketing data using HubSpot’s custom report builder. This makes it possible to see how support activity relates to renewals, revenue, or customer retention, rather than viewing support metrics in isolation. Reports are generally easy to set up and understand, even for non-technical users.
Verdict
Zendesk offers deeper and more flexible reporting for support teams that need detailed operational insights and custom metrics. HubSpot Service Hub’s reporting works best for teams that want straightforward visibility into support performance and prefer to connect service data with the broader customer lifecycle.
Automations
Automation is what determines how much manual work your support team has to do day to day. Both Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub offer automation, but they differ significantly in depth and flexibility.
Zendesk
Zendesk offers advanced, rule-based automation built for complex support workflows. Teams can use triggers and automations to take actions on tickets based on conditions like channel, priority, customer type, SLA status, time in a queue, or custom fields. These rules can automatically route tickets, update fields, apply SLAs, escalate issues, or notify the right teams.
Zendesk also includes macros, which let agents apply predefined actions with a single click. Macros can update multiple ticket fields, send templated replies, tag tickets, and move issues through workflows instantly, helping agents resolve tickets faster while staying consistent.
HubSpot Service Hub
HubSpot Service Hub’s automation is built around CRM workflows and ticket pipelines. Teams can automate actions such as assigning tickets, updating ticket status, sending notifications, and triggering follow-ups based on ticket properties, customer lifecycle stage, or CRM data.
Automation works especially well when support is closely tied to sales and marketing processes. For example, teams can trigger workflows when a ticket is closed, when a customer reaches a specific lifecycle stage, or when certain account conditions are met.
Verdict
Zendesk offers more powerful and flexible automation for teams running complex or high-volume support operations. HubSpot Service Hub’s automation is better suited for teams that want straightforward workflows connected closely to CRM data and broader customer processes, rather than highly customized ticket logic.
Self-service
A well-designed self-service experience can resolve a large share of customer issues before they turn into tickets. Let’s look at how Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub approach self-service.
Zendesk
Zendesk provides a robust and highly customizable knowledge base through Zendesk Guide. Teams can create structured help centers with multiple categories and subcategories, support multiple brands, and localize content across dozens of languages. Articles can be targeted based on customer segments, products, or regions, and teams can control visibility for internal vs external audiences.
Zendesk also supports community forums, where customers can ask questions and help each other, adding another layer of self-service beyond static articles. Search and article recommendations are tightly integrated into chat, messaging, and automated responses, helping deflect tickets before they reach agents.
HubSpot Service Hub
HubSpot Service Hub offers an easy-to-set-up knowledge base that’s closely tied to its CRM. Teams can create help articles quickly, organize them into categories, and connect them to chatbots and live chat to surface answers during conversations. Because it’s part of the HubSpot platform, article engagement and usage data can be linked directly to customer records.
HubSpot’s self-service features focus more on simplicity than deep customization. While it works well for publishing help content and deflecting common questions, options like advanced localization, multi-brand help centers, or community forums are more limited compared to dedicated help desk platforms.
Verdict
Zendesk offers more powerful and flexible self-service capabilities, making it better suited for teams with complex help centers, multiple brands, or global audiences.
Product Support: Zendesk vs HubSpot Service Hub
Now let’s look at the kind of support you can expect to receive from the team at Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub if you opt for either. This is crucial as reliable vendor support plays a big role when issues arise or workflows need to be adjusted.
Zendesk’s support is highly tiered. If you are on the lower plans, your support is primarily digital-first. You’ll primarily have to use their AI agent (Zea) and specialized help centers. While they recently added more “human” callback options, getting a live person on the phone quickly is still largely a luxury for Enterprise or Premier Support customers.
Here’s what some users have to say about it –
“If you have any issues with the system, you will have trouble getting resolutions from the Zendesk Support team. They will often not do basic troubleshooting, investigate examples you’ve provided, and sometimes not even provide resolutions.”
“Sometimes they point to articles in their knowledge base, but the articles can sometimes be HUGE and hard to pinpoint exactly what you need in that article.”
To get guaranteed fast response times (like a 1-hour window), Zendesk usually requires you to buy a Premier Support add-on. Without it, you are in a “best-effort” queue with thousands of other companies.
Where Zendesk is good is its Community Forum. Because a lot of companies use Zendesk, you can often find a solution to a technical bug in their user forums faster than by waiting for a support ticket.
The good thing about HubSpot Service Hub is that you don’t have to be a giant corporation to get a human on the phone. If you are on a Professional or Enterprise plan, you get 24/7 phone, chat, and email support included in your price. Even at the Starter ($15) level, you get live chat and email support from real people. This is a huge contrast to Zendesk, where entry-level tiers are often pushed heavily toward self-service.
Here’s what users have to say about the quality of support they receive from HubSpot Service Hub –
“They have a great customer support team. I have nothing to dislike.”
“Whenever small hiccups come up, the HubSpot support team is always available and quick to help, which makes the experience smooth overall”
Pros and Cons: Zendesk vs HubSpot Service Hub
| Comparison | HubSpot Service Hub | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Pros | – The system is very easy to learn. Most teams can start answering tickets within a single day. – All your data lives in one place. Agents can see exactly what sales and marketing teams have told a customer. – The AI has full context. Breeze AI uses customer history to help agents write personal replies. – There is a free-forever version. Small teams can use basic ticketing and live chat for $0 forever. | – It connects to every channel. You can manage Email, Phone, SMS, and WhatsApp in one unified inbox. – It is built for a massive scale. The system handles thousands of tickets at once without slowing down. – The help center is very powerful. You can manage multiple brands and organize articles into many deep layers. – Reporting is extremely detailed. Managers can track tiny details like how many minutes an agent sat on “hold.” |
| Cons | – The price increases are huge. The jump from “Starter” to “Professional” plans is a very large monthly expense. – The help center is a bit basic. You can only organize articles into two levels, which is hard for large libraries. – Some channels are missing. It does not have built-in support for native SMS or apps like Apple Business.- Onboarding is mandatory. You must pay a one-time fee (usually $1,500+) just to start using the higher plans. | – There is no free plan. You only get a 14-day trial before you are forced to start paying. – The setup is very complicated. It usually takes a technical expert to get the rules and triggers working correctly. – The costs can be sneaky. Many “Advanced AI” features and faster support responses are sold as extra add-ons. – It creates data silos. It is a support-only tool that doesn’t show you sales data without extra integration work. |
Which Tool is Right For You: Zendesk or HubSpot Service Hub?
Both Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub are capable customer support platforms, but they’re built for different priorities. The right choice depends on how complex your support operations are and how closely support needs to be connected to sales and marketing.
Choose HubSpot Service Hub if:
- You want a tool that’s easy to set up and simple for teams to adopt
- You already use HubSpot CRM and want support tightly connected to customer data
- Your support workflows are fairly straightforward
- You value strong onboarding, documentation, and vendor support
- You want support, sales, and marketing working from the same system
Choose Zendesk if:
- You run complex or high-volume support operations
- You need deep automation, routing, and workflow control
- You rely heavily on omnichannel support like voice, messaging, or SMS
- You want highly customizable reporting and self-service tools
- You’re comfortable with a steeper learning curve in exchange for flexibility and scale
In some cases, a hybrid approach can also make sense. Teams may use Zendesk for specialized, high-volume customer support while continuing to use HubSpot as their central CRM for sales, marketing, and customer data. This approach works best for larger organizations that need deep support functionality but still want customer information flowing into a broader revenue system through integrations.
It does, however, come with added complexity, as maintaining two platforms requires careful data syncing and ongoing admin effort.
Try Hiver: The Better Alternative to Both Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub
While both Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub are great choices in their own ways, there’s a better alternative – Hiver. It’s an AI-powered customer service software designed specifically for modern, fast-moving teams. It rejects the tradeoff that powerful, feature-rich tools are complex and overwhelming and need “getting used to”.
Hiver’s interface is extremely user-friendly. All customer interactions across communication channels (email, live chat, WhatsApp, voice, and social media) can be managed from a left-side panel where you can also view the status of each query and track the number of open, pending, or resolved tickets at a glance.
Getting started with Hiver takes next to no time. Setting up takes a few minutes. And given how intuitive the platform is, your teams won’t have to spend any time learning a fresh tool from scratch.
Some of the many features Hiver offers include –
- Shared inboxes: Manage customer conversations collaboratively from shared inboxes like support@ or info@. Assign ownership, track status, add internal notes, and make sure nothing falls through the cracks, all from a single dashboard.
- AI Copilot: AI Copilot helps agents respond to customers. It suggests contextual answers, drafts replies, fine-tunes tone, and rephrases messages to keep responses clear and on-brand – drawing from past conversations, internal knowledge, and stored documents.
- AI Agents: AI Agents helps you set up autonomous workflows to handle FAQs, send follow-ups, detect thank-you closures, execute multi-step actions like refunds, and classify/route conversations by category, urgency, or sentiment.
- AI Insights: Turn every conversation into a learning opportunity. It helps you spot resolution bottlenecks, forecast potential issues, and surface account health risks before they escalate. Predictive models identify trends so teams can act early and continuously improve.
- Automation: Streamline workload management with intelligent routing that assigns tickets based on skill, availability, or round-robin logic.
- Internal notes & mentions: Collaborate on tickets by writing notes next to the main customer conversation. Tag teammates, add clarifications, and avoid endless Slack/email back-and-forths.
- Custom reports & dashboards: Track resolution time, agent workload, and CSAT, or build your own metrics view.
- Customer feedback (CSAT): Send customizable surveys post-resolution or at any point of the customer journey to capture sentiment in real time.
- Knowledge base: Create and share help articles to improve self-service rates and reduce incoming tickets.
Hiver offers a forever free plan for unlimited users and three paid plans –
- Growth: $25 per user per month.
- Pro: $65 per user per month.
- Elite: $105 per user per month.
Not only is it significantly more affordable than both Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub, it’s also extremely straightforward. There are no add-ons or hidden costs that will run up your bill.
Hiver’s extensive AI features are included in the pricing across all plans. There’s no mandatory onboarding costs like in the case of HubSpot Service Hub. You also get access to free human-led support across all Hiver plans (including the free one) 24×7.
If you want to check out Hiver:
Try the forever-free plan
Take a demo
Try out an interactive tour
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Why is Zendesk better than HubSpot?
Zendesk is better for teams that need advanced support workflows, automation, and omnichannel capabilities at scale.
2. Which scales better for enterprises: Zendesk or HubSpot Service Hub?
Zendesk scales better for large, high-volume support teams with complex routing, SLAs, and reporting needs.
3. What is the cost for Zendesk and HubSpot for 50 agents?
Costs vary by plan and add-ons, but Zendesk typically becomes significantly more expensive at this size, while HubSpot’s cost depends heavily on the plan tier and onboarding fees.
4. Which offers stronger omnichannel support and phone features?
Zendesk offers stronger native omnichannel and phone support, including voice, SMS, and messaging apps.
5. How do reporting and analytics differ between the two?
Zendesk provides deeper, more customizable support analytics, while HubSpot focuses on simpler reports tied to CRM and customer lifecycle data.
6. Which integrates more easily with Salesforce and other CRMs?
HubSpot integrates more easily with CRMs out of the box, while Zendesk often relies on more involved integrations.
7. What are some alternatives to Zendesk and HubSpot for customer service?
Popular alternatives include Hiver, Freshdesk, Help Scout, Intercom, and Zoho Desk.
8. Which platform is better for small businesses?
HubSpot Service Hub is generally better for small businesses due to easier setup and a free starting plan.
9. How does each platform handle user roles and permissions?
Zendesk offers more granular role and permission controls, while HubSpot keeps permissions simpler and easier to manage.
