Zendesk vs. Dialpad
Great customer experiences need more than voice—they need intelligent, scalable support. When considering Zendesk vs. Dialpad, choose the solution built for CX from day one: Zendesk. Start a free trial today.
Laatst gewijzigd September 25, 2025
Zendesk vs. Dialpad: Which is better?
When support teams are stretched thin, every minute counts. Maybe you're facing a spike in tickets, agents are overwhelmed, and your customers aren’t getting answers fast enough. You need more than just a help desk—you need a complete CX solution that drives efficiency, boosts workforce engagement, and actually helps your team do more with less.
Zendesk and Dialpad are two popular options you can consider. Both offer customer support tools, but only Zendesk was built specifically for service teams from the start. Dialpad began as a voice solution and later expanded into support.
If you're weighing Zendesk vs. Dialpad, here’s the bottom line: Zendesk delivers smarter AI, deeper service management, and seamless support across every channel. Let’s see what makes Zendesk a better choice for your support teams.
AI-powered solution purpose-built for CX
Zendesk AI was built for customer service from the ground up with smarter customer service bots, faster resolution, and better agent experiences. While Dialpad leans on general-purpose AI, Zendesk has CX-specific intelligence that is trained on billions of real service interactions. It actually understands support and solves problems before tickets pile up.
Seamless support across channels
Modern customers move fast, and they expect your team to keep up. Zendesk connects every channel—chat, email, social, voice, and more—in one unified workspace, so agents always have context. Dialpad’s support tools are still catching up on multichannel integration, while Zendesk ensures nothing slips through the cracks.
Advanced service management
From workflows to SLAs to custom routing rules, Zendesk helps teams scale service without losing control. Its built-in tools, like ticket forms, automation, and advanced reporting, give you everything you need to drive performance. Dialpad offers basic ticketing and lacks the depth needed for complex service operations.
Customers love us
Zendesk is trusted by over 100,000 businesses worldwide, and industry analysts and review sites agree. Zendesk is consistently recognized as a leader in the CX space, with top scores on G2, Gartner, and Forbes. Dialpad earns praise for its calling features, but when it comes to customer service, Zendesk leads the pack.
More in this guide:
- At-a-glance comparison: Zendesk vs. Dialpad
- Dialpad vs. Zendesk: Features comparison
- Pricing plans: Zendesk vs. Dialpad
- Zendesk customer stories
- Frequently asked questions
- Get started with Zendesk today
At-a-glance comparison: Zendesk vs. Dialpad
Here’s a quick look at how Dialpad vs. Zendesk stack up across critical CX capabilities:
|
Critical capabilities |
Zendesk |
Dialpad |
|
AI agents |
|
|
|
AI-powered contact center |
|
|
|
Reporting and analytics |
|
|
|
Agent copilot |
|
|
|
Quality assurance |
|
|
|
Workforce management |
|
|
Dialpad vs. Zendesk: Features comparison
Let's take an in-depth look at how Dialpad and Zendesk perform across core CX capabilities—from AI agents to workforce optimization tools.
AI agents
Deliver 24/7 support with advanced AI agents. |
Zendesk offers advanced AI agents, powered by agentic AI that resolve even the most sophisticated issues end-to-end across channels and scale self-service without sacrificing quality. These AI agents remain completely dynamic—adapting to new contexts, asking follow-up questions, and identifying the next task to accomplish—all while following your business processes to ensure a complete resolution every time. Zendesk’s AI agents are simple to setup and have already proven they can resolve up to 80%+ of customer conversations in days—not weeks. Dialpad also offers AI assistants, but they’re primarily voice-focused and require more configuration for support use cases. This provides limitations for teams looking to deploy service-specific bots at scale. |
AI-powered contact center
|
Zendesk provides agents with intelligent routing, real-time guidance, and predictive insights that help them stay one step ahead. With advanced AI and automation, you can handle repetitive tasks while surfacing key context, allowing agents to spend more time focusing on high-value conversations. Plus, its AI recommendations improve with every interaction, making support more efficient without adding headcount. Dialpad offers an AI-powered contact center with transcription and sentiment analysis capabilities. While it includes basic ticketing and call routing, its support solution lacks key features like a unified agent workspace and built-in case management. These features are essential for high-volume, omnichannel service teams. |
Run a smarter, faster contact center with AI, built for CX. |
Reporting and analytics
Make smarter decisions with powerful CX analytics and reports. |
Zendesk offers clear, customizable insights into every part of your customer experience. Its dashboards surface KPIs like CSAT, response time, ticket volume, and agent performance at a glance. Advanced users can dig deeper with filters, trends, and export options. Whether you’re reporting to leadership or optimizing daily operations, data is ready when you are. Dialpad’s reporting covers basic metrics like call volume and agent activity. While helpful for voice channels, visibility into support workflows and multichannel data is more limited. |
Agent copilot
|
Zendesk offers an AI copilot that supports agents at every step, suggesting replies, summarizing tickets, and surfacing relevant help articles in real time. It reduces cognitive load and improves response quality, especially for new agents. And because it works across channels, support teams stay fast and consistent, no matter where conversations happen. Dialpad’s AI provides real-time transcription and post-call summaries, but in-channel guidance and content surfacing are limited. For agents handling non-voice tickets, there’s less proactive assistance. |
Empower every agent with an AI copilot that boosts confidence and speed. |
Quality assurance
Level up service quality with built-in QA and coaching. |
Zendesk QA is an AI-powered Zendesk add-on that helps companies achieve and maintain high service quality by conducting automated and targeted quality reviews, tracking team and agent performance, identifying knowledge gaps and areas of improvement, and facilitating regular, effective coaching sessions. The AI-powered AutoQA evaluates 100% of your interactions, and with custom prompt-based categories and conversation insights, you can customize your quality checks even more. Dialpad offers some QA tools like call scoring and sentiment tagging but lacks depth for support-specific reviews or detailed agent feedback across channels. |
Workforce management
|
Zendesk handles staffing, scheduling, and forecasting all in one place. With built-in workforce management software, your team can predict demand, assign shifts, and manage workload without jumping between systems. Its AI-powered forecasting helps prevent over- or under-staffing, while live dashboards give you visibility into coverage and performance. Dialpad offers basic agent status tracking, but full-service workforce management tools like forecasting and shift scheduling require external tools or integrations. |
Optimize every shift with AI-powered workforce management. |
Pricing plans: Zendesk vs. Dialpad
|
Zendesk Support |
Dialpad Support |
|
|
When it comes to the total cost of ownership, Zendesk offers unmatched value. With plans starting at just $19 per agent per month, teams get access to core support tools built specifically for CX. As you scale, advanced capabilities like AI, automation, and analytics are available at a transparent price, with no surprise fees or required bundles.
Dialpad’s pricing tells a different story. Its Essentials plan starts at $80 per user per month, with the Premium tier reaching $150. While these plans include voice and video capabilities, teams looking for true customer support features may need to bolt on additional tools or services. That means a higher total cost for Dialpad and more complexity just to meet basic support needs.
Zendesk customer stories
Teams across industries rely on Zendesk to drive smarter support operations and get real results. From improving agent efficiency to unlocking the power of conversational intelligence, these brands are raising the bar for customer experience.
Mediaocean + Zendesk: Delivering greater ROI
Mediaocean chose Zendesk after a full cost-benefit analysis, achieving higher productivity and measurable savings.
“We saw a greater ROI in Zendesk versus the other options. We did a cost analysis and showed how we were going to save money and increase productivity with Zendesk."
— Stephanie Dorman, chief customer officer at Mediaocean
Deputy + Zendesk: Transforming agent efficiency
Deputy brought all of its support operations into a single platform, boosting visibility and unlocking new levels of efficiency.
“Zendesk has empowered us to bring all customer support efforts together, giving us insight into how we can improve as an organization. It has completely transformed agent efficiency and our visibility of the customer journey.”
— Tim O'Mahony, global customer support director at Deputy
Openly + Zendesk: Lightning-fast response rates
Openly built its support workflows in Zendesk to deliver near-instant responses, earning trust and praise from its customers.
“We built functionality and operate Zendesk workflows to get calls and chats answered within 30 seconds or less. We’ve heard from our customers that they love how easy it is to quote in our system, and that’s helped build our reputation.”
— Tim Kyse, vice president of customer experience at Openly
Frequently asked questions
Get started with Zendesk today
If you're looking for a CX solution that’s powerful, proven, and purpose-built for support teams, Zendesk is the clear choice. From AI-driven automation to advanced service management and workforce optimization, it helps you deliver faster, smarter, and more personalized experiences. Try Zendesk for free and see the difference.
Zendesk vs. the rest: Compare the software
See how Zendesk performs against other top platforms, including Salesforce, Microsoft, and HubSpot.