A guide on Zendesk pricing, plans and licenses

Zendesk presents an extensive variety of prices, plans and licenses. The idea is to be able to choose a combination of products and functionality that best suits your company's needs. We've tried to create a guide that businesses can use to better navigate Zendesk's pricing, plans and licenses.

Zendesk plans

Based on which solution you need from Zendesk; ticketing system, customer service portal or CRM system, you must always choose a Zendesk plan. The plans change regularly and if you are on an outdated plan, the plan or product is called "legacy". You can stay on legacy, but you run the risk that there will be no updates to the version you have and it is usually worth upgrading. We have chosen to present the Zendesk Basic plan, the Zendesk Suite plan and the Zendesk Sell plans.

Zendesk basic plan

If you choose Zendesk Support alone, you get everything you need from a ticketing system. The system supports email, social media and contact forms via a web widget. Even if you only buy Zendesk Support, you also get access to Zendesk Explore. For some, this is enough. Within what Zendesk refers to as "Basic plans," you'll find the following product plans: Support Team, Support Professional, and Support Enterprise.

Zendesk Suite plans

Zendesk Suite is a product suite that includes the following Zendesk products: Zendesk Support, Zendesk Messaging and Live Chat, Zendesk Talk, Zendesk Guide and Zendesk Explore.

If you choose Zendesk Suite, all products will be available in the Zendesk Support user interface and work seamlessly together. The products are designed to work together.

Zendesk has the following Zendesk Suite plans: Zendesk Suite Team, Zendesk Suite Growth, Zendesk Suite Professional and Zendesk Suite Enterprise. Below is an overview of the Zendesk Suite plans, a brief summary of what they contain and what differentiates them:

Zendesk Sell plans

If you choose Zendesk Sell, you can choose between the following plans: Zendesk Sell Team, Zendesk Sell Growth, Zendesk Sell Professional and Zendesk Sell Enterprise. Zendesk Sell also includes Zendesk Explore, if you choose Sell Growth or a higher plan. Notes: You cannot link an existing Zendesk Sell and a Zendesk Support together. Zendesk Support must be created from an existing Zendesk Sell account, or a Zendesk Sell must be created from an existing Zendesk Support account.

When should I increase my Zendesk plan level?

Each Zendesk plan brings with it an increasing degree of functionality, customizability and analytics capabilities. So what makes it worth increasing your plan?

We mostly work with Suite Professional and above. This is for the simple reason that we mostly work with customers in Europe who are subject to European data protection guidelines. This means that you need an EU data center. Zendesk Suite Professional is the lowest Zendesk plan that offers EU data centers. If you want to buy Zendesk Support alone, you need to buy Support Enterprise to get the EU data center as an add-on.  

When should I move from Zendesk Suite Professional to Zendesk Suite Enterprise?

Here are some reasons to upgrade from Zendesk Suite Professional to Zendesk Suite Enterprise:

1. You need Sandbox
2. You need more opening hours for different teams and different countries etc.
3. A workgroup working with sensitive information needs to be added to the account and you need private groups with limited access.
4. You need to tailor roles and access to different agents to a greater extent
5. You need more than 5 brands
6. You need to share reports externally, e.g. with managers, partners and customers.
7. You want to customize the user interface to the teams and specify which forms and response templates should be available for each team, so everyone doesn't have to see everything.
8. The knowledge base is important and you want extended functionality in Zendesk Guide.

Zendesk prices

Zendesk's prices vary, here are some of the reasons that determine what you pay per month:

• Whether you have chosen a monthly or annual term. How long you commit to a plan will determine what you pay per license.
• How many users need full access to the system will determine how much you pay per month.
• Which plan you're on will determine what you pay per month.
• How many add-ons you have will determine what you pay per month
• How many paid apps you have from the marketplace will determine what you pay per month. Note: the price you pay for apps is not a fee you pay to Zendesk, but to the company that developed the app. Zendesk has several apps in Marketplace, they are mostly free.

If you have a different number of agents working in Zendesk during the year, you can request a solution called "Agent Month", where you pay for the number of simultaneous users. Contact us for more information about "Agent Month" in the contact form at the bottom of the page.  

Zendesk licenses

There are several considerations when choosing the number of licenses for your Zendesk account. Some of these are:

• The number who need access
• The number of people who need light agents, whether they only need to assist with cases or whether they work in other departments that need access to cases. Many only need light access and do not need to pay for full access.
• Number of managers and administrators who need access
• Planned growth. If you are hiring more people, you should take this into account. When you have used the number of available licenses, there is sometimes a waiting time from ordering until new licenses are in place.
• Budget. Of course, one must take the budget into account and be careful not to over-order the number of licenses. It is an easier process to order more licenses than to reduce the number of licenses.

How a partner can help you choose a Zendesk plan

As a Zendesk partner, we have extensive experience in helping customers navigate between Zendesk plans and licenses. We assist you with careful assessment of functionality and needs and what you should consider in the context of scalability, so you choose the right plan.

We help you estimate the number of licenses and which people need full access, versus light agent

Because we have extensive experience in customizing Zendesk, we know what exists out of the box, what can be solved with existing apps and integrations and what potentially needs to be developed.  

We assist in the dialogue with Zendesk and help to order trials, plans and licenses. If you choose to work with a Zendesk partner, you can get a Norwegian invoice and a free partner license for us to support you.

Talk to us about Zendesk.