The industry never sleeps. Each day we get new help desk solutions, new features, new interfaces. Yet, are all these new contenders good? Or are they all not worth your time and investments? Well, to find out, we decided to stack Front app vs Zendesk to see if its the case. After all, Zendesk has been in the industry for years now and is considered to be the one of, if not, the best tool out there. So, let’s take a look at Front App as who knows, it might be a solid alternative to Zendesk.
Front App Overview
We’ll start our Front app vs Zendesk overview with the look at the newcomer. We will touch upon the features, the UI/UX, and of course, the pricing. We feel that these specifics are the most important ones and the most commonly asked ones. But before we jump into details, we’d like to state that Front App is a help desk-like system that provides your team a ton of communication options. It encompasses all your emails, chats, SMS, and social media messages into one convenient inbox. The tool also has a bunch of automation options, as well as an analytics module. It can be connected to a wide range of third-party solutions for better performance. Now on to the next section.
Features
So, if we had to outline the three core features of Front App, that would be the aforementioned shared inbox, the Internal visibility system, and the multichannel communication module. All these tools allow your employees to work faster and better, especially under load but let’s take a look at each separately.
Shared Inbox. As we already said, the shared inbox allows you to gather data from across all your channels. Regardless if it is a SMS system, or a Live Chat solution, or social media platforms, you will be able to gather all your requests, questions, and suggestions in one convenient box. This inbox will label and tag all your incoming messages based on the source and it even understands context so you don’t have to worry that support requests will go unnoticed.
Apart from sein all the available customer issues, you have the ability to create internal conversations. Thus, you can communicate with colleagues much faster. Source: Front App
Internal Visibility System. This system allows your team to work faster and better by providing another level of visibility inside the working space. It allows you to unify customer information into one place meaning your team will not have to scavenge all the bits of data from all over the place. Also as part of this tool is the ability to extend the reach of this system through the API. You don’t have to limit yourself to just your inbox when you can integrate your CRM, external inboxes, backends. This system is superb for both small and large companies as it has all the means to scale correctly and effectively.
You can view and add all the important details on customers in their profiles. Source: Capterra
Multichannel Communication. And the last feature we’d like to talk about is multichannel communication. It does what it says, provides the ability to communicate effortlessly across a number of platforms. It doesn’t have super fancy options to it but it is blazingly fast. We’ve seen many features like this but this one might be the top performer. There are no delays and there are no hiccups, it is like you are chatting on the native platform.
You can add a variety of communication channels to your Front app account and then automatically receive them all in a single inbox.
User Interface
Now that we know the features, it is time we take a look at the UI. If you used any third-party email apps, you’ll feel right at home. On the left side, you have all your inboxes and messages, whereas the main body is cluttered with the message itself. The top right corner is populated with your profile icon and notification bells, as well as the online status of other users.
See any info you need in a single interface in Front. Source: TrustRadius
Overall, it is very clean as it doesn’t have a background image (you can add one if you like) and all icons are visible and distinct from one another. The speed of each tab and menu is fast unless you open a gazillion of emails at once then it will most likely plummet. But generally speaking, it is good stuff and we had zero issues using it.
Price
Now for the juicy part, the pricing options. Front App comes in four different plans called, Starter (9$ user/month), Plus ($24 user/month), Pro ($39 user/month), Enterprise ($79 user/month) respectively. Keep in mind that the prices listed are for the annual subscription, paying on a monthly basis will be a tad more expensive. Paying for the Pro plan will get you access to all of the above-mentioned features, as well as Unlimited advanced rules, Load balancing rules for faster responses, CRM integrations, Data exports, and In-app billing management.
Zendesk Overview
Zendesk needs no introduction but we’ll do it anyway. So, Zendesk is a powerful help desk tool that has all the basic features, as well as some exclusive ones. Over the years, it has gained a cult following among companies and is widely recognized as the best tool for all your automation and multi-brand support needs.
Features
There’s a reason why we have so many Zendesk alternatives these days. The tool is very popular and highly polished. Among the best things about Zendesk is its features, namely Customization & Personalization, Native Integrations, Performance Dashboard. So, let’s take a look at each.
Customization & Personalization. Right from the get-go, Zendesk was built with customization in mind. The tool supports not only color changes but themes, different layouts, and even stylization. And this customization comes with modularity too. If you want your knowledge base to look different from your main page, you can do that. And if you want to use a third-party theme, you can do that as well.
One of the custom themes for Zendesk Knowledge Base from the GrowthDot service. Source: GrowthDot
Native Integration. Another cool feature of Zendesk is its ability to seamlessly integrate with other Zendesk products. Whether you need a more advanced chat or a dedicated call center system, you can do that just by pressing a few buttons. No need to mess with the API or coding, simply use your help desk credentials with other services and you are good to go.
You can integrate different Zendesk products and easily access them in your interface.
Performance Dashboards. Finally, there are dashboards. These things are amazing as they allow you to track just about anything. Whether it is performance or income or customer satisfaction, you can view all this information using the dashboard tool. This provides an extra layer of visibility and will allow you to track issues more carefully.
Zendesk reporting tool enables to create a number of different reports. For example, this one shows the overall number of comments and also public and internal comments for a certain date. Source: Zendesk
User Interface
Now if there’s one thing that is surely good, that is Zendesks UI. It is not only simple and easy to navigate but as already stated, highly customizable. Yet, even if you judge it as is, it is sleek and fast. We had zero issues finding functions and managing tickets. On the left side, you have a sidebar that has all the options you might need and on top, you have the context-aware search tool. The main body is filled with communication windows whereas the right side prominently features all the information about the customer.
Similar to Front, in Zendesk you can view all the necessary information from one interface. Source: Zendesk
Professional Services
For existing customers, Zendesk offers Professional Services to provide them with a complete omnichannel experience. That includes assistance with such processes as
- onboarding;
- strategic implementation;
- solution customization, including fine-tuning features and integrations;
- data migration
In fact, you can choose from four Suite Transition Services packages. The pricing starts from $8K for setting up one channel and only for Zendesk Suite. So, if you just need to import your customer data to Zendesk Support, this option isn’t available.
In this case, consider Help Desk Migration - the migration price depends on the number of migrated records and goes from $39. Whether you want to merge Zendesk instances or export data from another help desk solution, the automated migration service can do both.
Price
Lastly, we have pricing. The tool comes in at five different plans. Essential ($5 per agent/month), Team ($19 per agent/month), Professional ($49 per agent/month), Enterprise ($99 per agent/month), and Elite ($199 per agent/month). Generally speaking, there is no need to look at the cheaper plans as they are as basic as they can get. The Professional plan will get you access to Zendesk Phone Support (in English), all customer communication channels, Pre-defined responses (Macros), Collaboration add-ons (Light Agents and Side Conversations), Conditional Ticket Fields, and Customer satisfaction ratings (CSAT) & follow-up surveys.
Verdict
Both Front App and Zendesk are good but it is clear as day that Zendesk is the better tool as it is not only more feature-complete but a tad more expensive than Front. But still, if you feel like Front App is your kind of system, give it a shot. We are sure that they will offer you a free trial. And if you want to see how the system operates using your own data, we can help you with that. Just drop us a message and we will get to you in no time. But that’s all for now, be sure to come back as we cover stuff like this every single week.
