Let’s be honest, everyone’s trying to automate customer support these days. When ticket volumes are piling up and customers expect answers yesterday, just hiring more agents feels like patching a leaky dam. This is why tools that plug into platforms like Zendesk are getting so much buzz. One name you’ve probably seen around is Knots.io, a suite of no-code apps promising to automate workflows and free up your team.
But does it actually work as advertised? We’re here to give you a straightforward Knots.io review. We’ll get into its features, how it operates, and what the pricing situation looks like to help you figure out if it’s the right call for your team. We’ll also look at the potential downsides of juggling a bunch of separate apps and see how it stacks up against a single, unified AI platform that might be a smarter way to handle your support automation.
What is Knots.io? A key question in this Knots.io review
First things first, Knots.io isn’t one single tool. It’s more like a toolkit, a collection of individual apps you can grab from the Zendesk Marketplace. The main idea is to handle the small, repetitive tasks before a ticket ever lands in an agent’s queue. Think of them as little robots, each programmed to do one specific job.
Their apps focus on a few key areas: pulling data from tickets, sorting them, merging duplicates, and getting tickets to the right agent. They pitch themselves as a "no-code" and "easy-to-implement" solution, which is definitely appealing for teams without a developer on speed dial. According to their website, they can help you solve tickets 3x faster and cut costs by up to 65%. It all sounds great, but let’s see how it holds up in the real world.
Knots.io review: A closer look at its core features
To really get what Knots.io is about, we have to look at its main apps. Instead of just making a long list, we’ll group them by the job they do. This gives us a better picture of how they work together (or don’t).
Knots.io review of ticket data extraction and processing
What these apps do: This group includes tools like Ticket Parser, AI Ticket Autofill, and Convert PDFs, Scans + Images to Text (OCR).
How they work: The goal here is to scan the text in a ticket or its attachments, hunt for specific info like an order number or email address, and then pop that data into the correct fields in Zendesk. You typically have to set up rules, often using regular expressions (regex), to tell the app exactly what to look for and where to find it.
The catch: This whole system is built on rules you define. If a customer words their request a little differently than you predicted, or the layout of an invoice changes, the rule breaks. The automation fails. Before you know it, you’re managing a dozen different parser apps for different data points, and things can get messy fast. The system is good at matching patterns, but it doesn’t actually understand what the customer is asking.
A different approach: This is where you see the benefit of a platform like eesel AI. Instead of you manually creating and updating a library of rigid rules, eesel’s AI Agent learns from thousands of your team’s real conversations. It understands context and intent, not just keywords. It can find the key information and fill out fields as part of one intelligent workflow, so you’re not left juggling a bunch of single-task apps.
Knots.io review of ticket organization and routing
What these apps do: This bucket includes apps like AI Ticket Classification, Merge Tickets, Detect Language, and Round Robin Assignment.
How they work: These tools are all about keeping your helpdesk from turning into chaos. They can automatically categorize tickets, merge duplicate requests from the same customer, figure out the language used, and assign new tickets to the next available agent.
The catch: While these are handy functions, they are still mostly based on simple rules. The "AI" classification often just scans for keywords instead of grasping the customer’s actual problem. It’ll have no problem tagging a ticket that says "refund," but it might get confused by something more nuanced, like "my order arrived broken, what are my options?"
This video provides a walkthrough of how the Knots.io AI Ticket Classification app automatically categorizes and routes Zendesk tickets.A different approach: This is another area where the underlying tech matters. eesel AI’s AI Triage analyzes the real intent and urgency of a ticket. It can route tickets based on complex topics, how the customer is feeling, or even that customer’s history with your company. It’s a much more sophisticated way to sort tickets than just stringing a few single-purpose apps together.
Knots.io review of agent assistance and AI responses
What these apps do: This group is made up of apps like AI Sentiment Analysis, AI Ticket Summary, and GPT Editor.
How they work: These apps are designed to be a sidekick for your human agents. They can give you a quick summary of a long ticket thread, take a guess at the customer’s mood, or help an agent write a reply using a generic AI model.
The catch: The biggest issue here is that the AI is working with blinders on. The replies it suggests are often generic because its world is limited to what’s inside Zendesk. It can’t see your company’s real knowledge base, which probably lives in places like Confluence, Google Docs, or some internal wiki. The AI can’t give a complete answer if it doesn’t have the complete picture.
A different approach: This is a huge advantage for eesel AI. It connects to all your knowledge sources, not just Zendesk. The AI Copilot drafts replies for your agents based on your official help center articles, internal process docs, and what it’s learned from thousands of past successful tickets. This means every answer is accurate, on-brand, and actually helpful. As a nice bonus, when eesel AI can’t find an answer, it flags those gaps for you, helping you improve your documentation over time.
Knots.io review: Pricing and implementation
Getting set up with a new tool is always a two-part story: how hard is it, and how much does it cost?
Implementation: One of the draws of Knots.io is that its apps are "free to install" from the Zendesk Marketplace, which makes it easy to kick the tires on one. But while installing is just a click, getting an app configured to do exactly what you want takes work. If you end up relying on five, ten, or more of their apps, the time you spend managing and maintaining all of them can quietly snowball into a serious administrative headache.
Pricing: For us, this is a major red flag. The Zendesk Marketplace pages for Knots.io apps have a little note that says, "Additional fees may apply," and their website directs you to "Contact Vendor" for any real numbers. This complete lack of transparency makes it impossible to figure out what you’ll actually be spending. You can’t budget for it, and you have no way of knowing how your costs will scale if your ticket volume goes up.
The eesel AI difference: We think you should know what you’re paying for. eesel AI’s pricing is clear and predictable. Our plans are based on the number of AI interactions you use each month, not some mysterious per-app fee. You won’t get any nasty surprises on your bill. You can start with a flexible month-to-month plan and cancel anytime, giving you the freedom to grow without being trapped in a long-term contract.
Pro Tip: Be wary of any tool that isn’t upfront about its pricing. It often means the costs can grow in unexpected ways, especially as your team gets bigger and busier.
| Feature | Knots.io | eesel AI |
|---|---|---|
| Approach | A collection of single-purpose Zendesk apps | One unified AI platform for all knowledge |
| Setup | Install and configure each app one by one | One-click integration, single dashboard |
| Automation Logic | Mostly rule-based (regex, keywords) | Context-aware, learns from past conversations |
| Knowledge Sources | Limited to data inside Zendesk tickets | All sources (Zendesk, Confluence, Docs, etc.) |
| Testing | Can only test on live tickets | Powerful simulation mode for a risk-free rollout |
| Pricing | Opaque, "Contact Us" for a quote | Transparent, predictable plans |
The verdict of our Knots.io review: When should you use Knots.io?
After digging in, our Knots.io review finds that it can be a decent tool, but only for very specific use cases.
Knots.io is probably a good fit for:
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Teams needing to automate one or two very simple, predictable tasks in Zendesk (like, "always merge tickets from the same email address").
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Organizations that are just dipping their toes into automation and want to try a simple, single-purpose solution.
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Folks who don’t mind tinkering and managing multiple separate apps to get their workflows just right.
Knots.io might not be the right tool if you need:
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An all-in-one solution: You want one platform to handle your support automation, not a patchwork of different tools you have to stitch together yourself.
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Real AI understanding: You need an AI that gets the nuance and intent behind a customer’s words, not one that just matches keywords to a list.
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Unified knowledge: Your team’s answers and guides live in places outside of Zendesk, and you need your AI to access all of it.
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A confident rollout: You want to test your automation on past tickets to see how it will actually perform before you flip the switch for live customers.
This is where eesel AI really comes into its own. It’s built for teams who see automation as more than just a few small fixes, they see it as an intelligent layer for their entire support operation. With eesel AI, you get a powerful, central brain that connects to Zendesk and all your other knowledge sources to deliver smart, scalable automation.
Ready to move beyond fragmented apps?
While Knots.io has some handy tools for specific Zendesk tasks, its app-by-app approach can create a lot of complexity and ultimately puts a ceiling on what you can do with automation.
A unified platform like eesel AI offers a different way of thinking about the problem. Here’s why it works:
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Go live in minutes: It’s a true self-serve platform with one-click integrations, so you can get set up on your own time without having to sit through a sales demo.
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Bring all your knowledge together: Train the AI on past tickets, help centers, internal wikis, and more so it always has the full story.
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Test with confidence: Use our simulation mode to see exactly how the AI will handle your real-world tickets before you launch.
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Transparent pricing: Our straightforward plans mean you’ll never get a surprise bill.
The goal of support automation isn’t just to patch over a few manual tasks. It’s to build an intelligent system that learns, adapts, and makes the entire experience better for your customers and your team.
Ready to see what a unified AI platform can do for you? Start your free eesel AI trial today and you can have your first AI agent up and running in minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Managing multiple apps can quickly become a hidden administrative task. While each app is simple to install, configuring and maintaining several of them to work together requires ongoing effort and can get complex, especially as your needs change.
Yes, that’s a great summary. Knots.io is effective for automating a few specific, predictable tasks within Zendesk, while a unified AI platform is designed for handling more nuanced, intent-based automation across your entire support operation.
It can be a significant issue for a growing team. As your business scales, customer requests become more varied, causing rigid, rule-based automations to fail more often. This forces your team to spend time constantly updating rules instead of focusing on customers.
It’s impossible to say for sure because the pricing is not transparent; you have to contact their sales team for a quote. This lack of clarity is a major red flag, as costs can scale unpredictably as you add more apps or your ticket volume increases.
That’s correct. The apps are designed to work entirely within the Zendesk environment, so they cannot access your company’s knowledge base if it lives in external sources like Confluence, Google Docs, or an internal wiki.
The key takeaway is that Knots.io is a good fit for teams that need to solve one or two very simple, predictable tasks inside Zendesk. If you need a comprehensive, intelligent automation solution that understands context, it’s likely not the right tool.
