I tested the top 7 Zendesk AI alternatives in 2025 (here’s what I found)

Zendesk is a giant in the customer support world, and its AI features are a huge reason why. But let's be honest, for a lot of teams, actually getting Zendesk's AI up and running involves high costs, a confusing setup, and crossing your fingers that the "black box" AI will actually help your customers. The dream of an AI agent drafting responses and closing tickets is great, but the reality can feel like a massive project that needs a team of developers.

If you’re on the hunt for something a bit more modern, flexible, and trustworthy, you’re in the right place. We got our hands dirty and tested the top Zendesk AI alternatives to see how they really stack up. This guide is a straightforward, no-fluff look at tools you can plug into your workflow in minutes, not months, giving you the confidence to actually start automating support.

What are Zendesk AI alternatives?

So, what are we really talking about here? Zendesk AI alternatives are tools built to automate customer support and give your human agents a hand. The good news is, they aren't usually full help desk replacements. Most of them are designed to plug right into the tools you’re already using, like Zendesk, Freshdesk, or Intercom.

The whole point is to make your team more efficient by using your company's own knowledge. They typically do this in a few ways:

• AI Agents: These are the bots that can handle conversations on the front lines.

• AI Copilots: Think of these as an assistant for your human agents, drafting accurate replies in seconds.

• AI Triage: These systems automatically tag, route, and prioritize tickets as they come in.

• Chatbots: The customer-facing bots you see on websites and in-app messengers.

The best alternatives work with what you’ve got, beefing up its capabilities without making you go through the pain of ripping out and replacing your entire help desk.

A workflow showing how Zendesk AI alternatives automate customer support from ticket creation to resolution.

How we chose the best Zendesk AI alternatives

To cut through the marketing hype, we judged each platform on a few practical things that really matter to support teams. We wanted to find tools that are powerful but also easy to use and transparent.

Here’s what we looked for:

• Ease of integration & setup: How fast can you connect your help desk and get started? We leaned towards tools that don't require a whole IT project and a month-long onboarding.

• AI performance & trust: How good is the AI, really? And more importantly, can you check its work before it talks to a single customer? We gave big points for tools with solid simulation and testing features.

• Customization & control: Can you tweak the AI's personality, decide what actions it can take, and tell it what information it should or shouldn't use? You should be in the driver's seat.

• Knowledge source integration: Does the AI only pull from your help center? Or can it bring together knowledge from everywhere, like old tickets, Google Docs, and Confluence?

• Pricing transparency: Is the pricing easy to understand? We looked for platforms with clear costs and tried to steer clear of confusing "per-resolution" fees that punish you for being busy.

Zendesk AI alternatives comparison for 2025

Here’s a quick snapshot of the top Zendesk AI alternatives we put to the test.

Tool	Best For	Standout Feature	Starting Price
eesel AI	Fast, trusted AI integration	Simulate AI performance on historical tickets before going live	$239/month (annual)
Intercom	Proactive, conversational support	Fin AI Agent for real-time chat and engagement	$29/seat/month + $0.99/resolution
Forethought	Enterprise-grade automation	Suite of AI tools for solving, triaging, and assisting	Custom
Ada	No-code chatbot building	Powerful, user-friendly builder for transactional chatbots	Custom
Ultimate	Multilingual support automation	Strong automation capabilities across dozens of languages	Custom
Zoho Desk (Zia)	Teams in the Zoho ecosystem	Deep integration with Zoho CRM and other Zoho apps	$14/user/month
HubSpot Service Hub	All-in-one CRM & support	Unifies support with sales and marketing data for full context	$20/seat/month

The 7 best Zendesk AI alternatives for customer support in 2025

After digging in and testing, here are the platforms that we think offer a better way to scale your customer support.

1. eesel AI

eesel AI is built for teams that want to add smart, reliable AI to their current help desk without the drama. Its main selling point is that it's genuinely self-serve, you can sign up, connect your Zendesk account, and see it work right away without having to book a demo or talk to a salesperson.

Why it's a great alternative:

What really makes eesel AI different is its focus on building trust before you automate a single thing. Its simulation mode is a huge deal, it lets you test the AI agent on thousands of your past tickets. You get back a detailed report showing exactly how it would have replied, how many tickets it could have solved, and where your knowledge base has gaps. This gets rid of the guesswork and anxiety that usually comes with launching an AI bot.

A look at eesel AI's simulation mode, which helps build trust in the Zendesk AI alternative before going live.

On top of that, eesel AI pulls in knowledge from everywhere. While most tools are stuck with just your help center, eesel AI can connect to past tickets, macros, Confluence, Google Docs, Notion, and more. This makes for a much smarter and more helpful AI.

An infographic showing how eesel AI unifies knowledge from multiple sources, a key feature for Zendesk AI alternatives.

• Pros: Truly self-serve with a one-click setup; The simulation feature builds confidence before you go live; It unifies all your knowledge, not just the help center.

• Cons: It's a newer player on the scene compared to some of the big names; It works best for teams already using modern help desks and chat tools.

• Pricing: The pricing is straightforward and based on interactions, with no weird per-resolution fees. The Team plan is $299/month ($239/month if you pay annually) and covers up to 1,000 AI interactions. The Business plan, at $799/month ($639/month annually), adds the ability to train on past tickets and use custom AI actions.

2. Intercom

Intercom has been a leader in conversational support for a while, and it's a solid pick for teams wanting to mix support with sales and marketing. Its AI, named "Fin," is baked right into its live chat, making it great for engaging visitors, qualifying leads, and offering in-app help.

Why it's a great alternative:

Intercom is at its best in real-time, chat-heavy situations. Fin can handle natural back-and-forth conversations, answer questions, and pass things off to a human agent without missing a beat. It feels less like just a support tool and more like a full customer engagement platform.

• Pros: Fin is an excellent AI chatbot; Great for proactive customer conversations; The user interface is modern and conversational.

• Cons: It’s more of a full platform switch than a simple AI add-on; It can get pretty expensive, especially with some features charging you per resolution; It's not as focused on traditional email support.

• Pricing: Intercom's pricing has a few layers. The Essential plan starts at $29/seat/month (annually), but every time Fin resolves an issue, it costs you an extra $0.99. Higher plans like Advanced ($85/seat/mo) and Expert ($132/seat/mo) give you more features, but that per-resolution fee sticks around, which can make your bill unpredictable.

3. Forethought

Forethought is a heavy-duty AI platform aimed at large companies. It offers a whole suite of tools to automate the support process from start to finish. It plugs into the big help desks, including Zendesk, and is designed for support orgs with huge ticket volumes and complex needs.

Why it's a great alternative:

Its products are split into Solve (for automating responses), Triage (for routing), and Assist (for helping agents). This lets big teams pick and choose which part of their workflow needs the most help.

• Pros: Very powerful and wide-ranging automation features; Built for large, high-volume teams; Strong analytics and reporting.

• Cons: You have to go through a salesperson and the setup can be complicated; The pricing isn't public and is aimed at enterprise budgets; You can't just sign up and try it out yourself.

• Pricing: Forethought has custom pricing only. You have to get in touch with their sales team for a quote, so it's tough to know what you'll pay without going through the whole sales process.

4. Ada

Ada is all about helping B2C and e-commerce companies build powerful AI chatbots without needing to write any code. It’s particularly good at handling transactional stuff, like checking an order status or processing a return, because it can connect to your other business systems.

Why it's a great alternative:

Ada’s biggest strength is its easy-to-use chatbot builder. It lets teams without technical skills create some pretty sophisticated conversational flows. It’s a great choice for brands that need to automate a ton of predictable, transactional questions.

• Pros: The no-code chatbot builder is powerful and intuitive; Fantastic for e-commerce and transactional chats; Integrates with lots of third-party tools.

• Cons: It's mainly a chatbot tool, not a complete AI platform for helping agents or triaging tickets; Setup often requires help from their team; It can be on the pricey side.

• Pricing: Ada uses a custom pricing model. You need to fill out a form with how many contacts you expect to get a price, so there's no way to compare without talking to sales.

5. Ultimate

Ultimate is an AI automation platform that really shines with its support for dozens of languages, making it a go-to for global companies. It provides a no-code tool for building virtual agents that can talk to customers via chat, email, and social media.

Why it's a great alternative:

If you have customers all over the world, Ultimate's ability to run and manage automation in many languages from one place is a huge plus. It’s heavily focused on integrating with your help desk to automate your ticket workflows.

• Pros: Top-notch multilingual support; Strong focus on automating tickets and workflows; Plays well with the major help desks.

• Cons: You have to go through a sales process, it's not self-serve; Pricing isn't public; It can get complicated to set up and tweak without their help.

• Pricing: Ultimate doesn't list its prices online. You'll have to reach out to their sales team for a custom quote.

6. Zoho Desk (Zia)

If your team is already living in the Zoho world, Zoho Desk and its AI assistant, Zia, are a compelling and budget-friendly option. Zia is built to work perfectly inside the Zoho ecosystem, giving you AI-powered help right in the help desk.

Why it's a great alternative:

Zia can do things like analyze the sentiment of incoming tickets, automatically tag issues, and suggest relevant help articles to your agents. And because it's so tightly linked with Zoho CRM, agents get a ton of customer context with every ticket.

• Pros: Works seamlessly with Zoho CRM and other Zoho apps; Very affordable with clear pricing; Has a good set of basic AI features.

• Cons: Zia isn't as advanced as the dedicated AI platforms; You only get the real value if you're all-in on Zoho; The interface can feel a bit busy.

• Pricing: Zoho Desk has very clear pricing. While you can get some generative AI features on the Standard plan ($14/user/month annually), you'll want the Enterprise plan ($40/user/month annually) for the full suite of Zia features, like the Answer Bot.

7. HubSpot Service Hub

For businesses that want to connect customer support with their sales and marketing teams, HubSpot Service Hub is a great choice. Its AI tools are just one part of a bigger platform that gives you a complete picture of the customer's journey.

Why it's a great alternative:

When all your customer data is in one place, from marketing emails to sales calls to support tickets, HubSpot's AI can provide really useful context. It can do things like route tickets, analyze sentiment, and summarize conversations for you.

• Pros: Everything is on one platform with sales and marketing data; Gives agents excellent customer context; Has some generous free tools to get started.

• Cons: The AI features aren't as deep or customizable as the specialized tools; Higher-tier plans can get expensive; The all-in-one approach might feel bloated if you just need AI for support.

• Pricing: HubSpot's pricing is tiered. You can get started with paid plans at $20/seat/month, but the more advanced AI, like the "Breeze Customer Agent," is only on the Professional ($100/seat/month) and Enterprise ($150/seat/month) plans. These features also use "HubSpot Credits," which can add another confusing layer to your bill.

This video explores an alternative to Zendesk's Advanced AI, showing how an integrated AI assistant can improve support workflows without needing to switch platforms.

In-depth comparison of Zendesk AI alternatives

While features and pricing are all over the map, the real differences come down to the setup process, how much control you have, and how smart the AI actually is. This table breaks down how each tool handles these key areas.

Feature	eesel AI	Intercom	Forethought	Ada	Ultimate	Zoho Desk	HubSpot Service Hub
Self-Serve Setup	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Simulation Mode	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Knowledge Sources	All (Tickets, Docs, etc.)	Help Center, Tickets	Help Center, Tickets	Help Center	Help Center	Help Center, CRM
Custom Actions/API	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Pricing Model	Per Interaction	Per Seat / Per Resolution	Custom	Custom	Custom	Per Seat	Per Seat

How to choose the right Zendesk AI alternatives for your support team

Picking a new tool can feel like a huge decision, but you can make it easier by asking yourself a few simple questions.

• What's your biggest headache right now? Are you buried in simple, repetitive tickets? Trying to help agents respond faster? Or just sick of answering the same question for the tenth time this week? Figure out your main goal and pick a tool that's great at solving that specific problem.

• Focus on trust and control. Don't just accept an AI "black box." The best tools let you test and check the AI's performance before it ever talks to a customer. Look for platforms that offer a simulation mode and give you fine-grained control over what the AI can and can't do.

• Avoid the "rip and replace." A good AI tool should make your current help desk better, not force you to move your entire operation. Look for solutions that have easy, one-click integrations that slide right into your existing workflow.

• Think beyond the help center. Your company's real knowledge is probably scattered across docs, spreadsheets, and old conversations. An AI that can pull from all of those places will always be smarter and more helpful for your customers.

Go live with Zendesk AI alternatives in minutes, not months

Putting AI into your customer support doesn't have to be a six-month, high-stakes project. The right tools let you get started fast, build confidence by testing, and see a real difference in your team's workload and your customers' happiness.

While a lot of these platforms have cool features, eesel AI stands out because it skips the long setup and gets straight to the trust part. It removes the biggest hurdles with its self-serve setup, its awesome simulation mode, and its ability to learn from all your scattered knowledge.

Ready to see how an AI agent would do with your own support tickets? You can set up eesel AI in a few minutes and run a full simulation on your past data. Start your free trial today and get a real forecast of your automation potential.