Zendesk CRM: A complete overview and pricing guide for 2025

If you’re trying to figure out the Zendesk CRM ecosystem, you’ve probably noticed it’s not just one single product. For a long time, Zendesk had two main platforms: one for customer service and one for sales. But things are changing in a big way. Zendesk is pulling the plug on its sales CRM, Zendesk Sell, to go all-in on its customer service tools.

This guide will walk you through what the Zendesk CRM world actually looks like today. We’ll cover the good and the not-so-good of Zendesk for Service, explain what the shutdown of Zendesk Sell means for you, and give you the full scoop on their pricing. We’ll also look at how modern AI tools can help you deal with these changes and build a smarter, more connected support system.

What is Zendesk CRM?

The name "Zendesk CRM" is a bit of an umbrella term for a suite of products, not a single tool. Historically, it was split between two main products: Zendesk for Service (their well-known help desk) and Zendesk Sell (their tool for sales teams). Knowing the difference, and what’s happening now, is pretty important.

What is Zendesk for Service?

Zendesk for Service is the heart of what Zendesk does. It’s a customer service platform designed to help teams handle all the questions and issues that come their way. It pulls conversations from email, chat, phone, and social media into one organized ticketing system. Teams use it to track and solve support tickets, create knowledge bases for customers, and see how well they’re doing. It’s a solid, feature-packed help desk used by over 100,000 businesses for a reason.

A screenshot of the Zendesk Agent Workspace, showing the main dashboard of the Zendesk CRM.:

What is Zendesk Sell (and what’s happening to it)?

Zendesk Sell was the company’s CRM built specifically for sales teams. It helped them manage leads, see their sales pipeline visually, and automate parts of the sales process. But here’s the big news: Zendesk is shutting down Zendesk Sell, with a final end date of August 31, 2027. The company is shifting its entire focus to customer and employee service.

This means you can’t buy it anymore, and current customers have to find a new home for their sales data, with Zendesk pointing them towards Pipedrive. For any business that wants sales and support under one roof, this creates a bit of a problem.

Evaluating the Zendesk CRM for Service: Features and limitations

With Zendesk doubling down on its service platform, its help desk is more important than ever. It’s a really capable tool, but it’s good to know what it does well and where its built-in features, especially its AI, can leave you wanting more.

Key Zendesk CRM features

• Unified Ticketing System: This brings all your customer chats, emails, calls, and social media messages into one place for your agents.

• Help Center: You can build out a knowledge base, a community forum, and a customer portal so people can find answers on their own.

• Reporting & Analytics: It comes with ready-made dashboards to track things like how fast you respond to tickets, but you’ll need a higher-tier plan for custom reports.

• Automation & Workflows: You can set up rules to automatically route tickets to the right person, send out notifications, and update ticket details.

• Native AI Features: Zendesk has its own AI agents and tools, like AI-generated replies and ticket summaries, but they’re only available on the Suite plans.

An example of the Zendesk CRM ticket view, showing how agents can see previous customer interactions.:

Where the native Zendesk CRM AI has limitations

While Zendesk is definitely getting into AI, its own solution has a few tricky spots. The AI is mostly stuck inside the Zendesk platform, which means it can’t easily access important info from other places your team stores knowledge, like Google Docs, Confluence, or internal wikis. Getting it set up can be a hassle, and you often have to do a lot of configuration work without a simple way to see how it would perform on your past tickets first.

This is a common frustration, and it’s where a dedicated AI layer like eesel AI comes in handy. Instead of being locked into one system, eesel AI connects right into Zendesk and all your other knowledge sources.

• Go live in minutes, not months: eesel AI is built to be self-serve. You can connect your help desk and other tools with a click and launch an AI agent without sitting through a mandatory sales demo.

• Unify all your knowledge: Train your AI on old Zendesk tickets, your help center, and other sources like Google Docs or Confluence. This gives it a full picture of your business.

• Test with confidence: eesel AI has a simulation mode that lets you test your AI on thousands of your actual past tickets before it talks to a single customer. This gives you a really accurate idea of how well it’ll work.

The Zendesk CRM gap for sales and the migration challenge

Zendesk’s call to get rid of Zendesk Sell is a real headache for businesses that liked having sales and support in one system. Now they have to move to a new sales tool while trying to keep the customer experience from feeling clunky and disconnected.

The pain of a disconnected tech stack

It’s a huge pain when your support platform (Zendesk) and your sales CRM (like Pipedrive, Salesforce, or HubSpot) don’t talk to each other. It creates silos.

• Support agents have no idea about a customer’s sales history or deal size, so their support can feel generic.

• Sales reps can’t quickly see if a prospect has an open support ticket, which could hurt the relationship at a critical time.

• Ultimately, this leads to a choppy customer experience and makes your teams waste time switching between tools just to get the full story.

How an AI layer bridges the gap

Instead of wrestling with complicated and fragile integrations, a better way to go is to use an intelligent AI layer that works with the tools you already have. An AI platform like eesel AI connects to your help desk and your other key apps. It can learn from your past Zendesk tickets, your new sales CRM, and your internal docs all at the same time.

This means your AI support agent has the complete context. It can answer questions about shipping by looking up info from Shopify, check a subscription status from your billing system, and understand a customer’s entire journey, all without a human agent having to juggle a dozen tabs. This turns a potentially disruptive move into a chance to build a smarter and more unified support system.

Zendesk CRM pricing explained

Zendesk’s pricing is broken down by product and charged per agent, per month. Since Zendesk Sell is no longer an option, the "Suite" plans for customer service are what most new customers will be looking at. The costs can add up fast, especially when you start tacking on the extras you need for more advanced features.

Zendesk Suite pricing (for service)

Zendesk groups its service tools into a few "Suite" tiers. All of them include the basic ticketing system, but things like AI, multiple help centers, and better reporting are saved for the pricier plans.

Plan	Price (Billed Annually)	Key Features
Suite Team	$55 per agent/month	Ticketing, messaging & live chat, 1 help center, basic AI agents, 1000+ integrations.
Suite Growth	$89 per agent/month	Everything in Team + self-service customer portal, multiple help centers, multilingual support.
Suite Professional	$115 per agent/month	Everything in Growth + CSAT surveys, SLA management, customizable reporting, HIPAA compliance.
Suite Enterprise	$169 per agent/month	Everything in Professional + custom agent roles, sandbox environment, up to 300 help centers.

This pricing was taken from Zendesk’s official pricing page in late 2024.

Hidden costs and complex add-ons

One of the trickiest parts of Zendesk’s pricing is how much you have to rely on expensive add-ons for key AI and management features. For instance:

• Advanced AI agents: If you want the AI to handle more complex problems, it costs extra.

• Workforce Management & Quality Assurance: These are sold as separate add-ons, running you an extra $25-$35 per user per month for each one.

This approach can make your final bill pretty unpredictable. On the other hand, a tool like eesel AI has transparent pricing. All the core products (AI Agent, Copilot, Triage, Chatbot) are included in every plan. You pay based on a set number of monthly AI interactions, not per ticket resolved, so your bill doesn’t shoot up just because you had a busy month. With flexible monthly plans you can cancel anytime, you get full control without being tied to a long-term contract.

Navigating the new Zendesk CRM landscape

The Zendesk CRM world is definitely in a state of change. Zendesk for Service is still a top player in the help desk game, but the shutdown of Zendesk Sell means businesses now have to juggle separate tools for their sales and support teams. This split can make it tough to keep a single view of your customers and deliver a smooth experience.

Trying to patch this together with more and more integrations can become a complicated, high-maintenance mess. A more modern and sensible strategy is to use a flexible AI layer that brings together knowledge from all your different tools, no matter who made them.

By pairing a solution like eesel AI with your Zendesk account, you can automate more of your support, give your agents the full context they need, and build a genuinely intelligent customer service operation. You can get going in a few minutes, test everything risk-free with powerful simulations, and get complete control over your support automation, all with clear, predictable pricing.