Your guide to the best Zendesk sidebar app in 2025

Picture one of your support agents trying to solve a ticket. They have a dozen tabs open: one for order history, another for the knowledge base, a third for CRM data, and a few more just in case. They’re jumping between them, piecing together information just to write a single reply. It’s a familiar story, and it’s a huge time-waster.

This is exactly what the Zendesk sidebar is meant to fix. It’s that small panel in the agent workspace with a big job: to bring all the tools and information your team needs right next to the ticket they’re working on.

This guide will walk you through what a Zendesk sidebar app is, the different kinds you can get, and how newer AI-powered apps are completely changing how support teams work.

What is a Zendesk sidebar app?

What is a Zendesk sidebar app, really? It’s an application that runs in a small window inside the Zendesk Support interface. You’ll find it in the "apps tray" on the right-hand side when you’re looking at a ticket, a user profile, or an organization’s page.

The whole idea is to give agents context and tools without making them leave the ticket. Instead of searching for a customer’s order history in another system, an app can show it right there. Instead of manually creating a bug report in Jira, an app can let the agent do it with a click.

These apps aren’t just static displays. They’re built using the Zendesk Apps Framework (ZAF), which lets them communicate with ticket data in real time. This means an app can see who the customer is and what they’re asking about, then automatically pull in the most relevant info. It’s the tech that makes everything from simple data lookups to smart AI assistance possible.

Exploring the different types of Zendesk sidebar app

Sidebar apps come in all shapes and sizes. Some just show you a bit of data, while others are sophisticated AI assistants that can practically do the work for you. Let’s break down the main categories.

1. Informational apps for displaying data

These are the most common apps you’ll find. They usually connect to a single external service, like your e-commerce platform or CRM, and pull relevant data into the sidebar.

A few examples:

• Shopify for Zendesk: Shows a customer’s recent orders and shipping details.

• Jira for Zendesk: Displays any development tickets linked to the support request.

• Salesforce: Pulls in key CRM data like contact details and account status.

While these are helpful for a quick glance, they’re pretty passive. The agent still has to read through the data, figure out what matters, and then type out a response. And since they only connect to one source, your agent is back to tab-switching if the answer needs info from two or three different systems.

2. Action-oriented apps for workflows

This next group lets agents perform actions in other systems without leaving Zendesk. They’re basically shortcuts for common tasks.

A couple of examples:

• Trello / Asana: Lets an agent create a new task or card based on a ticket’s content.

• Google Drive: Allows agents to quickly attach files from their Drive to a ticket reply.

These apps can save a few clicks, but they still rely entirely on the agent to do the thinking. The agent has to decide to create the task or attach the file. It’s a slightly faster way to do a manual job, not true automation.

3. Knowledge and search apps

These apps help agents find answers hidden in your company’s knowledge sources. Zendesk’s own Sidebar Search app is a good example, letting agents search for help articles and past tickets.

The problem is that the search is often limited to Zendesk’s own ecosystem. What happens if the answer is in a Confluence page, a Google Docs spec sheet, or an old Slack thread? Most of these apps can’t see that information, so the agent is back to searching manually.

4. AI-powered apps for intelligent assistance

This is the newest and most powerful category. These apps use AI to understand a ticket’s context, search across all of your company’s knowledge, draft perfect replies, and even handle entire workflows on their own.

AI copilots can summarize long ticket threads or suggest responses based on similar past issues. But tools like eesel AI go a step further. Instead of just being another app, eesel acts as an intelligent engine for your whole support operation. It connects to dozens of your company’s knowledge sources at once, from your help center and past tickets to internal wikis and documents, to find the single best answer, no matter where it is.

How to get a Zendesk sidebar app for your team

Ready to add an app to your sidebar? You’ve got two main options: install a pre-built app from the marketplace or build your own.

Installing a pre-built app from the Zendesk marketplace

This is the most popular route. You just head over to the Zendesk Marketplace, find an app that looks promising, and click "Install." A few minutes later, it’s live in your sidebar.

It’s fast, easy, and you don’t need a developer. With thousands of apps available, you can probably find something that does what you need. The catch is that you’re stuck with the features the developer gave you. Customization is usually pretty limited, and you might find yourself needing three or four different apps to cover all your bases, which just leads to a cluttered sidebar.

Building a custom Zendesk sidebar app

If you have a very specific workflow and can’t find an app for it, you can always build one yourself. This means using tools like Node.js and the Zendesk Apps Framework SDK to code a solution from scratch. Zendesk even has a developer quick-start guide to help you begin.

The upside is you get an app that’s perfectly tailored to your team. The downside is that it’s expensive, takes a lot of time, and requires a developer to not only build it but also maintain it. Every time Zendesk updates its platform, someone has to make sure your custom app doesn’t break.

Why traditional sidebar apps fall short (and how AI changes things)

For a long time, sidebar apps have been helpful little add-ons. But as customer expectations get higher and support teams are asked to do more with less, the old way of doing things isn’t enough. AI isn’t just a small improvement here; it’s a complete shift in how the sidebar can work.

The problem with traditional sidebar apps: Scattered knowledge and manual work

The biggest issue with having a bunch of different sidebar apps is that they don’t talk to each other.

• Scattered Knowledge: Most apps connect to just one tool. But a single customer ticket might need info from a past conversation in Zendesk, a technical spec in Confluence, and a return policy stored in SharePoint. No single traditional app can connect those dots, so the agent is still the one doing the manual searching.

• Manual Effort: Even with information displayed in the sidebar, the agent is still doing all the work. They have to read everything, figure out the important parts, decide what to do, and then type out a reply. The app is a reference tool, not a work partner. This doesn’t scale well and slows down resolution times.

eesel AI: An intelligent engine for your sidebar

eesel AI isn’t just another app you add to the pile. It’s a platform that brings all your scattered knowledge together and automates the work itself.

• Unify your knowledge, instantly: eesel connects to all of your company’s knowledge sources, learning from past tickets, your help center, internal wikis, and over 100 other tools. It can then find the single most accurate answer to any question, no matter where it is.

• From assistant to agent: eesel works directly in your sidebar to help your team in two key ways.

  • The AI Copilot acts as an agent’s assistant, instantly drafting accurate, context-aware replies in your brand’s voice. It’s great for speeding up responses and helping new hires get comfortable faster.

  • The AI Agent takes it a step further by autonomously resolving routine tickets. It can understand the request, find the answer, and then reply, tag, and close the ticket without any human help. This frees up your team for the more complex conversations.

• Test with confidence before you launch: This is a big one. With most apps, you install them and hope for the best. With eesel AI, you can run simulations on thousands of your past tickets to see exactly how the AI will perform. You get a real forecast of your automation rate before the AI ever talks to a live customer.

• Total control and a gradual rollout: Many AI tools are a "black box" with no real control. eesel lets you see and adjust everything. You can use its simple workflow editor to define which types of tickets the AI handles and what actions it can take. You can start small with a specific queue or topic and expand as you get more comfortable.

Your Zendesk sidebar app is more than just a panel

The Zendesk sidebar has grown from a simple spot for a few apps into a potentially powerful, AI-driven workspace. The goal isn’t to cram more tools into that small panel anymore, but to make it smarter. The right Zendesk sidebar app should reduce your agents’ workload, not add to it.

It’s about giving your team a tool that empowers them. Instead of making them juggle a dozen different single-purpose apps, you can give them a single platform that brings real intelligence and automation to their workflow.

See how eesel AI can turn your Zendesk sidebar into your team’s most powerful AI assistant. Start your free trial today and see how much time you can save.