Customer expectations around service have never been higher. In fact, 90% of customers rate real-time resolutions as important, and 72% of consumers expect support agents to know about their previous engagements.

The only way to meet those high expectations is by using a connected, efficient customer service software.

If you’re comparing your options, you may be wondering how HubSpot Service Hub stacks up against Zendesk. Let’s compare the two platforms below to determine which is best for your needs.

• HubSpot Service Hub: New & Improved Features
  • [NEW] Custom Views
  • [NEW] Mobile Inbox
  • [NEW] Inbound Calling
  • [NEW] Conversation APIs
  • [NEW] Channel Switching
  • [NEW] Post Chat Feedback
  • [NEW] SLAs
  • [NEW] Service Analytics
  • [NOW LIVE] Customer Portal
  • [NOW LIVE] Custom Surveys
• Comparing All Your Options
• HubSpot vs. Zendesk: Features
• HubSpot vs. Zendesk: Integrations
• HubSpot vs. Zendesk: Cost
• Book Your Free Consultation

HubSpot Service Hub: New & Improved Features

The relaunched HubSpot Service Hub builds on the foundation of features that HubSpot users already know and love, like chat, ticket pipelines, and automation. It includes enhancements to make existing tools even stronger, as well as brand new features that take the software to the next level.

[NEW] Custom Views

Help agents stay focused by giving them flexibility to create views in the inbox that will help them efficiently get their work done.

With Custom Views, you can:

• Create views based on ticket and conversation properties
• Use ‘and/or’ operators to expand or refine your view criteria
• View, edit, and delete views

[NEW] Mobile Inbox

Conversations Inbox in the HubSpot iOS app is getting a big update! We've built the new experience from the ground up to help customers stay productive on the go.

Updates made:

• All new design and improved inbox actions
• Improved collaboration tools
• @ mentions, comments, and email forwarding
• Agent collision and active visitor indicator
• Forward emails from the inbox
• Efficiency tools: insert snippets and knowledge base articles in replies on mobile
• Expanded integration with the mobile CRM allowing users to associate contacts to conversations

[NEW] Inbound Calling

Currently in beta, Inbound Calling will enable customers to receive inbound calls inside HubSpot, supporting HubSpot’s help desk functionality.

What will be included?

• Admins will be able to purchase a phone number from the calling settings page.
• Admins will be able to assign the number to a user with a paid Service or Sales seat
• Service Hub seat users can receive inbound calls on their personal device, and place outbound calls in HubSpot
• Inbound calls received on a HubSpot-purchased number will be logged in HubSpot and can be leveraged across the CRM Platform for reporting, automation, conversation intelligence, and more.

[NEW] Conversation APIs

To support channel proliferation and to ensure Conversations can scale with our customers, we're introducing a suite of APIs to unlock a customer value in Conversations across a variety of use cases.

These APIs will allow you to:

• Integrate new channels in HubSpot
• Retrieve information about your customer communication, and post new messages from outside of HubSpot
• Run complex routing logic
• Develop third party bots and automation
• Make bulk changes on assignments during migrations or team restructuring

[NEW] Channel Switching

Channel switching helps users using the conversations Inbox to switch channels from Live Chat or Facebook Messenger to Email on a single thread while preserving conversation history both for the agent and for the end customer.

What’s included?

• Seamless switch from Live Chat / Facebook Messenger to Email
• Customers get full chat or messenger history over email. When an agent switches from chat to email, the customer gets a complete conversation history without losing context.

[NEW] Post Chat Feedback

Collecting feedback is vital to understanding the customer experience.

With Post Chat Feedback, support agents will now be able to collect customer satisfaction feedback on their chat conversations directly from within the chat once the conversation has closed.

[NEW] SLAs

Service Level Agreements and Working Hours are a core feature in a Modern Help Desk. We are launching the most requested functionality, and will launch more granular features over time.

Current functionality will include:

• Working hours
• Time to first response
• Time to close SLA
• Reporting
• Automation
• UI improvements to visualize SLAs

[NEW] Service Analytics

Uncover key insights with industry standard out-of-the-box reports that help you deliver service that is both efficient and authentic. Service analytics comes with the reports you need built in, so you can unlock insights fast and resolve customer problems even faster. For example, measure post-support survey scores, average ticket response time, and overall support volume.

[NOW LIVE] Customer Portal

Connected to your shared inbox, your customer portal keeps ticket conversations going between customers and reps, offers access to your company’s knowledge base, and can be customized to create an optimal customer experience.

[NOW LIVE] Custom Surveys

You can create custom feedback surveys to send to your contacts. These surveys can have custom questions and options including star ratings, radio selects and single line text fields.

Comparing All Your Options

SoftwareReviews recognized Service Hub as a leader and gold medalist in its 2021 Customer Service Management Report, based on the input from HubSpot users.

Here’s how HubSpot Service Hub scored compared to popular options like Zendesk, Freshdesk, and more.

HubSpot vs. Zendesk: Features

When you lay them out side-by-side, HubSpot Service Hub has many comparable features to Zendesk.

The big differences come in time-to-start and usability. 

Zendesk’s website states that you’ll be “up and running in weeks” whereas HubSpot Service Hub can be onboarded and ready for use within days, depending on your requirements.

On the side of user-friendliness, HubSpot is known for its intuitive platform and ease-of-use, which shines through with Service Hub. The out-of-box tools and reports provide a turnkey solution, and it’s easy to customize processes in just a few clicks.

Plus, there are training courses available in HubSpot Academy, tons of resources in the HubSpot Knowledge Base, and fast, friendly live support to make sure your team is armed with all the knowledge and tools they need to succeed.

HubSpot vs. Zendesk: Integrations

Both HubSpot and Zendesk offer an impressive ecosystem of integrations to seamlessly incorporate your customer support processes into your other business processes.

HubSpot Service Hub connects to your HubSpot CRM, giving you a comprehensive view of each customer’s unique journey.

At a glance, you can see not only their prior service tickets and resolutions, but also marketing and sales engagement like what web pages they’ve visited, which emails they’ve opened, and much more engagement data from the marketing, sales, and service tools in your HubSpot.

It’s the kind of insight that today’s buyers expect you to know, and now you will! 

If you decide to go with Zoho Desk, there is a Zendesk/HubSpot integration available that syncs data between your HubSpot CRM and Zendesk.

HubSpot vs. Zendesk: Cost

As of March 2022, here’s the cost breakdown by plan for HubSpot Service Hub and Zendesk for service.

HubSpot Service Hub

Zendesk for Service

Customer Service Software Isn't One-Size-Fits-All

Even with all of the great out-of-box features that come with HubSpot Service Hub, customer service software isn’t one-size-fits-all. The best way to get up-and-running faster is to partner with someone who has done it before. 

Contact us today for a free consultation to see if HubSpot Service Hub is right for your business and customers.