Zoho was founded in 1996 in India by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas as AdventNet, Inc. as a solution for network management. They expanded to Japan five years later. In 2005, AdventNet launched Zoho Writer, the first application in what would become the Zoho Suite; in 2009, the company rebranded itself as Zoho Corporation after their popular product. The Zoho Office Suite consists of numerous productivity and business apps, including their CRM, helpdesk solution, app creator and others. Zoho bootstrapped itself and remains privately-held; while their revenue isn’t publicly disclosed, it’s believed to be primarily spent on product development. In 2017, Zoho users surpassed 25 million and they introduced their newest app, Zoho Checkout. Zoho suite product typically include both paid and free versions. Sridhar Vembu remains the CEO.
Intended Customers Small to Midsized Businesses; Zoho Users
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Features
All Available Plans & Services
| Free | Professional | Enterprise | |
| Pricing | |||
| Billed Annually | $0 per agent/month | $12 per agent/month | $25 per agent/month |
| Billed Monthly | $0 per agent/month | Contact Sales | Contact Sales |
| Ticket Management | |||
| Ticket Merging | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ticket Splitting | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom Fields & Tags | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom Views & Group Views | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Macros | No | 10 per Department/Module | 20 per Department/Module |
| Email Notifications | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ticket Notes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic Ticket Refresh | No | No | No |
| Agent Collision Detection | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Assume Agent Identity | No | No | No |
| Multichannel Integration | |||
| Email Integration | 1 Email Address | 10 Email Addresses | Unlimited |
| Facebook Integration | No | Yes | Yes |
| Twitter Integration | No | Yes | Yes |
| Web Widget | No | No | No |
| Mobile App | iPad and iPhone | iPad and iPhone | iPad and iPhone |
| Call Integration | No | Multiple Numbers with IVR | Multiple Numbers with IVR |
| CTI Toolkit & Integrations | No | No | No |
| Live Chat | No | No | Yes |
| Helpdesk Management | |||
| Translated Agent Interface | No | No | No |
| Light Agents | No | Yes | Yes |
| Triggers | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Workflows | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SLA Management | Priority-Based SLA | 5 per Department | 10 per Department |
| Multiple SLA Policies | No | Yes | Yes |
| Game Mechanics | No | No | No |
| Customer Self-Service | |||
| Knowledge Base | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Community Forums | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Language Packs | Yes (9 Languages) | Yes (9 Languages) | Yes (9 Languages) |
| Branded Support Centers | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple Unique Support Centers | No | No | Yes |
| Customer Relationship Management | |||
| Contacts & Ticket History | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom Tags & Fields | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customer Satisfaction Ratings | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CSAT Prediction | No | No | No |
| Reporting & Analytics | |||
| Overview Dashboard | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Agent & Group Performance | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customer Analysis | No | Yes | Yes |
| Industry Comparison | No | No | No |
| Custom Reports | No | Yes | Yes |
| Export Reports | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Add-Ons & Extensions | |||
| Marketplace | No | No | No |
| Developer API | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Security | |||
| SSL Encryption | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Single Sign On | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Two-Factor Authentication | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Whitelisting | No | No | No |
| Sandbox Test Environment | No | No | No |
| HIPAA Compliance | No | No | No |
| Disaster Recovery | No | No | No |
| Service & Support | |||
| Knowledge Base | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Community Forums | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email Support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Phone Support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Chat Support | No | No | No |
| Onboarding | No | No | No |
| Service Level Guarantee | No | No | No |
| Custom Implementation | No | No | No |
Zoho Desk is the helpdesk solution in the Zoho Office Suite. Actually there are a few solutions in the Zoho Suite dedicated towards customer service, particularly for tech support, but Zoho Desk is their general customer service online ticketing solution. Like many Zoho apps, there is a free version, though its capabilities are fairly restrained, though useful. You’ll be able to produce and track tickets, prevent agent collision, create a customer portal, knowledge base and community forums. You’ll also be able to export reports on ticket overviews and agent performance. However, you’ll only have one email address to use for tracking tickets, you won’t be able to integrate social media accounts or telephony, and you won’t have any time-based rules or workflows - so there won’t be any automation in the free Zoho Desk account. The paid plans open things up a bit. For $12 per agent/month you’ll gain ticket time tracking, 10 email addresses for tracking tickets, social media and telephony integration, multiple departments for your helpdesk and a limited number of workflows per department and module - specifically, 10. Whether or not this is sufficient for your support department’s needs depends on how much you intend to automate - ticket assignment rules, record updates, and so on. The Enterprise plan expands these limitations further, but still imposes limits - instead of 5 SLAs per department, you get 10; instead of 10 workflows per department/module, you get 20. This is probably sufficient for many SMBs. Both plans get additional reporting dashboards and security controls. For companies invested in the Zoho ecosystem, Zoho Desk provides online ticketing features at relatively low cost in a familiar format. As a standalone platform, Zoho Desk provides online ticketing and the ability to create customer self-service resources. As might be expected, their depth doesn’t go as far as companies solely dedicated to a helpdesk product. If you’re looking for a powerful helpdesk, and are willing to pay for one, you might consider another solution; if you’re interested is a fairly capable and inexpensive solution (in a familiar environment, for existing Zoho users), then Zoho Desk is worth a try.