Crisp vs Zoho Desk
Crisp and Zoho Desk are both customer support tools. Crisp is aimed at small businesses and freelancers, while Zoho Desk is aimed at small businesses and enterprise. Zoho Desk costs less, from $7/mo versus $45/mo for Crisp. Both have a free plan.
Affordable all-in-one messaging and helpdesk
Multichannel help desk with the Zia AI assistant from Zoho
| Pricing | Freemium · $45 | Freemium · $7 |
| Starting price | $45/mo | $7/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | 14 days | 15 days |
| Built for | Small businesses, Freelancers | Small businesses, Enterprise |
| Platforms | web, ios, android, macos, windows | web, ios, android |
| Country | FR · 2015 | IN |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Crisp if
Small teams and indie founders who want chat, inbox and help center in one affordable package.
- Per-workspace pricing, not per agent
- Many channels in one inbox
- Free plan with 2 seats and apps
Look elsewhere if: Large support organizations needing advanced analytics, QA and enterprise permissions.
Choose Zoho Desk if
Small and mid-sized support teams, especially Zoho CRM users, that want a full-featured help desk at a lower per-agent price than Zendesk.
- Much lower per-agent cost than Zendesk at comparable tiers
- Free plan for up to three agents
- Tight integration with Zoho CRM and the wider Zoho suite
Look elsewhere if: Teams that need the largest third-party app ecosystem or a very simple shared inbox (Zendesk, Help Scout).
Crisp vs Zoho Desk pricing
Crisp
- Free$02 seats, 100 customer profiles
- Mini$45/workspace/mo4 seats, 5,000 profiles, $5 AI credits
- Essentials$95/workspace/mo10 seats, 50,000 profiles, 2 sub-inboxes
- Plus$295/workspace/mo20+ seats, 200,000 profiles, 5 sub-inboxes
- EnterpriseCustomDedicated onboarding, custom SLAs, team training
Zoho Desk
- Free$0Up to 3 agents, email ticketing basics
- Express$7/agent/moBilled annually; AI agents with BYOK or Zoho LLM
- Standard$14/agent/moBilled annually; live chat, knowledge base, answer bot
- Professional$23/agent/moBilled annually; Zia AI, Blueprints, telephony
- Enterprise$40/agent/moBilled annually; multi-brand, skill routing, sandbox
Crisp · Key features
- Live chat widget with mobile and desktop apps
- Shared inbox for email, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram and SMS
- Knowledge base and chatbot builder
- Light CRM with contact profiles and segments
- Campaigns and sequences for onboarding emails
- Co-browsing, screen sharing and MagicReply AI
Cons
- Reporting and permissions are basic
- Knowledge base lacks advanced customization
- Email deliverability for campaigns is not its strength
Zoho Desk · Key features
- Unified ticket queue for email, chat, phone, social and messaging
- Round-robin and skill-based assignment with SLAs and escalations
- Blueprints to enforce step-by-step support processes
- Multilingual help center with knowledge base and community forum
- AI agents on Express with bring-your-own-key or Zoho LLM
- Zia assistant for sentiment, reply suggestions and anomaly detection
Cons
- Interface feels dense and dated in places
- Blueprints, telephony and full Zia require Professional or higher
- Monthly billing is significantly pricier than annual
Crisp vs Zoho Desk: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Crisp or Zoho Desk?
Zoho Desk starts at $7/mo and Crisp at $45/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Crisp and Zoho Desk have a free plan?
Yes, both Crisp and Zoho Desk have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.