Gladly vs Zoho Desk
Gladly and Zoho Desk, side by side across AI, pricing, channels, security, and seven more categories. We pull every figure from public sources and don’t pick a winner.
Last updated:
Compare a different pair
vs
Gladly
The only AI built for LTV. People-centered AI support; no ticket model.
Best for Mid-market to enterprise retail, ecommerce, and hospitality (Ulta, Crate & Barrel, Nordstrom, TUMI).
2014 · San Francisco, CA.
Zoho Desk
AI help desk software made human-simple.
Best for SMB and mid-market in the Zoho ecosystem. 125,000+ businesses.
Zoho Corp 1996; Zoho Desk launched 2016. · Chennai, India.
Claimed: from the vendor, not independently verified.
3rd-party: sourced elsewhere, not on the vendor's site.
Everything else: from the vendor's own pages and verifiable.
Pricing
List prices, seat rules, trials, and pricing transparency.
- Pricing model
- GladlyPer agent/mo, annual; usage fees for voice, SMS, and AI; not published on site.
- Zoho DeskPer agent/mo, tiered.
- Free trial / guarantee
- GladlyNo (enterprise); 30-day trial with 100 AI interactions via Shopify only.
- Zoho Desk15-day, no card.
- Price
- Gladly~$180/agent/mo (Hero, annual). · ~$210/agent/mo (Superhero, annual). · Not disclosed. Enterprise quote above Superhero.(3rd-party)source
- Zoho DeskExpress $7/agent/mo (annual). · Standard $14; Professional $23/agent/mo (annual). · Enterprise $40/agent/mo (annual).(3rd-party)source
- Seat minimum
- Gladly~10 agents (Hero); ~45 (Superhero).(3rd-party)source
- Zoho DeskFree 3 max; Standard 5 min.
- Implementation fee
- GladlyNot disclosed. Custom quote; Professional Services.(3rd-party)source
- Zoho DeskNot disclosed. Onboarding session included.
- Transparency
- GladlyOpaque. No pricing on site; requires a demo.
- Zoho DeskModerate. INR shown; USD via currency switch or third-party.
- Pricing last verified
- Gladly2026-06-02(3rd-party)source
- Zoho Desk2026-06-02 (USD via third-party, verified 2026-04-24).
Channels
Where each tool can talk to customers.
- GladlyNative
- Zoho DeskNative
- Live chat
- GladlyNative
- Zoho DeskNative (Standard+).
- In-app messenger
- GladlyNative
- Zoho DeskNative (ASAP SDK).
- Voice
- GladlyNative. Built-in, enterprise-ready.
- Zoho DeskVia integration (Zoho Voice separate; 15+ providers).
- SMS
- GladlyNative
- Zoho DeskVia integration (Zoho Voice or marketplace).
- GladlyNative (via WhatsApp Business API).
- Zoho DeskVia integration
- Social
- GladlyNative. Facebook Messenger, Instagram.
- Zoho DeskNative. Facebook, Instagram, X per brand (varies by plan).
- Unified inbox
- GladlyNative. Single people-centered timeline (no tickets).
- Zoho DeskNative. 10+ channels.
Voice & Telephony
Native voice vs telephony integrations.
- Native vs via integration
- GladlyNative. Voice and IVR built-in, no third-party telephony needed.
- Zoho DeskIntegration. Zoho Voice separate product; 15+ third-party providers.
- Voice AI / transcription
- GladlyYes. AI voice summaries and transcription (Deepgram).
- Zoho DeskNot disclosed. Recording supported; AI transcription not mentioned.
- Telephony billed separately
- GladlyYes. Per-minute on top of the seat fee (inbound local ~$0.0186/min).(3rd-party)source
- Zoho DeskYes. Zoho Voice priced separately.
AI & Automation
Autonomous resolution, agentic actions, models, and how AI is priced.
- Autonomous AI agent
- GladlyYes. Gladly Sidekick resolves end-to-end on chat, SMS, and voice (email soon); human handoff.(claimed)source
- Zoho DeskYes. Zia Agents (4 roles). Support Specialist and Resolution Expert in Early Access; others Coming Soon.
- Copilot / Assist mode
- GladlyYes. Team Assist: AI-drafted responses, real-time translation, and summaries.(claimed)source
- Zoho DeskYes. Zia: grammar/readability, quality scoring, summarization, tone, field prediction.
- Claimed automation rate
- Gladly76% of conversations fully resolved by AI (homepage); KUHL 59%.(claimed)source
- Zoho DeskNot disclosed.
- AI channel coverage
- GladlyChat, SMS, and voice (Sidekick Voice); email launching soon; social not confirmed.(claimed)source
- Zoho DeskWebsite Answer Bot, email, IM, community. On Desk and website.
- Agentic actions (API) vs answer-only
- GladlyBoth. Refunds, cancellations, and booking updates via connected commerce and logistics APIs.(claimed)source
- Zoho DeskBoth. Updates fields, triages/escalates, logs resolutions, runs blueprints.
- Knowledge sources
- GladlyBrand KB (Guides), conversation history, and integrated commerce, logistics, and order data.(claimed)source
- Zoho DeskKB articles, past ticket history, open-domain (ChatGPT/Zia LLM).
- Underlying model
- GladlyNot publicly disclosed; uses Azure, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Deepgram (voice).
- Zoho DeskProprietary Zia LLM (Qwen 14B/30B, GLM 4.7 Flash Standard; GLM 5 Pro). BYOK OpenAI/Gemini/Claude.
- Trains on past tickets
- GladlyYes. Learns from every conversation, including human resolutions; not used to train its own models.(claimed)source
- Zoho DeskYes. Resolution Expert analyzes history. Zoho states it does not use your data to train its models.
- Pre-deploy simulation / sandbox
- GladlyNot disclosed
- Zoho DeskNot disclosed.
- Multilingual
- GladlyPartial. Platform translation in 70+ languages; Sidekick AI authoring English-only; IVR 30 languages.
- Zoho DeskYes. 40+ languages (Zia/translation); help center 50+.
- Runs on your existing helpdesk vs native-only
- GladlyNative only. Sidekick needs Gladly as the primary helpdesk.
- Zoho DeskNative only.
- AI pricing model
- GladlyUsage-based (per conversation or resolution) on top of a per-agent fee.(3rd-party)source
- Zoho DeskBase Zia in Enterprise tier. Zia Agents free, LLM tokens billed via Agent Wallet.
- AI unit price
- Gladly~$0.60/conversation (enterprise); $1.50/AI Resolution + $0.25/AI Assist (Shopify tier).(3rd-party)source
- Zoho DeskZoho LLM Standard $1/M tokens (30M free/mo); Pro GLM5 $3/M (20M free).
- Copilot / Assist price
- GladlyNot disclosed (Team Assist not broken out).
- Zoho DeskIncluded in Enterprise plan.
How Open.cx compares
Open.cx runs on top of Gladly or Zoho Deskas an AI layer, or works as its own helpdesk. Here's where it lands on the same questions.
- Runs on your existing helpdesk vs native-only
- Both. Add it on top of the helpdesk you already run, or use it as your own inbox. Works with Zendesk, Intercom, Front, Freshdesk, Gorgias, Salesforce, HubSpot, Dynamics 365, Twilio Flex, and Creatio.
- Autonomous AI agent
- Yes. Autopilot resolves tickets end to end on its own, across every channel.
- AI pricing model
- Per resolution, so you pay for outcomes. Escalations to a human are free.
- Claimed automation rate
- 77% average automation; up to 80% (Trunkrs)(claimed)source
Security & Compliance
Certifications, data residency, and access controls.
- SOC 2 Type II
- GladlySOC 2 Type II (and AI sub-processors).
- Zoho DeskSOC 2 Type 2.
- GDPR
- GladlyYes. DPAs with AI vendors; VeraSafe EU/UK representative.
- Zoho DeskYes
- HIPAA / PCI
- GladlyNot disclosed. PCI-DSS and GDPR confirmed; HIPAA not referenced.
- Zoho DeskYes. HIPAA Type 2; Desk covered.
- SSO / SAML
- GladlyYes. SSO; SAML certificates.
- Zoho DeskYes. SAML, LDAP, ADFS; MFA.
- Data residency
- GladlyPartial. 9 global regions for voice; no explicit customer-selectable residency.
- Zoho DeskYes. US, EU, India, AU, JP, CA, SA, UAE datacenters.
Integrations
Marketplace breadth, APIs, and developer tooling.
- Marketplace / integrations (approx.)
- Gladly60+ integrations.
- Zoho DeskNot disclosed. Zoho Marketplace plus Zoho Flow (1,000+ apps).
- Shopify depth
- GladlyDeep native. Customer and purchase history, order management, returns (via Loop), and shipping; Shopify App Store trial.
- Zoho DeskModerate. Free extension (2,200+ installs), auto-creates tickets, surfaces order data. One-directional.
- Open / public API
- GladlyYes. Open APIs; developer.gladly.com.
- Zoho DeskYes. REST API, OAuth 2.0; webhooks.
- Developer SDK / MCP
- GladlyYes. SDKs, sample apps, and testing; webhooks via Messaging Automation APIs.
- Zoho DeskYes. Java/iOS/Android SDKs; ASAP SDK; extensions.
Automation & Workflows
Builders, triggers, routing, and SLAs.
- Workflow builder
- GladlyRouting and entry-point config; no named workflow builder.
- Zoho DeskYes. Blueprint (drag-and-drop) plus Workflow rules.
- Triggers / automations
- GladlyYes. Automated routing, proactive outreach (voice, SMS, email), and entry-point rules.
- Zoho DeskYes. Rule-based, time-based, field updates, alerts.
- Routing
- GladlyYes. People Match intelligent routing (history, skills, attributes).
- Zoho DeskYes. Skill-based (Enterprise), round-robin, Zia field prediction.
- Macros / canned responses
- GladlyYes. Quick Reply (button responses) and macros.
- Zoho DeskYes. Macros; response templates.
- SLA management
- GladlyYes. SLA Business Hours and Entry Point SLA settings.
- Zoho DeskYes. SLA policies, violation tracking, Blueprint SLA dashboard.
Collaboration
How support teams work a queue together.
- Internal notes
- GladlyYes. Notes and @mentions.
- Zoho DeskYes. Comments and notes.
- Collision detection
- GladlyReferenced in comparisons; not confirmed on a Gladly page.(3rd-party)source
- Zoho DeskYes. Simultaneous-open notification.
- Side conversations
- GladlyNot disclosed
- Zoho DeskYes. TeamFeed and @mentions in ticket.
- Shared inbox
- GladlyYes. Unified inbox; task management tied to customer threads.
- Zoho DeskNative. Unified, with history across handoffs.
Self-Service & Knowledge
Knowledge base, help center, and deflection.
- Knowledge base
- GladlyYes. Answers KB for agents and AI; configured via non-developer Guides.
- Zoho DeskYes. Full KB, SEO, HTML/CSS portal, versioning.
- Help center
- GladlyYes. Customer-facing, 45+ languages.
- Zoho DeskYes. Branded portal, ASAP widget, domain mapping.
- Community forum
- GladlyNot offered
- Zoho DeskYes. Peer-to-peer forum.
- AI answers from knowledge base
- GladlyYes. Sidekick serves answers from the Answers KB autonomously.(claimed)source
- Zoho DeskYes. Zia KB gap detection, article suggestions, Answer Bot.
Reporting & Analytics
Dashboards, custom reports, and CSAT.
- Dashboards
- GladlyYes. Liveboards (real-time) and Insight Builder.
- Zoho DeskYes. 10+ built-in dashboards.
- Custom reports
- GladlyYes. Insight Builder custom reports.
- Zoho DeskYes. 30+ reports plus custom builder.
- Included in lowest tier
- GladlyReporting tier restrictions not published; appears standard.
- Zoho DeskBasic in Free; full depth in paid (tier breakdown unclear).
- CSAT surveys
- GladlyYes. Native CSAT; integrates Delighted, SimpleSat, Stella.
- Zoho DeskYes. Happiness Ratings; automated follow-ups.
Onboarding & Support
Implementation, CSM tiers, and partners.
- Onboarding
- GladlyDedicated implementation team; Professional Services; guided docs.
- Zoho DeskTailored onboarding session for paid customers.
- Support channels
- GladlyGladly Support team (bugs, how-tos, config); dedicated CSM post-implementation.
- Zoho DeskClassic (free): email 24/7 plus calls 8/5. Pro/Ent add chat. Premium/Enterprise plans 24x5/24x7.
- Dedicated CSM
- GladlyYes. All customers get a dedicated CSM post-implementation.
- Zoho DeskYes. TAM in Enterprise Support plan (25% of subscription, 25-license min).
- Implementation partners
- GladlyNot disclosed. No partner or SI page found.
- Zoho DeskYes. Global partner network.