Zendesk vs. Jira: ITSM Software Comparison

Information technology service management (ITSM) gives IT teams a structured system to improve IT services delivery, efficiency, and quality. The term “service” here can mean anything from managed IT services to mobile phone services and customer service in general; in fact, ITSM is relevant in all areas of support and services that a company offers.

Therefore, if you’re looking for software solutions that are ideal for managing your support services, you should be able to benefit from ITSM platforms like Zendesk and Jira. These two tools have been designed specifically for companies that need an organized approach to provide their customers with excellent support.

Also read: Top ITSM Tools & Software

What is Zendesk?

Zendesk is a customer service and software-as-a-service (SaaS) support solution that manages support issues and tickets from multiple channels. In addition, its self-service portal offers live chat, email, phone, and social media integrations. The platform also allows you to organize your support team into different departments based on their roles within your organization, such as sales, marketing, or technical services.

Key Differentiators

• Zendesk is best suited for end-user communication.
• With Zendesk, you can customize reports and get insights into the metrics, such as your customer base’s health and how it affects your business.
• Zendesk facilitates collaboration. When an issue occurs, agents can exchange information through private comments to help address the problem as quickly as possible.
• The built-in SLA (service-level agreement) in Zendesk allows agents to establish their criteria and use up-to-date measures to track the progress of a particular ticket.
• Zendesk is a multichannel support application that can be accessed by email, social networking sites, chat, phone, message, and SMS.

What is Jira?

Jira is an issue-tracking tool that helps organizations develop software efficiently. Through Jira, you can set up your team’s workflow and prioritize tasks, leading to more efficient development processes and greater productivity.

Jira offers several capabilities, including built-in support for agile development, a complete mobile app suite to keep teams connected on projects, a help desk solution with ticketing functionality, and even a user management system that provides role-based access control. It spans a range of functions and use cases, from service desk to HR services, facilities, operations and more.

Key Differentiators

• With custom SLAs and reporting, Jira allows you to track your team’s response time, resolution data, etc.
• Users can set up automated rules in order to automate repetitive tasks.
• The tool is highly configurable; you may create different directories and procedures for task completion and assign importance to tasks.
• Jira is best suited for project management.
• Jira provides a self-service platform in which your employees can find answers to frequently asked questions.

What are the Similarities Between Zendesk and Jira?

Zendesk and Jira are enterprise-level products designed to address a wide range of needs in one cohesive system. Both tools offer configurability and customization options and are highly scalable. If you’re looking for an all-in-one ticketing solution that can grow with your company over time, either could fit your needs perfectly.

While there are some differences between them, they share much in common—most notably a focus on organization and ease of use. Other similarities include:

• Both offer tools that can help you manage support tickets and communicate with customers on a day-to-day basis.
• They offer add-ons that give you additional functionality.
• Both tools provide knowledge base integration, multichannel support, and SLA reporting.
• They’re both cloud-based SaaS programs.
• Both platforms offer time tracking, ticketing, and integration with other popular apps.

Zendesk vs. Jira: How are They Different?

By providing both project and operational support tools, Jira covers concept to launch, while Zendesk focuses on communication, support, and feedback.

In reality, both are essential to managing your business and processes. IT leaders use Zendesk for maintaining ongoing communication with customers and employees, while project managers use Jira to plan projects and measure outcomes. Jira offers more of a project management focus, but it does have customer service capabilities that allow you to track requests and organize tickets by status.

Zendesk vs. Jira Service Desk: Pricing

How to Choose a Service Desk Platform

Choosing the right service desk platform for your company is often a matter of determining your specific needs and use case. Some companies may need more robust ticketing capabilities than others, while some organizations might want to be able to manage multiple software products from one place.

In addition, some companies may need more extensive reporting features than others. Ultimately, you’ll want to consider your requirements carefully before deciding which platform will work best for you.

We found that, as in-house help desk software, Zendesk is best at making two-way communication easy. You can integrate with tons of different apps and customize it all around your business. So, if you’re looking for in-house help desk software that lets you communicate easily between users and IT departments, go with Zendesk.

Meanwhile, Jira has a good knowledge base, automates many routine tasks, and can adapt to your processes over time. The strength of Jira is robust enterprise-level features like multiple activities feeds at a project, team, issue, user levels, and assessment/reporting tools. If you’re looking to support a large team and need to see exactly who’s doing what at any time with complete visibility into their workflow and issues, then Jira is your best option.

Read next: Best IT Project Management Tools & Software