Helply (formerly Groove) vs Zendesk (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Zendesk grades higher than Helply (formerly Groove): 2.4 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Zendesk grades higher on the free plan and ease of use. They get the same grade on value for money, features and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Helply (formerly Groove)
Help desk with AI support agents, now sold as Helply
Zendesk
Ticketing, messaging, help center and AI agents for support teams
Which one is for you
Pick Helply (formerly Groove) if
- Fits if you run a small B2B or SaaS support team that wants AI agents included
- Makes sense if you are a Groove customer, as the page says your current price is locked
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you are alone or a pair: Starter is $99 a month for up to 2 agents
- Watch out: AI credits are capped per plan, with top-ups at $40 per 1,000 on Starter, Plus and Team
- Skip it if you want WhatsApp, SMS, Discord or SLAs, which need Team at $499
- Watch out: Pro and Growth are bought through a demo, and Salesforce and SSO need Growth
Pick Zendesk if
- Fits if your team answers email, chat and phone and wants one queue for all of it
- Works for funded startups, which can get Suite Professional free for 6 months
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you need live chat or a help center, as both start at $55 an agent billed yearly
- Too light for chat-first teams on the $19 plan, which covers email tickets only
- Skip it if you need a fixed bill, since AI resolutions past the allowance cost $1.50 to $2 each
- Watch out: Copilot is a $50 an agent add-on, and phone numbers and call minutes are billed on top
- Watch out: the listing doesn't say whether the trial needs a card, and Suite Enterprise is sold only through sales
How we grade them
| 2.0GPAHelply (formerly Groove)Fair | 2.4GPAZendeskFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | D$99 a month billed annually for up to 2 agents, and $199 for 5, in the dearest tenth by floor. | DSupport Team is $19 an agent billed yearly, a little under this category's middle, but it's email tickets only. Chat, phone and a help center start on Suite Team at $55 an agent, above the dearest tenth of help desks, and extra AI resolutions are $1.50 to $2 each. |
| Free plan and trial | DA 14-day trial, but the page doesn't say whether a card is needed. No free plan. | CA 14-day free trial of Suite Professional with Copilot, which shows you the top of the range. There's no free plan, and the listing doesn't say whether the trial needs a card. Funded startups can get 6 months free. |
| Features | BShared inbox, ticketing, chat, help centre and AI agents for support and the inbox. Nothing in the listing is missing. | BTicketing across email, chat, social and phone, AI agents on every plan, help centers in 40+ languages with forums, voice numbers in 75+ countries, an IVR and reports you ask for in plain words. The whole job is covered. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. AI agents, rules and a help centre to set up. | B4.5 from 4,219 App Store ratings for the agent app. Prebuilt dashboards and pre-written replies come on every plan, but routing, triggers and automations take setting up. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with Slack, Stripe, Zapier, HubSpot, Jira, Linear and GitHub. | BWeb, iPhone and Android, with WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, X, Slack, WeChat and LINE as channels, and an API. No desktop app, which keeps it off an A. |
| Best for | a small-team help desk with AI agents bundled in | support teams handling email, chat and phone |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Helply (formerly Groove) and Zendesk. How we grade
Price against what you get
Helply (formerly Groove) starts at $99 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Zendesk starts at $19 a month for each person and scores 3.0.
Zendesk scores higher and starts $80 a month lower. Of the other help desk and live chat tools on the chart, 4 score higher than Helply (formerly Groove) for less, and 1 scores higher than Zendesk for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Helply (formerly Groove) also covers shared inbox and chatbots.
- Zendesk also covers reports.
At a glance
| Helply (formerly Groove) | Zendesk | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $99 per month for up to 2 human agents, billed annually | $19 per agent / month, billed annually ($25 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial | 14-day free trial of Suite Professional with the Copilot add-on |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Helply | Zendesk, Inc. |
| Price read from | helply.com | zendesk.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Helply (formerly Groove)
- Groove has been renamed Helply; the product and its old Groove pricing have been replaced by the plans above.
- AI credits are pooled and capped per plan. Starter, Plus and Team can top up at $40 per 1,000 credits; Pro and Growth use a hard cap or an agreed overage rate.
- WhatsApp, SMS, Discord, SLAs and round robin routing need the Team plan at $499 a month; Salesforce and SSO / SAML need Growth.
- Pro and Growth are bought through a demo, and the page shows no self-serve sign-up for them.
Zendesk
- Support Team covers email ticketing only; live chat, voice and a help center start at Suite Team, $55 per agent / month billed annually.
- AI resolutions beyond the included allowance cost $1.50 each on a committed volume or $2.00 each pay-as-you-go.
- Copilot, which adds Auto Assist and suggested first replies, is an add-on at $50 per agent / month billed annually.
- Phone numbers and call minutes are billed as add-ons, and Suite Enterprise is sold only through the sales team.
Key features
Helply (formerly Groove)
- Support agent
- An AI agent that works with customers directly to resolve issues end to end. It is included on every plan and uses AI credits when it acts.
- Assist agent in the inbox
- A second agent that works alongside human agents inside each ticket. It is also included on every plan.
- Background agents
- Agents that watch customer accounts instead of single conversations. Churn, Knowledge, Revenue, Feature request and Insights agents are listed, with the number available rising by plan.
- Shared inbox and ticketing
- Views, tags, macros, notes, snooze and collision detection on every plan, with SLAs, escalations and agent teams starting on Team.
- Chat and help center
- Live chat and a knowledge base on your own domain, with AI article writing and AI answers on every plan.
- Skills, MCP and custom actions
- From the Team plan, agents can be given written skills, memory, MCP connectors and custom API actions, with AI QA and backtesting.
Zendesk
- Ticketing across channels
- Email, messaging, phone and social conversations land in one ticket queue, with routing, pre-written responses, triggers and automations.
- AI agents billed per resolution
- AI agents answer email on every plan and chat wherever messaging is on. Each agent seat includes 5 automated resolutions a month (10 on Suite Professional).
- Messaging and live chat
- Suite plans add chat for websites and apps plus WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, X, Slack, WeChat and LINE as channels.
- Help center
- Suite Team includes one help center in one language. Suite Professional allows up to 5 help centers in 40+ languages, plus community forums.
- Voice
- Phone support in the browser with toll-free or local numbers from 75+ countries. Suite Professional adds an IVR phone tree.
- Reporting
- Prebuilt analytics dashboards on every plan. Suite Professional adds Quick Reports, which builds reports from questions typed in plain language.
Plans
Helply (formerly Groove)
Starter$99
per month for up to 2 human agents, billed annually
2,500 AI credits a month, shared inbox, email and live chat, and a help center with AI article writing. One inbox and 5 rules.
Plus$199
per month for up to 5 human agents, billed annually
5,000 AI credits a month, chat flows, ticket forms, Facebook and Instagram, CSAT surveys, 3 inboxes and 10 rules.
Team$499
per month for 10 human agents, billed annually
15,000 AI credits a month, WhatsApp, SMS, Discord and Slack Connect, SLAs and round robin routing, HubSpot, Jira, Linear and GitHub integrations. Extra agents are $49 a month each.
Pro$999
per month for 25 human agents, billed annually
50,000 AI credits a month, all Background agents, AI reports, up to 3 brands, a customer portal, custom roles and an audit log. Sold through a demo.
Growth$1,999
per month for 50 human agents, billed annually
100,000 AI credits a month, unlimited brands, skills-based routing, account intelligence, SSO / SAML and Salesforce. Sold through a demo.
Zendesk
Support Team$19
per agent / month, billed annually ($25 billed monthly)
Email ticketing with routing, prebuilt dashboards, pre-written replies and automations. No help center, live chat or phone.
Suite Team$55
per agent / month, billed annually ($69 billed monthly)
Adds messaging and live chat, telephony, omnichannel routing, a knowledge base and Action Builder, with one help center in one language.
Suite Professional$115
per agent / month, billed annually ($149 billed monthly)
Adds skills-based routing, an IVR phone tree, AI writing tools, Quick Reports and App Builder, and up to 5 help centers in 40+ languages.
Suite Enterprise + CopilotCustom
Adds intelligent triage, Auto Assist, generative AI for voice, approval workflows, a sandbox and custom agent roles. Sold through sales.
Ways to pay less
Helply (formerly Groove)
- Annual discount
15% off with annual billing
Every plan can be billed monthly or annually; the pricing page says paying annually saves 15%. The prices listed are the annual ones.
Zendesk
- Annual discount
About 20% off with annual billing
Zendesk's pricing page marks annual billing as 20% off: Suite Team is $55 per agent a month billed yearly against $69 billed monthly.
- Startups
Startups: 6 months free, up to 2 years via partners
Funded startups up to Series B and under 10 years old get Suite Professional and Copilot free for 6 months, or 1 to 2 years through VC partners, for up to 50 agents.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Helply (formerly Groove) or Zendesk?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Helply (formerly Groove) starts at $99 per month for up to 2 human agents, billed annually, and Zendesk starts at $19 per agent / month, billed annually ($25 billed monthly). One is priced for each person and the other is not, so which costs less depends on how many of you use it.
Which has a free plan, Helply (formerly Groove) or Zendesk?
As of Nov 12, 2026, neither Helply (formerly Groove) nor Zendesk has a free plan. Both have a free trial.
Which platforms do Helply (formerly Groove) and Zendesk run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Zendesk lists iOS and Android apps. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.