# Zoho Desk

> Low-cost ticketing help desk with a free plan for three users

Zoho Desk is a ticketing help desk from Zoho that turns email, social posts, web forms and, on higher plans, chat and phone calls into tickets for a support team. It is priced per user, with a free edition for up to three users, and links to Zoho CRM and the rest of Zoho's apps.

- **Category:** Help Desks & Live Chat
- **Made by:** Zoho Corporation
- **Website:** https://www.zoho.com/desk/
- **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 17, 2026

## Pricing

Zoho Desk has a free plan. Paid plans start at $7 per user / month, billed annually ($9 billed monthly).

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **Free plan:** Free edition: email ticketing for up to 3 users with one support email address. No knowledge base, automation, SLAs or AI features.
- **Free trial:** 15-day free trial of any paid plan, no credit card required.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free | $0 | Email ticketing for up to 3 users with one support email address. |
| Express | $7 per user / month, billed annually ($9 billed monthly) | Up to 5 users. Email, Instagram, Facebook and X tickets, web forms, AI agents, workflows, escalations and contact management. |
| Standard | $14 per user / month, billed annually ($20 billed monthly) | Unlimited users. Adds a live chat widget, WhatsApp and other messaging apps, an answer bot, a public knowledge base, a community forum and custom reports. |
| Professional | $23 per user / month, billed annually ($35 billed monthly) | Adds phone support through telephony providers, Zia AI, Blueprints, departments, round-robin assignment, a help center in 40+ languages and webhooks. |
| Enterprise | $40 per user / month, billed annually ($50 billed monthly) | Adds Zoho SalesIQ live chat, guided conversations, skill-based assignment, IVR, multi-brand help centers, custom modules, a sandbox and 50 free light agents. |

Read from https://www.zoho.com/desk/pricing.html on Oct 17, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Zoho Desk before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Save up to 34% with yearly billing** (Annual discount): Zoho Desk's pricing page says yearly billing saves up to 34%: Professional is $23 per user a month billed annually against $35 billed monthly. Source: https://www.zoho.com/desk/pricing.html
- **Special pricing for nonprofits** (Nonprofit): The pricing FAQ says Zoho offers special pricing to nonprofit organizations. The discount is not stated on the page. Source: https://www.zoho.com/desk/pricing.html
- **Special pricing for educational institutions** (Education): The pricing FAQ says Zoho offers special pricing to educational institutions. The discount is not stated on the page. Source: https://www.zoho.com/desk/pricing.html

## Key features

- **Multichannel ticketing:** Email, social posts, web forms and, from Standard, chat and messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram and LINE all become tickets.
- **Knowledge base and help center:** A public knowledge base and community forum from Standard, a help center in 40+ languages on Professional and one per brand on Enterprise.
- **AI agents and Zia:** AI agents run on Zoho's model or your own key with up to 30M free tokens a month. Zia's built-in AI starts on Professional.
- **Automation:** Workflows and escalation rules from Express, with Blueprints for step-by-step processes and round-robin assignment on Professional.
- **Phone and IVR:** Professional connects telephony providers for inbound and outbound calls; Enterprise adds a multi-level IVR.
- **Zoho app links:** Ties into Zoho CRM, Analytics, Projects, SalesIQ and Cliq, plus Salesforce, Slack, Jira and Zapier.

## Good for

- Small teams wanting a free or low-cost ticketing system
- Businesses already using Zoho CRM or other Zoho apps
- Teams that need phone, chat and email support on one plan

## Worth knowing

- The Free edition stops at 3 users and email only, and Express stops at 5 users.
- A public knowledge base, the chat widget and WhatsApp start on Standard; telephony starts on Professional.
- Generative AI features such as smart replies need your own OpenAI API key; Zia's built-in AI starts on Professional.
- Light agents who only view and comment cost $6 a month each on Professional; Enterprise includes 50.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 3.4 out of 4**, graded Oct 17, 2026. Zoho Desk is the cheapest proper help desk in this category: free for up to 3 people doing email support, then $7 a user. The higher plans add chat, a knowledge base, phone and a help center in 40+ languages. The catch is how much sits behind Standard and Professional, and its smart AI replies need your own OpenAI key.

- **Value for money: A.** Express is $7 a user a month billed yearly ($9 monthly), the lowest start among help desks here and under 60% of the cheaper quarter. Standard, which adds chat and a knowledge base, is $14, still in the cheaper quarter.
- **Free plan and trial: B.** Free for up to 3 users doing email ticketing from one support address, with no cap on tickets in the listing. A tiny team could live on that, but there's no knowledge base, automation or AI. Paid plans have a 15-day trial with no card.
- **Features: B.** Tickets from email, social, web forms, chat and WhatsApp, a knowledge base and community forum, AI agents, workflows, Blueprints, phone with IVR and multi-brand help centers. Across the plans, it covers the whole job.
- **Ease of use: A.** 4.7 from 1,636 App Store ratings for the agent app, the top band. Email tickets on the free plan are easy to start with, and the bigger features can wait until you need them.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, iPhone and Android, tied into Zoho CRM, Analytics, SalesIQ and Cliq, plus Salesforce, Slack, Jira, Zapier and Google Chat. There's no desktop app, so it stops at a B.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Zoho's own pages on 17 October 2026, and its App Store rating. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among help desk and live chat tools

- Zoho Desk's GPA of 3.4 is higher than 19 of the 19 other help desk and live chat tools we grade.
- It stands best on ease of use (A, above 18 of 19) and worst on platforms and integrations (B, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $7 a month for each person, against a middle price of $24.17 for the category: 0 of the 18 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 3.3 out of 4, and no tool on the category's chart scores higher without costing more.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/customer-support

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Zoho Desk you would be making an AI model answering your customers from your own help articles. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 3.4 is higher than 19 of the 19 other help desk and live chat tools we grade. It costs $84 a year.

- You could make: Help desk, help center and reports: an app builder makes these well.
- You could not: An AI model answering your customers from your own help articles.
- You could not: A chat box on your site that reaches you the moment a customer types.
- You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page.
- You could not: It is priced for each person, which means accounts and billing for a team.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, Zoho CRM, Zoho SalesIQ and Zoho Analytics among them.
- You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## What people say

- **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.7 out of 5 from 1,636 ratings in the United States, read Oct 17, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id692742510

## Works with

Zoho CRM, Zoho SalesIQ, Zoho Analytics, Salesforce, Slack, Jira, Zapier, Google Chat

**Tags:** Help desk, Live chat, Help center, AI support agent, AI features, Reports

## Alternatives

- [Freshdesk](https://toolgpa.com/tools/freshdesk): Email ticketing help desk with a knowledge base and AI agents. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/freshdesk-vs-zoho-desk)
- [Zendesk](https://toolgpa.com/tools/zendesk): Ticketing, messaging, help center and AI agents for support teams. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/zendesk-vs-zoho-desk)
- [Help Scout](https://toolgpa.com/tools/help-scout): Shared inbox and help desk with a knowledge base and AI answers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/help-scout-vs-zoho-desk)
- [LiveAgent](https://toolgpa.com/tools/liveagent): Help desk with email tickets, live chat, call center and AI agents. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/liveagent-vs-zoho-desk)
- [Deskpro](https://toolgpa.com/tools/deskpro): Help desk for cloud or self-hosted use, with seat minimums. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/deskpro-vs-zoho-desk)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 17, 2026:

- https://www.zoho.com/desk/pricing.html
- https://www.zohowebstatic.com/sites/zweb/json/pricing/desk-pricing-val.json
- https://www.zoho.com/desk/pricing-comparison.html
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zoho-desk/id692742510
- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zoho.support

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/zoho-desk
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).