Gist vs. Zoho Desk

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Gist
Score 9.5 out of 10
N/A
Gist is a unified marketing, sales, and support platform. It includes live chat, a help desk, knowledge base, email marketing, marketing automation, opt-in forms, and more.
$29
per month
Zoho Desk
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Zoho Support is a Saas help desk / ticketing system aimed at SMBs. I competes most often with Zendesk, and Desk.com.
$0
Pricing
GistZoho Desk
Editions & Modules
Professional
$29.00
per month
Premium
$99.00
per month
Free
$0
Express
$9
per month per user
Standard
$20
per month per user
Professional
$35
per month per user
Enterprise
$50
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
GistZoho Desk
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
Additional DetailsA discount is offered for yearly billing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
GistZoho Desk
Considered Both Products
Gist
Chose Gist
Gist is a much more robust software with a variety of marketing tools in its arsenal. Things like website tracking is also extremely robust and it has many more features.

The ease of setup is also more enjoyable and intuitive in Gist so the overall result is that you can learn …
Chose Gist
Gist is much more affordable, but intercom is a better product. I recommend going for Gist to begin, and then migrating if you need more.
Chose Gist
Gist is more refined and its tools are very well integrated overall. However, its pricing is on the expensive side and this doesn't really help it stand-out. HubSpot has significantly more generous Free plan, while Dashly offers many of the Premium Gist tools at a fairer price, …
Chose Gist
My main use for Gist is live chat. I personally find their live chat to be one of the best, and their mobile app to be invaluable for small businesses on the go. I can receive and response to messages wherever I am, which is imperative for my use case.
Chose Gist
Intercom increases its price on a monthly basis. Besides they don't offer some features as Gist, specially about on forms.
We think Gist is targeted to SMB companies, differentially from Intercom that seems to be appropriate for larger companies.
One main difference between then …
Chose Gist
Gist is only a few years old, so it lacks some of the features of Drip and ActiveCampaign, but I believe they will get there.
Chose Gist
Hubspot and Salesforce are great and powerful, they are just so much more expensive than what I need.
Chose Gist
We went with Gist because it had the features we needed at a price we liked. The feature list has grown over time, which is really appreciated. We joined Gist a long time ago (it was still called ConvertFox back then) and have been happy customers for a long time. Happy with …
Chose Gist
Gist is much more than a basic mailing list system with chatbot integration and automation that connects you to your prospects in real-time live from your website.
Administering your contacts on Gist is much easier with less hassle.
And Gist can integrate with most of the major …
Chose Gist
Gist is slightly slower than ActiveCampaign but MUCH easier to use than Mailchimp. Overall, you can't beat the bang for the buck you get with Gist. And its messenger bot is the best I've used, it works on not only our main site but also our subdomains, kicking the competition …
Chose Gist
We've used Dashly and Tawk.to. Gist looks better than Tawk and that's the reason we switched from Tawk to Gist. But the feature that puts Gist above Dashly is the ability to collect user names and emails before they start the chat automatically. It is important for our business …
Chose Gist
They both seem to have parity with each other with each having their own small advantages. I went with Gist because it was more affordable.

Infusionsoft customer for almost 5 years and it seemed I was always working more on getting it to work instead of getting work done. Gist …
Chose Gist
Gist is better because easy of use and pricing. Hands down. It has an unbeatable cost-benefit ratio. Customer service has been with us since we started using it. That's great. For us, shortcomings such as no CRM are manageable. We like its front end appearance and customization …
Chose Gist
Gist is my first email and chat multi-purpose automated SAAS tool so can't really comment on others I've tried. They came recommended to me by an entrepreneurial group I am a member of. Anecdotally I evaluated it against ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp and it was far better in …
Chose Gist
Gist a more integrated and unified product for Sass companies. Some competitors don't have strong chat + email automation + help desk. Other competitors have the features, but they are not well integrated. Gist has integrated complete customer contact with a very finished …
Chose Gist
Gist is much more complete than other tools like Crisp, Customerly, etc, at a cheaper price. The perfect deal for your business.
Chose Gist
Having a support ticket system is good and will help you resolve issues but, having an all-in-one tool that can let you not only resolve an issue but also to go above and beyond with customer support that later on translates into sales is priceless. That is the kind of tool …
Chose Gist
You can do everything you can with AC or Mailchimp (minus dynamic cart recovery for ecom) at a fraction of the cost, and you can do MORE -- better integration with FB ads than MailChimp, more powerful workflows, unified inboxes, live chat and chatbot, etc. It's just a more …
Chose Gist
I have a lifetime deal with Gist so I may be a bit biased, but Gist is quite easy to use and has a free tier so it's worth a serious look compared to the other players on the market. Personal preference does play a big role in your final decision, as feature-wise, Gist has most …
Chose Gist
Intercom was pricy and less user-friendly in comparison to Gist. It did have a broader range of features that we could use in our plan. However, we didn't see any return of investment in having many features to choose from if the price was too high for what was being offered at …
Zoho Desk
Chose Zoho Desk
We used HubSpot before, and it didn’t work very well for our needs. Zoho Desk is part of a much larger Zoho implementation. We’d like to have everything in one place, and Zoho provides that ability.
Chose Zoho Desk
Zoho provides more bells and whistles comparted to the other platforms I have tried. The setup was easier and the transition was smoother. The support was much better as well. Whenever we would get stuck on something, support was a chat away and we always got the solution we …
Chose Zoho Desk
I have used Asana and Zoho desk and decided to go with Zoho due to the ease of intergration into other applications and platforms, the more affordable costing, a faster mobile application and for the slightly better automation capabilities. Asana is nice but the cost and …
Chose Zoho Desk
We selected Zoho Desk as we needed a platform that was going to allow the business to grow through both usage and staffing numbers. We wanted something cost-effective but still offered standard features in an effective cloud-delivered solution but would still allow …
Chose Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is easily a winner for trouble ticket handling as Bitrix24 was not offering any dedicated trouble ticketing tool and we had no option but to use the Tasks section of Bitrix24 to handle our existing customers. Also Bitrix24 neither did have any dedicated mobile …
Chose Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is always good at building different platforms for automation, so this one is also the best help desk platform available in the market. I can easily add the feedback with a report to easily convey the message accordingly. It can easily integrate with your existing …
Chose Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk has an interface that is extremely simple and practical to use, for even clients who are not skilled. Again, Zoho Desk has no lead time, when customers air their views or complaints. Finally, Zoho Desk works/integrates effectively with several other products for …
Chose Zoho Desk
Over the years I have used a few different support software applications. One being Remedy software. That was pretty nice, but they lacked an isp version. I am currently a user of Atlassian Jira and am not a big fan at this point. It is very cumbersome to use.
Chose Zoho Desk
After trialing and using Zoho Desk, we decided to move onto another product. Zoho has many features that make it a great product, but ease and intuitiveness of use was lacking for us.
Chose Zoho Desk
We evaluated products that were not free, but due to budget reasons we could not justify a purchase. So this free solution stacks up among the best in my opinion for no cost.
Chose Zoho Desk
The quality of support provided by Zoho Desk is brilliant. Ease of setup is a very easy process. Also it meets all the requirements that can be expected from such kind of software. Zoho Desk is a company that can be easy to do business with. It is really headed in the right …
Chose Zoho Desk
Zoho [Desk] has much more quality of the information we required for our business than FreshDesk.
It was also easy to work with Zohos different modules albeit based on department specific products than it was when we used Freshdesk.
The Project management module was a …
Chose Zoho Desk
• In the acquisition of Zoho Desk I did not have the final decision but I have contributed as my analysis in the implementation. We decided to switch services since this tool is much more complete in terms of functionalities that help us to easily resolve and follow up on our …
Chose Zoho Desk
Value for money simply beats the rest. Also, as part of the Zoho Suite, integrations are wonderful, for example to CRM or consolidating Reporting with other apps such as Zoho Projects. Integration to advanced Analytics is also very helpful. In terms of features, they are pretty …
Chose Zoho Desk
Atera had a lot of features. You could install an agent to monitor updates, and you could deploy AV. Zoho Desk was easier to go through tickets and replies. It felt like Atera had more features, so it was slower. At times you would want to search for an old ticket in Atera, and …
Chose Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is easy to set up for small business needs, and its dashboard is well-suited for our organization's needs. We are on a social network, which also helps us to get users' and applicants' queries through the social platform.
Another factor to start with it is its trial …
Chose Zoho Desk
Desk.com was too complicated and was cost prohibitive. We had switched from Desk by Salesforce to Zoho Desk
Chose Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk comes at a better price, and it offers integration with other Zoho applications so you can keep your information in a single place. Their support is good and will guide you through many things. Also their API is similar to other Zoho platforms, so employees can …
Features
GistZoho Desk
Chat Analytics and Reports
Comparison of Chat Analytics and Reports features of Product A and Product B
Gist
8.9
Ratings
3% above category average
Zoho Desk
-
Ratings
Chat history and transcripts8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Chat reporting8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Chat and web analytics8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Gist
-
Ratings
Zoho Desk
8.6
Ratings
7% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Gist
-
Ratings
Zoho Desk
8.9
Ratings
13% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Gist
-
Ratings
Zoho Desk
7.4
Ratings
5% below category average
Customer portal00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings6.60 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Best Alternatives
GistZoho Desk
Small Businesses
Olark
Olark
Score 10.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
SysAid
SysAid
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
GistZoho Desk
Likelihood to Recommend
9.5
(0 ratings)
7.8
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
6.7
(0 ratings)
9.4
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.6
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
GistZoho Desk
Likelihood to Recommend
Gist is perfect for SaaS I'd say, and perfect for long sales cycles with lots of lead nurturing involved, and for scenarios where you re-market via FB ads, because there's FB custom audience integration built into the workflows. Perfect for customer service and support. Really outstanding there. It's a little less suited to ecom but they're hammering out the finishing touches to make ecom cart recovery easier.
Read full review
Zoho Desk is a great customer service tool. It is very easy to track the ability to receive tickets and send responses in Zoho Desk. There are lots of options for customization. The knowledge base feature is very extensive and powerful. It makes creating internal and external FAQs easy.
Read full review
Pros
  • Gist provides endless ways of interacting with customers. I can chat and email with them, track their usage on my site, qualify them, add tags and other profile information, and so much more.
  • There is even an awesome live view that lets me spy on visitors to see how they're using the site.
  • The tools are powerful, easy to use, and constantly getting improvements. It seems like every week there is another update being rolled out that substantially extends the functionality or usability of the features in Gist.
Read full review
  • Report features give the all insights of the customer team and customer support which enables us to make changes according to it.
  • The best thing about Zoho Desk is that it has a very beautiful and fully designed dashboard.
  • I have been using this software for a very long time in my organization, it is very easy to use with having the interface created on a very advanced module.
  • It is completely a feature rich platform.
Read full review
Cons
  • Free plan limits are too low.
  • Chatbots should work not only for Gist's native online chat, but also for the other chat-based channels such as Facebook. (instead of having to use another software for that purpose)
  • Pricing structure - Support bot should not be an add-on but a core feature.
Read full review
  • When utilizing as a ticketing system, it would be nice to have a better way to monitor when something is due. It's just a little cumbersome.
  • Search Functionality - The search functionality could use a tweak or two. Too many times I am unable to find tickets. This would also be very helpful for the "Recycle Bin" when you just need to find that ticket you accidentally deleted (we are all human!). :)
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Gist is a quite reliable service with a lot of added values. We don't need to pay for different Saas for these important features. If I had an issue the team was super responsive and helpful, that is essential for every business. The email delivery is great, so virtually no email has landed into spam folder
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Usability
Gist does pretty much anything you want it to when it comes to managing your contacts. Sometimes I wish it updated faster, but wait a few beats and it gets there. I really love that I can show a colleague how to use the chat messenger and they understand it right away. Very user friendly!
Read full review
Zoho Desk on operational capacity is the most effective help desk we have come across, as it is suitable for businesses of all forms and shapes, from large to small. Again, Zoho Desk captures the attention of all clients, and on time, offers solutions to their demands without failing. Lastly, Zoho Desk requires no extra skill to execute the program.
Read full review
Support Rating
I have communicated with their team multiple times and every time they have been very responsive, knowledgeable, and polite. They work to make sure you are happy and informed of what is going on. Better their team keeps up to date with their app, giving you new features, and keeping you notified and educated about what they are and how to use them. A+
Read full review
Their support is excellent. They are always available to answer all your queries and doubts. Be it a call or email or even live chat. You will always get a prompt response from their customer support executives. They are very much familiar with the product and all its functionality. Sometimes you get stuck and don’t know what to do. They are always there for your questions
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
They both seem to have parity with each other with each having their own small advantages. I went with Gist because it was more affordable. Infusionsoft customer for almost 5 years and it seemed I was always working more on getting it to work instead of getting work done. Gist is so intuitive I had it setting up and running the basics in a few hours.
Read full review
Zoho Desk is easily a winner for trouble ticket handling as Bitrix24 was not offering any dedicated trouble ticketing tool and we had no option but to use the Tasks section of Bitrix24 to handle our existing customers. Also Bitrix24 neither did have any dedicated mobile application for on the go usage which Zoho Desk has easily handled with applications for both Android and IOS devices.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • Our ROI has increased significantly because of Gist's chat and app integration into our website. Contact forms are great but a real-time conversation means you can be more effective in meeting your customer's needs.
  • The additional features in the recent upgrade mean we can use Gist for more. They have always been effective for email campaigns, but the addition of the knowledge base and more effective workflows means we can automate more. This has saved us from buying more software.
Read full review
  • By running reports based on ticket, we can see how much time is spent on each customer and can manage these customers better based on what we see are there issues
  • We can also run reports based on the types of queries customers are coming in with which allows us to develop our product based on actual customers needs as a whole.
  • Automatic reporting once set up saves many man hours as new customers can be added automatically if required, and it saves having to build these reports monthly or possibly weekly
Read full review
ScreenShots

Gist Screenshots

Screenshot of Live ChatScreenshot of Email MarketingScreenshot of Marketing Automation WorkflowsScreenshot of Knowledge BaseScreenshot of Meetings

Zoho Desk Screenshots

Screenshot of Log and monitor phone conversations, convert them into new tickets, or attach them to existing ones. Convert social media interactions and live chat into tickets at the click of a button.Screenshot of Bring a Help Center directly into a website to strengthen self-service. Chat with Zia, an AI-powered conversation assistant. Customers can chat with Zia right from a mobile app or website. Zia processes their questions and suggests appropriate solutions from the Knowledge Base.Screenshot of With advanced process automation, internal processes can be setup within the help desk, implement them automatically, and make sure that all processes are followed precisely.Screenshot of Instant responses for instant happiness. Respond to customers the minute they reach out with Zoho Desk's embeddable chat widget. Customers can get in touch with agents instantly, right from the Help Center, so agents can respond and help them find answers faster.Screenshot of Monitor a team's performance, customize and schedule reports. Custom dashboards can be created.Screenshot of Zia brings together predictions across anomalies, sentiment, trending ticket tags, and more into a common dashboard for decision-makers to consume. They can drill down further into the details from the same dashboard to investigate further.