HiverZendeskHiver vs Zendesk

Hiver vs Zendesk: Gmail-based shared inbox or help desk suite

A Gmail-based shared inbox against a help desk suite: Hiver is $150 a month cheaper for five people. Where Hiver and Zendesk split, and a third option for small teams.

By Khalid Nouri, founder of SellioPricing check dates are listed with each vendor below

Try the third optionSellio pricing

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The short answer

Pick Hiver if your agents live in Gmail or Outlook and you do not want them to learn a new tool. Pick Zendesk if your support is ticket-first and email-heavy, with SLAs and a queue to manage. For five people, Hiver is $150 a month cheaper than Zendesk ($125 a month on Hiver against $275 on Zendesk), before AI. Sellio Mini, at $45, comes in $80 below Hiver. Hiver and Zendesk both include email in the price; only Zendesk has website chat and Instagram. Neither Hiver nor Zendesk includes WhatsApp and Telegram outright. For a team of two to ten weighing Hiver against Zendesk, the third option below puts chat and tickets at one workspace price.

At a glanceHiverHiverZendeskZendesk
Built aroundGmail and Outlook · nothing new to learnTickets and a queue · messaging came later
Entry plan$25/user/mo · Growth, yearly$19/agent/mo · Support Team: email and tickets
Chat in the price$45/user/mo · Pro adds live chat$55/agent/mo · Suite Team
AI agentHarvey AI · features by plan, no per-use pricePer automated resolution · rate quoted, not printed
Copilot for agentsBy plan · Harvey$50/agent/mo
Free planYes · core shared inboxNone · 14-day trial

The six differences that decide it

Everything else on this page follows from these.

  1. 01

    Where a conversation starts

    HiverHiver

    As an email in a Gmail or Outlook inbox with Hiver's assignment, status and notes layered on it. Zendesk raises a ticket where Hiver keeps a conversation.

    ZendeskZendesk

    As a ticket. Every channel, chat included, becomes a ticket with a status, a priority and an SLA clock. Hiver has no ticket queue behind its conversations.

  2. 02

    What the seat buys

    HiverHiver

    $25 buys the shared inbox on Growth; seats come in packs of 2, 5 and 10, so a sixth user means buying ten. $125 for five people, against $275 on Zendesk.

    ZendeskZendesk

    $19 buys email and tickets. Live chat, WhatsApp, Instagram and AI agents start at Suite Team, $55. $275 for five people, against $125 on Hiver.

  3. 03

    How the AI is billed

    HiverHiver

    Harvey AI features are tied to the plan you are on rather than metered per conversation. Zendesk meters AI (per automated resolution) above the seats instead.

    ZendeskZendesk

    AI agents are priced per automated resolution on top of seats, and the rate comes from your quote. Hiver folds AI (Harvey AI) into the plan instead.

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    HiverHiver

    Email first; live chat and WhatsApp on the higher plans, no Instagram or Telegram. Zendesk adds website chat and Instagram, which Hiver lacks.

    ZendeskZendesk

    Email, chat, WhatsApp, Instagram and voice on Suite plans; WhatsApp conversation fees still apply. website chat and Instagram are here and not on Hiver.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    HiverHiver

    SLAs, CSAT and analytics on top of the mailbox; strong for finance and operations teams. Zendesk is a help desk suite instead.

    ZendeskZendesk

    A contact center: voice, workforce management, QA, and a marketplace of over a thousand apps. Hiver is a Gmail-based shared inbox instead.

  6. 06

    Time to the first reply

    HiverHiver

    An hour: install the Gmail extension and share the inbox. Zendesk is a project.

    ZendeskZendesk

    A project. Queue, SLAs, routing and macros are set up before the first ticket is answered. Hiver is an hour.

Sources: Hiver pricing · Zendesk pricing. Each vendor’s own comparison of the other is linked so you can weigh both sides against ours.

What each one looks like

A look at the agent workspace. Interfaces can vary by plan and product version.

The Hiver sidebar inside Gmail: assignment, status and notes beside the email
HiverHiver. The Hiver sidebar inside Gmail: assignment, status and notes beside the email
The Zendesk Agent Workspace: a ticket view with the customer, the thread and the fields
ZendeskZendesk. The Zendesk Agent Workspace: a ticket view with the customer, the thread and the fields

What your team would pay

Move the sliders. Yearly-billing rates from each vendor’s pricing page, next to Sellio’s plan for the same number of seats.

5 people who answer customers

50

300 AI conversations on Hiver, automated resolutions on Zendesk

3000+
HiverHiver

$125/mo

Shared inbox, assignment, notes.

5 × $25 seats
$125
300 AI conversations × $0
$0

Yearly billing; monthly costs more. Hiver ties Harvey AI to the plan rather than metering it; no per-conversation rate is printed. Rates recorded on 2026-09-06.

ZendeskZendesk

$725/mo

Adds messaging, live chat, voice and AI agents.

5 × $55 seats
$275
300 automated resolutions × $1.5
$450
Copilot, 5 × $50
$0

Yearly billing; monthly costs more. Zendesk's pricing page says AI agents are priced per automated resolution and does not print the rate. $1.50 is the figure Zendesk has quoted publicly; change it to what your quote says. Rates recorded on 2026-09-06.

Sellio · Mini

$55/mo

One price for the workspace: 3 channels, 2 AI agents, $5 AI credit a month.

Workspace, 5 of 5 seats
$45
AI past 100 included conversations
$10
Copilot for agents
Included

About $0.05 per AI conversation past the credit, with a daily and monthly cap you set. Yearly billing takes 20% off. See every plan.

Pricing references: Hiver pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06; needs verification); Zendesk pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06). Calculator uses yearly-billing rates. Prices change; confirm current terms with each vendor.

5 people, website chat plus 2 more channels, 2 AI agents: $45 a month. Start free, no card.

Start freeSee every plan

Hiver, Zendesk and Sellio, side by side

Fifteen things a support team checks. A dash means the product does part of it or charges extra for it.

FeatureHiverHiverZendeskZendeskSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Per user, sold in seat packs.
Per agent; AI per resolution; add-ons extra
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
Core shared inbox features.
None; 14-day trial
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

Website live chat
Live chat on higher plans.
Suite plans
One script tag; guides for HTML, React, Next.js and more
Email in the inbox
Gmail or Outlook, the core.
All plans
From Mini: forward your support address; reply from the thread
WhatsApp
On higher plans.
Suite plans, plus conversation fees
From Mini: WhatsApp Business API, several agents on one number
Instagram DMs
Not a channel.
Suite plans
From Mini: Instagram DMs beside web chat
Telegram
Not a channel.
Third-party apps only
From Mini: paste a bot token; the webhook is set for you
Slack, Discord, Teams (two-way)
Slack integration.
Slack notifications and side conversations
From Mini: two-way threads; a reply there reaches the customer

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
Harvey AI assists agents; limited autonomous answering.
All plans, trained on the help center
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
By plan.
Per automated resolution, on top of seats
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Not applicable to an assist model.
Escalates to agents
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

Tickets
Email conversations with status.
Ticket-first
On Plus: raise from any chat; customer, back-office and tracker
Visual workflow automation
Automations on Pro and up.
Triggers and automations, form-based
From Mini: 11 triggers, 18 actions, no code
Analytics and CSAT
Analytics and CSAT.
Explore; advanced on higher plans
From Essentials: response times, resolution, CSAT; topics and email reports on Plus

Apps

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)
Runs inside Gmail and Outlook.
Browser and mobile only
Native Windows and macOS apps

Which one, for whom

Pick Hiver if

  • Your agents live in Gmail or Outlook and you do not want them to learn a new tool.
  • Email is nearly the whole job and you need SLAs and analytics on it.
  • Five people cost $150 a month less than on Zendesk ($125 against $275), before AI.
  • You want a free plan to start on; Zendesk offers a 14-day trial of Suite Professional.

Pick Zendesk if

  • Your support is ticket-first and email-heavy, with SLAs and a queue to manage.
  • You need phone support and a contact center in the same tool.
  • You need website chat and Instagram in the price, which Hiver does not include outright.
  • You need a ticket queue, which Hiver does not have.

The third option: Sellio

  • Your team is two to ten people on chat, messaging and email. Weigh workspace pricing against $125 a month on Hiver against $275 on Zendesk for five people; the billing units and included features differ.
  • You want a ceiling on AI spend: Hiver folds AI (Harvey AI) into the plan, Zendesk meters AI (per automated resolution) above the seats, and Sellio stops at the cap you set.
  • You need Telegram and native Windows and macOS apps, which neither Hiver nor Zendesk includes.

What two, five and ten people pay

Hiver on Growth: $50, $125 and $250 a month for two, five and ten people, before AI. Zendesk on Suite Team: $110, $275 and $550 a month for two, five and ten people, before AI. Sellio: Free for two seats; Mini at $45 for five, $80 less than Hiver and $230 less than Zendesk for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included. At ten people, Essentials at $95 is $155 under Hiver and $455 under Zendesk.

Where the two agree, and where they split

Hiver is a Gmail-based shared inbox built around Gmail and Outlook; Zendesk is a help desk suite built around tickets and a queue. Only Hiver has a free plan (core shared inbox); Zendesk offers a 14-day trial of Suite Professional. Hiver and Zendesk both include email in the price; only Zendesk has website chat and Instagram. Neither Hiver nor Zendesk includes WhatsApp and Telegram outright. Hiver folds AI (Harvey AI) into the plan; Zendesk meters AI (per automated resolution) above the seats. Zendesk has tickets and Hiver does not, and neither Hiver nor Zendesk ships a desktop app. Hiver is an hour; Zendesk is a project.

What each price leaves out

Hiver: Harvey AI features by plan. Zendesk: AI agents are billed per automated resolution on top of the seat price; the Copilot add-on is $50 per agent per month. Beside Hiver's Harvey AI and Zendesk's per automated resolution, Sellio includes an AI credit with each paid plan. Usage consumes that credit; additional credits cost extra, and you can set a spending cap.

How these figures were read

Hiver does not print the figures above in a form a fetch can read (Per user per month with yearly and monthly rates and seat packs (2, 5, 10 and so on). Hiver renders its table in the browser; figures confirmed from published summaries.), so they are marked unverified here beside Zendesk's, and Hiver's pricing page should be checked before you decide.

How to decide in an afternoon

  1. Step 1

    Count agents and channels

    Anyone who replies is a seat. List the channels customers actually use.

    5 people reply5 seats
    Website chat61%
    WhatsApp27%
    Email12%
  2. Step 2

    Price the AI you would use

    Estimate monthly conversations the AI could close, then apply each vendor's per-resolution or per-session rate.

    1,200 conversations × 40% AI closes480
    HiverHiverAssumed $0$0
    ZendeskZendeskAssumed $1.5$720
    Sellio$0.05$19

    Illustrative AI-only estimate; vendor units differ. Pack billing is rounded up. Sellio assumes Mini’s $5 credit and $0.05 per conversation.

  3. Step 3

    Trial the shortlist

    Check each vendor’s trial, free plan or demo terms. Where access is available, test one real channel before committing.

    HiverHiver · Free trial offered
    ZendeskZendesk · 14-day trial of Suite Professional
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

    Confirm trial access and limits, then evaluate one real channel on each.

Continue your research

FAQ

Hiver vs Zendesk: the questions people ask

Hiver is a Gmail-based shared inbox built around Gmail and Outlook; Zendesk is a help desk suite built around tickets and a queue. Zendesk has tickets and Hiver does not, and neither Hiver nor Zendesk ships a desktop app.

  • Entry plan: Hiver $25/user/mo (Growth, yearly); Zendesk $19/agent/mo (Support Team: email and tickets).
  • Chat in the price: Hiver $45/user/mo (Pro adds live chat); Zendesk $55/agent/mo (Suite Team).
  • Sellio: WhatsApp and Telegram, which neither Hiver nor Zendesk has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

Sellio's side of the Hiver and Zendesk rows is on the shared inbox page.

Still have a question? Contact us or browse the docs.

Or the third option: one price, every channel.

Sellio puts website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and email in one inbox with tickets and an AI agent, for $45 to $295 a month per workspace.

Get startedRead the docs

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