Jira Service ManagementZendeskJira Service Management vs Zendesk

Jira Service Management vs Zendesk: five seats for $100 or $275

A service desk on Jira against a help desk suite: Jira Service Management is $175 a month cheaper for five people. The six differences, what five people pay on each, and a third option.

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 Jira Service Management if your engineers already live in Jira and support should land in the same place. Pick Zendesk if your support is ticket-first and email-heavy, with SLAs and a queue to manage. For five people, Jira Service Management is $175 a month cheaper than Zendesk ($100 a month on Jira Service Management against $275 on Zendesk), before AI. Sellio Mini, at $45 for the workspace, is $55 under Jira Service Management. Jira Service Management and Zendesk both include email in the price; only Zendesk has website chat and Instagram. Neither Jira Service Management nor Zendesk includes WhatsApp and Telegram outright. Below, a third option for a team of two to ten that wants what Jira Service Management and Zendesk sell here at one price.

At a glanceJira Service ManagementJira Service ManagementZendeskZendesk
Built aroundRequests and queues on Jira · IT and customer serviceTickets and a queue · messaging came later
Entry plan$20/agent/mo · Standard$19/agent/mo · Support Team: email and tickets
Chat in the pricePortal, email, widget · no messaging apps$55/agent/mo · Suite Team
AI agentPremium plan · virtual service agentPer automated resolution · rate quoted, not printed
Copilot for agentsRovo credits · Standard and up$50/agent/mo
Free planYes · 3 agentsNone · 14-day trial

The six differences that decide it

Everything else on this page follows from these.

  1. 01

    Where a conversation starts

    Jira Service ManagementJira Service Management

    As a request in a Jira queue, raised from the portal, email, the widget or Slack and Teams. Zendesk raises tickets too, from tickets and a queue.

    ZendeskZendesk

    As a ticket. Every channel, chat included, becomes a ticket with a status, a priority and an SLA clock. Jira Service Management raises tickets too, from requests and queues on Jira.

  2. 02

    What the seat buys

    Jira Service ManagementJira Service Management

    Free for three agents; Standard is $20 an agent and Premium, with the virtual agent, $51.42. $100 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 $100 on Jira Service Management.

  3. 03

    How the AI is billed

    Jira Service ManagementJira Service Management

    The virtual service agent comes with Premium; Rovo credits for AI search and chat come with Standard and up. Zendesk meters AI (per automated resolution) above the seats as well.

    ZendeskZendesk

    AI agents are priced per automated resolution on top of seats, and the rate comes from your quote. Jira Service Management meters AI (Premium plan) above the seats as well.

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    Jira Service ManagementJira Service Management

    Portal, email, an embedded widget, Slack and Teams; no WhatsApp, Instagram or Telegram. Zendesk adds website chat and Instagram, which Jira Service Management 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 Jira Service Management.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    Jira Service ManagementJira Service Management

    Incidents, on-call, change management and assets, and the whole Jira ecosystem. Zendesk is a help desk suite instead.

    ZendeskZendesk

    A contact center: voice, workforce management, QA, and a marketplace of over a thousand apps. Jira Service Management is a service desk on Jira instead.

  6. 06

    Time to the first reply

    Jira Service ManagementJira Service Management

    A day for a queue; longer for catalog, SLAs and automation. Zendesk is a project.

    ZendeskZendesk

    A project. Queue, SLAs, routing and macros are set up before the first ticket is answered. Jira Service Management is a day for a queue.

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

Inside Zendesk

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

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 Jira Service Management, automated resolutions on Zendesk

3000+
Jira Service ManagementJira Service Management

$100/mo

Queues, SLAs, Rovo credits.

5 × $20 seats
$100
300 AI conversations × $0
$0

Yearly billing; monthly costs more. The virtual service agent comes with the Premium seat rather than a per-conversation rate; the AI line stays at zero. Rates recorded on 2026-09-13.

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: Jira Service Management pricing page (recorded 2026-09-13); 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

Jira Service Management, 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.

FeatureJira Service ManagementJira Service ManagementZendeskZendeskSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Per agent; customers are free
Per agent; AI per resolution; add-ons extra
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
3 agents
None; 14-day trial
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

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

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
Premium plan
All plans, trained on the help center
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
In the Premium seat
Per automated resolution, on top of seats
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Raises a request
Escalates to agents
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

Tickets
Requests and incidents
Ticket-first
On Plus: raise from any chat; customer, back-office and tracker
Visual workflow automation
Automation rules by plan
Triggers and automations, form-based
From Mini: 11 triggers, 18 actions, no code
Analytics and CSAT
Reports and SLAs
Explore; advanced on higher plans
From Essentials: response times, resolution, CSAT; topics and email reports on Plus

Apps

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)
Browser and mobile
Browser and mobile only
Native Windows and macOS apps

Which one, for whom

Pick Jira Service Management if

  • Your engineers already live in Jira and support should land in the same place.
  • Requests come through a portal, email or Slack and Teams.
  • Five people cost $175 a month less than on Zendesk ($100 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 Jira Service Management does not include outright.
  • Time to the first reply is a project here and a day for a queue on Jira Service Management.

The third option: Sellio

  • You are two to ten people on Jira Service Management or Zendesk who answer chat, messaging and email, and want to compare workspace pricing with $100 a month on Jira Service Management against $275 on Zendesk for five people.
  • You want the AI bill known before the month starts: Jira Service Management meters AI (Premium plan) above the seats, Zendesk meters AI (per automated resolution) above the seats; Sellio includes a credit and lets you cap it.
  • You need Telegram and native Windows and macOS apps, which neither Jira Service Management nor Zendesk includes.

What two, five and ten people pay

Jira Service Management on Standard: $40, $100 and $200 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, $55 less than Jira Service Management and $230 less than Zendesk for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included. At ten people, Essentials at $95 is $105 under Jira Service Management and $455 under Zendesk.

Where the two agree, and where they split

Jira Service Management is a service desk on Jira built around requests and queues on Jira; Zendesk is a help desk suite built around tickets and a queue. Only Jira Service Management has a free plan (3 agents); Zendesk offers a 14-day trial of Suite Professional. Jira Service Management and Zendesk both include email in the price; only Zendesk has website chat and Instagram. Neither Jira Service Management nor Zendesk includes WhatsApp and Telegram outright. Jira Service Management (Premium plan) and Zendesk (per automated resolution) both meter AI above the seats. Jira Service Management and Zendesk both raise tickets, and neither Jira Service Management nor Zendesk ships a desktop app. Jira Service Management is a day for a queue; Zendesk is a project.

What each price leaves out

Jira Service Management: Virtual service agent on Premium; Rovo credits 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 Jira Service Management's Premium plan 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 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
    Jira Service ManagementJira Service ManagementAssumed $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.

    Jira Service ManagementJira Service Management · Free plan; paid plans have a trial
    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

Jira Service Management vs Zendesk: the questions people ask

Jira Service Management is a service desk on Jira built around requests and queues on Jira; Zendesk is a help desk suite built around tickets and a queue.

  • Entry plan: Jira Service Management $20/agent/mo (Standard); Zendesk $19/agent/mo (Support Team: email and tickets).
  • Chat in the price: Jira Service Management Portal, email, widget (no messaging apps); Zendesk $55/agent/mo (Suite Team).
  • Sellio: WhatsApp and Telegram, which neither Jira Service Management nor Zendesk has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

Sellio's side of the Jira Service Management 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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