ZendeskLiveHelpNowZendesk vs LiveHelpNow

Zendesk vs LiveHelpNow: $275 against $295 a month

A help desk suite against a help desk and live chat: Zendesk is $20 a month cheaper for five people. What decides between Zendesk and LiveHelpNow, 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

No credit card. Live in minutes.

The short answer

Pick Zendesk if your support is ticket-first and email-heavy, with SLAs and a queue to manage. Pick LiveHelpNow if you want the knowledge base and chat to be the same product from day one. For five people, Zendesk is $20 a month cheaper than LiveHelpNow ($275 a month on Zendesk against $295 on LiveHelpNow), before AI. Sellio Mini is $45, $230 under Zendesk. Zendesk and LiveHelpNow both include website chat in the price; only Zendesk has email and Instagram. Neither Zendesk nor LiveHelpNow includes WhatsApp and Telegram outright. A team of two to ten choosing between Zendesk and LiveHelpNow for chat and tickets at one price has a third option below.

At a glanceZendeskZendeskLiveHelpNowLiveHelpNow
Built aroundTickets and a queue · messaging came laterChat and a knowledge base · tickets on the middle plan
Entry plan$19/agent/mo · Support Team: email and tickets$39/agent/mo · Essential
Chat in the price$55/agent/mo · Suite Team$39/agent/mo · chat on every plan
AI agentPer automated resolution · rate quoted, not printedFrom $99/mo · Knowledge AI; conversational AI from $499
Copilot for agents$50/agent/moIncluded · AI Agent Assist
Free planNone · 14-day trialNone · no trial printed

The six differences that decide it

Everything else on this page follows from these.

  1. 01

    Where a conversation starts

    ZendeskZendesk

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

    LiveHelpNowLiveHelpNow

    As a chat or a knowledge base search; email tickets arrive on the Professional plan. Zendesk raises a ticket where LiveHelpNow keeps a conversation.

  2. 02

    What the seat buys

    ZendeskZendesk

    $19 buys email and tickets. Live chat, WhatsApp, Instagram and AI agents start at Suite Team, $55. $275 for five people, against $295 on LiveHelpNow.

    LiveHelpNowLiveHelpNow

    $39 buys chat, the knowledge base and social on Essential; ticketing starts on Professional at $59. $295 for five people, against $275 on Zendesk.

  3. 03

    How the AI is billed

    ZendeskZendesk

    AI agents are priced per automated resolution on top of seats, and the rate comes from your quote. LiveHelpNow meters AI (from $99/mo) above the seats as well.

    LiveHelpNowLiveHelpNow

    Knowledge AI is from $99 a month for 2,000 answers; conversational AI from $499 for 1,000 conversations. Zendesk meters AI (per automated resolution) above the seats as well.

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    ZendeskZendesk

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

    LiveHelpNowLiveHelpNow

    Chat, email tickets, SMS and social; no native WhatsApp, Instagram or Telegram. Zendesk adds email and Instagram, which LiveHelpNow lacks.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    ZendeskZendesk

    A contact center: voice, workforce management, QA, and a marketplace of over a thousand apps. LiveHelpNow is a help desk and live chat instead.

    LiveHelpNowLiveHelpNow

    Workforce management, call logging and a support portal. Zendesk is a help desk suite instead.

  6. 06

    Time to the first reply

    ZendeskZendesk

    A project. Queue, SLAs, routing and macros are set up before the first ticket is answered. LiveHelpNow is a day.

    LiveHelpNowLiveHelpNow

    A day: add the chat and build the first knowledge base articles. Zendesk is a project.

Sources: Zendesk pricing · LiveHelpNow 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 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
The LiveHelpNow agent dashboard: the chat queue with the knowledge base search beside it
LiveHelpNowLiveHelpNow. The LiveHelpNow agent dashboard: the chat queue with the knowledge base search beside it

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 automated resolutions on Zendesk, AI conversations on LiveHelpNow

3000+
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.

LiveHelpNowLiveHelpNow

$445/mo

Ticketing, workforce management.

5 × $59 seats
$295
300 AI conversations × $0.5
$150

Yearly billing; monthly costs more. Conversational AI is $499 a month for 1,000 conversations, about $0.50 each; the rate is a stated assumption from that pack. Rates recorded on 2026-09-13.

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: Zendesk pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06); LiveHelpNow pricing page (recorded 2026-09-13). 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

Zendesk, LiveHelpNow 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.

FeatureZendeskZendeskLiveHelpNowLiveHelpNowSellio

Pricing

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

Channels

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

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
All plans, trained on the help center
Knowledge AI and conversational AI
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
Per automated resolution, on top of seats
From $99 a month in packs
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Escalates to agents
Hands to an agent
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

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

Apps

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

Which one, for whom

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.
  • Five people cost $20 a month less than on LiveHelpNow ($275 against $295), before AI.
  • You need email and Instagram in the price, which LiveHelpNow does not include outright.

Pick LiveHelpNow if

  • You want the knowledge base and chat to be the same product from day one.
  • AI sold in monthly answer packs suits your budgeting.
  • Time to the first reply is a day here and a project on Zendesk.
  • Its pricing model suits you better than Zendesk's: per agent per month; AI sold in monthly packs of answers or conversations.

The third option: Sellio

  • Two to ten of you answer chat, messaging and email. Compare Sellio's workspace plans with $275 a month on Zendesk against $295 on LiveHelpNow for five people, including each product's limits.
  • The AI invoice should be known in advance: Zendesk meters AI (per automated resolution) above the seats and LiveHelpNow meters AI (from $99/mo) above the seats, where Sellio's credit is included and capped by you.
  • You need Telegram and native Windows and macOS apps, which neither Zendesk nor LiveHelpNow includes.

What two, five and ten people pay

Zendesk on Suite Team: $110, $275 and $550 a month for two, five and ten people, before AI. LiveHelpNow on Professional: $118, $295 and $590 a month for two, five and ten people, before AI. Sellio: Free for two seats; Mini at $45 for five, $230 less than Zendesk and $250 less than LiveHelpNow for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included. At ten people, Essentials at $95 is $455 under Zendesk and $495 under LiveHelpNow.

Where the two agree, and where they split

Zendesk is a help desk suite built around tickets and a queue; LiveHelpNow is a help desk and live chat built around chat and a knowledge base. Neither has a free plan: Zendesk offers a 14-day trial of Suite Professional, LiveHelpNow no trial. Zendesk and LiveHelpNow both include website chat in the price; only Zendesk has email and Instagram. Neither Zendesk nor LiveHelpNow includes WhatsApp and Telegram outright. Zendesk (per automated resolution) and LiveHelpNow (from $99/mo) both meter AI above the seats. Zendesk has tickets and LiveHelpNow does not, and neither Zendesk nor LiveHelpNow ships a desktop app. Zendesk is a project; LiveHelpNow is a day.

What each price leaves out

Zendesk: AI agents are billed per automated resolution on top of the seat price; the Copilot add-on is $50 per agent per month. LiveHelpNow: AI Agent Assist included; Knowledge AI from $99 a month; Conversational AI from $499 a month. Beside Zendesk's per automated resolution and LiveHelpNow's from $99/mo, 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
    ZendeskZendeskAssumed $1.5$720
    LiveHelpNowLiveHelpNowAssumed $0.5$240
    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.

    ZendeskZendesk · 14-day trial of Suite Professional
    LiveHelpNowLiveHelpNow · None printed
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

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

Continue your research

FAQ

Zendesk vs LiveHelpNow: the questions people ask

Zendesk is a help desk suite built around tickets and a queue; LiveHelpNow is a help desk and live chat built around chat and a knowledge base. Zendesk has tickets and LiveHelpNow does not, and neither Zendesk nor LiveHelpNow ships a desktop app.

  • Entry plan: Zendesk $19/agent/mo (Support Team: email and tickets); LiveHelpNow $39/agent/mo (Essential).
  • Chat in the price: Zendesk $55/agent/mo (Suite Team); LiveHelpNow $39/agent/mo (chat on every plan).
  • Sellio puts every channel in one inbox: WhatsApp and Telegram, which neither Zendesk nor LiveHelpNow has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

Sellio's side of the Zendesk and LiveHelpNow 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

No credit card required