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Best Hiver Alternatives

Written by Paddy Stobbs

Co-Founder & CEO

Edited by Steph Leung

Product & Operations Lead

Updated onMar 14, 2025
Hiver has established itself as a popular shared inbox solution for teams looking to streamline their customer support operations. However, as businesses face increasingly complex support challenges across multiple channels, with higher volumes, and greater demands for efficiency, alternatives with specialized capabilities have emerged. In this comprehensive comparison, we examine how Hiver stacks up against top competitors in five critical support scenarios: data-driven operations, ecommerce support, AI-powered automation, Slack-based B2B support, and high-volume multichannel management. Each alternative brings unique strengths that may better address specific business needs than Hiver’s more generalized approach. Whether you’re looking for deeper analytics, specialized ecommerce tools, advanced AI capabilities, Slack integration, or enterprise-grade multichannel support, this analysis will help you determine if Hiver is the best fit for your support team in 2025.

Best alternatives to Hiver

For data-driven support operations:

Intercom product logo

Intercom

Stackfix Rating:

7.9 / 10

Intercom differentiates itself from Hiver for data-driven support operations with superior analytics, AI capabilities, and automation features. The platform’s machine learning-powered conversation topic identification, comprehensive reporting dashboard, and advanced routing logic enable teams to make more informed decisions. While Hiver offers basic metrics like response times, Intercom provides deeper insights including first contact resolution rates, AI-suggested conversation topics, and granular Help Center analytics that drive continuous improvement.

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For ecommerce customer support:

Gorgias product logo

Gorgias

Stackfix Rating:

6.0 / 10

Gorgias stands out as an ecommerce customer support solution through its exceptional Shopify integration, comprehensive analytics, and true omnichannel capabilities. Unlike Hiver’s fragmented approach of separate inboxes per channel, Gorgias provides a unified inbox that streamlines support operations. The platform’s ecommerce focus enables agents to handle common requests like order tracking, delivery rescheduling, and subscription management directly within the interface. While Hiver’s AI capabilities are limited to basic response suggestions, Gorgias offers more sophisticated AI features including automated tagging and chatbots specifically designed for ecommerce scenarios.

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For AI-powered customer support automation:

Ada product logo

Ada

Stackfix Rating:

4.4 / 10

Ada’s AI capabilities make it a more effective choice than Hiver for AI-powered customer support automation. While Hiver claims to be ‘AI powered,’ its AI features are basic and limited – offering only simple response suggestions based on customer messages without any knowledge base grounding. In contrast, Ada provides an AI agent that can handle complex customer queries autonomously, with deep customization of tone and responses, and the ability to access external tools and processes. Our testing demonstrates Ada’s AI chatbot performs robustly, compared to Hiver’s weak AI assist functionality. Additionally, Ada offers advanced AI features that Hiver lacks entirely, including AI tagging and conversation topic identification through machine learning.

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For Slack-based B2B support:

Pylon product logo

Pylon

Stackfix Rating:

7.2 / 10

Pylon is a strong alternative to Hiver for Slack-based B2B support, thanks to its Slack integration capabilities and intelligent ticket management. While Hiver lacks native Slack support, Pylon offers seamless two-way Slack integration, enabling teams to track customer questions, send notifications, collect feedback, and sync replies across channels in real-time. Pylon’s shared inbox also intelligently organizes related Slack threads into tickets using AI, whereas Hiver’s shared inbox requires separate inboxes for each channel. For teams heavily reliant on Slack for customer support, Pylon’s purpose-built Slack features make it a clear choice over Hiver’s email-centric approach.

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For managing high-volume customer support across multiple channels:

Zendesk for Service product logo

Zendesk for Service

Stackfix Rating:

5.5 / 10

Zendesk for Service manages high-volume customer support across multiple channels through its unified omnichannel inbox, advanced routing capabilities, and powerful AI assistance. While Hiver requires separate inboxes for each channel, making high-volume management challenging, Zendesk’s unified workspace allows agents to handle tickets from email, chat, phone, and social media in one place. Its sophisticated routing system automatically distributes tickets across channels based on agent skills and capacity, while Hiver’s routing is basic and keyword-based, limited to individual inboxes. Additionally, Zendesk’s AI Co-Pilot provides contextual suggestions and can execute workflows automatically, whereas Hiver’s AI capabilities are limited to basic response suggestions without knowledge base integration.

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PS

Meet your expert: Paddy Stobbs

Stackfix Co-Founder & CEO

I've spent over a decade deep in the world of business software - personally managing more than $2M in purchases across companies I've built and led. From intimate 10-person teams to organizations of 150+, I've developed a particular obsession with Sales and HR tools – testing, implementing, and scaling them at every stage of growth. My journey started at Cambridge University, led me through Google, and most recently culminated in selling my previous venture to TikTok. Now, I'm channeling all of that hands-on experience into helping others navigate the complex landscape of business software.

Hiver logo

Hiver

Intercom logo

Intercom

Gorgias logo

Gorgias

Ada logo

Ada

Pylon logo

Pylon

Zendesk for Service logo

Zendesk for Service

Our rating
Functionality
6

Functionality

6/10

<p>Hiver turns your email inbox into a lightweight Customer Support platform. It supports multiple channels, including email, live chat, phone calls, and WhatsApp. You can also set up a help center, create chatbots, and use basic AI and automation tools. However, it falls short of being a true omnichannel platform—each channel requires a separate inbox, which limits its efficiency.</p>
9

Functionality

9/10

<p>Intercom provides most of the essential support functionality needed by SMBs, covering a wide range of communication channels (excluding Twitter, Slack, and Discord) and offering industry-leading live chat capabilities. It also includes advanced AI, automation, and reporting features. However, some features that larger teams may find valuable, such as approval workflows, community forum management, and advanced telephony capabilities (e.g., group routing and overflow handling), are not currently supported.</p>
7

Functionality

7/10

<p>As a product tailored to e-commerce brands, Gorgias offers a fairly robust range of features. It offer support for all the channels you'd expect including email, live chat, phone, text and socials. Additionally, you'll also find a decent help centre offering and AI agent functionality provided natively too. Though Gorgias does not excel in any one particular area, we did find each feature to be relatively well executed.</p>
3

Functionality

3/10

<p>Ada’s positioning as an AI agent for customer support does mean that its overall feature set as a stand-alone customer support platform is lacking. Though Ada’s AI agent acts as a strong and easy to configure first line of defence, you’ll still need to manage handoffs to real agents elsewhere (which often means paying separately for other helpdesk platforms such as Zendesk). Additionally, you’ll find other common features, such as the ability to build your own help centre/knowledge base, missing in Ada. It’s something which you’re expected to build elsewhere, and provide as a source of training material into Ada.&nbsp;</p>
8

Functionality

8/10

<p>Pylon is "modern support platform for B2B companies". It offers a good range of features including support for email, live chat, ticket forms, Slack/ Teams and help centre. It also offers decent automation, AI and reporting functionality.</p><p>However, it lacks support for many channels (e.g. phone, socials) or custom objects.</p>
10

Functionality

10/10

<p>Zendesk packs all the essential support tools most SMBs—and even enterprises—could ask for. It stands out with the most comprehensive range of support channels in our curation, making it easy to manage seamless cross-channel communication with customers within a single ticket. Plus, its advanced automation, AI capabilities, and robust reporting features are hard to beat.</p><p>In our experience, Zendesk tends to be the go-to platform for companies looking to level up their customer support as they grow.</p>
Ease of Use
8

Ease of Use

8/10

<p>Hiver is refreshingly simple because it operates directly from your inbox. The learning curve is minimal, and setup is one of the most intuitive we’ve seen. Most users will feel comfortable navigating the platform within an hour.</p><p>That said, the interface can feel cluttered. The support inbox is filled with too many tabs and action buttons, making it harder to quickly access tickets at a glance. A sidebar showing all tickets would be a welcome addition.</p>
7

Ease of Use

7/10

<p>Due to its rich functionality and customisability, Intercom has a moderate learning curve but is generally user-friendly. An average SMB employee can become proficient with the platform after 1-2 days and some guidance.</p><p>The interface is intuitive, making daily use straightforward for most team members.&nbsp;</p>
5

Ease of Use

5/10

<p>Though individual screens were generally well presented, we did find the sheer breadth of features slightly overwhelming at times. Gorgias' sidebar navigation system is non-standard which initially made it hard to navigate between core features swiftly (like between inboxes and analytics pages).</p>
3

Ease of Use

3/10

<p>Given its AI-centric focus, we found Ada to be relatively easy to use on initial set up. It would take an average SMB employee a few hours to be complete the initial configuration and create a functional AI chatbot. However, when progressing to more advanced features, such as setting up processes for an AI agent to execute, we found Ada to be filled with unclear terminology and often confusing UI. Whilst this may be a byproduct of the relative novelty of configuring AI chatbots, we find Ada unintuitive to use if you’re looking to get the most out of the platform.</p>
8

Ease of Use

8/10

<p>Pylon has a relatively quick learning curve - an average employee should take 1-2 hours to familiarize themselves with the key workflows, with the bulk of that time spent on getting up to speed with how Slack/ Teams integration works.</p>
2

Ease of Use

2/10

<p>Zendesk has one of the steepest learning curves we’ve seen. The interface can feel overwhelming, with settings spread out across different areas like Zendesk Chat and the Admin Center. If you don’t have an admin with prior experience configuring and managing Zendesk, getting up to speed can quickly become frustrating.</p>
Look and feel
4

Look and feel

4/10

<p>Since Hiver integrates with your inbox, its visual appeal really mainly depends on your email interface.</p><p>However, for the support inbox - while functional, the layout feels crowded with too many labels and tabs. Some design elements aren’t responsive, causing text to spill out when resizing the screen. On the plus side, page load times are acceptable at 2–3 seconds.</p>
7

Look and feel

7/10

<p>We find Intercom's interface modern, sleek, with just the right touch of colour. However, page load times can be a bit slow, sometimes taking 2-3 seconds.</p>
6

Look and feel

6/10

<p>Overall, we found Gorgias to be relatively well designed and intuitive to use. Most interfaces were modern and fast to load (load times &lt; 2 seconds). However, some interfaces did lack refinement or were hidden away in settings - for example, creating chatbots with the same interface used to generate other rules/workflows in the product presented some challenges - a simple drag and drop interface would have been preferable here.</p>
5

Look and feel

5/10

<p>We find Ada’s high-level navigation to be modern and&nbsp;easy to use. However, chatbot configuration interfaces were often confusing and unclear with a less modern, dated feel to them. Additionally, whilst the web app was generally fast, some pages take 2-3 seconds to load.</p>
6

Look and feel

6/10

<p>We find Pylon's interface to be clean and modern. However, some pages can be slow to load e.g. opening a ticket takes ~2 seconds, and the analytics dashboard can take &gt;5 seconds to load.</p>
4

Look and feel

4/10

<p>From both an agent and admin perspective, Zendesk’s interface feels plain, and some pages can come across as cluttered and overwhelming. But on the bright side, page load times are quick.</p>
Customisability
5

Customisability

5/10

<p>Hiver’s customizability is limited. You can make small adjustments to your help center layout and add custom fields or reports, but routing and automation are restricted to individual inboxes. There’s no option for advanced configuration or coding, which may disappoint users who want more flexibility.</p>
9

Customisability

9/10

<p>Intercom is one of the most customisable Customer Support we've come across. User-facing elements (e.g. live chat, help centre) allow for deep customisation in appearance and layout.</p><p>Intercom also allows you to create custom data objects and track custom events about your customers to create highly personalised proactive messages and workflows.</p>
6

Customisability

6/10

<p>At present, Gorgias offers a fairly standard set of customization options for both internal and external interfaces. For its live chat widget and help centre, you can customize the usual elements including logos, colours and titles. For internal facing screens we appreciated the ease of saving custom views or adding custom tags to tickets to suit your specific business needs.</p>
7

Customisability

7/10

<p>At present, Ada’s primary customer facing feature is its AI chatbot. Within which you can configure basic elements such as logos, buttons and colours. However, there are additional layers of customisation available in terms of the tone, greetings and responses of the chatbot itself. These are deeply customisable and offer businesses a way to set their chatbots apart from the typical responses you’d expect from first time interactions with non-AI chatbots from competitor platforms.</p>
8

Customisability

8/10

<p>Pylon offers good customization options including custom views, custom fields, and custom reporting (including the view of customer context within Account Management). A unique feature here is that users can create swimlane diagrams for Kanban views. However, it lacks more advanced customization features like creating custom data objects and tracking custom events.&nbsp;</p>
10

Customisability

10/10

<p>Zendesk offers a high level of customization for both internal and external pages. Externally, you can deeply customize the style and layout of your Help Center (supporting over 40 languages), even using custom code to make it uniquely yours. Internally, the agent workspace is also highly flexible—you can tailor the layout and how information is displayed, with dynamic updates based on the content of each ticket.</p>
Ease of Setup
7

Ease of Setup

7/10

<p>Hiver offers a self-serve free trial to its platform. Initial setup is fairly straightforward since the platform effectively operates out of your inbox and thus takes less than ten minutes if you're using either Gmail or Outlook. Additionally since, Hiver lacks many facets for customizability, it doesn't take long to fully configure the platform either.</p>
7

Ease of Setup

7/10

<p>Intercom offers a simple, self-service free trial for their platform. Initial setup is relatively simple, taking less than 10 minutes to complete. Connecting your initial channels is fairly simple too with simple scripts for live widget integrations and easy email connection options. However, when it comes to deeper customization, there are a number of rabbit holes within which you could spend days e.g. setting up FinAI or customizing help centre appearances. </p>
7

Ease of Setup

7/10

<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Gorgias offers a simple self-serve free trial for their platform. We found the initial setup to be simple, taking less than 30 minutes. Setting up your first channels is also a simple process - for example connecting your email can be done with just a couple clicks instead of needing to set up email forwarding manually.&nbsp;However, some features do require some up-front investment to get the most out of such as their AI agents feature as well as any ticket-routing automations you might want.</span></p>
4

Ease of Setup

4/10

<p>It's clear that though Ada does provide a self-serve free trial, that the product is designed to be experienced via a demo call. As such, we found the initial setup to be a little confusing, taking around 15 minutes or so. However, given its AI focus, we did appreciate the ease of certain features, for example, adding base knowledge is just a matter of pasting in links and Ada will parse and extract the relevant information.</p><p>To really get the most out of the platform, users will need to spend some time on configuring everything from tone to greetings of the chatbot - as such, full customization can take a week to put together.</p>
5

Ease of Setup

5/10

<p>Frustratingly, Pylon does not offer a self-serve free trial on its website. Instead you'll need to trudge through a sales demo to access the platform. However, calls are generally short and often deals are often closed in just one call if you're looking to purchase right away. Once you're in, initial setup is very slick, taking less than 10 minutes. Additionally, given its Slack centricity, connecting core channels is a one-click process.</p>
3

Ease of Setup

3/10

<p>We found Zendesk's onboarding process to be clunky and a bit overwhelming. Configuring even a basic setup can take over 30 minutes, largely because the interface feels disjointed, with settings scattered in different places. Connecting your first channels can be especially frustrating—for instance, linking external emails requires manual configuration unless you’re using Gmail. And because the platform is so customizable, it’s easy to spend an entire week fine-tuning everything to fully unlock its potential.</p>
Customer Support
10

Customer Support

10/10

<p>Hiver offers delightful cusotmer support. Their 24/7 in-app assistance connects you to a human agent within seconds during every test we ran. Agents are knowledgeable, responsive, and willing to go the extra mile by providing personalized screenshots and videos. The help center also offers decent depth and quality.</p>
8

Customer Support

8/10

<p>Intercom provides in-app live chat with Fin AI and their support team. We’ve found that while Fin AI delivers helpful responses, and it's possible to connect with a human agent - although this can take up to 6 business hours which can be painfully long in our experience.</p>
4

Customer Support

4/10

<p>You can contact Gorgias' support agents via a live chat widget in their web app. When tested, you initially have to get through an AI agent which we found to be relatively helpful, however, unable to answer more complex queries. Real agents took an average of an hour to respond and though helpful, often seemed biased to wanting to book demo/sales calls if questions around pricing were asked.</p>
7

Customer Support

7/10

<p>You can get support for Ada in two ways. The first, is via their own AI support agent. In testing we find it helpful for basic queries but ofte overy cautious in its responses and readily opts to hand off to a real agent. The second is via email - when tested, Ada's real agents were quick to reply (&lt; 2 hours), knowledgeable and helpful.</p>
9

Customer Support

9/10

<p>Pylon offers support via in-app live chat and Slack/ Teams. We've found the team helpful, and quick to respond. Pylon is also known for being very responsive to product feedback.</p>
2

Customer Support

2/10

<p>Multiple users we’ve spoken to have raised concerns about Zendesk’s customer support. A common frustration is the support team’s tendency to provide unhelpful responses, often redirecting users to irrelevant Help Center articles and requiring far too much back-and-forth. We also found navigating Zendesk’s Help Center to be a challenge—it’s missing the clear visuals and video guidance that other platforms do so well.</p>
Integratability
2

Integratability

2/10

<p>Hiver includes only 9 pre-built integrations with popular tools like Aircall, Jira, Salesforce, and HubSpot. However, it lacks key integrations for industries like e-commerce (e.g., no Shopify support). While it does offer an API for custom integrations, this might not be sufficient for teams relying on niche tools.</p>
10

Integratability

10/10

<p>Intercom boasts a robust integrations ecosystem that includes popular CRMs like HubSpot and Pipedrive, project management tools such as JIRA, and email marketing platforms like Mailchimp. They also offer an API for custom integrations and are continually expanding their integration offerings, with the flexibility to develop new ones upon request.</p>
7

Integratability

7/10

<p>For their target customer segment, e-commerce brands, Gorgias offers a very comprehensive integrations store - providing integrations with all the major players like Shopify, BigCommerce etc. Additionally, we appreciated the fact that they also offer a mobile app with which you can handle tickets on the go more easily.</p>
5

Integratability

5/10

<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">When tested, Ada doesn't yet have an extensive set of integrations compared to other CS tools. That being said, the majority of key integrations for larger businesses such as with Salesforce, are present.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">We notice that whilst it's older rules based product offering did support a much wider array of integrations, these have yet to be ported over to its AI agent product.</span></p>
7

Integratability

7/10

<p>Pylon currently offers only 10 integrations, though they cover key areas like project management (JIRA, Linear, Asana) and CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive). The recent addition of webhook support improves its integration capabilities. However, it still lacks integrations in categories like data enrichment, surveys, and marketing tools.&nbsp;It does offer an API for custom integrations.</p>
9

Integratability

9/10

<p>Zendesk boasts a massive ecosystem of pre-built integrations that cover most of the tools startups rely on. This includes popular CRMs like HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce, email marketing tools like Mailchimp, and project management platforms like Asana, Jira, and Trello. Beyond that, it offers an extensive marketplace for even more integrations, plus a robust API for building custom connections.</p>
Ease of Migration
1

Ease of Migration

1/10

<p>Exporting data is a pain point. There’s no bulk export option for contacts or conversations—you’ll need to download them one by one. Reports also can’t be easily exported, which is a pain.</p>
8

Ease of Migration

8/10

<p>Users can export key data independently through self-serve options, while most other data can be accessed via API or provided upon request. Additionally, Intercom enables seamless data exports to relevant third-party vendors through pre-built integrations.</p>
5

Ease of Migration

5/10

<p>Users can export data on tickets and other analytics via a self-serve option directly within Gorgias' dashboards.</p>
5

Ease of Migration

5/10

<p>Whilst Ada does not offer a self-serve data export feature, it's data export API is rich and well documented and covers all the core areas of data you'd want and expect to export.</p>
5

Ease of Migration

5/10

<p>Pylon's data export capabilities appear to be limited. While users can export reports to CSV, it doesn't seem possible to self-export tickets.</p>
8

Ease of Migration

8/10

<p>Zendesk allows you to self-serve export key data with ease. For most other data, exports are available either through the API or by making a request to their support team.</p>

Intercom: Hiver alternative for data-driven support operations

Intercom product logo
Intercom

Stackfix Rating:

7.9 / 10

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Starting at

$39

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Intercom differentiates itself from Hiver for data-driven support operations with superior analytics, AI capabilities, and automation features. The platform’s machine learning-powered conversation topic identification, comprehensive reporting dashboard, and advanced routing logic enable teams to make more informed decisions. While Hiver offers basic metrics like response times, Intercom provides deeper insights including first contact resolution rates, AI-suggested conversation topics, and granular Help Center analytics that drive continuous improvement.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Hiver vs. Intercom.

Pros

  • Sophisticated analytics and reporting

  • Best-in-class live chat functionality

  • Powerful "Fin" chatbot and automation capabilities

  • Comprehensive integration ecosystem

  • Advanced customization options

Cons

  • Complex pricing that gets expensive

  • Limited AI Context Suggestions

  • No Kanban Board View

  • Limited Content Collaboration

  • No Community Forum Functionality

  • Limited Social Media Channel Support

Compare all Customer Support toolsRead the full review

Gorgias: Hiver alternative for ecommerce customer support

Gorgias product logo
Gorgias

Stackfix Rating:

6.0 / 10

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Starting at

$10

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Gorgias stands out as an ecommerce customer support solution through its exceptional Shopify integration, comprehensive analytics, and true omnichannel capabilities. Unlike Hiver’s fragmented approach of separate inboxes per channel, Gorgias provides a unified inbox that streamlines support operations. The platform’s ecommerce focus enables agents to handle common requests like order tracking, delivery rescheduling, and subscription management directly within the interface. While Hiver’s AI capabilities are limited to basic response suggestions, Gorgias offers more sophisticated AI features including automated tagging and chatbots specifically designed for ecommerce scenarios.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Hiver vs. Gorgias.

Pros

  • Best-in-class Shopify Integration

  • Solid Live Chat Implementation

  • Comprehensive Analytics Suite

  • Strong Integration Capabilities

  • Efficient Setup Process

Cons

  • Poor Customer Support Experience

  • Clunky Rules-Based Chatbot Interface

  • Mediocre Help Centre Functionality

  • Navigation and Usability Issues

  • Limited Data Export Capabilities

Compare all Customer Support toolsRead the full review

Ada: Hiver alternative for AI-powered customer support automation

Ada product logo
Ada

Stackfix Rating:

4.4 / 10

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Ada’s AI capabilities make it a more effective choice than Hiver for AI-powered customer support automation. While Hiver claims to be ‘AI powered,’ its AI features are basic and limited – offering only simple response suggestions based on customer messages without any knowledge base grounding. In contrast, Ada provides an AI agent that can handle complex customer queries autonomously, with deep customization of tone and responses, and the ability to access external tools and processes. Our testing demonstrates Ada’s AI chatbot performs robustly, compared to Hiver’s weak AI assist functionality. Additionally, Ada offers advanced AI features that Hiver lacks entirely, including AI tagging and conversation topic identification through machine learning.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Hiver vs. Ada.

Pros

  • Exceptional AI Chatbot Capabilities

Cons

  • Limited Core Customer Support Functionality

  • Confusing User Interface

  • Limited Integration Capabilities

  • Basic Data Export Functionality

  • Dated Interface Elements

Compare all Customer Support toolsRead the full review

Pylon: Hiver alternative for Slack-based B2B support

Pylon product logo
Pylon

Stackfix Rating:

7.2 / 10

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Starting at

$70

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Pylon is a strong alternative to Hiver for Slack-based B2B support, thanks to its Slack integration capabilities and intelligent ticket management. While Hiver lacks native Slack support, Pylon offers seamless two-way Slack integration, enabling teams to track customer questions, send notifications, collect feedback, and sync replies across channels in real-time. Pylon’s shared inbox also intelligently organizes related Slack threads into tickets using AI, whereas Hiver’s shared inbox requires separate inboxes for each channel. For teams heavily reliant on Slack for customer support, Pylon’s purpose-built Slack features make it a clear choice over Hiver’s email-centric approach.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Hiver vs. Pylon.

Pros

  • Best-in-class Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations

  • Rapid product iteration

  • Excellent shared inbox

  • Highly customizable Help Centre

  • Outstanding customer support

Cons

  • Limited chat automation functionality

  • Performance Issues

  • Missing features some teams may expect

Compare all Customer Support toolsRead the full review

Zendesk for Service: Hiver alternative for managing high-volume customer support across multiple channels

Zendesk for Service product logo
Zendesk for Service

Stackfix Rating:

5.5 / 10

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Starting at

$69

Calculate your price
Updated onMar 14, 2025
Zendesk for Service manages high-volume customer support across multiple channels through its unified omnichannel inbox, advanced routing capabilities, and powerful AI assistance. While Hiver requires separate inboxes for each channel, making high-volume management challenging, Zendesk’s unified workspace allows agents to handle tickets from email, chat, phone, and social media in one place. Its sophisticated routing system automatically distributes tickets across channels based on agent skills and capacity, while Hiver’s routing is basic and keyword-based, limited to individual inboxes. Additionally, Zendesk’s AI Co-Pilot provides contextual suggestions and can execute workflows automatically, whereas Hiver’s AI capabilities are limited to basic response suggestions without knowledge base integration.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Hiver vs. Zendesk for Service.

Pros

  • Richest Functionality Of All Customer Support Tools

  • Excellent Help Centre Functionality

  • Best-In-Class Telephony

  • Highly Customizable

  • Advanced Ticket Routing System

  • Strong Integration Capabilities

Cons

  • Steep Learning Curve

  • Expensive

  • Poor Customer Support Experience

  • Underwhelming Live Chat Experience

  • Uninspiring User Interface

Compare all Customer Support toolsRead the full review

How we test products

With countless Customer Support platforms available, we focus on identifying the best options for small and midsize businesses. Our evaluation process is built around real-world usage, prioritizing functionality, ease of use, and overall value. Here’s how we do it:

Functionality

Great customer support software should help businesses resolve issues quickly and efficiently. We start by identifying key use cases—ticket management, live chat, automation, and reporting—then test how well each platform delivers on these needs. Tools that offer essential features without unnecessary complexity score highest.

User Experience & Onboarding

Support teams need fast, intuitive tools. We test each platform’s interface by navigating core features without prior training and track onboarding time—from account setup to resolving a first ticket. Software that requires extensive setup or technical expertise loses points.

Automation & AI Capabilities

Automation can streamline customer support and reduce response times. We evaluate each platform’s automation features, such as chatbots, canned responses, workflow automation, and AI-driven ticket triaging. We prioritize tools that improve efficiency without adding unnecessary complexity.

Integrations & Compatibility

Customer Support software must work seamlessly with CRMs, knowledge bases, and communication tools. We test how well each platform integrates with essential business systems and assess whether native integrations or third-party connectors are required.

Pricing & Value

We compare pricing across competitors, analyzing what each plan includes and whether critical features are locked behind paywalls. Hidden costs—such as per-agent fees, add-ons for automation, or premium support tiers—are factored into our assessment. Platforms that offer strong core functionality at a fair price score highest.

Stackfix’s Fit Score

All of these factors contribute to Stackfix’s Fit Score, a proprietary ranking system that measures how well each Customer Support tool aligns with a buyer’s needs. It combines two key elements:

  • Requirements Met – How many buyer requirements the software fulfills
  • Stackfix Rating – Our expert assessment of the software’s overall quality, usability, and value

The result? A clear, data-driven recommendation that helps businesses choose the right Customer Support software—without hours of trial and error.

FAQs

What is Customer Support Software?

Customer support software helps teams manage tickets, live chat, and self-service. Consider ease of use, integrations, scalability, and pricing. Avoid overcomplex tools, ignoring automation, and poor planning. The key features of customer support software usually include:

  • Ticketing System: A structured way to track customer inquiries from start to resolution, ensuring that no requests slip through the cracks.
  • Live Chat & Chatbots: Tools that enable real-time communication with customers, including AI-powered bots that can handle common questions automatically.
  • Self-Service Knowledge Base: A library of FAQs, guides, and troubleshooting articles that empower customers to find answers without contacting support.
  • Automation & Workflows: Features like automated ticket assignment, canned responses, and escalations to reduce manual work and speed up resolution times.
  • Reporting & Analytics: Insights into response times, resolution rates, and customer satisfaction scores to help teams continuously improve their service.

What should I consider when buying Customer Support Software?

Start by assessing your current and future support requirements. Are you handling a high volume of tickets daily? Do you need omnichannel support (email, chat, social media)? Are you focused on automation or personalized service? Here are the key factors to consider before making your decision.

  1. Your Support Needs. Start by assessing your current and future support requirements. Are you handling a high volume of tickets daily? Do you need omnichannel support (email, chat, social media)? Are you focused on automation or personalized service? Identifying your priorities will help you choose the right tool.
  2. Ease of Use. Support software should make your team’s job easier, not harder. Look for an intuitive interface that agents can pick up quickly without extensive training. Overly complex platforms can slow down response times and frustrate both customers and agents. That’s why Stackfix rates every support platform on ease of use—click into each product above to see how they compare.
  3. Integration with Your Tech Stack. Your support platform needs to work seamlessly with your CRM, email, chat, and other essential business tools. If you’re using Slack for internal communication or Shopify for e-commerce, check if the software offers native integrations or if third-party connectors are needed.
  4. Scalability & Flexibility. As your business grows, your support needs will evolve. Ensure that the software can handle increased ticket volume, support multiple teams, and offer advanced automation features when you’re ready for them. Look at the vendor’s product roadmap to see if they regularly release useful updates.
  5. Pricing & Hidden Costs. Support platforms often charge per agent, but costs can add up with extra fees for automation, integrations, or advanced analytics. Check pricing tiers carefully—what looks affordable now could become expensive as you scale.
  6. Customer Support from the Vendor. Ironically, not all customer support tools come with great support. If something breaks or you need help with setup, will the vendor be there? Look at response times, support availability (24/7 or business hours?), and self-serve resources like help centers or forums. Stackfix rates each platform on support quality—click into each product to see how they compare.

What are the common mistakes to avoid when buying Customer Support software?

Some platforms are packed with advanced features but are overly complicated for smaller teams. Make sure you’re picking a tool that fits your workflow, not just one with an impressive feature list. Here are some of the biggest mistakes startups make—and how to avoid them.

  1. Choosing based on features, not usability. Some platforms are packed with advanced features but are overly complicated for smaller teams. Make sure you’re picking a tool that fits your workflow, not just one with an impressive feature list.
  2. Ignoring automation & AI. Many startups manually handle support requests when automation could significantly reduce workload. Look for tools that allow automated responses, ticket routing, and AI-driven suggestions.
  3. Forgetting about self-service. A knowledge base can dramatically reduce support volume by enabling customers to find answers on their own. Make sure the platform includes an easy-to-use self-service portal.
  4. Not planning for scaling. Startups often pick software based on current needs, without considering future growth. Will the platform support more agents, additional features, or multi-channel support when you need it?
  5. Overlooking integration depth. A platform might “integrate” with your CRM, but does it sync customer data properly? Always test integrations before committing to a tool.

How much does Customer Support Software typically cost?

Most solutions range from $20-150 per agent monthly, with entry-level options starting around $15-25 and premium solutions exceeding $150 monthly. Most vendors provide structure pricing in tiers based on features and scale, so be sure to enter your requirements as accurately as possible in our pricing calculator. 

Many providers offer free plans with core functionality for very small teams but restrict users, contacts, or available channels.

For enterprise plans and above, you can expect to speak to sales for a bespoke price. To skip the demo calls, be sure to check out our pricing calculator.

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