| Functionality | 8 <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> | 9 <p>Zoho Desk offers very rich support functionality. It supports most channels, and the creation of help centres and community forums. It also has pretty advanced automation, AI and reporting functionality.</p><p>However, Zoho Desk doesn't support native SMS as a support channel, and has limited chat functionality compared to competitors.</p> |
| Ease of Use | 8 <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 <p>Zoho is bogged down by complex, unique terms like "guided conversations" and "static card block." Key workflows like replying to tickets take more clicks than average. Settings are scattered over the pages. There's an almost overwhelming amount of features (e.g. 13 tabs in total in a single open ticket view). So while powerful, Zoho's complexity can slow you down significantly.</p> |
| Look and feel | 6 <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 >5 seconds to load.</p> | 2 <p>Zoho Desk feels dated and cluttered, both internally and externally. Page load times are often slow. We haven't found a default Help Center theme that we'd feel confident sharing with customers</p> |
| Customisability | 8 <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. </p> | 8 <p>Zoho Desk offers extensive customization for both internal and external pages. Externally, you can fully customize the style and layout of your Help Centre (which supports over 50 languages), as well as the Live Chat widget, with the flexibility to incorporate custom code.</p><p>Internally, you have the ability to create custom data objects and personalize the layout and display of information in your agent workspace, which dynamically updates based on ticket content.</p> |
| Ease of Setup | 5 <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> | 4 <p>Despite offering a self-serve free trial, we get the impression that Zoho is not optimised for a smooth self-serve onboarding process. Initial setup was confusing and clunky, taking over 15 minutes. Connecting your first channels is an obscure process. For example, there is no one-click email connection process and instead you'll need to set up email forward manually. Additionally, Zoho's unintuitive UX means deeper customization is also a frustrating process that can take several days.</p> |
| Customer Support | 9 <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> | 6 <p>While Zoho offers 24/7 support live chat in-app, the response can be inconsistent in terms of helpfulness. The help centre is of relatively low quality, with many articles receiving mixed feedback from users.</p> |
| Integratability | 7 <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. It does offer an API for custom integrations.</p> | 8 <p>Zoho Desk offers hundreds of pre-built integrations with common third-party tools that SMBs use, including CRMs, email marketing tools, and project management systems. It also has an extensive marketplace for additional integrations and an API for custom integrations.</p> |
| Ease of Migration | 5 <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> | 6 <p>Zoho Desk allows for self-serve export of key data, however, to export email threads, you'll need to request it by emailing support.</p> |
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