The Zendesk alternative you can actually budget for
Zendesk is the most established helpdesk in the category, and for a large team with complex integrations that still matters. The catch is budgeting: every automated resolution bills $1.50 on a committed volume or $2.00 pay-as-you-go, and Copilot is another $50 per agent per month. Kerux prices per agent and nothing else. You connect your own AI key and pay your provider at cost.
| Dimension | Kerux | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| AI pricing | Bring your own API key. Pay your AI provider directly, at cost | $1.50 per automated resolution on a committed volume, or $2.00 pay-as-you-go, on top of seats |
| Can you budget it up front? | Yes. Agents × your tier, and nothing else | Only if you can forecast resolutions: the AI bill moves with every one the AI closes |
| Seat pricing | Flat per agent, from $29/month | $19–$115 per agent/mo billed yearly, across Support Team to Suite Professional |
| AI assistant for agents | Included on every plan | Copilot is a separate add-on at $50 per agent/mo billed yearly |
| Bill predictability | Priced per agent only. AI volume never changes your bill | Seats are fixed; automated-resolution charges vary with volume |
What it costs in practice
5 agents on a mid tier, with an AI assistant for the team
- 5 Suite Team seats × $55
- $275
- 5 Copilot add-ons × $50
- $250
- Automated resolutions
- $1.50 each committed, $2.00 pay-as-you-go
- 5 Growth seats × $49
- $245
- AI assistant for every agent
- included
- AI replies on your own key
- paid to your provider, at cost
- Zendesk seat prices are the published annual-billing rates; monthly billing costs more.
- Copilot is optional. A team that doesn't want an agent-side AI assistant wouldn't pay it.
- Resolution charges are left out of the total because they depend on your volume; the per-resolution rates are Zendesk's own.
- Every figure verified on Zendesk's own pricing page; see the date at the foot of this page.
Which one should you actually pick?
We'd rather you chose correctly than chose us.
Stay with Zendesk if…
Zendesk's marketplace and API surface are far beyond anything a small tool offers. If your support desk has to talk to a dozen internal systems, that depth is real and Kerux doesn't match it.
Support Team is $19 per agent per month billed yearly, undercutting Kerux's $29. If you just want ticketing without AI, Zendesk's entry tier is less expensive.
Zendesk has the compliance certifications, enterprise support and contractual machinery that large organisations require. Kerux is built for small and mid-sized teams.
Switch to Kerux if…
Kerux's whole price is agents × tier. There's no allowance to track, no overage rate to negotiate, and no sales call needed to find out what AI costs.
Copilot at $50 per agent is more than Kerux's entire Growth seat. On Kerux the AI assistance is in the plan, and the model usage is billed to you by your own provider.
Forward an email address, connect an AI key, and you have a working inbox. No implementation project.
How switching actually works
- 1Forward your existing support address to your Kerux forwarding address.
- 2Import your Zendesk history from Settings → Import tickets: conversations, customers and internal notes come across with their original dates. The AI never answers imported tickets.
- 3Bring your help-centre articles over as .md files. The AI answers from them.
- 4Start with a high confidence threshold so the AI only sends what it's sure of.
- 5Raise it as you build trust. No contract, no cancellation fee.
Questions people ask
Zendesk's pricing page lists $1.50 per automated resolution on a committed volume and $2.00 pay-as-you-go, on top of seats, and only bills a resolution the AI handles without a human. Separately, the Copilot add-on is published at $50 per agent per month billed yearly.
It depends on what you need. Zendesk's Support Team tier is $19 per agent versus Kerux's $29, so bare ticketing is cheaper there. Once you add AI, Kerux's model, flat seats plus your own provider key at cost, is easier to predict, and the agent-side AI assistant is included rather than a $50 add-on.
Yes. Settings → Import tickets connects with your Zendesk subdomain, an admin email and an API token, and copies your tickets, customers and internal notes with their original dates. Help-centre content comes across as Markdown. Re-running it skips anything already imported.
No. Kerux connects to Slack, Shopify, Linear, Jira and Claude, and has a REST API, but nothing like Zendesk's marketplace. If your workflow depends on many third-party integrations, that's a genuine reason to stay.
Try it on your own tickets
30 days free, no credit card. Forward one address and see how it does.