Side-by-side comparison · Sales & Customer Support
Gong vs Retell AI vs Zendesk
Everything that matters when choosing between them, in one place: our rating, what each can do, what they cost, and the trade-offs.
Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.
At a glance
Pick it if: Sales leaders running a team of reps who want to coach from real calls and forecast deals more accurately.
Pick it if: Service businesses and agencies that want an AI receptionist or phone agent without hiring developers.
Pick it if: Established support teams, especially those handling phone, chat and email at volume across one or more brands.
Overview
| Attribute | Gong | Retell AI | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | Records and analyses sales calls and emails to coach reps and forecast deals. | AI phone agents that answer calls, book appointments and make outbound calls. | Helpdesk for support teams, with AI agents that answer customers and a copilot for staff. |
| Pricing model | Paid | Paid | Paid |
| Starting price | See website | About $0.07–$0.31/min | $19/agent/mo |
| Free plan | No | No | No |
| Works with Claude Code | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Gong | Retell AI | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.0 | 4.1Winner | 3.6 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.0 | 3.5 | 3.0 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 5.0 | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 4.5 | 4.5 | 3.5 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 2.5 | 4.0 | 3.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Gong | Retell AI | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | No | No | No |
| Mobile app | Yes | – | Yes |
| Desktop app | – | – | – |
| Browser extension | Yes | – | – |
| API access | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Teams & business | |||
| Team workspace | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Enterprise plan or SSO | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Connects to other apps | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Open source or self-hosted | No | No | No |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | – | Yes | Yes |
| Understands images | – | – | – |
| Makes images | No | No | No |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | – | – | No |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | – | – | – |
| Works in many languages | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Capabilities score | 8/ 17 | 7/ 17 | 8/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Gong | Retell AI | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Platform fee Custom (billed yearly) Every Gong customer pays this, scaled to team size. | Pay as you goOur pick About $0.07–$0.31/min Most small businesses and agencies. | Support Team $19/agent/mo billed yearly, or $25 monthly Small teams that only need email ticketing. |
Per-user licenceOur pick Custom per user (billed yearly) Each rep or manager who records and reviews calls. | Enterprise Custom High call volumes and compliance needs. | Suite Team $55/agent/mo billed yearly, or $69 monthly Teams adding live chat, phone and AI agents. | |
Add-ons (Engage, Forecast, Enable) Custom Teams that want outreach, forecasting or coaching in Gong too. | Suite ProfessionalOur pick $115/agent/mo billed yearly, or $149 monthly Growing support teams that need skills-based routing and better AI tools. | ||
Suite Enterprise Custom Large or regulated support operations. | |||
| Which plan to pick | Start with the core licence for reps who run customer calls and add Forecast or Engage only once the team uses Gong daily. Push back on bundles and multi-year terms during negotiation. | Start on pay as you go with the free credits, build one agent for your most common call and test it on your own phone. Talk to sales only once you run thousands of minutes a month. | Support Team only makes sense for email-only teams. Most businesses wanting AI and live chat should trial Suite Professional (the trial includes Copilot), then work out how many AI resolutions they will use, because extra resolutions at about $2 each can cost more than the seats. |
Key features
| Attribute | Gong | Retell AI | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|---|
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | Gong | Retell AI | Zendesk |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Gong | Retell AI | Zendesk |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Gong, Retell AI or Zendesk?
Retell AI scores highest overall in our ratings (Gong 4.0/5, Retell AI 4.1/5 and Zendesk 3.6/5). Gong is best for coaching reps from real call recordings and spotting at-risk deals early. Retell AI is best for AI receptionist for a small business and booking appointments by phone. Zendesk is best for ticketing for a team of support agents and Phone, chat and email support in one place.
Which is cheaper, Gong, Retell AI or Zendesk?
Gong: Pricing isn't published; check the vendor's site for a quote. Retell AI: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at About $0.07–$0.31/min. Zendesk: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at $19/agent/mo.
Which is easier to use, Gong, Retell AI or Zendesk?
Gong rates highest for ease of use in our scores. Sales leaders running a team of reps who want to coach from real calls and forecast deals more accurately.
How we compare
Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability.
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