Side-by-side comparison · Sales & Customer Support
Retell AI vs Yoodli 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: Service businesses and agencies that want an AI receptionist or phone agent without hiring developers.
Pick it if: Professionals, founders and sales teams who want to practise pitches, presentations and hard conversations out loud.
Pick it if: Established support teams, especially those handling phone, chat and email at volume across one or more brands.
Overview
| Attribute | Retell AI | Yoodli | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | AI phone agents that answer calls, book appointments and make outbound calls. | AI speaking coach: role-play pitches and hard conversations and get feedback on delivery. | Helpdesk for support teams, with AI agents that answer customers and a copilot for staff. |
| Pricing model | Paid | Freemium | Paid |
| Starting price | About $0.07–$0.31/min | $8/mo | $19/agent/mo |
| Free plan | No | Yes | No |
| Works with Claude Code | Yes | No | Yes |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Retell AI | Yoodli | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.1 | 4.1 | 3.6 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 3.5 | 4.5 | 3.0 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.5 | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 4.5 | 4.0 | 3.5 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 4.0 | 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 | Retell AI | Yoodli | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | No | Yes | No |
| Mobile app | – | – | Yes |
| Desktop app | – | – | – |
| Browser extension | – | – | – |
| API access | 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 | Yes |
| Understands images | – | – | – |
| Makes images | No | No | No |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | – | No | No |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | – | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | – | – | – |
| Works in many languages | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Capabilities score | 7/ 17 | 6/ 17 | 8/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Retell AI | Yoodli | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Pay as you goOur pick About $0.07–$0.31/min Most small businesses and agencies. | Starter Free Trying it once or twice. | Support Team $19/agent/mo billed yearly, or $25 monthly Small teams that only need email ticketing. |
Enterprise Custom High call volumes and compliance needs. | ProOur pick $8/mo billed yearly Individuals practising most weeks. | Suite Team $55/agent/mo billed yearly, or $69 monthly Teams adding live chat, phone and AI agents. | |
Advanced $20/mo billed yearly Heavy individual users who want privacy. | Suite ProfessionalOur pick $115/agent/mo billed yearly, or $149 monthly Growing support teams that need skills-based routing and better AI tools. | ||
Business Custom per seat, billed yearly Sales and training teams. | Suite Enterprise Custom Large or regulated support operations. | ||
Enterprise Custom Very large organisations. | |||
| Which plan to pick | 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. | Individuals should take Pro on the yearly plan; it is cheap and ten sessions a week is plenty. Teams wanting their own sales scenarios need Business. | 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 | Retell AI | Yoodli | Zendesk |
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Pros and cons
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Retell AI | Yoodli | Zendesk |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Retell AI, Yoodli or Zendesk?
They tie on our overall rating (Retell AI 4.1/5, Yoodli 4.1/5 and Zendesk 3.6/5). Retell AI is best for AI receptionist for a small business and booking appointments by phone. Yoodli is best for rehearsing a pitch or presentation and cutting filler words and rambling. Zendesk is best for ticketing for a team of support agents and Phone, chat and email support in one place.
Which is cheaper, Retell AI, Yoodli or Zendesk?
Retell AI: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at About $0.07–$0.31/min. Yoodli: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $8/mo. Zendesk: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at $19/agent/mo.
Which is easier to use, Retell AI, Yoodli or Zendesk?
Yoodli rates highest for ease of use in our scores. Professionals, founders and sales teams who want to practise pitches, presentations and hard conversations out loud.
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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