Zendesk alternative: Lonca vs Zendesk
Short answer: if you need advanced automation, a customer-facing help center and a large app marketplace, Zendesk is the more mature product. If you want customer messages, internal team chat and task tracking in one app, starting at 19$ per user per month, Lonca is the better fit.
At a glance
| Feature | Lonca | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Price per user per month | $19 (Professional) · $39 (Enterprise); two months free on yearly billing | Suite Team $55 · Suite Professional $115 (billed yearly); $69 · $149 billed monthly |
| Customer channels | Email (Gmail, Microsoft 365, IMAP/SMTP), Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, phone (Voiso PBX integration). WhatsApp: coming soon | Email, web and mobile messaging, WhatsApp, social channels, phone (numbers and minutes cost extra) |
| Internal team chat (channels, DMs, threads) | ✓ | No; internal notes on tickets, side conversations on Professional |
| Task boards (Kanban, list, calendar) | ✓ | No Kanban; task lists on Suite Professional only |
| Internal voice calls and screen sharing | ✓ | No |
| CRM (contact and company cards, timeline) | ✓ | Customer profiles; separate CRM product costs extra |
| Customer-facing help center | No | ✓ |
| Ready-made integrations | Limited | Very large app marketplace |
When to choose Zendesk
- You run a support team of dozens of agents and need advanced routing, automation and AI agents.
- You want a help center and knowledge base where customers solve problems themselves.
- You need ready-made integrations with many of the tools you already use.
- You need WhatsApp from day one.
When to choose Lonca
- You don't want to split customer and internal communication across tools: one app instead of Zendesk, Slack and Trello.
- You want to turn a customer message into a task in one click and track it on a board.
- GDPR compliance matters to you, including an immutable audit log of critical actions.
- You're on a budget: Lonca's omnichannel inbox comes with the Professional plan at $19 per user per month (up to 20 users).
Zendesk pricing and features were taken from zendesk.com/pricing in October 2026. Check the official page for current details.