Palby AI Agent

Zendesk alternative

A Zendesk alternative for businesses that only need WhatsApp answered

Keep the WhatsApp number your leads already have. The agent answers from your FAQs and past chats, and hands the hot ones to you.

Book a walkthrough

30 minutes. You choose the day and the time.

The short version

Stay with Zendesk if your team answers email, chat and phone as tickets, and you want AI agents and 1,800+ apps around them. Pick Palby AI Agent if nearly all your enquiries arrive on WhatsApp, and you want an agent that answers them in your words, books the good ones and hands the hot ones to you.

Who should pick which

Stay with Zendesk if

  • Your customers write by email and phone as well as WhatsApp, and you work them as tickets
  • Your team works from one help desk, priced per agent
  • Your support team is large enough to need a help desk

Pick Palby AI Agent if

  • Nearly all your enquiries arrive on the WhatsApp number on your phone
  • You want an agent that answers from your price list, your FAQs and your past chats
  • You'd rather it checked in once with a quiet lead than kept on messaging

Side by side

Compared onPalby AI AgentZendeskSource
How it connectsYour own WhatsApp, linked as a device the way WhatsApp Web is, through Green APIWhatsApp is one of its messaging channels, with additional feesZendesk pricing
Who it's forSmall businesses whose enquiries arrive on WhatsAppSupport teams that work email, chat and phone as ticketsZendesk pricing
The AI agentAnswers from your files, your website and your past chats, books onto your booking page and hands over to a WhatsApp alert number or a Lark groupAI agents on Suite Team and upZendesk pricing
ChannelsWhatsApp onlyEmail, chat, phone, and messaging apps like WhatsApp, Slack, WeChat and LINEZendesk pricing
PriceNo public price yet. You get one on the walkthroughSupport Team US$19 an agent a month paid yearly. Suite Team US$55, Suite Professional US$115Zendesk pricing
To startBook a 30-minute walkthroughBuy from its pricing page, or start a trialZendesk pricing
As of November 2026. Zendesk's details are from its own pages, read on 1 November 2026. Plans and prices change, so check them before you pay.

Where Zendesk is strong

Zendesk is a full help desk. Email, chat, phone and messaging apps like WhatsApp land as tickets your team routes, tracks and reports on. Suite Team adds AI agents, live chat and telephony, and 1,800+ apps, partners and integrations plug in around it. It prints its prices, from US$19 an agent a month paid yearly. If your support runs on email and phone as well as chat, Zendesk is the safer pick.

The three differences that matter

Link the number you already use

Open WhatsApp on your phone, go to Linked devices and scan the code, the way you'd link WhatsApp Web. There's no Business API to apply for and no template to get approved. Your phone keeps working, and messages you send from it show up in the inbox too.

Let the agent write like you

The agent reads your inbox's own past chats, so it sounds like you from the first message. It answers from the files you upload and your website pages, which it re-reads on a schedule. When a lead wants a time, it books it on your booking page.

Check in once, at least a day later

When a chat goes quiet, the agent checks in once at most, at least 24 hours later and never at night. By default, someone who never wrote back isn't chased. Quiet hours run from 11pm to 9am unless you change them.

Switching in three steps

  1. Book a 30-minute walkthrough, and bring your price list and FAQs.
  2. Link your number from your phone: Settings, Linked devices, Link a device.
  3. Try the agent in a test chat, then publish it when the answers look right.

Before you switch

Questions people ask about leaving Zendesk

Try the agent on your own FAQs

Bring your price list and your FAQs to the walkthrough.

Book a walkthrough

30 minutes. You choose the day and the time.