Microsoft Dynamics 365 vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Dynamics 365
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a CRM providing sales, marketing, and service functionality. It is offered as SaaS and on-premise. Dynamics 365 is part of the larger Dynamics suite of business intelligence and ERP products.
$44
per month
Zendesk Suite
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Zendesk is a customer support solution with built-in ticketing, conversational messaging, and live chat, designed to help businesses of all sizes and industries deliver personalized service at scale. Zendesk's AI agents are trained in CX to help Service teams resolve customer issues faster and more accurately while still providing a human-centered experience. Zendesk ultimately aims to help businesses improve time to value, reduce effort per ticket, and keep costs low.
$69
per month per agent
Pricing
Microsoft Dynamics 365Zendesk Suite
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Suite Team
$69
per month per agent
Suite Growth
$115
per month per agent
Suite Professional
$149
per month per agent
Suite Enterprise
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Dynamics 365Zendesk Suite
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details20% discount available with annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft Dynamics 365Zendesk Suite
Considered Both Products
Microsoft Dynamics 365
Chose Microsoft Dynamics 365
[Microsoft Dynamics CRM stacks up] Very poorly. You should go for a CRM with a modern cloud architecture.
Zendesk Suite
Features
Microsoft Dynamics 365Zendesk Suite
Sales Force Automation
Comparison of Sales Force Automation features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.7
83 Ratings
1% below category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Customer data management / contact management7.981 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow management7.879 Ratings00 Ratings
Territory management7.160 Ratings00 Ratings
Opportunity management7.572 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)8.278 Ratings00 Ratings
Contract management7.961 Ratings00 Ratings
Quote & order management7.757 Ratings00 Ratings
Interaction tracking8.171 Ratings00 Ratings
Channel / partner relationship management7.362 Ratings00 Ratings
Customer Service & Support
Comparison of Customer Service & Support features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
8.0
68 Ratings
5% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Case management7.863 Ratings00 Ratings
Call center management7.850 Ratings00 Ratings
Help desk management8.457 Ratings00 Ratings
Marketing Automation
Comparison of Marketing Automation features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.8
78 Ratings
1% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Lead management7.672 Ratings00 Ratings
Email marketing8.171 Ratings00 Ratings
CRM Project Management
Comparison of CRM Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
8.0
76 Ratings
4% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Task management8.171 Ratings00 Ratings
Billing and invoicing management8.054 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting8.065 Ratings00 Ratings
CRM Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of CRM Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.6
77 Ratings
0% below category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Forecasting7.667 Ratings00 Ratings
Pipeline visualization7.773 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable reports7.476 Ratings00 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.7
80 Ratings
1% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Custom fields7.678 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom objects7.572 Ratings00 Ratings
Scripting environment7.956 Ratings00 Ratings
API for custom integration7.861 Ratings00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
8.8
75 Ratings
5% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Single sign-on capability8.869 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based user permissions8.770 Ratings00 Ratings
Social CRM
Comparison of Social CRM features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.7
44 Ratings
4% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Social data7.843 Ratings00 Ratings
Social engagement7.643 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrations with 3rd-party Software
Comparison of Integrations with 3rd-party Software features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.2
65 Ratings
3% below category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Marketing automation7.665 Ratings00 Ratings
Compensation management6.834 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform
Comparison of Platform features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
6.8
56 Ratings
10% below category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Mobile access6.856 Ratings00 Ratings
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.8
172 Ratings
7% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings9.3171 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings8.2118 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings8.7119 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings8.2122 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.4172 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings9.3171 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.4
156 Ratings
5% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings8.3150 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings8.5143 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.8
168 Ratings
10% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings9.1138 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings8.570 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings8.4112 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings9.3165 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings9.0128 Ratings
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Microsoft Dynamics 365Zendesk Suite
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
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Score 9.1 out of 10
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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Creatio
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Score 9.1 out of 10
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User Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics 365Zendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
7.5
(103 ratings)
9.0
(209 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(20 ratings)
10.0
(43 ratings)
Usability
7.4
(33 ratings)
8.8
(82 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(14 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(11 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(11 ratings)
5.6
(31 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
7.5
(2 ratings)
6.4
(10 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.2
(4 ratings)
9.1
(19 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
3.8
(3 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft Dynamics 365Zendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
Provides our company access to manage and customize the folds tailored to our needs. We needed to have certain paragraphs on certain paperwork per customer. MD 365 has those options to customize where needed and remove when not. The system is easy to navigate, and training can be done in a matter of days, even without prior knowledge of the system or similar systems.
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Zendesk
Being a customer support agent, I found it very good when it comes to send an email or call or chat- with the user. I can do all that from the one single platform which is so easy and time saving for you. It does not take much time to use this, We can chat- with the user and at the same time we can send an email to them as well.
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Pros
Microsoft
  • Best to use for AP - like in our organization, there are plenty of AP bills, so with Dynamics, we can quickly enter the same into the Excel utility, which means CSV-based upload, and then we can easily upload the same to the software. It's a time saver.
  • Best for Bank reconciliation - MS Dynamics makes Bank reconciliation easy. Banks can easily sync with software and easily get reconciled.
  • Generating invoices to customers and directly sending them to their inbox is easy with this software.
Read full review
Zendesk
  • UI/UX; mature macros and automations, slick and well thought out UI.
  • Reporting, reporting, reporting. With user, org, and ticket level tags, we can track every aspect of our ticket flow.
  • Extensibility; the app marketplace is a great resource for expanding functionality from the baseline offering.
Read full review
Cons
Microsoft
  • Small learning curve, obviously. You won't figure this out in a day, a week, or even a month. But given time, you can learn to be an expert. Or you can always get a consultant or hire in somebody. But learning the tool isn't out of the questions by any means.
  • Licensing can be confusing at times and isn't cheap, but it is cheaper than Salesforce. Plus no additional fees for data calls to better integrate your D365 CE data with other systems.
  • The Classic user interface left a bit to be desired, but now with the much-improved Unified Interface, the web client and the mobile client look the same, much more modern, and have more flexibility and power behind them for customizers as well.
Read full review
Zendesk
  • Is there a way for AEs and CSMs to be informed in a weekly summary of all their accounts and any tickets? Example: Disney submitted a ticket on XYZ. Google has an urgent issue on X still unresolved.
  • Is there a way for CSMs or AEs to have a Dashboard that's specific to their accounts instead of seeing all the tickets in the queue that are not relevant to them?
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
CRM has allowed us to keep all of our data in one place that is easy for all users within the company to view. I came into the company after they had been using CRM for about 4 years. They have all said that since we have used this it has helped us control work processes better, it has allowed us to be able to track things so much better, and has been something that has helped unite many processes that used to be all over the place. We are currently using CRM 4.0 and are planning on upgrading in the next 18 months to the 2011 version. Support for 4.0 is almost all but dried up. Understandably so. Some of the customization we have done, and a plugins we use, are now contained within the 2011 version so we are looking forward to that upgrade. We use an email marketing company as well, and they primarily support the 2011 version, but their product connects and is integrated within CRM. This is a great benefit as well so that all of our marketing information can be contained in one location.
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Zendesk
Zendesk is an amazing tool for communicating with your customers easily. The communication tickets from sellers to us or from us to sellers are stored, and there are statuses used to make communication easy. We have internal conversations between departments, linked with useful software such as Zingtree, Talkdesk, and Webs.
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Usability
Microsoft
The usability is easily adopted for users familiar with other Microsoft products. Dynamics 365 has several interfaces that cross over browsers and tablets. These multiple interfaces will be phased out and updated to a single unified interface eventually to provide the same usability across all devices. The backend configurations is slowly improving with the introduction of PowerApps compared to pre-D365 Online versions
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Zendesk
Pros: The agent interface is sleek, contemporary, and relatively easy to learn compared to many other enterprise tools. For common tasks, admins are given point-and-click options- adding fields, modifying workflows, constructing macros. The knowledge base (Guide) editor is easy to use for non-developers. Drawbacks: Once you move past the initial things - complex automations, reporting/analytics in Explore, and/or customizations integrating the API, it requires much more advanced training to use successfully. Navigating between the different modules (Support, Explore, Chat, Guide) can feel very disconnected; often you are reminded that it really is a "suite" of products brought together -not really one unified platform. If you're using multiple brands managing simultaneous support tickets, or heavily customizing workflows to meet your brand, you may run into a bit of struggle with usability. So: it's a lot more user friendly than the palaces (Salesforce Service Cloud, ServiceNow), but is not used as quickly or with as much streamlined flow as a product made for a small shop. So if you are looking for a great balance, this is a good option if you are a net new organization or an organization on their way to scaling from 15 - 50 employee. Expect some elbow grease from the admin team once learning, adapting, and working efficiently once you move past the basics with your support tickets and initial customizations.
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Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
In the past year, I'd say I have only noticed maybe two hours total of downtime in my own usage. Very minimal.
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Performance
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
There has been minor performance degradation on a very few days out of the two years I have been using the product.
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Support Rating
Microsoft
Our partner, Ledgeview Partners has been FANTASTIC to work with. They are always timely in their response and have taken time to understand our business and our specific needs. We've made a lot of advanced customizations and they have been a great help in making those updates.
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Zendesk
We rarely need to contact their support team, but when we do they are responsive. However there have been notable times when communication between myself and the support rep was challenging despite me providing clear explanation of the issue, screenshots, and a thorough explanation of the goal we hope to achieve. It took several back and forth attempt, on a few occasions, to get resolution on an otherwise simple request
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Online Training
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
Zendesk has tons of available material for training - videos, webinars, articles, etc. The only reason this is not a 10 is because it can be hard to figure out how to navigate to these things and find what you are looking for.
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Implementation Rating
Microsoft
We used a data warehouse to house our data, and our IT team and implementation vendor worked diligently ahead of time to construct idea implementation plans. Out of millions of records- we had less than a dozen errors, which is remarkable. My major insight is simply having a group of completely devoted individuals working towards your goal who fully understand the desired outcome. Focused resources for implementation season are critical to success.
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Zendesk
I was very satisfied. They have a free trial for 30 days and I recommend you do that and use it. It is very easy to get started with the basics and the build on over time.

The only thing technically complex was single sign-on and integration to Salesforce.com required some tweaks – otherwise setting up system was very easy
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Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
Microsoft Dynamics was part of a system overhaul for a local school, and we looked at many products. If we had used it for a company with low turnover, then it might have been more feasible. They needed something a new person could learn quickly, someone who might also be learning marketing terms at the same time - especially if there is nobody to train the individual now expected to know the system. Similar issues occurred with all of these programs (we called it being too big for their britches), and one of the bigger things we liked was that it is more compatible with MS Office products in both technical and visual appeal. If you have a steady employees who use a CRM consistently, low turnover, and those who are very familiar with Office products, Dynamics would be the smartest option for you. Unfortunately, this was just not true for the school environment
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Zendesk
The customisable reporting every time. Our leadership reply on me to run my team and want to know what customers are telling us so they can elevate our products. We have extensive custom reports that tie up all aspects of our product and customer journeys. I've not found another product that allows me as much freedom as Zendesk Suite explore does, so far.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Microsoft
On our purchase, I'd been interrogated about our usage. Our needs are met by Microsoft Dynamics 365, which is simple to use. With so much data and information available, we must ensure that it is presented correctly to managers. Due to a lack of use, we don't have to spend as much money on Salesforce.
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Zendesk
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
WHY we will use Zendesk in HR and PD internally
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Professional Services
Microsoft
My company's preferred program right now is Microsoft Dynamics 365. We use it to keep track of customers and important sales metrics in a streamlined manner. Anyone familiar with CRMs will find the tool extremely useful. Considering that we have a good turnover, this product will be used for its basic segments. As a result, there are few chances of error with Microsoft dynamics because it is so easy to use. Many options for recording data on these leads are available. It meets our needs and pays off.
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Zendesk
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • For those without a centralized, all in one solution for major HR, Finance and other departments, Microsoft Dynamics 365 has vastly improved employee time utilization and profit.
  • Migrating clients from on-premise to the cloud has reaped benefits including better security, no unscheduled downtime and frequent updates to functionality.
  • Those transferring from cheaper solutions have lost money in the aim to be better integrated with other Microsoft products and AI they don't really utilize.
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Zendesk
  • Integrating other AI solutions for an organization with high volumes can cost about USD5000 monthly. With Zendesk AI and by building onto the same with AI powered apps built for Zendesk Suite we save a projected USD4000 monthly.
  • Robust Zendesk APIs have enabled us to integrate our internal system with a customized app saving us hundreds of hours every quarter spent loading customer profiles that are not loaded instantly from the app.
  • Plug and play apps like Round robin save us weeks of sprint delay timelines as they do not require additional coding or developer support to install and start using.
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ScreenShots

Zendesk Suite Screenshots

Screenshot of the Zendesk Agent WorkspaceScreenshot of Omnichannel MessagingScreenshot of Zendesk TicketingScreenshot of Bots powered by Zendesk AIScreenshot of Tone shift with Zendesk AIScreenshot of Zendesk ticketing side conversations