HubSpot vs Zendesk

2023. HubSpot unveils strategy to integrate AI across the platform



HubSpot, the marketing and CRM platform, has unveiled its comprehensive AI strategy known as HubSpot AI. While the incorporation of AI elements has been an ongoing effort for HubSpot and other enterprise SaaS vendors, the advent of technologies like ChatGPT has prompted HubSpot to adopt a more extensive approach while retaining earlier features. The CRM database stores valuable company data, enabling users to gain insights into customer profiles, encompassing basic information, purchase history, customer service interactions, and more. HubSpot AI encompasses a four-pronged strategy, starting with content assistants that assist users in generating various content types across the platform. Additionally, AI agents, currently in different development stages, aim to automate customer service tasks and answer queries. The third component, AI Insights, provides predictive analytics, such as identifying customers likely to churn or make a purchase, a capability integrated into the platform over time.


2022. Zendesk is acquired for $10.2B



Zendesk made a significant decision in February when it rejected a $17 billion acquisition offer, confident in its higher valuation. However, the circumstances have changed, and today the company has been acquired by a consortium of private equity firms for $10.2 billion, considerably lower than the initial proposal. The evolving landscape of the SaaS market in recent months has placed Zendesk amidst a whirlwind of investor drama. In a recent development, the company opted to remain independent, causing a sharp decline in its stock price.


2021. Zendesk acquires AI automation startup Cleverly to advance customer service



Zendesk has recently revealed its acquisition of Cleverly, an early-stage artificial intelligence startup. Cleverly offers an advanced product platform equipped with various AI-powered features. This includes a triage function that automatically assigns relevant tags to incoming service requests, facilitating efficient workflow categorization. Moreover, Cleverly provides AI-powered human augmentation through its agent assist capability, which assists customer service agents in delivering accurate responses to inquiries. Cleverly's technology seamlessly integrates with Zendesk and Salesforce, enabling enhanced customer support experiences for businesses leveraging these platforms.


2020. HubSpot’s new end-to-end sales hub aims to simplify CRM for mid-market customers



HubSpot, renowned for its role in shaping the concept of inbound marketing, has unveiled the HubSpot Sales Hub Enterprise. While the company has been providing a CRM tool for five years, which has successfully addressed the usability concerns of salespeople, the new offering aims to deliver a comprehensive approach that caters to the needs of not only sales professionals but also management and system administrators. HubSpot recognizes that larger players in the industry, such as Adobe, Salesforce, and SAP, typically acquire various components of the technology stack and integrate them into their solutions, or customers themselves piece together different elements. In contrast, HubSpot believes that developing a unified, integrated solution in-house will naturally result in a more user-friendly experience.


2020. HubSpot unveils new content management system for marketers



HubSpot, a renowned inbound marketing firm, has introduced a dedicated content management system (CMS) specifically designed to simplify the process of adding and updating content for marketing professionals. While content management has always been a fundamental aspect of HubSpot's offerings, this new CMS has been developed from scratch with marketers in mind. It provides developers with the flexibility to use their preferred programming languages while leveraging the modular structure of the HubSpot CMS. Simultaneously, the user-friendly interface empowers marketers to make frequent changes necessary for modern websites.


2020. Zendesk’s latest tools designed to give fuller view of the customer



Two years ago, Zendesk, a well-known provider of help desk software, expanded into CRM with its acquisition of Base. Shortly after, the company introduced the Sunshine platform, enabling customers to develop applications on top of the Zendesk platform. Since then, Zendesk has been actively integrating the CRM tool into its platform, and today's announcement focuses on offering Zendesk users a more comprehensive understanding of their customers. With access to extensive data from customer interactions with the help desk, Zendesk can provide valuable insights into customer preferences and behaviors.


2018. Zendesk launched customer service app builder



Zendesk has introduced Zendesk Sunshine, a new platform designed for developing customer-centric applications utilizing Zendesk's toolset. This platform enables companies to create custom apps, primarily focused on customer experience and relationship management, which are hosted on AWS and have access to a wide range of AWS services. All applications built on the Sunshine platform rely on it for seamless information sharing. The primary goal of this approach is to empower Zendesk customers to leverage the data they collect within Zendesk as a natural outcome of their workflow. While initially targeted towards Zendesk customers, independent developers may also have the opportunity to work on the platform in the future. Zendesk Sunshine aims to enhance customer service capabilities by providing a flexible and scalable platform for building tailored applications and harnessing valuable data within the Zendesk ecosystem.


2018. HubSpot added customer service tools to its marketing platform



HubSpot is venturing beyond sales and marketing by officially introducing its Service Hub, a comprehensive solution for managing customer service. This expansion includes an all-in-one inbox for organizing all customer communications, a bot-builder to automate certain customer interactions, features for developing a company knowledge base (which can be utilized by the bot-builder), survey creation tools, and a dashboard for monitoring the performance of your service team. Service Hub is seamlessly integrated with HubSpot's existing products, enabling businesses to track customer interactions across sales, marketing, and support.


2018. Zendesk launched enterprise content management platform



Zendesk has introduced Guide Enterprise, a new enterprise content management product specifically designed for large customer service organizations. This solution aims to provide these organizations with a knowledge base and a content management platform for effective editorial planning and review. The primary goal is to empower customer service representatives to document solutions to encountered problems, thus building a robust knowledge base as an integral part of their daily workflow. By accessing their colleagues' notes, representatives can avoid reinventing the wheel and contribute to the permanent knowledge base through editorial review. This way, when customers visit the website or app, they can access solutions to common issues without immediate human assistance. The platform also incorporates reminders to regularly review and update the content, ensuring the knowledge base remains up-to-date while eliminating outdated information.


2017. HubSpot unveiled Conversations



CRM, marketing, sales, and customer experience provider HubSpot has introduced a range of product updates, including notable integrations with Facebook for advertising purposes, Shopify for ecommerce functionalities, and the introduction of a new tool called "Conversations." The Conversations tool, facilitated by chatbots, consolidates customer messages into a single inbox, representing the evolution of HubSpot's live chat platform. This unified messaging system becomes crucial during significant transitions, such as the handoff from sales to support. Key features of Conversations include seamless integration with HubSpot CRM and the ability to create chatbots, leveraging the technology obtained from HubSpot's recent acquisition of the chatbot platform, Motion AI. These updates aim to enhance customer interactions and streamline communication processes within the HubSpot platform.