Comparison
Coasting vs Zendesk
Zendesk is the biggest name in support software, priced per agent and built for larger teams. Coasting is a small flat-priced helpdesk for a handful of people answering email and website chat.
The short answer
- Choose Zendesk when you have a bigger support team, need phone, social and dozens of integrations, or must satisfy a procurement checklist.
- Choose Coasting when a per-agent bill for a team of three or five feels out of proportion to the work.
Pricing
| Zendesk | Coasting | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | None - a 14 day trial | Yes: 3 agents, 50 AI answers a month |
| Cheapest paid plan | Support Team, $19 per agent a month | $29 a month flat, up to 5 agents |
| Plan with chat and a help center | Suite Team, $55 per agent a month | Included on every plan |
| A team of five costs | $275 a month on Suite Team | $29 a month |
| AI answers | 5 automated resolutions per agent a month included, then $1.50 each committed or $2.00 pay-as-you-go | 500 a month included at $29; 5,000 at $79 |
| AI help for agents | Copilot, $50 per agent a month | AI drafts and summaries included |
| Can you pay today? | Yes | Yes - by card, month to month; the free plan needs no card |
Zendesk prices checked 9 October 2026 from zendesk.com/pricing, shown for yearly billing. Check their page before deciding - prices change.
What Coasting does today
- Customer email and website chat in one shared inbox, with assignment, tags, private notes and collision detection.
- AI that answers from your own help articles and hands the rest to your team.
- A public help center, saved replies, CSAT surveys, automations and analytics.
- A REST API and signed webhooks on the Scale plan.
What Coasting does not do yet
- Phone, social and messaging channels - Zendesk has all of them; Coasting has email and website chat.
- App store apps - there is nothing to download. Coasting installs to your phone's home screen and opens without a browser bar, and the whole inbox works there - read a thread, reply, send. What you do not get is push notifications; Coasting emails your team instead when someone is waiting.
- Enterprise paperwork - no SOC 2 report, no SLAs, no procurement questionnaire answers.
If any of these is a must-have today, Zendesk is the better fit right now.
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