# WHMCS vs Kayako vs Zendesk



## DudeThatsErin (Sep 9, 2017)

Which is better? Why?

Right now I'm using WHMCS for my hosting site but I've been thinking about switching. Should I or is WHMCS good enough?

It comes free with the hosting I have so it is going from free to a paid service which is why I wanted to see what you guys thought.

I've also googled but the last post I saw here for it was in 2014 and I'm sure a lot has changed in 3 years.


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## MannDude (Sep 9, 2017)

For a support desk, I really enjoyed Kayako. WHMCS is nice, and perhaps it's changed over the last couple years since I've last really used it, but Kayako at the time (for a support desk) was much nicer and simply had a ton more features that came in handy for a large company. Keep in mind that my experience with Kayako was only the support desk that was intergrated into a large company's custom billing portal and platform, so your mileage may vary.

No real experience with ZenDesk so I can't comment on that.


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## Liquidips (Sep 10, 2017)

For a support desk in a company, Ideally Kayako will be perfect. but it lacks automation


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## MannDude (Sep 10, 2017)

What sort of automation are you seeking? You can do automatic replies, closing of tickets after a period of inactivity, etc via kayako.


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## herehost (Sep 11, 2017)

We using WHMCS for billing system integrated with it's API with php framework and we are very happy from it. If you going to sell or resell WHMCS is perfect for this.


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## zomgmike (Sep 14, 2017)

Kayako is better than WHMCS' ticket system. I haven't used ZenDesk. A huge upside to Kayako is the integration of both Livechat and tickets using the same service (as opposed to using yet another option to add livechat) The downside, of course, is the price.


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## DudeThatsErin (Sep 16, 2017)

MannDude said:


> For a support desk, I really enjoyed Kayako. WHMCS is nice, and perhaps it's changed over the last couple years since I've last really used it, but Kayako at the time (for a support desk) was much nicer and simply had a ton more features that came in handy for a large company. Keep in mind that my experience with Kayako was only the support desk that was intergrated into a large company's custom billing portal and platform, so your mileage may vary.
> 
> No real experience with ZenDesk so I can't comment on that.



Good to know. Thanks for reporting your experience with both!



Liquidips said:


> For a support desk in a company, Ideally Kayako will be perfect. but it lacks automation



What kind of automation are you referring to?



MannDude said:


> What sort of automation are you seeking? You can do automatic replies, closing of tickets after a period of inactivity, etc via kayako.



I would need automation of creating, terminating, and modifying (upgrading/downgrading) accounts. As well as registering domains and such.

That automatic replies and such seems like a basic feature to me.



herehost said:


> We using WHMCS for billing system integrated with it's API with php framework and we are very happy from it. If you going to sell or resell WHMCS is perfect for this.



Thanks for sharing. I've been using WHMCS and it works I was just thinking about switching but it sounds like the best solution from what I've found online and here.



zomgmike said:


> Kayako is better than WHMCS' ticket system. I haven't used ZenDesk. A huge upside to Kayako is the integration of both Livechat and tickets using the same service (as opposed to using yet another option to add livechat) The downside, of course, is the price.



Do they have their own live chat? Is that how they are able to do that?

Right now I have them separate and I saw some place that had them together and thought that was cool but I did see the price. I think that may have been Kayako. Would be nice to have them together like that and for live chats to automatically create tickets but that seems minor.

Does it have the same automation that WHMCS does? As in creating, modifying, or terminating accounts as well as email accounts and adding/transferring domains?


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## zomgmike (Sep 20, 2017)

DudeThatsErin said:


> Do they have their own live chat? Is that how they are able to do that?
> 
> Right now I have them separate and I saw some place that had them together and thought that was cool but I did see the price. I think that may have been Kayako. Would be nice to have them together like that and for live chats to automatically create tickets but that seems minor.
> 
> Does it have the same automation that WHMCS does? As in creating, modifying, or terminating accounts as well as email accounts and adding/transferring domains?



Kayako is only support software, it does not do billing as well. It can be integrated nicely with WHMCS. It features a lot more options in tickets, such as "automatically reopen this ticket in X hours" and things like that.


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## oneilonline (Sep 28, 2017)

WHMCS for your billing, and Kayako for your support portal.
However, linking tickets to accounts is nice, which is the appeal with WHMCS built in ticket system.
Kayako is expensive, but fast, again, no linking to WHMCS accounts.
WHMCS live chat is garbage, has and always will be. They don't want to put any effort into it, nor do they intend to.
ZenDesk hasn't changed much in years, and on the customer end is kluncky and annoying.
FYI ~ WHMCS ticket system does have an "escalation" status, which does "automatically reopen this ticket in X hours".


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## Lampard (Oct 4, 2017)

I would recommend you Kayako, better and simple.


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## stefiee (Oct 10, 2017)

DudeThatsErin said:


> Which is better? Why?
> 
> Right now I'm using WHMCS for my hosting site but I've been thinking about switching. Should I or is WHMCS good enough?
> 
> ...


There are many alternatives for WHMCS but WHMCS is a open source and well documented and its known for its extendibility and flexibility


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## XiNiX (Oct 11, 2017)

DudeThatsErin said:


> Which is better? Why?
> 
> Right now I'm using WHMCS for my hosting site but I've been thinking about switching. Should I or is WHMCS good enough?
> 
> ...



WHMCS's support system is quite good. If you have a good team and want things to get managed better WHMCS + kayako might be a better idea to isolate Support from Billing alltogether.


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