What will I actually be paying per year?
Annual billing is often tempting because it offers a per user price that is slightly lower than monthly billing. However, annual billing requires you to pay for a full year either in advance, or by the end of the service year. As such, the true cost of annual billing should factor in the entire year.
The prices bolded below are the total upfront cost for a full year, for the minimum number of users for that tier.
Zendesk Suite Team
- $49/user/month
- Because you are billed annually, your minimum upfront cost is 49 x 12 = $588 (for a single user)
Zendesk Suite Growth
- $79/user/month
- Because you are billed annually, your minimum upfront cost is 79 x 12 = $948 (for a single user)
Zendesk Suite Professional
- $99/user/month
- Because you are billed annually, your minimum upfront cost is 99 x 12 = $1,188 (for a single user)
Zendesk Suite Enterprise
- $150/user/month
- Because you are billed annually, your minimum upfront cost is 150 x 12 = $1,800 (for a single user)
When should I pay monthly instead of annually?
While there are many reasons why you would opt to pay monthly instead of annually (for example, the ability to switch CRMs whenever you want), one of the more straightforward reasons would be the duration of time you plan on using a CRM.
Listed below is the maximum duration of time you would need to use a CRM tier before it is more "worth it" to pay for a full year instead.
Zendesk Suite Team
- $59 per user per month
- This is 20.4% more expensive than the monthly price billed annually.
- For a single user, you should opt for monthly billing if you plan on using Zendesk Suite Team for fewer than 588/59 = ~9 months.
Zendesk Suite Growth
- $99 per user per month
- This is 25.3% more expensive than the monthly price billed annually.
- For a single user, you should opt for monthly billing if you plan on using Zendesk Suite Growth for fewer than 948/99 = ~9 months.
Zendesk Suite Professional (free trial is on this tier)
- $125 per user per month
- This is 26.3% more expensive than the monthly price billed annually.
- For a single user, you should opt for monthly billing if you plan on using Zendesk Suite Professional for fewer than 1188/125 = ~9 months.
Zendesk Suite Enterprise
- $199 per user per month
- This is 32.7% more expensive than the monthly price billed annually.
- For a single user, you should opt for monthly billing if you plan on using Zendesk Suite Enterprise for fewer than 1800/199 = ~9 months.
Zendesk Suite Team
- Includes help desk tools like emails, contact forms, tickets. 2 departments on each account, call recording and group call routing, 1 default language, 1 help center. 50MB of data storage and 2GB of file storage per user, 100,000 contacts and companies.
Zendesk Suite Growth
- Includes 40+ languages, custom themes and article views for your help center, up to 5 help centers, customer portals, customer satisfaction surveys, 100MB of data storage and 5GB of file storage per user.
Zendesk Suite Professional
- Includes operating hours for call and live chat center, community forums, unlimited departments on each account, 1hr refresh rate for reports, 250,000 contacts and companies.
Zendesk Suite Enterprise
- Includes more custom theme templates, up to 300 help centers, up to 1000 automated answers, guided help ticket management for agents, publishing workflows for knowledge base, audit logs, 200MB of data storage and 10GB of file storage per user, 1,000,000 contacts and companies.
Many CRMs offer a free version of their software with severe feature limitations. While appealing to small businesses or solopreneurs, most free versions are simply marketing tools to introduce new users to a paid tier and are not designed to be scalable.
