Jelly is a refreshingly simple shared inbox for teams who want to collaborate on email without the headache.
Compared to Jelly, Zendesk is huge. It’s the Swiss Army knife of customer support platforms. If you run a massive call center or an enterprise-level support operation, Zendesk might be your best bet. But what if you’re a small team who just wants to handle emails together without needing a week of onboarding (or a full-time admin to manage it)? Enter Jelly.
If you’re wondering how Jelly stacks up against Zendesk, here’s a fair breakdown to help you decide which tool fits your team best.
Want to jump right in and see for yourself? Try Jelly for free
1. Simplicity vs. Complexity
Jelly is all about keeping things simple. You connect your email, invite your team, and boom — you’re working together. It feels like email (because it is email), but with smart collaboration features that make life easier.
Zendesk, on the other hand, is an enterprise powerhouse. It offers multi-channel support (email, chat, phone, social media), custom automations, and an entire ecosystem of tools. But with that power comes complexity. Setting it up takes time, and customizing it to fit your workflows often requires a lot of patience (or a consultant).
👉 If you want to get started in minutes without reading a manual, Jelly wins.
2. Collaboration That Feels Natural
With Jelly, you can claim conversations, leave internal comments, and see who’s working on what — all without leaving your inbox. The idea is to make working together feel as seamless as possible. Need to loop in a teammate? Just @mention them. Want to know if something’s been handled? Check the status in a click.
Zendesk offers similar collaboration tools, but they live inside a ticketing system. This works great if you need rigorous tracking and reporting, but for many small teams, it can feel heavy-handed. If you just want to keep your inbox tidy and your team on the same page, Jelly keeps things light and easy.
👉 For fast, friction-free collaboration, Jelly makes teamwork feel like second nature.
3. Pricing That Makes Sense
Here’s where things get spicy. Zendesk’s pricing is built for big organizations, and it scales quickly as you add features or team members. Plans start at $25 per user/month but can balloon to $149 per user/month if you want access to key features like advanced reporting or custom workflows.
Yet again, Jelly keeps it simple. Plans start at $29 per month for your entire team. No surprise fees, no per-user pricing — just a fair price for a product that does what you need it to do.
👉 If you’re a small team watching the budget, Jelly is the clear winner.
4. Customer Support vs. Conversations
Zendesk is built for customer support at scale. It excels at handling massive ticket volumes, automating replies, and tracking detailed metrics. If you’re running a high-volume support operation with thousands of requests a day, it’s a beast.
Jelly, however, is built for conversations. It’s perfect for small businesses, startups, and indie teams who want to respond to emails together without turning every message into a ticket. You can still organize and track your conversations, but it feels like a shared inbox — not a help desk.
👉 If you want human-to-human conversations rather than ticket numbers, Jelly is your jam.
Which One Is Right for You?
If you’re a sprawling enterprise with complex customer service workflows, Zendesk is probably the right fit. It has every bell and whistle you could ever need (and then some).
But if you’re a small team who wants to handle email together without the bloat, Jelly gives you everything you need and nothing you don’t. It’s easy to set up, fun to use, and priced fairly.
Sometimes simple is better. And if that’s what you’re after, it might be time to give Jelly a spin for free.