Desk.com (discontinued) vs. Front

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Desk.com (discontinued)
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Desk.com was a helpdesk, ticketing, and customer support product offered by Salesforce, and oriented towards the needs of small businesses. It is no longer sold and support has been discontinued. Salesforce recommends its modern Service Cloud as a replacement.N/A
Front
Score 7.2 out of 10
N/A
Front is a communication hub that helps businesses keep the human touch in every interaction.
$29
per month per user
Pricing
Desk.com (discontinued)Front
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Starter
$29
per month per user
Growth
$79
per month per user
Scale
$99
per month (billed annually) per user
Premier
$229
per month (billed annually) per seat (50 seat minimum)
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Desk.com (discontinued)Front
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsDiscount for annual pricing on Starter and Growth plans. Scale and Premier plans are annual price only.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Desk.com (discontinued)Front
Best Alternatives
Desk.com (discontinued)Front
Small Businesses
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
SysAid
SysAid
Score 9.1 out of 10
SysAid
SysAid
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Desk.com (discontinued)Front
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(0 ratings)
6.5
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.3
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
1.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.2
(0 ratings)
9.8
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Desk.com (discontinued)Front
Likelihood to Recommend
Desk.com and the Salesforce Service Cloud provide a sophisticated suite to easily create and track cases coming in, along with automatically routing and escalating issues as they arise. It allows me to configure my own workflows and customizes consoles with easy drag and drop functionality. It is the perfect help desk software, which integrates with the Salesforce Sales and Commerce clouds seamlessly. The in-app and mobile support is also very expedient and helpful.
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I think Front is very useful for every company with multiple teams working together on different emails from clients. Not so useful if a lot of different teams need to work on a request at the same time, because when an email is sitting in multiple shared inboxes things can get messy. Also would not recommend for teams that work is individualized, as team work is the main point of Front.
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Pros
  • Help Center. Desk has worked endlessly with us to perfect our Help Center. They are dedicated and willing to work in order to make your product right.
  • Customization. Though we exceeded the rule limitation for Desk, they have still allowed us to take their product and make it our own. We have our own labeling, and priority system which help us hit important SLAs.
  • User education. Whenever there is a new feature released, I feel like I'm in the know about it which is extremely important when we've been requesting certain features for a long period of time. Their communication is on point.
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  • I call them "sticky notes" but Front calls them Comments. It's a way to collaboratively make comments on messages sent to joint inboxes for folks to coordinate a response before it goes back to the sender.
  • When exchanging with someone using the Comments feature, someone can create a draft reply and then share it before it goes out. It also includes the typing indicator letting you know they are not just replying, but specifically working on a draft reply. These things are really great for individuals, or teams, that don't sit next to each other.
  • Tagging. It's a fairly simple concept, but very useful for classifying notes and being able to manage, what could be, a messy inbox. Additionally, the ability to have your own personal tags really allows the user to manage their own messages in a way that works best for them.
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Cons
  • Internal knowledge tools are clunky and annoying to access, outside the regular workflow of everyday staff
  • Arbitrary and confusing limitations in business rules and custom fields
  • Arbitrary and confusing limitations in case handling - for example, if you begin a case as a phone call you CANNOT email the customer from the case. As though no one working at Desk has ever sent a follow-up email...?
  • Not very good for B2B, mid-to-large businesses. Difficult to set business rules based on company information (for example, service level/tier) and nearly impossible to track key stakeholders and get clear insight into the relationship at a high level
  • Reporting tools are clunky, slow, and just all-around pretty useless
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  • Zoom Meeting Integration as there are some clients who want to have a call immediately.
  • Tagging can be improved - looks scattered.
  • Calendly Integration, they have their own calendar appointment but it would be good if I don't need to leave the front to set up [calendar] appointments.
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Likelihood to Renew
We will be very likely to renew our contract with Desk.com. It is easy to use, and provides us with everything we need to keep our customers and employees happy. They have also been very helpful in catering the application to our specific and unique needs, including working across brands and adding specific content for our products
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We are very happy with Front and don't anticipate changing
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Usability
Once it is fully set up with all of the unique and necessary customizations for your organization, it becomes easier to use, but before that, it is not very user-friendly and there are not a lot of training resources available. You likely need a Salesforce admin for initial set-up who is experienced with customization.
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It's very easy to understand and use by new customer support agents as well. Be it a technology, product, or marketing person, we have trained most of the company folks to read and respond to customer conversations in their free time with the help of the Front app. It is also easy to set up for an admin and manage his/her team with communication rules.
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Reliability and Availability
We've never had a problem with Desk.com's availability.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
Fast, responsive, gorgeous, and fun. It's always run like a thoroughbred for me.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
I always get the support and needed answers in a timely manner. Whether by email, ticket, or call. There's always a solution available or a potential one available. Everything is clear and straight to the point in customer support from Desk. I didn't face any difficulty so far with that.
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The support is good, and it's definitely prompt, but still lags when it comes to technical requirements, as I guess they are slow in developing newer features fast. So no complaints in terms of responsiveness, but yeah, at times it's not very helpful when you need certain features or are blocked on things which can't be unblocked.
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Implementation Rating
As I stated earlier, implementation of Desk.com went more smoothly than most. The resources in the "Support Center" are fantastic, and I never ran into anything that left me stumped, angry, or disappointed.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Wix Answers was much better compared to Desk.com. It had more excellent and much better and more tools and was very customizable. Luckily it also had a search tool and also the sort and filter tools. The only thing better than Wix Answers on desk.com was that we could keep internal communication records by adding notes on tickets, and it saved a lot of time.
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This is something I am not familiar but it seems like it is [available] in Gmail. Thus I cannot give any feedback about it. What I am sure about is Front works for our team and I see Zoom using the service in the Customer Success Organization in a long run.
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Return on Investment
  • It has definitely had a positive impact by helping our team quickly address issues people are having with our product.
  • Desk.com has helped our team and company get better by addressing customer and tester issues faster, and tracking data so that our team can improve the quality and speed of all of our outgoing communications.
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  • Quality- with all the benefits given, in just matter of time, all your organization will find it familiar and less effort is needed when composing emails.
  • Effectiveness- no one wants to miss an email, or never respond to a possible customer. Front will help you that. If you do not want to send that email now, you can set a timer and Front will send it for you later on.
  • Simplicity- Front is not the most difficult app to handle, indeed, it is too easy to learn. From the first moment you will have a guided tour and will learn all the good things that it has for you.
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ScreenShots

Desk.com (discontinued) Screenshots

Screenshot of Desk.com ConsoleScreenshot of Desk.com Issue ScreenScreenshot of Desk.com Reporting and Analytics

Front Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of