Comparison · Updated June 2026

Kora vs Zoho Desk

Help desk by Zoho. An honest look at pricing, features, and which tool fits your team.

Kora logoKoraBest for

Teams who want AI-first ticket structuring, flat pricing, and embedded sessions without per-seat costs.

Flat $39/mo pricing — no per-seat scaling costs AI ticket structuring included free on every plan AI Copilot & AI Agent — free, unlimited (no per-resolution billing)
Try Kora free
Z
Zoho DeskBest for

Teams already using Zoho CRM/Books/Projects who want multi-department ticketing, SLA management, and the cheapest per-seat pricing.

Cheapest paid tier ($7/agent/mo Express) Multi-department ticket management SLA tracking and escalation rules (Kora: coming soon)
Visit Zoho Desk

At a glance

Feature
Kora
Zoho Desk
Pricing model
Flat ($39/mo)
Per agent/mo
Free plan
Free forever, 15 members
Free, 3 agents
AI ticket structuring
Unlimited, all plans
Zia AI on Enterprise ($40/agent)
AI Analyst
Included Free (10-200 q/mo)
Public API (20+ endpoints)
All plans incl. Free
Standard+
Embedded sessions
Yes
No
Omnichannel
Coming soon
Native (email, chat, phone, social)
Knowledge base
Coming soon
Yes
SLA tracking
Coming soon
Yes (Professional+)
EU data residency
Yes (Cloudflare D1, EU)
Varies (US, EU, IN, JP, AU)

Pricing at your team size

Kora is free up to 15 members, then flat $39/mo. Zoho Desk charges per agent. Drag the slider to see the difference.

15 agents
Team size
Kora logoKora Free Free
$0/mo
Free forever · up to 15 members · unlimited tickets
Z
Zoho Desk Professional
$345/mo
23/agent/mo × 15 agents
You save $345/mo with Kora
That's $4140/year — enough for a lot more tickets.
Kora logoKora plans
Free$0/mo · up to 15 members
Growth$39/mo flat · up to 50 members
CustomContact us
Z
Zoho Desk plans
FreeFree
Express$7/agent
Standard$14/agent
Professional·$23/agent
Enterprise$40/agent

Feature comparison

Honest, side-by-side. Where we differ, we say so.

Included
Free / unlimited
Coming soon
Partial / limited
Not available
Feature
Kora logoKora
Z
Zoho Desk
Ticket creation
Ticket assignment
Claim model
Round-robin, skill-based
Ticket merging
Bulk ticket actions
Multi-department
Professional+
SLA tracking
Coming soon
Professional+
Escalation rules
Coming soon
AI ticket structuring
Unlimited, all plans
Zia AI on Enterprise ($40/agent)
AI Analyst (text-to-SQL)
Included Free (10-200 q/mo)
AI Copilot (agent assist)
Free, unlimited
Enterprise+
Generative AI (BYOK)
Express+ (OpenAI/DeepSeek)
Comments & attachments
Real-time updates
Internal notes
@mentions
Public REST API (20+ endpoints)
All plans incl. Free
Standard+
Webhooks (outbound)
Zoho ecosystem
Via free API
Native (CRM, Books, Projects)
Custom API creation
Growth+
Embedded sessions (iframe)
Customer portal
Coming soon
White-label
Enterprise
Dashboards
Custom reports
Free, via AI Analyst
Professional+
CSV export
Team analytics
Email
Outbound notifications
Native inbound + outbound
Live chat
Coming soon
Business Messaging
Phone / telephony
Coming soon
Social media
Coming soon
Community forums
Coming soon
SSO
Custom plan
Enterprise
Audit logs
Custom plan
Enterprise
Sandbox
EU data residency
Encryption at rest

Where each one wins

No tool wins everything. Here's the honest split.

Kora logoWhere Kora wins
  • Flat $39/mo pricing — no per-seat scaling costs
  • AI ticket structuring included free on every plan
  • AI Copilot & AI Agent — free, unlimited (no per-resolution billing)
  • Free forever for 15 members (Zoho Free is 3 agents)
  • Embedded sessions for in-app support
  • Public REST API — 20+ endpoints, all plans including Free
Z
Where Zoho Desk wins
  • Cheapest paid tier ($7/agent/mo Express)
  • Multi-department ticket management
  • SLA tracking and escalation rules (Kora: coming soon)
  • Native telephony and social channels (Kora: coming soon)
  • Deep Zoho ecosystem integration (CRM, Books, Projects)
  • Community forums and public knowledge base (Kora: coming soon)
Migration

Why teams switch from Zoho Desk

Common reasons teams move to Kora.

Per-seat pricing adds up — 15 agents on Professional costs $345/mo vs Kora's flat $39
Zia AI requires Enterprise tier ($40/agent/mo) — Kora includes AI structuring on Free
Setup is notoriously rough and the UI feels dated
You want AI-first ticket structuring without upgrading to the top tier
How to migrate
  1. 1Export your tickets from Zoho Desk as CSV
  2. 2Paste raw descriptions into Kora — AI structures them into clean tickets
  3. 3Or use the Public API to import tickets, comments, and attachments programmatically
  4. 4Invite your team — up to 15 members free, 50 on Growth

Common questions

Straight answers about switching to Kora.

For teams of 5+, yes. Kora Growth is $39/mo flat for up to 50 members. Zoho Desk Professional is $23/agent/mo — 15 agents costs $345/mo. Zoho Express ($7/agent) is cheaper for very small teams under 5 agents, but Kora Free supports 15 members at $0.

See for yourself

Start free, invite your team, paste your first ticket. No credit card, no per-seat pricing, no setup call required.

No credit card·EU-hosted·90-day Growth trial·Free forever