The Zoho Desk Alternative
Built for Multi-Client Teams
Zoho Desk is a capable helpdesk for one company supporting its own customers. Support many client companies and the model strains: you pay per agent, every client is a "department" inside one shared account, and multi-brand portals are gated behind the top plan. StrataDesk gives each client their own space — and their own database.
Why Teams Look Beyond Zoho Desk
Per-agent pricing
Plans run €7-40/agent/month (billed annually). Every technician you hire raises the bill.
Multi-brand needs Enterprise
Multi-brand help centers are an Enterprise-plan feature. Supporting several clients under their own branding means buying the top tier.
Departments are not tenants
Clients are separated by department inside a single account — one shared data store, no per-client database, no per-client restore.
Backups are account-wide
Backup covers the whole account, not one client. Only the primary contact can run one, a full backup locks out the next for 30 days, and the download link expires after 7.
StrataDesk vs Zoho Desk
| StrataDesk | Zoho Desk | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Per client space — agents free | Per agent (€7-40/mo) |
| Database per end-client | Separate PostgreSQL DB | No — shared account, departments |
| Per-client backup | pg_dump per client | Account-wide only, 1 full per 30 days |
| Branded portals | Included | Multi-brand on Enterprise only |
| Asset management | Dynamic custom types | Not in Zoho Desk’s feature set |
| Recurring tickets | Native, with per-asset fan-out | Deluge function on a schedule |
| Self-hosted option | Docker-based | No on-premise option published |
| Free tier | Yes, stays free | 3 users, limited features |
To Be Fair: What Zoho Desk Does Well
- +Genuinely inexpensive entry pricing, and a free tier for three users
- +Enormous feature breadth, plus tight integration with the wider Zoho suite
- +A strong fit if you are one company supporting your own product's customers
If that's you, Zoho Desk is good value. If you're an agency or MSP supporting many client companies — each wanting their own branding, their own SLAs, and a straight answer about where their data lives — that's the case StrataDesk was built for.
Switching Is Our Job, Not Yours
Request a space and we provision it within 24 hours — with a dedicated database per client. Founding customers get their data migrated by us, free: boards, tickets, contacts, the lot.
Zoho Desk is a trademark of its respective owner; StrataDesk is not affiliated with or endorsed by it. Competitor prices are annual-billing list prices where published and may vary by contract, team size, region, and billing cycle. Feature statements reflect the vendor's public documentation, last verified in July 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us and we'll fix it promptly.