If you’ve been using Zendesk for technical B2B support, chances are it feels like a necessary evil for your team. It’s well known, and after years of support teams being embedded in it – the idea of switching to a modern, lesser-known support platform might be daunting. That’s where we come in – Plain is a support platform custom-built for business-critical support. We’re a more agile, faster, and modern alternative, built for technical support and true channel consolidation.

Switching from Zendesk to Plain is a game-changer for technical support teams looking for a faster, consolidated, more collaborative support experience. With Plain, you can build your ideal support workflows, consolidate all your support channels into one interface, and give the best technical support you possibly can to your customers. 

Zendesk obviously caters extremely well to the market of B2C and B2B support – they’re an incumbent in this industry for a reason. But we’re built specifically for one type of team: technical B2B support. 

Why choose Plain over Zendesk?

Consolidate all your channels: Plain works where your team is, and where your customers are. Consolidate your channels into one platform, and stop spending money to add channels like Slack to Zendesk. Combine your support requests from Slack, email, in-app forms, support portal, live chat, MS teams, Discourse and more into one lightning-fast interface that feels like you’ve given your support team superpowers.

Designed for flow, built for speed: every aspect of Plain is designed to facilitate your team to work faster. Say goodbye to Zendesk’s clunky and messy UI. Everything from our rule engine, SLAs, Tiers, Labels, to our keyboard shortcuts – is built with your FRTs, NRTs, and team satisfaction in mind.

Welcome to the collaboration station: bring support closer than ever before to your product teams. With features like our Linear integration, and Slack discussions – you can be confident in your teams’ ability to track customer issues, bugs, and feature requests, kick off feedback loops with engineering and product teams. And, most importantly – keep your customers updated on your progress.

Seamless Developer Integration: Plain is built with developers in mind, offering an extremely powerful and composable API. Build the support stack of your dreams. 

Bring your own data: integrate data from your own customer and product systems to link key information straight to your support requests. Know the plan your customer is on, what they’ve reached out about before, what events the customer has logged and more – exactly where you need it. 

Transparent pricing: no hidden fees or complex pricing tiers. You pay for what you use – no more overpaying for features you don’t need.

You’re a big fish in a small pond: we’re early-stage at Plain, which comes with some amazing benefits for your team. While Zendesk might ignore customer requests for years, Plain goes above and beyond to make sure your voice is heard. We ship new features fast, based on real customer needs – and your voice will play a huge role in this. 

The team at Prisma recently migrated from Zendesk to Plain for some of the reasons above – check out their case study to dig into their motivations. 

So, how do you actually migrate from Zendesk to Plain? It’s honestly pretty straightforward with our Zendesk to Plain importer. 

1. Have an onboarding call with us 

If you haven’t already, sign up for Plain and do your initial onboarding call with us. We’ll chat through your current support setup, and what you need to improve. After the onboarding call – you’ll get access to your Plain workspace and you can start adding your team, and connecting your support channels.

2. Use the Zendesk to Plain Importer

We’ve built a Zendesk importer to make your migration to Plain as seamless (and fast) as possible. 

1. Visit our Zendesk Importer docs

2. Follow the step-by-step instructions to connect your Zendesk account to Plain.

3. Select the data you want to import, such as tickets, users, macros, and more.

4. Confirm and start the import process.

This importer will handle the transfer, saving you time and effort. For more details on using the importer, check out the full documentation.

3. Review imported data

Once the import is complete, review the imported data in Plain. Ensure your tickets, user information, and automations have been successfully migrated.

4. Recreate automations and workflows in Plain

• Add SLAs, Tiers, and Labels to easily prioritize and triage your support requests 

• Use our rule engine to set up automations for repetitive tasks 

• Utilize customer cards and events via our API to add all the context your team will need, directly to support requests 

5. Train your team

Make sure your support team is comfortable using Plain. Let us know if you need a team training session, and refer to our docs for questions. We’re always on hand in Slack for any questions you have.