Help Desk Software · reliability comparison
Help Scout vs Zendesk: which is more reliable? (2026)
Help Scout is more reliable than Zendesk, scoring 89.2 vs 51.7 out of 100. Over the last 90 days Help Scout reported 6 incidents and Zendesk reported 13, with effective uptime of 99.91% and 98.85% respectively. Help Scout resolves incidents faster on average (2h).
Data updated Nov 1, 2026 · How we score
| Metric | Help Scout | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Reliability score | 89.2 | 51.7 |
| Rank (help desk platforms) | #7 | #12 |
| Uptime (90 days) | 99.91% | 98.85% |
| Incidents (90 days) | 6 | 13 |
| Partial / major outages | 0 | 10 |
| Avg time to resolve | 2h | 7h 47m |
| Outages we detected | 0 | 0 |
| Transparency score | 100/100 | 100/100 |
Where Help Scout and Zendesk differ
- Zendesk reported 2.2× as many incidents as Help Scout over the last 90 days (13 vs 6).
- Zendesk had 10 partial or major outages, compared with 0 for Help Scout.
- Help Scout fixes problems faster: 2h on average, against 7h 47m for Zendesk (3.9× quicker).
- Help Scout's longest outage on record lasted 6h 44m (Jul 14, 2026); Zendesk's lasted 6h 40m (Sep 21, 2026).
90-day uptime
Help Scout
Zendesk
- No incidents
- Degraded
- Partial outage
- Major outage
- No data
Recent Help Scout incidents
- Degraded performanceSep 22, 2026 · resolved in 36m
Mailbox counts, folders, reports, search results
Affected: Mailbox counts, folders, reports, search results
- Degraded performanceAug 31, 2026 · resolved in 3h 57m
Affected: Mailbox counts, folders, reports, search results
- Degraded performanceAug 18, 2026 · resolved in 3h 12m
Affected: AI Drafts, AI Answers, AI Summarize, AI Assist
- Degraded performanceAug 14, 2026 · resolved in 1h 18m
Affected: Beacon
- Degraded performanceAug 13, 2026 · resolved in 1h 42m
Affected: Web App
- Degraded performanceAug 6, 2026 · resolved in 1h 13m
Affected: Mailbox counts, folders, reports, search results
Recent Zendesk incidents
- Partial outageOct 29, 2026 · resolved in 43m
Multiple Products access issues in Pod26
Affected: Support, Agent Workspace (via Support)
- Degraded performanceOct 29, 2026 · resolved in 2h 40m
Affected: Forethought AI Agents, Dashboard
- Major outageOct 28, 2026 · resolved in 1h 1m
Some customers are encountering CF error messages accessing Zendesk Supportofficial update ↗
Affected: Support, API, Knowledge, Articles / Knowledge Base, Community, Misc +24 more
- Partial outageOct 23, 2026 · resolved in 2h 58m
US-East degraded trafficofficial update ↗
Affected: Support, Ticketing
- Partial outageOct 22, 2026 · resolved in 2h 3m
Support Search errors pod 27official update ↗
Affected: Support, Search
- Degraded performanceOct 16, 2026 · resolved in 4d 14h
Affected: AI Agents, Core Services, Dashboard, Analytics
Other help desk platforms to consider
- Hiver · #1 · 99.99% uptime
- HubSpot Service Hub · #2 · 100% uptime
- Kustomer · #3 · 99.99% uptime
- Tidio · #4 · 99.98% uptime