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A Zendesk alternative that runs inside WordPress
Zendesk is a hosted chat service. Sales Igniter Chat is a WordPress plugin: your team answers from wp-admin, the AI agent answers from your own pages, and every conversation stays in your own database.
Zendesk facts from Zendesk’s own pages ยท Sources
This page compares Sales Igniter Chat with Zendesk’s messaging and live chat and its AI agents only, not with the whole Zendesk ticketing and help desk suite.
What Zendesk does well
Zendesk sells a customer service platform. Its Suite plans bring ticketing, messaging, live chat, a help centre and voice together, with AI agents on every plan.
- Email ticketing, messaging and live chat, a help centre and phone in one suite.
- AI agents on every plan, billed per automated resolution, with some resolutions included for each agent.
- Mobile SDKs for iOS, Android and Unity apps.
- Re-engagement emails visitors who started a chat (Suite Team and up).
- A choice of data centre in the US, Asia Pacific, the EEA or the UK (Suite Professional and up).
Who it suits
Support teams that work across many channels and want ticketing, a help centre and phone in one place, priced per agent.
Where Sales Igniter Chat is different: a self-hosted Zendesk alternative
- Inside WordPress. A plugin, not a separate service: the inbox opens from wp-admin, and operators are WordPress users.
- Your own database. Conversations, people, email replies and the AI’s index are stored in your WordPress database.
- The AI answers from your own pages, docs and products, shows its sources, and quotes prices only from your store.
- Orders beside the chat. WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads purchases, licences and renewals, read live.
- Email follow-up. A reply the visitor missed goes out by email; their answer lands back in the same chat.
- No per-seat fees, and the AI is billed by your own provider at its token price.
Zendesk and Sales Igniter Chat, side by side
| Feature | Zendesk | Sales Igniter Chat |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | A hosted service. You embed its web widget on your site | A WordPress plugin. The inbox is in wp-admin, in its own full-screen tab |
| Where conversations are stored | Zendesk’s servers; a choice of US, Asia Pacific, EEA or UK data centre on Suite Professional and up | Your WordPress database (conversations, people, email replies and the AI’s index) |
| How the AI agent is billed | AI agents billed per automated resolution: 5 a month per agent included on Suite Team, then $1.50 each (committed volume) or $2.00 (pay as you go) | Your own AI key, at the provider’s token price, with a monthly budget. No per-chat fee from us |
| WooCommerce and EDD orders beside the chat | Not listed on their pricing page | Yes: WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads orders, licences and subscriptions, read live |
| Live visitors on a map | Not listed on their pricing page | Yes, on a map shipped with the plugin (no map service; nothing leaves your site) |
| Email follow-up in the same conversation | Yes: email ticketing, and Re-engagement emails visitors who started a chat (Suite Team and up) | Yes: unread replies go out by email, and email replies come back into the same chat |
| Pricing per seat (operator) | Per agent: Suite Team $69 an agent a month billed monthly ($55 billed yearly), Suite Professional $149 ($115) | No per-seat fees: add every operator as a WordPress user |
What it costs each month
Licence plus AI, for one site. Sales Igniter Chat includes every operator; Zendesk is priced here for one operator.
| AI chats a month | 500 | 2,000 | 10,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales Igniter Chat, first year$99 licence ($8.25 a month) + AI on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash with your own key | $10.32 | $16.51 | $49.56 |
| Sales Igniter Chat, from the second year$59 a year ($4.92 a month) + the same AI | $6.98 | $13.18 | $46.23 |
| ZendeskSuite Team, $69 an agent a month (billed monthly), plus AI agents at $1.50 per automated resolution | $812Suite Team | $3,062Suite Team | $15,062Suite Team |
| You save with Sales Igniter ChatZendesk minus Sales Igniter Chat at the first-year price ($99); from the second year ($59) you save $3 a month more | $801a month$9,614 a year99% less | $3,045a month$36,540 a year99% less | $15,012a month$180,143 a year99% less |
Our figures: 3 AI replies per chat, about 3,450 tokens in and 285 out per reply (measured on our own site; a small sample), at DeepSeek V4.1 Flash’s list price of $0.30 per million tokens in and $1.20 out. Zendesk: Suite Team billed monthly, one agent (it includes 5 automated resolutions a month per agent); each extra agent adds $69 a month. Resolutions above that cost $1.50 each with a committed volume, or $2.00 pay as you go; we use $1.50. Every AI chat is counted as a resolution here, so at a lower resolution rate their AI cost is lower. Change the numbers in the cost calculator.
Switching from Zendesk
Most of it is settings in one place. Your earlier Zendesk conversations stay in Zendesk; new ones start in Sales Igniter Chat.
- 1
Install the plugin
Upload Sales Igniter Chat under Plugins, activate it, and enter your licence key. The chat bubble shows straight away.
- 2
Set up the widget
Your colours, greeting and reply time line under Widget, with a live preview. Set office hours and who answers first under Routing and hours.
- 3
Switch on the AI agent
Add your own AI key, choose what the AI may read (help docs, pages, products) and click Re-index now. Ask it questions with Try it first.
- 4
Connect email
Add a mailbox under Settings, Email, so replies a visitor missed go out by email and their answers come back into the chat.
- 5
Invite your team
Give everyone who answers chats the Chat operator role. Each one turns on notifications for their phone and browser.
- 6
Remove Zendesk
Take Zendesk’s chat code or plugin off your site, so visitors see one chat bubble.
Questions about Zendesk alternatives
Can I import my Zendesk conversations?
No. Sales Igniter Chat doesn’t list an importer for other chat services. Keep Zendesk for your history, and new conversations start in Sales Igniter Chat.
Where are my conversations stored?
In your own WordPress database, in the plugin’s own tables. When the AI answers, the conversation goes to the AI provider you chose; by default only to hosts that keep no data, and with emails and phone numbers hidden.
Does it work without the AI agent?
Yes. Without an AI key, chats go to the people who are online, and to email when nobody is.
What does the AI cost?
You pay your AI provider directly, at their token price, with no per-chat fee from us. On our own site an AI chat has cost about $0.0019. A monthly budget (US$20 by default) stops AI answers when it’s reached.
How much is Sales Igniter Chat?
US$99 for one site for the first year, then US$59 a year; US$299 for 10 sites, then US$149 a year. Support and updates renew automatically each year and you can cancel at any time. Every operator is included: no per-seat fees. The AI is billed separately by your own AI provider.
Sources
Zendesk facts come only from Zendesk’s own pages, listed here; Sales Igniter Chat facts from its documentation. Prices are list prices in US$, billed monthly unless marked otherwise.
Try Sales Igniter Chat next to Zendesk
Put the chat on your own WordPress site and see the inbox, the AI agent and the widget answer your visitors.
