Zendesk charges per agent, its strongest AI costs extra as an add-on, and every automated resolution is billed on top. askVela is a fair flat rate: unlimited team members, unlimited AI replies — EU-hosted and GDPR-compliant.
Fair flat rate · unlimited agents & AI · EU-hosted · free migration
With Zendesk, you rarely pay just one price — seats, AI add-ons, and every resolution quickly add up.
The suite starts at around 55 € and goes up to around 169 € per agent/month. Every new team member increases your fixed costs.
The truly useful AI comes as the “Advanced AI” add-on for around 50 € extra per agent/month — not included in the base price.
Automated AI resolutions are billed separately (above the allowance, around 1.20–1.50 € per resolution). Success becomes a cost risk.
What’s included in the price — and what Zendesk charges extra for or bills per seat.
| Feature | askVela | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Fair flat rate | Per seat + AI add-on + per resolution |
| Predictable costs | ||
| AI replies | Unlimited included | Add-on + per resolution |
| Team members | Unlimited included | approx. 55–169 € / agent |
| AI handles order status & cancellation on its own | ||
| AI negotiates partial refunds (payout only after approval) | ||
| Product recommendations in chat (upsell) | ||
| Knowledge-gap queue → 1-click articles | ||
| Answers with sources (no hallucinations) | ||
| EU hosting / GDPR / DPA | Only in higher plans / extra cost | |
| Native German AI | ||
| Self-hosting available | ||
| Free migration | ||
| Quick to launch for small shops | Live in minutes | Powerful, but complex |
Instead of just sorting tickets, askVela gets the work done — for a fair flat rate.
With source references — no hallucinations. Finds knowledge gaps and suggests ready-to-publish articles.
Recommends relevant products in chat and negotiates a fair partial refund before any money is paid out.
Native German AI, self-hosting available. Your customer data stays in the EU.
We’ll migrate your entire Help Center for free and build you a ready-to-use demo. Don’t like it at all? We’ll send you 100 € for your time.
Switch nowUsually just minutes to hours. We import your Help Center, macros, and relevant content, and build you a ready-made live demo upfront. So you don’t start from scratch — you see askVela working with your own data right away.
Yes. askVela is EU-hosted, a DPA is included, and the AI is natively German. If you want, we can even run the solution on your own server (self-hosting). With Zendesk as a US company, EU data residency is often only available in higher plans or for an extra fee.
The suite charges per agent, the powerful AI is only available as the “Advanced AI” add-on (around 50 € extra per agent/month), and every automated AI resolution is billed on top (above the allowance, around 1.20–1.50 € per resolution). With askVela, unlimited agents and unlimited AI replies are included in one flat rate.
A fair flat rate — with no billing per seat, per ticket, per conversation, or per AI resolution. Unlimited team members and unlimited AI replies are included, so your costs stay predictable. Especially when your team or AI volume grows, the difference compared to Zendesk becomes clear.