Resly vs Traditional Support Tools
How Resly compares to traditional help desk and chat tools like Zendesk, Intercom, and Freshdesk.
Traditional Tools
Typical Approach
- Require human agents to respond to every message
- Queue systems make customers wait
- Expensive as volume grows (hire more agents)
- Knowledge bases exist but customers have to search manually
- Limited after-hours coverage
- High cost per conversation
Pricing Model
- Per-agent pricing ($50-100+ per agent/month)
- Scales linearly with support volume
- Premium features cost extra
- Expensive to provide 24/7 coverage
Resly’s Approach
How It’s Different
- AI handles routine questions automatically (70%+ of inquiries)
- Instant responses 24/7, no wait times
- Cost stays flat as volume grows
- AI searches knowledge base for customers
- Full coverage nights, weekends, holidays
- Low cost per conversation, improves over time
Pricing Model
- Per-message pricing (not per-agent)
- Fixed monthly cost regardless of team size
- All features included in each tier
- Predictable costs as you scale
Key difference: Traditional tools charge per agent. Resly charges per usage. As your support volume grows, Resly stays affordable while traditional tools require hiring more agents.
Direct Comparison
| Feature | Traditional Helpdesk | Resly |
|---|---|---|
| Response Time | Minutes to hours | <2 seconds |
| Availability | Business hours (or expensive 24/7) | 24/7 included |
| Scaling Cost | Linear (hire more agents) | Flat (same price) |
| Knowledge Base | Manual search by customer | AI searches for customer |
| Routine Questions | Require human agent | Automated |
| Complex Issues | Human handled | Human handled (via escalation) |
| Actions | Manual | Automated (orders, refunds, etc.) |
| Setup Time | Weeks to months | Under 1 hour |
When to Use Both
Resly doesn’t replace your help desk—it works alongside it.
What Resly Handles
- “What’s your refund policy?”
- “How do I reset my password?”
- “Where is my order?”
- “What are your business hours?”
- “How much does the Pro plan cost?”
What Escalates to Your Helpdesk
- Complex troubleshooting requiring system access
- Custom requests outside documented processes
- Situations requiring human judgment
- High-value customer conversations
- Issues the AI doesn’t have information about
Best practice: Use Resly as your first line of support. It handles routine questions instantly, escalates complex issues to your helpdesk with full context.
Integration Benefits
Connect Resly to external systems:
- Built-in connectors: Shopify (orders/products), Stripe (billing), Gmail (notifications)
- Custom connectors: Define any HTTP request so the AI can call your internal APIs
- Tickets export: Use Supabase or API middleware to push escalations into Zendesk/Freshdesk/etc. when needed
Cost Comparison
Scenario: 10,000 conversations/month
Example only: The numbers below show how savings could look if the AI resolves the majority of routine tickets. Actual impact depends on how comprehensive your documentation and workflows are.
Traditional Helpdesk (e.g., Zendesk):
- Average handling time: 5 minutes
- Total hours needed: 833 hours
- Agents required (160 hrs/mo each): 5.2 agents
- Cost at 364/month + labor costs
- Labor costs (5 agents × 20,000/month
- Total cost: ~$20,364/month
Resly Pro:
- AI handles 70% automatically: 7,000 conversations
- Human escalation: 3,000 conversations
- Agents required for 3,000 conversations: 2 agents
- Resly cost: $49/month
- Labor costs (2 agents × 8,000/month
- Total cost: ~$8,049/month
Savings: $12,315/month (60% reduction)
Most companies see ROI within the first month after deployment.
Feature Comparison
Knowledge Management
Traditional:
- Static knowledge base
- Customers search manually
- Often poorly organized
- Requires constant curation
Resly:
- AI-powered semantic search
- AI searches for customers
- Automatic relevance ranking
- Self-improving through analytics
Customer Experience
Traditional:
- Wait in queue
- Repeat information to each agent
- Business hours only (without premium)
- Inconsistent answers depending on agent
Resly:
- Instant response
- Context remembered throughout conversation
- 24/7 availability included
- Consistent answers from knowledge base
Team Experience
Traditional:
- Repetitive questions burn out agents
- Knowledge scattered across tickets
- Difficult to scale training
- High turnover
Resly:
- AI handles repetitive questions
- Knowledge centralized in one system
- Instant onboarding (just add to knowledge base)
- Team focuses on meaningful work
Migration Path
Transition Strategy
Phase 1: Deploy Resly Alongside Existing Tools (Week 1)
- Install Resly widget
- Keep existing helpdesk active
- Monitor which questions Resly handles
Phase 2: Optimize (Weeks 2-4)
- Review analytics
- Add missing content
- Refine AI guidance
- Improve resolution rate
Phase 3: Scale Down Traditional Tool (Month 2+)
- Reduce agent count as Resly handles more
- Keep helpdesk for complex issues
- Optimize costs
No rip-and-replace needed. Resly works alongside your existing tools, letting you transition at your own pace.
When Traditional Tools Are Better
Resly isn’t always the right choice. Traditional helpdesks excel when:
- Every conversation needs personal relationship building
- Questions are entirely unique with no patterns
- No documentation exists and can’t be created
- Support is 100% sales-focused conversations
- You need direct system access for every interaction
Best of Both Worlds
The ideal setup for most companies:
-
Resly as first line of support
- Handles FAQs, policies, order lookups
- Available 24/7
- Instant responses
-
Traditional helpdesk for complex issues
- Human judgment needed
- System troubleshooting
- Relationship building
- Strategic accounts
-
Seamless handoff
- Resly escalates with full context
- Helpdesk agents have conversation history
- No information loss
Result: Faster responses, happier customers, more efficient team.
Next Steps
- See if Resly is right for you
- Review use cases for your industry
- Check pricing vs. traditional tools
- Start free trial risk-free