Klausvs
SupportmanThe Klaus / Zendesk QA alternative for Intercom teams.
Klaus was acquired by Zendesk and is now sold as Zendesk QA.
Klaus is now Zendesk QA, a per-agent quality-assurance add-on built around the Zendesk suite. If your team lives in Intercom, that is a lot of platform to buy into just to see how your conversations are scoring.
Supportman does the part most teams actually want (CSAT and DSAT ratings the moment they land, plus AI quality scoring on every closed conversation), wired straight into Intercom and Slack, for a published per-user price. And it is building toward something Zendesk QA does not do at all: Problem Episodes, a record that follows one customer’s issue across every conversation until there is evidence it is actually over, not just that a ticket got closed.
Free trial · No credit card · Connects to Intercom & Slack in under 2 minutes · Visit Klaus ↗
Quality scoring without the enterprise overhead.
With Klaus
- Sold per agent as an add-on layered on a Zendesk Suite plan
- No public standalone price; quotes run through Zendesk sales
- Built around the Zendesk ecosystem; admin and roadmap are increasingly Zendesk-centric
- Legacy Klaus surveys and the Insights view reached end-of-life on 30 Jan 2026
- Scorecards, calibration, and rollout to configure before you see value
With Supportman
- Connects directly to Intercom, no help-desk migration
- Per-user pricing from $5/user/mo, published on the site
- CSAT & DSAT ratings pushed into Slack in real time
- AI quality scoring (IQS) on every closed conversation
- Live in under two minutes, no sales call, no credit card
Klaus vs Supportman pricing, side by side.
Zendesk does not publish a standalone price for QA. It is sold as a per-agent add-on on top of a Zendesk Suite plan (third-party roundups put the QA add-on around $35 per agent per month, before the Suite seat underneath it). Supportman is $5–$15 per user per month, listed publicly, with no Zendesk subscription required.
Klaus
Per-agent add-on
- Model
- On top of a Zendesk Suite plan; no public standalone price
- Getting started
- Sales-assisted; Zendesk account-centric
Supportman
$5–$15 / user / mo
- Model
- Per-user tiers, published (min $25/mo)
- Getting started
- Free trial, no credit card
| Team size | Klaus | Supportman |
|---|---|---|
| 5 agents | ~$175/mo QA add-on alone (est. $35/agent, before Suite seats) | $25/mo (Basic) or $75/mo (Pro with AI scoring) |
| 15 agents | ~$525/mo QA add-on alone (est., before Suite seats) | $75/mo (Basic) or $225/mo (Pro with AI scoring) |
| 30 agents | ~$1,050/mo QA add-on alone (est., before Suite seats) | $150/mo (Basic) or $450/mo (Pro with AI scoring) |
Supportman prices are per month, billed annually.
Switch from Klaus in a week.
- Export your Klaus/Zendesk QA scorecard criteria — you will reuse the attribute names in Supportman’s rubric.
- Connect Intercom and Slack in Supportman (under two minutes, no engineering ticket).
- Map negative CSAT routing to a #dsat channel before you turn off Klaus survey alerts.
- Run one week of parallel scoring: sample 20 conversations in both tools and compare attribute scores.
- Point weekly coaching at Supportman IQS trends; retire Klaus reviewer queues once scores align.
Klaus vs Supportman, feature by feature.
Every Supportman dashboard and Slack feature, next to what Klaus / Zendesk QA documents publicly. Beta and in-build features are labelled as such; where we couldn't find public documentation, we say so rather than guess.
- Yes
- Partial
- Beta
- In build
- Add-on
- No
- Not documented
| Feature | Klaus | Supportman |
|---|---|---|
| Key differences | ||
| Pricing model | Per agent, quote-based add-on | Per-user tiers, published |
| Starting price | No public price (third-party est. ~$35/agent/mo) | $5 / user / mo (min $25) |
| Built for | Zendesk-native; other sources use API import | Intercom-native |
| CSAT / DSAT to Slack | QA review workflows instead | Real-time alerts, per channel |
| AI conversation scoring | AutoQA across up to 100% of tickets | IQS on every closed conversation |
| Manual review & calibration | Deep: scorecards, calibration, coaching | Not the focus |
| Tracks one customer’s problem across conversations | Spotlight flags looping/escalation per review; no persistent record | Building Problem Episodes: links conversations, quoted evidence (in build) |
| Time to first value | Configuration + rollout | <2 minutes, self-serve |
| Real-time Slack loop | ||
| CSAT ratings posted to Slack in real time | NoSlack alerts cover QA reviews, not CSAT | YesEvery rating, the moment it lands |
| Dedicated channel for bad ratings | No | YesPro |
| Filter alerts by star rating or remark | No | YesBy star rating, or only when a remark is left |
| Send a conversation to Slack from the inbox | No | YesIntercom inbox app, to a channel or DM |
| Conversation reminders | No | YesSet from the Intercom inbox |
| AI quality scoring | ||
| AI quality score on every closed conversation | YesAutoQA on up to 100% of tickets | YesIQS, 0–100 |
| Per-criterion rubric breakdown | YesPer-category AutoQA scores | YesRubric chart on every scored conversation |
| Predicted CSAT for unrated conversations | Not documented | YesCovers the ~90% customers never rate |
| Scores AI-agent and human conversations alike | YesBots scored on scorecards like agents | YesFin and humans, same rubric |
| Manual review scorecards & calibration | YesScorecards, calibration, disputes | NoNot the focus |
| Coaching workflows | Yes1:1 coaching sessions | PartialPer-agent reports & quality ranking |
| Dashboard & insights | ||
| Team quality dashboard | Yes | YesRated, positive, IQS, needs review |
| Bad-rating review queue | PartialVia review assignment filters | Yes1★ and 2★ conversations |
| Quality trends & predicted-vs-actual CSAT | PartialQA score trends | YesIQS trend, bad rate, model bias |
| Topic spikes & drift | PartialSpotlight flags risks and gaps | BetaSpiking / drifting / cooling, from Intercom Topics |
| Account health drift | PartialPer-conversation churn-risk flag | Beta28-day drift per account |
| Daily work queue (unanswered, unhappy, handed off) | No | BetaToday view |
| Conversation explorer with rating & score filters | Yes | YesDate, rating, remark, AI score |
| Per-agent quality ranking | Yes | YesRates that survive a thin week |
| Cross-customer voice-of-customer analytics | PartialSpotlight insights | PartialTopic trends only |
| Fin & AI agents | ||
| Fin vs human quality comparison | PartialBot vs human scores; Fin tagged manually | YesBad-rating rate, Fin vs human-only |
| Fin conversation audit | PartialFin must be tagged as a bot manually | Beta |
| Independent of the AI agent it measures | PartialZendesk also sells AI agents | Yes |
| Answers customers (AI agent) | NoZendesk AI agents sold separately | NoMeasures, doesn’t answer |
| Reporting & workflow | ||
| Weekly team report in Slack | Not documented | YesFriday, before standup |
| Per-agent weekly reports by DM | PartialReview notifications by Slack DM | YesIncludes predicted CSAT & IQS |
| Approvals for refunds & exceptions in Slack | No | BetaRequested in Intercom, decided in Slack |
| Manager notes on conversations | PartialReview comments | Beta |
| Closed doesn’t mean resolved | ||
| Tracks one customer’s problem across conversations | NoPer-review flags, no persistent record | In buildProblem Episodes |
| Alerts when a promise to a customer is missed | Not documented | In build |
| Platform, pricing & setup | ||
| Intercom integration | YesNative connector | YesNative, connects in 2 minutes |
| Zendesk, Freshdesk & others | YesZendesk-native, plus other connectors | NoIntercom only today |
| Voice / call coverage | YesVoice and BPO coverage | No |
| Published pricing | No | Yes$5–$15 / user / mo |
| Self-serve free trial | NoQA trial via Zendesk sales | YesNo credit card |
| Time to first value | PartialScorecards and rollout to configure | YesUnder 2 minutes |
Klaus details come from its public website, docs and pricing pages, checked September 2026. Klaus website ↗
When Klaus is the better pick.
If you are already all-in on the Zendesk suite and need a deep, formal QA program (customizable scorecards, reviewer calibration, structured coaching, and AutoQA across every ticket), Zendesk QA is a mature, capable choice, and its native Zendesk integration is hard to beat. Supportman is not trying to replace a full QA department’s workflow. It is for Intercom teams who want the high-value signals (bad ratings the moment they happen, and an AI score on every conversation) without buying and configuring an enterprise suite.
Klaus vs Supportman, answered.
Is Klaus the same as Zendesk QA?
Yes. Zendesk acquired Klaus in 2024 and rebranded it as Zendesk QA, sold as an add-on within the Zendesk suite. The standalone Klaus app is being wound down, and some legacy features (including Klaus surveys and the conversations Insights view) reached end-of-life on 30 January 2026.
Does Supportman work with Intercom?
Yes. Supportman is built for Intercom. Connect your Intercom account and Slack workspace and ratings start flowing in under two minutes. No help-desk migration required.
Does Zendesk QA integrate with Intercom?
Zendesk documents a public API for importing conversations from external systems into Zendesk QA. It is not a direct native Intercom connector, so confirm the import pipeline, identity mapping, and maintenance work before treating it as an integration.
How much does Zendesk QA cost compared to Supportman?
Zendesk does not publish a standalone QA price; it is a per-agent add-on on top of a Zendesk Suite seat, and third-party roundups put the QA add-on near $35 per agent per month. Supportman is listed publicly ($5 per user per month for notifications and reports, $15 per user with AI evaluations) with no Zendesk subscription underneath.
Do I need a credit card to try Supportman?
No. Free trial, no card required, and you can cancel any time.
Will Supportman replace my full QA program?
If you run formal calibration sessions and structured scorecards across a large team, a dedicated QA suite goes deeper. Supportman covers what most Intercom teams act on day to day: real-time CSAT/DSAT alerts in Slack and an AI quality score on every closed conversation.
Does Zendesk QA track whether a customer’s problem actually got resolved, or just how the conversation was rated?
Zendesk QA’s Spotlight flags surface looping, escalation risk, and knowledge gaps on a per-review basis, but there is no persistent record that follows one customer’s issue across multiple conversations. Supportman is building Problem Episodes (in build now) to close that gap: every conversation from the same customer about the same issue gets linked into one record, and Supportman flags it if the customer comes back, if a promised follow-up never happened, or if a conversation was marked closed while the customer’s last words say it is not fixed, each flag backed by a verbatim quote.
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