Zendesk → Ada

Catalog plan outline

General guidance from the Afterstack catalog for Zendesk → Ada. Not Zendesk or Ada vendor documentation.

Migration friendliness

Zendesk 7/10 · Ada 4/10

Speed to live

Zendesk 5/10 · Ada 5/10

Data to export from Zendesk

• custom objects
• call and voice logs
• synced email and calendar links
• workflow rules
• saved reports
• installed marketplace apps
• AI assistant configuration
• records for the catalog use cases: accounts

How the catalogs differ

• Zendesk is flagged for custom objects. Ada is not, so the map is a redesign rather than a field-for-field copy.
• Ada is not flagged for: custom objects, call and voice logs, synced email and calendar links, installed marketplace apps.
• Zendesk is flagged with an open API, which is the export path to test.
• Ada is flagged with an open API for the load.
• Zendesk is cataloged as a fit for: Multi-channel support orgs that need SLAs, QA, and a ticket system of record.
• Ada is cataloged as a fit for: High-volume CX orgs.

Phases

1. Export

   Take Zendesk as the source of truth for this pair. Export custom objects; call and voice logs; synced email and calendar links; workflow rules; saved reports; installed marketplace apps; AI assistant configuration; records for the catalog use cases: accounts. The default enterprise helpdesk — tickets, SLAs, and a marketplace around them.

2. Map

   Load into Ada only after the field map is written down. AI customer service agent meant to resolve, not just deflect to a queue. Zendesk is flagged for custom objects. Ada is not, so the map is a redesign rather than a field-for-field copy.

3. Prove a sample

   Ada scores 5/10 on speed to live and 4/10 on migration friendliness. Run one sample load and one report the team already uses in Zendesk before a full cutover.

4. Cut over

   Zendesk scores 7/10 on migration friendliness. Keep Zendesk readable until the team is working in Ada. Zendesk is the procurement-safe customer service platform: ticketing, messaging, QA, and a large app ecosystem. AI Copilot and the Sunshine layer sit on top of a ticket model most support orgs already know. It is powerful, configurable, and easy to outgrow in cost once every add-on is on.

Zendesk to Ada: what the vendor docs actually cover

Linked sentences come from vendor documentation opened for this page. Everything else is general guidance, not Zendesk or Ada vendor documentation. This section does not move data and does not change the catalog outline above.

What to export from Zendesk

Zendesk's incremental export reference, opened 2026-10-17, is how a tenant copies tickets that changed since a cursor or a clock. You ask for everything changed since a start_time, which must be a Unix epoch more than one minute in the past. Ticket and ticket-event exports skip the most recent minute. Cursor exports use start_time only on the first call and then pass cursor. Time-based exports keep passing the end_time you received as the next start_time. per_page defaults to 1,000 and cannot exceed 1,000. The rate limit on these endpoints is 10 requests a minute. Retry-After applies. end_of_stream is true when the page has caught up to now. exclude_deleted can drop deleted tickets. Side-loaded resources use include. A sample export is capped at 50 rows if you only want to see the shape. This is a ticket archive. It is not what Ada's handoff guide tells you to run. Zendesk's pricing page the same day prints Support Team at 19 dollars per agent per month paid yearly, Suite Team at 55, and Suite Professional at 115. Monthly equivalents on the comparison table are 25, 69, and 149. Included automated resolutions are 5 per agent per month on the first two of those columns and 10 on Suite Professional. Committed resolutions are 1.50 dollars and pay-as-you-go resolutions are 2.00 dollars on each of those columns. The FAQ says the trial is 14 days of Suite Professional. The catalog starting price of 19 matches Support Team yearly. The catalog trial flag matches the 14-day sentence. AI overage is extra, which the catalog price note already suggests without storing 1.50.

• Zendesk incremental exports — checked 2026-10-17
• Zendesk pricing — checked 2026-10-17

How Ada imports

Ada's Zendesk handoffs guide, opened the same day, assumes Zendesk remains the desk. Before any handoff except Zendesk Chat, you connect the subdomain under Config, Apps, Connect, then Allow. One connection is reused by every handoff. You can attach up to 10 subdomains. A multi-brand agent that lives on a brand subdomain must authorize through the primary account subdomain, and the note on that section says each brand counts toward a 3-subdomain limit, which does not match the 10-subdomain sentence above it. This page does not average them. Chat is a live handoff. Messaging is asynchronous and, for Sunshine Conversations, creates an AI-agent ticket on the end user's first message, read-only until escalation, then backfills history onto that same ticket. Ticketing creates a standard ticket at escalation and does not create those AI-agent tickets. Support creates or updates tickets for email-style follow-up. Messaging and Support may coexist only if messaging is chat and Support is email, with channel rules. Messaging is not compatible with other live-chat handoffs such as Salesforce Chat. Guide can be a knowledge source. The guide points at a separate article for importing Guide articles and does not paste the article steps. Ada's pricing URL is a consultation form. It says someone will reach out within one business day to schedule a 30-minute call. No software fee and no product-trial length. Outcome percentages on that page are omitted. The catalog's null price matches. The catalog trial flag does not match a consultation. Tickets stay in Zendesk. Ada handles the front door and hands off.

• Ada Zendesk handoffs — checked 2026-10-17
• Ada pricing — checked 2026-10-17

Object and field mapping

• A Zendesk ticket is still the system of record. Ada's Support and Ticketing handoffs create or update tickets. They do not relocate the archive.
• A messaging conversation can become an AI-agent ticket at the first message when Sunshine Conversations is the path. Escalation updates that ticket. It does not open a second one.
• A Ticketing-integration escalation creates a standard ticket at escalation time and skips the AI-agent ticket. Pick one story before you report on ticket counts.
• Guide articles are a knowledge source, not tickets. The handoff guide separates them.
• Subdomain, brand subdomain, and account subdomain are three Ada fields. The incremental export API does not have those fields.
• Automated resolutions at 1.50 or 2.00 dollars are a Zendesk meter. Ada's consultation page does not publish a resolution price.
• Macros, views, and SLAs are Zendesk configuration. The Ada guide does not say they import.

What will not carry over

• The historical ticket archive, unless you run the incremental export for your own warehouse. Ada's guide does not ingest it.
• Views, macros, triggers, and SLAs.
• An Ada list price.
• A single subdomain limit. The page prints both 10 and 3. Neither number is corrected here.
• Salesforce Chat alongside Zendesk Messaging. The guide says they are incompatible.
• Guide article bodies, until you follow the separate import article. This check did not paste steps that were not on the handoff page.
• Zendesk Chat's exemption from the initial account connect. The guide says Chat is the exception.

Cutover checklist

1. Keep Zendesk licensed. Ada's guide is a handoff, not a desk replacement.
2. Connect the subdomain under Config, Apps, and reuse it. Do not create a connection per channel.
3. If you have brands, write down both the 10-subdomain sentence and the 3-brand sentence and ask Ada which limit binds.
4. Choose Messaging, Support, Ticketing, or Chat per channel. Do not combine Messaging and Support without the email-versus-chat split.
5. Decide whether the first message should already be a ticket. That is the Sunshine path, not the Ticketing path.
6. Point knowledge at Guide only after the separate article is followed. Do not assume the handoff connect also indexes help-center articles.
7. If you need a warehouse copy, start the incremental export more than one minute in the past and honor 10 requests a minute.
8. Quote Zendesk from the public seat table and quote Ada as a consultation. Do not invent an Ada resolution fee.

Common pitfalls

• Planning a cutover weekend that deletes Zendesk. The handoff guide needs the subdomain.
• Double-counting tickets because Messaging creates one at the first message and someone also logs a Ticketing escalation.
• Trusting either subdomain cap without asking. The page disagrees with itself.
• Exporting the last 30 seconds of tickets and wondering where they went. The API skips the most recent minute.
• Repeating the consultation page's percentages. They are not a migration fact.

Related catalog pages

• Best AI-native Zendesk alternatives (2026) — Which tool, compared
• What should replace Zendesk? — Switch narrative
• Ada product page — AI customer service agent meant to resolve, not just deflect to a queue.
• Ada vs Zendesk — Head-to-head already in the catalog
• Customer support category — Catalog hub for this category