Built for teams still running on Desk.com or looking for a modern alternative

Desk.com was retired in 2018. If you are still looking, you need a modern alternative.

Salesforce acquired Assistly in 2011, rebranded it as Desk.com, and discontinued the product in March 2018 with a migration path to Service Cloud. Teams still searching for "Desk.com CRM" are either looking to migrate off a legacy install or are discovering the product no longer exists. Strkr is a modern alternative that covers the original Desk.com use cases plus the broader CRM surface, at a flat seat price.

Start free trial See pricing
What this audience is actually dealing with

The pains that bring buyers here.

Desk.com served small and mid-size businesses who needed support ticketing with light CRM. The product was discontinued but the use case persists. Teams in the same position today face six specific challenges when evaluating the modern alternatives.

Legacy install still running

Some teams quietly stayed on Desk.com past the shutdown.

A small number of Desk.com installs continued operating informally after the 2018 shutdown through grandfathered access. Those teams are now dealing with no support, no updates, and no security patches. Migration is urgent even without a visible breaking change because the risk profile has become untenable for any team handling customer data.

Service Cloud is overkill for SMB

The Salesforce migration path lands on enterprise pricing.

Salesforce's suggested migration path from Desk.com was Service Cloud. For SMB teams that chose Desk.com specifically for its simplicity and price, Service Cloud is a dramatic step up in both complexity and cost. Many teams either stayed on Desk.com or churned off Salesforce entirely rather than complete the suggested migration.

Support and CRM in two tools

Help desk and sales CRM run as separate systems.

Post-Desk.com, many teams split support (Zendesk, Freshdesk, Intercom) from CRM (HubSpot, Pipedrive). The split re-introduces the exact friction Desk.com was supposed to solve: context lost between support and sales, duplicate contact records, double logging of customer conversations. A platform that covers both reunifies the operation.

Data export is messy

Exporting from Desk.com produces incomplete archives.

Teams running late-stage Desk.com exports have reported incomplete attachments, lost custom-field values, and inconsistent ticket history. The export is doable but requires validation and often custom scripting to produce a clean import target. A migration partner or structured data-pipeline tool helps substantially.

Automation rules do not translate

Desk.com rules do not have 1-to-1 equivalents in modern tools.

Desk.com automation rules had a syntax and set of triggers. Modern tools (Zendesk, Intercom, HubSpot, Strkr) use different automation models. The migration involves translating rules by hand with judgment about intent, not just syntax conversion. A platform with flexible flow automation makes the translation step cleaner because any Desk.com pattern maps to some flow configuration.

Multi-channel inbox is table stakes now

Modern support covers email, chat, SMS, social.

Desk.com launched before chat became ubiquitous, before SMS support became common, and before social support channels matured. A modern alternative needs multi-channel inbox: email, web chat, SMS, and social messages routed into one view with consistent threading. The surface Desk.com started with has since become table stakes.

How Strkr covers the Desk.com use case

Support, CRM, and growth in one modern platform.

Strkr covers the capabilities that attracted teams to Desk.com in the first place, extended with modern CRM depth. Six specific pieces.

Unified customer inbox

Email, chat, SMS, and social in one threaded view.

The customer inbox threads conversations across email, web chat, SMS (via Strkr Messaging), and social messages into one view per customer. Each conversation attaches to the customer record so the agent sees the full history across channels. The threaded view replaces the per-channel inbox that fragmented customer conversations in older tools.

Case management with SLAs

Tickets with ownership, priority, and response-time tracking.

Support cases carry structured fields: priority, category, assigned owner, SLA state, first-response time, resolution time. SLA policies configure per customer tier (standard, premium, enterprise). Breaches surface on the daily dashboard. The pattern covers the core support operation that Desk.com teams need.

Macros and canned responses

Shared templates for common responses.

Agents use shared macros and canned responses for common inquiries. Templates can insert dynamic fields (customer name, order number, specific product). Strkr AI drafts suggested responses from the conversation context on the flat seat tier. The pattern reduces response time for routine inquiries without sacrificing personalization.

CRM depth alongside support

Contacts, accounts, opportunities on the same records.

The customer record carries full CRM depth: contact details, account hierarchy, sales opportunity history, billing history, support history. The sales rep sees recent support tickets when working an expansion opportunity; the support agent sees the sales context when handling a tier-sensitive case. The context flow in both directions eliminates the handoff seams that single-purpose tools create.

Flow automation flexibility

Rules that translate cleanly from Desk.com and beyond.

Flow automation covers routing, assignment, auto-response, escalation, and multi-step workflows triggered by case events. Desk.com rule patterns translate to Flow configurations without 1-to-1 lookup. The flexibility handles complex multi-channel routing scenarios that older rule engines could not express.

Reporting on volume, response time, resolution

Native support metrics without a BI tool.

The Reports module ships operational support metrics natively: ticket volume by channel, response time by tier, resolution time by category, agent performance, SLA attainment. Teams running deeper analysis export via the open API to their warehouse. Common support questions answer in the UI without engineering support.

What the migration from Desk.com looks like

A six-step pattern for moving off a legacy install.

Teams migrating from Desk.com or from the Service Cloud migration they never completed go through a sequence. Six steps that make the pattern successful.

Step 1: audit the current operation

Inventory tickets, custom fields, rules, and users.

The migration starts with an audit: how many open and historical tickets, what custom fields exist, what automation rules fire, which agents work in the tool, what integrations connect to it. The audit output drives the migration scope and informs the configuration target in the new tool.

Step 2: export clean data

Pull tickets, contacts, custom fields, and attachments.

Export tickets with full history, contacts with all custom fields, and attachments with their original filenames. Validate the export against a sample ticket to catch data-quality issues. Late-stage Desk.com exports have had attachment and field-value gaps that need manual repair before import.

Step 3: configure the target

Set up pipelines, custom fields, and SLA policies.

Configure Strkr to match the operational shape of the current workflow: ticket pipeline stages, custom fields on cases, SLA policies per customer tier, user roles, team routing rules. The configuration should match the existing workflow as closely as possible to minimize retraining disruption during the cutover.

Step 4: import and validate

Load data and verify against the audit.

Import tickets, contacts, and attachments into Strkr. Validate record counts, custom-field values, and ticket history against the audit. Spot-check attachments across a representative sample of tickets. The validation step catches 90 percent of import issues before go-live.

Step 5: translate automation

Rebuild rules as Flow automation.

Translate the old automation rules into Flow configurations. Document the intent of each rule as part of the translation. Rules that no longer serve a purpose should be dropped rather than migrated mechanically. The translation step is where the migration pays back the most because the modern automation is more capable than the legacy rule engine.

Step 6: cutover and training

Agent training and parallel-run before full cutover.

Train agents on the new tool with a parallel-run period where new tickets land in both systems. The parallel run surfaces training gaps and configuration misses. After one week of parallel run, cut over to Strkr fully and freeze the legacy tool as a reference archive.

Where Strkr extends beyond Desk.com's original scope

Six capabilities modern teams expect that Desk.com did not have.

Modern support and CRM has moved beyond the Desk.com feature set. Six specific capability extensions that distinguish a modern alternative.

Full sales CRM capability

Pipeline, forecast, deal review built in.

Beyond support, Strkr covers full sales CRM: pipeline-first interface, forecast workflow, deal-review templates, stakeholder maps. Teams that run both support and sales on one platform avoid the "two tools stitched together" overhead that post-Desk.com migrations often created.

Strkr AI assistance

Response drafting, summarization, and signal extraction.

Strkr AI drafts suggested responses from conversation context, summarizes long ticket threads for new agents, extracts structured signals from support conversations, and flags cases with escalation risk. All on the flat seat tier with no per-call credit meter. The AI assistance targets time-sink work without replacing agent judgment.

Multi-channel including SMS

Strkr Messaging handles SMS and MMS natively.

Strkr Messaging provides SMS and MMS for support and sales use cases with carrier infrastructure under the hood. Teams can run SMS-first support channels or add SMS to the existing channel mix without integrating a separate SMS vendor. Consent and DND tracking are built in.

Open API

Public REST plus webhooks for custom integrations.

The Strkr open API exposes customers, tickets, conversations, and automation state through REST plus webhooks. Teams build custom integrations, feed data warehouses, or wire specialty tools without the vendor involved. The API is public and documented on all seat tiers.

Flow automation beyond rules

Multi-step workflows with branching logic.

Flow automation covers multi-step workflows with branching, conditional logic, and external triggers. The pattern expresses operations that older rule engines could not: "if ticket is from premium tier AND topic is billing AND priority is high THEN route to billing specialist AND notify manager AND set SLA to 2 hours". The expressiveness unlocks operations that would otherwise require custom code.

Compliance posture

HIPAA, SOC 2, GDPR, CCPA built in.

Strkr is HIPAA compliant with BAAs available on request, SOC 2 Type II is in progress targeting completion in 2026-Q4, and the platform supports GDPR and CCPA. For teams running support in regulated verticals (healthcare, financial services, government contracting), the compliance posture is first-class rather than enterprise-tier add-on.

Legacy support stack signals it is time to migrate

Six warning signs that a team on legacy support tooling needs a modern platform.

Teams running on legacy support tools often postpone migration until forced. Six warning signs that typically indicate the postponement has gone on too long.

Security updates stopped

The vendor is no longer patching critical issues.

A support platform that has stopped receiving security patches becomes a liability regardless of how comfortable the daily operation is. Patient data, customer records, financial information, and credential storage all represent breach exposure. Teams running on unpatched legacy tools carry risk that compounds every quarter the migration is delayed.

Integration maintenance exceeds support value

Ops spends more time on integration glue than on support quality.

When the ops team spends 10 to 20 hours per month maintaining integrations between the support tool and other systems, the stack is costing more than it is contributing. The hours exceed what a modern consolidated platform would cost in software fees. The economics have crossed over without anyone noticing.

Multi-channel is impossible

Customers reach out across channels the tool cannot handle.

Modern customers reach out via SMS, social DM, chat, and email. Legacy tools often handle only email with chat bolted on through a separate product. The agent fragments context across tools and the customer experience suffers. The gap between what customers expect and what the tool delivers widens every quarter.

Mobile capability is absent

Agents cannot work tickets from phones.

Modern support agents work hybrid or remote and need mobile capability for urgent cases outside the desk. Legacy tools often have no mobile app or a crippled one. The constraint shows up when weekend coverage is needed or when a senior agent is traveling. Capability gaps that would have been tolerated five years ago no longer are.

Reporting requires BI investment

Even simple questions need the data warehouse.

Legacy support tools often provide weak native reporting, pushing teams to export data to BI tools for anything beyond basic metrics. The BI investment adds another layer of complexity. Modern platforms ship operational reporting natively and reserve BI for the deeper analytical work that genuinely benefits from it.

Agent attrition exceeds comparable teams

Agents leave because the tool is painful.

When agent attrition runs higher than at peer organizations with comparable work, part of the cause is often the daily tool experience. Agents who spend their day fighting a slow, mouse-heavy, context-fragmenting tool burn out faster. Tool quality shows up in retention. The hidden cost of legacy tooling often exceeds the visible subscription savings.

Head-to-head

Strkr vs the Desk.com migration options Salesforce recommended.

Salesforce recommended Service Cloud. Many teams considered Zendesk or Freshdesk. The head-to-head on fit for the original Desk.com target.

Feature Strkr Service Cloud, Zendesk, or Freshdesk alone
SMB-friendly pricing Flat seat tier with everything included Enterprise-leaning pricing on Service Cloud
Support plus CRM Full support and sales CRM in one platform Support only; CRM separate
Setup complexity Guided configuration in days Service Cloud setup often weeks
Multi-channel inbox Email, chat, SMS, social threaded Varies, often per-channel
Flow automation Multi-step with branching logic Rules-based, limited branching
AI assistance Flat-tier AI on responses and summaries AI often in higher tier
Open API Public REST with webhooks Varies by vendor
Compliance posture HIPAA with BAA, SOC 2 Type II in progress 2026-Q4 Varies by vendor
Migration path Guided migration from Desk.com data Varies, often self-service
SMS native Strkr Messaging built in Third-party integration required
How teams use Strkr

Teams migrating off Desk.com and legacy support stacks.

Four cases of teams moving off Desk.com or its successor paths.

E-commerce brand, 12 agents

Late migration consolidated support plus CRM.

A 12-agent e-commerce brand ran on Desk.com past the shutdown through grandfathered access and finally migrated in 2024 under security pressure. The team evaluated Zendesk plus HubSpot (two tools, two bills, integration maintenance) and chose Strkr for the unified platform. The migration took 4 weeks including data export, configuration, parallel run, and training. The team reported fewer context handoff issues between support and sales immediately after cutover.

B2B SaaS startup, 7 agents

Avoided Service Cloud by moving to a modern alternative.

A B2B SaaS startup that had been on Desk.com since 2016 did not want to adopt Service Cloud's complexity or price. They evaluated Freshdesk and Intercom before choosing Strkr for the broader CRM capability. Migration took 3 weeks for 15K tickets and 8K contacts. The team cited the flat seat pricing as the main decision driver because the Service Cloud quote was 3x their Desk.com spend.

Services firm, 5 agents

Freshdesk-plus-HubSpot stack consolidated into one platform.

A professional services firm post-Desk.com had been running Freshdesk for support and HubSpot for CRM for 4 years. The integration maintenance between the two tools consumed roughly 8 hours per month of ops time. Migrating to Strkr consolidated the stack. The ops lead reported the time back from eliminated integration maintenance was the biggest operational win.

Agency, 9 agents

Modern multi-channel inbox replaced three separate tools.

A digital agency ran Intercom for chat, Zendesk for email tickets, and HubSpot for sales contacts. The three-tool stack cost the agency over 2K per month in software. Consolidating into Strkr with the unified customer inbox and flat seat pricing cut software spend by roughly half and simplified agent training because new hires learned one tool instead of three.

Healthcare technology, 11 agents

Compliance posture enabled the migration.

A healthcare technology company had been constrained in support tool selection because many vendors would not sign BAAs. Strkr's BAA availability on request plus the HIPAA compliance posture plus SOC 2 Type II in progress through 2026-Q4 unlocked the migration path. The team moved from a legacy support tool that did not sign BAAs onto Strkr in 5 weeks with full compliance documentation preserved.

If you are still searching for Desk.com, it is time for a modern alternative.

Start a 14-day Strkr trial, import a sample of your current support data, and run a week of parallel operation. The migration pattern is well-worn and the unified platform eliminates the "support plus CRM" integration tax. BAA available on request.

Start free trial See the platform overview
Common questions

What buyers in this bucket ask most.

What happened to Desk.com?

Desk.com was acquired by Salesforce in 2011 (originally as Assistly) and operated as Salesforce's SMB-focused customer support product. In March 2018 Salesforce discontinued Desk.com and announced a migration path to Service Cloud. The product has not received updates, security patches, or support since the discontinuation. Teams that were on Desk.com either migrated to Service Cloud, moved to a competitor like Zendesk or Freshdesk, or in a small number of cases continued operating on grandfathered access past the shutdown.

Why not just migrate to Service Cloud as Salesforce recommended?

For teams that chose Desk.com specifically for its simplicity and SMB-friendly pricing, Service Cloud is a significant step up in both complexity and cost. The implementation is typically weeks to months with meaningful admin configuration, and the per-seat pricing is substantially higher. For enterprise teams with existing Salesforce investment, Service Cloud is often the right migration path. For SMB and mid-market teams, modern alternatives like Strkr offer the Desk.com target use case with less complexity and lower cost.

How does Strkr compare to Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Intercom?

Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Intercom are strong purpose-built support platforms with deeper support-specific features than Strkr. Strkr competes on a different axis: unified support plus full sales CRM in one platform with flat seat pricing. Teams that need best-of-breed support alone tend to prefer the purpose-built vendors. Teams that need to run support plus sales plus growth on one record set tend to prefer Strkr because the unified data model eliminates the integration maintenance tax.

How long does the migration from Desk.com typically take?

For a team with 5 to 20 agents and under 50K historical tickets, the migration typically runs 3 to 5 weeks: 1 week for audit and planning, 1 week for data export and target configuration, 1 week for import and validation, 1 week for parallel run and training, with cutover at the end. Larger teams with hundreds of thousands of historical tickets or extensive custom automation can take 8 to 12 weeks. The data export from Desk.com has quirks that often need manual repair before clean import.

Does Strkr handle multi-channel support including SMS and chat?

Yes. The unified customer inbox threads conversations across email, web chat, SMS (via Strkr Messaging with carrier infrastructure), and social messages into one view per customer. Each conversation attaches to the customer record so the agent sees the full cross-channel history. SMS is native via Strkr Messaging without requiring a separate SMS vendor integration. Consent and DND tracking are built in. The pattern covers the modern multi-channel operation that Desk.com never fully addressed.

What compliance posture does Strkr offer for support operations?

Strkr is HIPAA compliant with BAAs available on request, SOC 2 Type II is in progress with completion targeted for 2026-Q4, and the platform supports GDPR and CCPA. Encryption at rest and in transit, audit logs, granular access controls, and consent capture are first-class. For teams running support in regulated verticals (healthcare, financial services, government contracting), the compliance paper trail is comprehensive. The security surface extends across support cases, customer communications, and attached documents.

How long until Desk.com data becomes unreadable?

Desk.com was discontinued in March 2018 with historical access grandfathered for existing accounts. The timeline for complete access revocation has not been published publicly, but security best practice treats any unpatched legacy platform as high-risk regardless of operational access status. Teams still relying on Desk.com for historical reporting should export their data to a modern archive format as soon as practical, independent of their choice of new operational platform. The migration urgency is driven by security exposure rather than specifically scheduled access cutoff.

Can Strkr import Desk.com case history during migration?

Yes. The migration tooling supports Desk.com export formats with field mapping, attachment preservation, and timestamp accuracy. Historical ticket data imports with full conversation history, custom fields, SLA data, and user attribution. Teams typically import 90 percent of historical data cleanly on the first pass; the remaining 10 percent (typically malformed records or exceptional cases) resolve through targeted cleanup. The migration pattern is well-worn and documented through specific customer runbooks.

What support tier does the free Strkr trial include?

The 14-day Strkr trial includes full access to the platform including all support capabilities (unified inbox, case management, SLA policies, macros, Flow automation) and all CRM capabilities (pipeline, forecast, deal management). Strkr AI is included on the flat seat tier so trial users get the full modern experience including AI-drafted responses and summarization. Trial support covers configuration help, migration guidance, and training. The pattern makes trial-to-production decisions based on actual capability experience rather than on sales-pitch promises.

Also built for

Related audiences.

Desk Zoho CRM Help Desk CRM Helpdesk For Small Business For Agencies

Try it free. Bring your team next week.

No sales call, no migration consultant, no four-month implementation. Enter your card, get 14 days of the full Pro tier, cancel any time before day 14 with zero charge. Spin up a workspace, import your CSV, and have something useful before lunch.

Start free trial See pricing