Migrate from Zendesk to Userorbit

Moving from Zendesk to Userorbit is a support-operating-model change, not just a ticket export. Preserve the source archive, decide which history still needs to be actionable, and rebuild the channels, routing, knowledge, and product handoff that customers rely on before cutover.
This guide is for SaaS product, customer-success, support, and founder teams evaluating or implementing a Zendesk migration. It focuses on the decisions that affect the first customer conversation after launch: identity, channels, ticket context, automation, SLAs, help content, reporting, and rollback.

Before you begin

Choose one migration owner and write down what Userorbit is expected to replace:

the Zendesk agent workspace and views
tickets, forms, fields, groups, tags, macros, triggers, and automations
email, in-app, Slack, chat, voice, or other support channels
Guide articles, categories, themes, redirects, and search
users, organizations, roles, permissions, and custom fields
SLAs, business hours, escalation rules, and reporting
AI agents, bots, apps, integrations, and outbound notifications
the feedback, roadmap, and product-adoption workflow connected to support

Set a cutover date and choose one source of truth. Do not let new tickets arrive in both systems without a written reconciliation process.
Keep an untouched, access-controlled copy of every Zendesk export. Create a separate working copy for cleanup, mapping, and pilot tests.

Inventory the Zendesk service model

A Zendesk account contains more than tickets. Inventory:

brands, support addresses, channels, forms, groups, views, roles, and permissions
ticket fields, custom objects, tags, statuses, priorities, and side conversations
triggers, automations, macros, business hours, SLAs, and escalation rules
users, organizations, identities, segments, and account-level context
Guide articles, categories, sections, locales, images, attachments, themes, and redirects
integrations, apps, webhooks, phone or chat dependencies, and notification templates
Explore reports, dashboards, saved metrics, response-time definitions, and exports
AI agent configuration, generated responses, handoff rules, and any data that cannot be exported
links in the product, Help Center, email signatures, sales materials, and internal playbooks

Mark each item as rebuild, migrate, archive, replace, or retire. Similar names do not guarantee equivalent behavior.

Export Zendesk data deliberately

Zendesk exposes several export paths with different completeness and plan requirements.

Tickets, users, and organizations

Zendesk's account export documentation covers ticket, user, and organization exports in JSON, CSV, and XML. Built-in account exports are not enabled by default, and the built-in export tools are not available on Team plans. Zendesk documents REST API export paths for all plans.
Choose the format based on the data you must preserve:

JSON or newline-delimited JSON for large ticket sets and richer record structure
CSV for analysis when comments and descriptions are not required
XML only when its field and size limitations are acceptable
REST API or incremental exports when you need complete, repeatable, or delta-aware extraction

Keep ticket IDs, requester and organization IDs, timestamps, status, priority, tags, custom fields, comments, attachments, assignee, group, channel, forms, links, and audit information where the selected export supports them. Record which fields the export omits. Zendesk notes that AI agent tickets cannot be exported through the account export path, so make a separate archive or retention decision if those records matter.
Use the Zendesk user export API and the ticket, organization, and incremental export APIs when a one-time account export is not enough.

Help Center content

Export Guide content separately from tickets. Preserve article ID, title, locale, category, section, body, images, files, visibility, permissions, canonical URL, and redirects. Keep a media manifest so images and attachments are not lost when article URLs or collections change.
Do not assume a ticket export contains the knowledge base, or that a Help Center export preserves the same search, theme, URL, or access rules in Userorbit.

Decide what should move

Use four buckets:

Operational now — active customers, open tickets, current Help Center content, and rules needed on day one.
Useful history — records needed for renewals, escalations, account context, or compliance.
Reference archive — closed tickets, reports, and audit history that should remain available without filling the new inbox.
Retire — duplicate tickets, stale macros, unused views, abandoned articles, and data with no current customer use.

Do not migrate every closed ticket by default. Keeping a complete archive while moving only the work that needs to be actionable usually produces a safer first release.

Map Zendesk concepts to Userorbit

Use this as a decision table, not an automatic import promise.
| Zendesk concept | Userorbit destination or replacement | Decision to make | | --- | --- | --- | | User or requester | Userorbit contact | Preserve a stable identifier and deduplicate by the approved identity rule | | Organization | Userorbit company or account context | Decide which organization fields remain operationally useful | | Ticket | Userorbit support thread for new work; archive or approved path for history | Confirm historical object coverage before promising an import | | Group, assignee, or view | Userorbit owners, inbox views, labels, and routing | Rebuild the queue model around current ownership | | Form, field, or tag | Userorbit labels, priority, tiers, contact/company properties, and workflow context | Keep a source-to-destination field map | | Macro, trigger, or automation | Userorbit support workflow, automatic reply, or suggested article | Re-test every action and human escalation | | SLA and business hours | Userorbit support tiers and SLA targets | Reconcile definitions and time zones before comparing results | | Guide article | Userorbit Help Center article | Rewrite and validate media, links, visibility, and search | | Explore report | Userorbit Analytics or a documented archive | Rebuild metric definitions; do not expect historical continuity | | AI agent or bot history | Approved archive and new Userorbit AI/support workflow | Confirm exportability, training context, and handoff behavior | | Side conversation or external app | Supported Userorbit channel or documented replacement | Test the customer and internal experience end to end |
Zendesk's migration guidance notes that ticket imports use the Ticket Import API, imported tickets do not carry metrics such as first-reply or first-resolution time, and triggers do not run on imported tickets. These limitations are a useful reminder that importing records does not recreate the service operation.
Userorbit does not currently advertise a public one-click Zendesk importer. Do not promise that tickets, private comments, attachments, custom fields, AI history, exact timestamps, SLA metrics, or reports will transfer one-to-one. Confirm source objects, destination objects, assistance, limits, and rollback with the Userorbit team before signing off.

Configure Userorbit before the pilot

Start with the destination workflow, not the ticket import.

Review how to set up customer support in Userorbit.
Configure inbound support email and test sender, subject, threading, and reply behavior.
Configure Slack support channels if Slack is part of intake.
Create support labels and saved inbox views for the queues your team will operate.
Set up support tiers and SLA targets using definitions you can measure.
Rebuild only workflows with a clear trigger, safe action, and human escalation path. Use support workflow guidance.
Recreate current Help Center articles and link them at the point of support.
Decide how a support thread becomes feedback, a roadmap item, an announcement, or product guidance.

Userorbit's Support Suite overview documents the shipped shared inbox model across in-app, email, and Slack, including threads, views, labels, tiers, tasks, internal discussions, and channel-aware replies. Use the Support Suite plan-access guide to verify workspace entitlement.
Userorbit provides contact import and export. Its public API overview and MCP server cover supported programmatic and agent workflows, but neither should be treated as a bulk Zendesk ticket importer without written confirmation.

Run a representative pilot

Choose a sample that exercises the real operating model:

one open ticket with a known requester and organization
one email thread with a follow-up and attachment
one Slack-originated support thread if applicable
one escalation requiring an internal discussion or task
one account with custom fields and tier context
one question answered by a Help Center article
one issue that should become feedback or roadmap context
one workflow that must escalate to a person

Verify identity and company matching; channel, threading, attachments, and timestamps; owner, labels, priority, tier, status, and SLA behavior; internal notes and customer-visible replies; Help Center links and search; feedback and roadmap context; reporting definitions; permissions; and rollback. Have someone who did not configure the migration follow a case from intake to resolution.

Cut over in controlled phases

Freeze structural changes in Zendesk.
Export a final delta and record the timestamp.
Finish the pilot and resolve field and identity exceptions.
Configure Userorbit channels, links, notifications, and ownership.
Route new in-app and email traffic to Userorbit.
Keep Zendesk read-only for a defined reference period.
Update product links, Help Center links, email signatures, integrations, and internal playbooks.
Monitor missed messages, duplicate contacts, unassigned threads, SLA misses, failed automations, and broken article links.
Keep the untouched archive and rollback decision available until the new workflow is stable.

Do not delete the Zendesk account immediately. A read-only archive with a retirement date is safer than a destructive cutover.

Migration completion checklist

Untouched Zendesk exports are stored with access controls.
Users, organizations, identities, and custom fields have a documented mapping.
Ticket, article, attachment, report, automation, and AI-history decisions are recorded.
Userorbit channels and support ownership are configured and tested.
Labels, views, tiers, SLAs, workflows, and handoffs passed the pilot.
Help Center articles, media, links, redirects, locales, and visibility were reviewed.
Feedback, roadmap, and announcement handoffs have an owner.
New traffic has one source of truth.
Zendesk is read-only with a retirement date.
Customers and internal teams know where support now belongs.

Common questions

Can I export all Zendesk tickets?

Zendesk provides account export and REST API paths, but format, plan, volume, and field coverage differ. JSON or API-based extraction is usually the safer starting point when comments, descriptions, custom fields, attachments, or repeatable deltas matter. Keep a record of omitted fields.

Can I import Zendesk users and organizations to Userorbit?

Prepare users and organizations as contacts and company context, but deduplicate and preserve stable identifiers before importing. Test the identity model with real accounts before the full migration.

Can I import Zendesk ticket history into Userorbit?

Do not assume a public one-click ticket importer. Confirm supported historical objects, private comments, attachments, timestamps, volume, service assistance, and rollback with Userorbit. Keep the Zendesk export authoritative until the destination is verified.

Will Zendesk SLAs and reports carry over?

Treat them as definitions to reconcile and rebuild. Imported records do not recreate the original response-time metrics, triggers, dashboards, or operational history automatically.

What happens to Zendesk Guide articles?

Extract articles and media separately, map categories and sections to the Userorbit Help Center, rewrite links where needed, and test public and restricted content. Preserve redirects and a URL map before changing navigation.

Should I copy every Zendesk trigger and macro?

No. Rebuild the rules that still solve a current customer problem, then test each action against real examples. Remove duplicate or obsolete automation before cutover.

When is the migration complete?

It is complete when customers have one clear intake path, your team can route and resolve work in Userorbit, product context reaches the right owners, and the Zendesk archive has a documented retention or retirement decision.
For current capability and access, start with the Support Suite overview and plan-access guide. For a commercial comparison, see Userorbit vs Zendesk.