The replacement now has a deadline
A planned pilot gives your team time to test a new pipeline before the announced retirement date. Start with a capability inventory, an export rehearsal and a clear owner for the cutover.
Zendesk Sell alternative
Plan your next CRM before Zendesk Sell retires.
Zendesk has announced that Sell will retire on August 31, 2027. Use the transition to build a CRM you control, with a migration plan for the records and workflows your team depends on.
MIT open source
1,928 stars on GitHub
50+ pluginsPlan for the retirement date and the records a standard export leaves out.
A standard export does not contain everything
Zendesk says the standard export excludes activity history, appointments, emails, call logs and documents. Identify what must be retained and assess available export, API or archival routes before promising a complete transfer.
Preserve relationships and daily workflows
Map Leads, Contacts, Deals, Notes, Tasks, Smart Lists and source identifiers. Rehearse the relationships and daily workflow with a representative sample before committing to the cutover.
Customer records, sales pipelines and order workflows.
Linked customer records
Link companies and people to deals, addresses, notes and activities. Extend the records with fields that describe your business.
Configurable sales stages
Configure stages and track deal value, probability, expected close and ownership in board or list views.
Quotes, orders and shipments
Use the sales and catalog modules for quotes, orders, products, payments and shipment records. Implement the handoffs and provider connections your process needs.
Custom entities and workflows
Extend the TypeScript application with your own entities, modules and workflows. Assess retention of non-exported history, document archives, Zendesk Support links and active automations as explicit migration work.
Feature by feature
Familiar CRM essentials. A foundation you can own.
Green checks show available capabilities in the stated scope. Arrows identify implementation work, including the specialist features your team may need to retain.
| What your team gets | BUILT FOR YOUR WORKFLOWOpen MercatoCore CRM + configurable modules | Zendesk SellAvailable until announced retirement |
|---|---|---|
| Where Open Mercato adds control | ||
| Run on your own infrastructure | ✓ | ×Vendor-hosted service |
| Application core under an MIT licence | ✓ | ×Commercial licence |
| No per-user core licence fee for self-hosting | ✓Hosting and services extra | ×Commercial licence / hosted service |
| Capabilities available in both | ||
| Company and contact records | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deals and sales pipelines | ✓ | ✓ |
| Notes and activities | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom fields | ✓ | ✓Edition / plan scope applies |
| Business-specific automation | ✓Configure the workflow engine | ✓Capabilities vary by edition |
| Implementation and scope | ||
| Zendesk Support and communication integrations | ↗Assess and connect required services | ✓Within product / plan scope |
| Your custom migration and data mapping | ↗Scoped pilot and validation | ↗Export and integration work |
Available in the stated scope Not included in this model Requires implementation
Zendesk has announced Sell retirement on August 31, 2027 and recommends its Pipedrive migration partnership. Open Mercato is an independent alternative for custom CRM projects; no automatic or complete Sell migration is claimed.
Reviewed 12 November 2026. Sources: Zendesk Sell product documentation · Open Mercato core · Customer records
Explore implementation and commercial details
| What matters | Zendesk Sell | Open Mercato |
|---|---|---|
| Customer records | Zendesk Sell provides CRM records and sales processes. | Companies, people, deals, notes and activities in the core application. |
| Customization | Available until announced retirement. Existing configurations need a capability review. | Custom fields, entities and TypeScript modules; implementation scoped to the workflow. |
| Operational handoff | Review the modules and connected systems used after a sale. | Sales and catalog modules provide a starting point for quotes, orders and shipment records. |
| Hosting and cost | Commercial plans; check the edition and hosting model. | MIT-licensed core; hosting, implementation, maintenance and third-party usage budgeted separately. |
| Migration detail | Retention of non-exported history, document archives, zendesk support links and active automations. | Keep source identifiers, verify relationships and rebuild required behavior in a tested pilot. |
Explore Open Mercato CRM
Test the foundation with one real workflow.
Explore customer records, deals, custom fields and configurable workflows in Open Mercato CRM. Then bring an example from Zendesk Sell: one account, its related records and the next operational step your team needs.
Explore Open Mercato CRM ↗
A Zendesk Sell migration plan for records, relationships and workflows.
Map the records and relationships
Inventory Leads, Contacts, Deals, Notes, Tasks, Smart Lists and source identifiers. Keep original identifiers and agree how each record maps to the new application.
Audit the behaviors you depend on
Review retention of non-exported history, document archives, Zendesk Support links and active automations. Decide what to retain, integrate or reimplement and agree acceptance criteria.
Rehearse with one team
Load a representative sample, validate permissions and relationships, and test a real customer journey from first activity to the operational handoff.
Reconcile, train and cut over
Compare record counts and key totals, retain an accessible archive where needed, handle final changes and agree rollback, training and support ownership.
Questions before you take the next step.
When is Open Mercato a good Zendesk Sell alternative?
When you need an owned, extensible CRM and operational application, and have a team or partner to implement and run it. Zendesk Sell can remain the better fit when its ready-to-use managed experience already matches your requirements.
Will all our Zendesk Sell features transfer?
No automatic feature transfer is assumed. Review retention of non-exported history, document archives, Zendesk Support links and active automations. The core provides CRM and sales modules; specialized capabilities require configuration, integrations or development.
How should we compare the cost?
Compare the same scope over the same period: current subscriptions and administration versus implementation, migration, hosting, maintenance, support and provider usage. The MIT core has no licence charge; a production service still has costs.
Can we keep part of our current stack?
Yes, a phased architecture can be scoped. Define the system of record for each entity, the synchronization rules and failure handling, then validate them before moving users.
Bring the workflow that makes you question Zendesk Sell.
Start with your record map, required integrations and the three changes that would make the biggest difference to your team.
Discuss your Zendesk Sell migration
Talk through your process, integrations and implementation needs with the Open Mercato team.