Posted by
Tejas Mondeeri
on
Sep 26, 2025
Zendesk Sell is Shutting Down: Timeline, Impact, and Alternatives
Your Zendesk Sell exit plan, timeline, risks, and next steps
Zendesk has officially announced that it’ll sunset Zendesk Sell (end of life scheduled for August 31, 2027). This appears to be a shift away from sales CRM toward service tooling for the company. If you are a current Zendesk Sell customer, this raises important questions about the future and the steps you should take to make your transition smooth.
Why is Zendesk retiring Sell?
Zendesk says it is retiring its sales CRM to prioritize Zendesk Support and employee service products. According to the company’s announcement, this shift allows it to move headcount and roadmap toward agent, workflow, and AI features in Support.
By narrowing its focus, Zendesk plans to ship AI features faster for service teams and their customers. This is not just about streamlining the product line. The goal appears to be to reallocate resources to accelerate work in its core service products.
Move to Zendesk’s new AI-First strategy
In a recent interview with CX Today, Zendesk said that Zendesk’s new direction centers on AI. The company views the current AI revolution as a transition “100 times bigger” than the move from on-premise to cloud solutions. This AI-first strategy is not about adding AI as a bolt-on feature. It’s about building AI into the core of the entire suite of products. Zendesk also indicated a shift from multiple tools to one unified product for the customer journey.
What this means for Zendesk Sell customers
You can continue to use Zendesk Sell with full access until the official retirement date (end of life) on August 31, 2027. Zendesk has stated it will support its current Sell customers throughout this transition period.
However, it’s crucial to understand that after your subscription ends or the retirement date passes, Zendesk will permanently delete all your Sell data in accordance with its data deletion policy.
How to plan your Zendesk Sell migration
While Zendesk plans to offer Sell until August 31, 2027, customers must begin planning their transition now. Here is what you need to know and do:
Start Exploring Alternatives: Begin exploring other sales CRM options to find a solution that best fits your needs and workflows.
Understand Your Data Export Options: Users can export data directly from Zendesk Sell. Admins with Export permissions can trigger CSV exports from Settings → Data → Export. Zendesk Sell sends a secure email link to download the CSV. Export links expire after 30 days from the email timestamp.
Export Limitations: Standard exports include Leads, Contacts, Deals, Notes, Tasks, and Smart Lists. However, it's important to be aware that some data cannot be exported through this method. This includes activity history, appointments, emails, call logs, and documents. If 20 to 30 percent of your context lives in emails, calls, and documents, a CSV-only move means your reps lose a quarter of their history. This is a key risk of waiting until Zendesk Sell is discontinued.
Be aware of the Data Deletion Policy: It’s critical to schedule your final full export at least 7 days before your contract end date or retirement date. Zendesk will permanently delete all Sell data in accordance with the Zendesk Service Data Deletion Policy, either upon the conclusion of your subscription or as of August 31, 2027, whichever comes first.
When should you start your Zendesk Sell migration?
At ClonePartner, one of the most common questions we hear from customers is: “When is the right time to start our migration?” On paper, Zendesk Sell doesn’t shut down until August 31, 2027 — its official end-of-life date. That might sound far away. However, in our experience, organizations that wait until the last few months often end up rushing, missing key data, and placing extra stress on their sales teams.
Making the move early is recommended
We’ve seen customers who started their planning 12–18 months before a shutdown not only land smoothly in their new CRM but also use the migration as a chance to clean up old data, rebuild sales processes, and train their teams. One sales director we worked with joked that the migration “forced us to finally get rid of the 4,000 leads our reps hadn’t touched in years.” What could have been chaos became a reset button.
Typical migration timelines
Here’s what we recommend based on hundreds of CRM migrations:
Discovery & Planning: 1–2 weeks
(Mapping fields, understanding workflows, deciding what to keep vs. archive)Sample & Testing Runs: 2–4 weeks
(Running test migrations, catching edge cases, validating reports)Delta Migrations & Cutover: 1–2 weeks
(Final sync of data, users switching into the new system, support for hypercare)
In total, you should expect 1–2 months for a clean migration project. Larger enterprises or highly customized setups can take 2–4 months.
Change management
A CRM migration isn’t just about moving data, it’s about moving people. Reps need to feel confident that their history, deals, and contacts will be in place on day one. Managers need reports to line up so forecasting doesn’t break. We’ve seen teams lose momentum when migrations were rushed, and conversely, we’ve seen teams come out stronger when leaders framed the switch as an upgrade rather than a disruption.
Our recommendation
If you’re on Zendesk Sell today, the safest window to start planning is at least 12 months before your target go-live date. That gives you enough buffer for:
Vendor evaluations
Internal approvals and budgeting
Migration planning and test runs
Training and adoption programs
Migrations often take longer than anticipated, especially when multiple departments are involved. While our team delivers projects up to 50% faster, we still advise starting well ahead of time. An early start gives you flexibility and peace of mind, whereas waiting until 2027 will mean competing with a surge of last-minute movers all seeking support at once.
Navigating your migration: How an expert partner like ClonePartner can help
The process of migrating from one CRM to another can be complex, especially given the data export limitations noted in the sources. A specialized partner can extract non-CSV items (such as emails, call logs, and files), remap custom fields, find workarounds for destination-unsupported data types, and run deltas.
Key features of our migration service:
Complete data coverage: We migrate all key data, including leads, contacts, companies, deals, notes, tasks, activities, emails, calls, and files, and we document any limits in the source system.
Accurate mapping and relationships: We preserve owners, teams, pipelines, stages, and parent-child links so reports work on day one.
Security and compliance: We use 256-bit AES encryption in transit and at rest, least-privilege access, and signed DPA support. We also offer regional processing and on-prem storage on request. We are SOC 2 type II, ISO 20071, GDPR, and HIPAA compliant.
Scale and problem-solving: We migrate large volumes with no downtime and with at least 50% faster turnaround times. We run sample migrations to catch all the edge cases specific to your data and fix them quickly.
Custom mapping and migration: Every mapping is uniquely custom-tailored to fit your data, and every migration is assigned a dedicated migration engineer to oversee the whole process.
Free consultation and unlimited validation: Based on the complexity, we provide free consultation to help understand your ecosystem and plan the move. The exact number of hours depends on the level of complexity. We also provide unlimited sample and delta migrations so your data stays consistent and continuous.
Key benefits of our migration service
Nothing important gets left behind: Your team lands in the new CRM with the full context of past work, so sales and support do not lose momentum.
Minimal disruption to the business: Dry runs and delta migrations cut surprises. Users switch over quickly and keep working without re-entering data. Most users are productive again within 30 to 60 minutes of the switch.
Clean reports on day one: Owners, teams, pipelines, and stages stay accurate. This keeps dashboards, forecasts, and SLAs clear and reliable.
Faster time to value: Purpose-built extractors and proven mappings shorten the project timeline and reduce engineering effort on your side. Our team has dealt with over 500 APIs and understands the nitty-gritty.
Lower risk, higher confidence: Strong security practices, clear documentation, and validation checkpoints give stakeholders confidence at every step.
Built to scale: Whether you are moving hundreds of records or millions, our migration service can handle it.
Zendesk Sell recommends migrating to Pipedrive, and we provide a complete, validated migration to Pipedrive. If you prefer a different CRM, we also handle end-to-end migrations to:
CRM not listed? We add support within 48 hours.
With Zendesk Sell set to shut down in 2027, this sunset/retirement means it’s critical to start planning your migration well in advance. Whether you’re moving to Pipedrive, Salesforce, HubSpot, or another CRM, the key is ensuring that no valuable history gets lost in the process.
ClonePartner enables businesses to transition seamlessly, safeguarding data integrity while minimizing downtime. With more than 500 successful migrations for mid-market and enterprise customers worldwide, our team brings proven tools and deep expertise to deliver transitions that are both precise and timely. At ClonePartner, we see migrations as both science and craft—each project builds on the last, and our best migration is always the next one we complete.
Zendesk Sell Shutdown at a Glance
Q: When is Zendesk Sell shutting down?
A: Zendesk has announced that Zendesk Sell will be retired on August 31, 2027. Customers can continue using it until then, but after that date, all Sell data will be permanently deleted in line with Zendesk’s data deletion policy.
Q: Why is Zendesk Sell shutting down?
A: Zendesk is retiring Sell to focus on its core service products and an AI-first strategy. The company is reallocating resources toward customer service tools, workflows, and AI features instead of maintaining a sales CRM.
Q: What will happen to my Zendesk Sell data after 2027?
A: Once Zendesk Sell is shut down, all customer data will be permanently deleted. To avoid data loss, you must export your records before your subscription ends or by August 31, 2027, whichever comes first.
Q: What are the alternatives to Zendesk Sell?
A: Many businesses migrate from Zendesk Sell to other CRMs such as Pipedrive, HubSpot, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Zoho CRM, Freshsales, Copper, Monday CRM, ActiveCampaign, and others. The best choice depends on your business size and workflow needs.
Q: How do I migrate from Zendesk Sell to another CRM?
A: Standard CSV exports from Zendesk Sell include Leads, Contacts, Deals, Notes, Tasks, and Smart Lists. However, items like emails, call logs, and documents are excluded. To preserve complete history and relationships, working with a specialized migration partner like ClonePartner ensures that no important data is left behind.
Q. What are the options available for the migration?
A. We have listed the top 5 options for you to consider here: Top 5 Best Zendesk Sell Data Migration Solutions
