Migrate from Zoho Desk to Freshdesk

Zoho Desk Tickets map directly to Freshdesk Tickets with standard fields (subject, description, status, priority, type, source channel, assignee, group) transferred 1:1. Custom fields on tickets migrate with type mapping: Zoho picklist values translate to Freshdesk dropdown options, date fields preserve ISO timestamps, and number fields use the same numeric type. Zoho ticket display IDs are preserved in a custom field zoho_display_id for audit reference. Status values (Open, Pending, On-Hold, Closed, etc.) are explicitly mapped to Freshdesk status equivalents during the transform phase.

Thread history including public replies, internal notes, and email body is stored as sub-objects linked to the parent Ticket in Zoho Desk. We export threads in chronological order and reconstruct the conversation timeline in Freshdesk's ticket conversation feed. Inline attachments referenced in threads migrate as ticket attachments with URLs preserved. Internal notes in Zoho map to Freshdesk's private notes. The created_at timestamp on each thread entry is preserved as the Freshdesk conversation timestamp to maintain historical timeline integrity.

Zoho Desk Contacts map to Freshdesk Customers. Name, email, phone, mobile, address, and social profile fields transfer directly. Custom fields on contacts migrate with the same type-mapping logic used for ticket custom fields. Duplicate detection runs on email address before insert. If a Zoho Contact has no email, we use the contact name as the Freshdesk unique identifier. The original Zoho contact ID is preserved in a custom field zoho_contact_id.

Zoho Desk Accounts map to Freshdesk Organizations. Name, industry, website, phone, address, and annual revenue transfer directly. Multi-department accounts in Zoho (where sub-departments share one Account parent) flatten to a single Freshdesk Organization since Freshdesk does not support hierarchical account structures. We create an Organization record first, then link all associated Customer records via the Organization ID resolved at migration time.

Zoho Desk Products (SKU, name, description, custom fields) map to Freshdesk Products. Products are a reference object used in ticket warranty and entitlement tracking. We migrate product records as reference data before ticket import so that ticket-product lookups are resolved at insert time. If the Zoho Product has custom fields, we create matching custom fields in Freshdesk before the product migration phase.

Zoho Desk KB Articles (titled content published to help centers) map to Freshdesk Solutions. We export title, body HTML, author, category, tags, and publication status. HTML content transfers as-is with embedded images re-hosted to Freshdesk's attachment storage. Zoho article category hierarchies (KBRootCategories and KBSections) translate to Freshdesk's folder and section structure. Publication status (Published, Draft, Archived) maps to Freshdesk's visibility settings. Note: Knowledge base attachments do not migrate via Zoho API and must be re-hosted separately.

Zoho Desk Agents map to Freshdesk Agents. We match by email address to preserve comment and thread attribution. If an agent email in Zoho does not match an active Freshdesk user, we flag the mismatch before migration begins so the customer can provision the account or reassign the owner. Role and department assignments from Zoho map to Freshdesk groups and agent profiles, noting that Zoho's department structure has no direct Freshdesk equivalent — we map agents to Freshdesk groups based on the Zoho department the agent is primarily assigned to.

Tags are flat labels applied to Tickets and Contacts in Zoho Desk. We export tag names and apply them to the corresponding records in Freshdesk. Tag-based automations in Zoho (routing rules triggered by tag assignment) do not transfer and are documented for the customer's admin to rebuild in Freshdesk's Scenario automation layer. The tag names themselves migrate as plain string labels retained on each record.