How fast can we be live?
Answer
About five minutes. Sign in, name your portal, and it is online at yourcompany.myforumcat.com. Nothing to install.
Compare
Zendesk Gather pricing, and the simple alternative
Gather is the community add-on that sits with a Zendesk help center. We are the standalone version, on your own domain, beside any help desk you run.
This page compares us with Gather, the community add-on. We do not compete with Zendesk Support. We are not a help desk: no ticket queue, no inbox, no SLA.
Free for 7 days. No credit card. Live in about five minutes.
5 minfrom sign-up to a live portal
0servers to run or patch
$9one time for a working portal
7 daysfree, no card needed
About Gather
What Gather is, and who buys it
Zendesk Gather is the Zendesk community add-on. It puts a customer community next to a help center a team already runs in Zendesk.
For a team committed to Zendesk, that closeness is the whole point. One vendor, one login for agents, and the community sits with the rest of the support stack.
To be clear about the comparison: we are the community half only. Ticketing, the agent inbox, and SLAs stay where they are, because we do not do any of that.
Pricing
Gather pricing, in plain words
Gather is sold with a Zendesk subscription rather than on its own. So a zendesk gather pricing answer depends on the Zendesk plan you are on. Check their plan page for what your tier includes.
Ours is separate from any help desk you pay for. $9 one time on a Forumcat subdomain, or $99 a month for your own domain. 7 days free to try it, with no card.
If you ever change help desks, the portal and its answers stay exactly where they are.
What your customers see
The portal, in your brand
A public portal on your domain, in your brand, with no login wall in front of it.
Side by side
Gather and Forumcat, line by line
Our column is what we ship today. Their column is sourced or plainly descriptive, and says so when we cannot source it.
| Zendesk Gather | Forumcat | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | Switched on inside Zendesk | About five minutes |
| Price shape | Per plan, sold with a Zendesk subscription | $9 one time, or $99 a month |
| Who hosts it | The vendor | We do |
| Your own domain | Check with the vendor | Yes, on Pro, with SSL set up for you |
| REST API and MCP on every plan | Check with the vendor | |
| Private questions and categories | Check with the vendor | |
| Roles for the support team | Check with the vendor | Five: owner, admin, agent, finance, member |
Sources as of Jul 2026. We only print a competitor number when a public source gives one. Otherwise the cell says "check with the vendor". Unlimited seats and questions on Pro carry a quiet fair-use backstop, lifted for any real portal that reaches it. Page views are fair-use limits, not a meter.
Fair to them
When Gather is the right pick
Stay with Gather when you are committed to Zendesk and want one bill and one login. Keeping the community where your agents already work saves real time every day.
If the community and the help center share one search and one sign-in, keep them together.
Why teams move
When teams pick Forumcat instead
Teams come to us when they want the public archive to stand on its own. It runs on your domain and works beside any help desk. Nothing about it changes if the help desk does.
The other reason is reach. Every answered question carries QAPage structured data, a sitemap entry, and a raw markdown view. Search engines and AI engines can read all of it.
- Your own domain, with SSL set up for you
- Customers read and search with no account
- No passwords: magic link, a 6-digit code, or Google under your brand
- REST API and MCP server on every plan
A closer look
See it before you decide
Every answered question becomes a page a customer, Google, or an AI engine can read.
Pricing
Two plans. Both flat.
The bill does not grow with traffic, questions, or seats. Pick a plan, and that is the price.
| Basic | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9 one time | $99 a month, or $990 a year |
| Portal address | yourcompany.myforumcat.com | Your own domain, SSL included |
| Team seats | 2 | Unlimited |
| Registered members | 1,000 | 10,000 |
| Questions | 10,000 | Unlimited |
| Media storage | 1 GB (≈2,000 images) | 50 GB (≈100,000 images) |
| Page views a month (fair use) | 100,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Search, votes, accepted solutions | ||
| Structured data, sitemap, markdown view | ||
| REST API and MCP server | ||
| Google sign-in under your brand | ||
| Analytics and search log | ||
| Free trial | 7 days, no card | 7 days, no card |
Unlimited seats and questions on Pro carry a quiet fair-use backstop, lifted for any real portal that reaches it. Page views are fair-use limits, not a meter.
FAQ
Questions buyers ask at this stage
What does it cost in month twelve?
Answer
The same as month one. $9 one time for a portal on a Forumcat subdomain, or $99 a month for your own domain. The bill never grows with traffic or questions.
Do we have to leave Zendesk to use this?
Answer
No. Keep it. Forumcat is the public self-serve layer beside your help desk, and one-to-one work stays where it is today.
Can we import our old forum or help docs?
Answer
Not today. There is no importer. Most teams start fresh and let the new questions build the archive, which is live in minutes.
What happens to our answers if we leave?
Answer
They are yours. Every question and answer is readable through the REST API, so you can pull it all out any time.
Does it replace our help desk?
Answer
No. Keep your help desk for one-to-one work. Forumcat is the public place beside it where the answers many customers share get written once.
A community that outlives the help desk
Create a portal on your own domain and keep the answers wherever your tickets go.
Create your portalFree for 7 days. No credit card. Live in about five minutes.
