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Zendesk Proactive Tickets is Being Discontinued: What to Use Instead

If your support team sends outbound notifications, incident alerts or mass updates through Zendesk, you have probably seen the announcement: the Proactive Tickets app is being retired.

Zendesk removed it from the Marketplace on April 7, 2026, ended technical support on June 30, 2026, and the app stops working entirely on October 21, 2026.

In this article we’ll cover: what the change means for your team, why Zendesk made it, which features you need to replace, and how GrowthDot Proactive Campaigns can cover them.

1. What happened to Zendesk Proactive Tickets?

The Built-by-Zendesk Proactive Tickets app let teams create tickets in bulk and send batch messages to targeted groups of users. Zendesk is deprecating it together with several other legacy Built-by-Zendesk apps.

The timeline:

April 7, 2026: removed from the Zendesk Marketplace, no new downloads.
June 30, 2026: Zendesk technical support ends.
October 21, 2026: the app stops working.

If your team still relies on Proactive Tickets, you need a replacement in place before the shutdown date. Otherwise your outreach campaigns stop.

2. Why did Zendesk discontinue the app?

Zendesk is consolidating its product lineup. Functionality moves into the native Agent Workspace, and anything custom is left to App Builder and external APIs. Proactive Tickets saw little use compared with core Workspace features and offered limited customization, so Zendesk cut it.

Zendesk Support currently has no built-in bulk ticketing interface. Zendesk’s suggestion is to build a custom app with App Builder or use a third-party integration from the ecosystem.

3. What do you need to replace?

A replacement has to cover what Proactive Tickets did:

Mass ticket creation: tickets for dozens, hundreds or thousands of users at once.
Targeted outbound email: localized or segmented emails sent from Zendesk.
Tags and fields: tags, custom field values or assignees added automatically during bulk creation.
Tracking and analytics: deliverability, open rates and agent responses for outbound campaigns.

4. What are the alternatives?

There are three routes:

Custom API development. Write your own scripts against Zendesk’s APIs to create tickets in bulk. It takes developer time and ongoing code maintenance.
App Builder custom app. Build your own app in Zendesk App Builder. It takes technical expertise and a custom workflow setup.
Marketplace app. Install a dedicated outbound communication app such as Proactive Campaigns.

If you don’t want to spend months on development, a Marketplace app is the quickest of the three.

5. How can GrowthDot Proactive Campaigns help?

Proactive Campaigns by GrowthDot is built for bulk messaging and outbound ticketing in Zendesk. It does more than the old Proactive Tickets app and runs inside Zendesk Support.

Support and success teams can run email and SMS campaigns, schedule mass updates and track results. Compared with a homegrown script, you get rich text editing, contact list management, automatic follow-up triggers and campaign analytics inside the agent workflow.

The Zendesk Marketplace listing for Proactive Campaigns has the details, but let’s compare it with DIY Custom App via Zendesk App Builder to make a good desicion for your company.

Comparison of Proactive Campaigns vs App Builder Custom App

Feature / Criteria	GrowthDot Proactive Campaigns	DIY Custom App via Zendesk App Builder
Time-to-Value	Instant (Minutes) — Install directly from the Marketplace, set up permissions, and launch campaigns immediately.	Slow (Months) — Requires scoping, UI engineering, API endpoint wiring, testing, and deployment cycles.
Development & TCO	Fixed, Predictable Subscription — Zero internal dev hours; continuous updates fully managed by GrowthDot.	High & Hidden Costs — Heavy upfront engineering spend plus ongoing dev maintenance and bug-fixing overhead.
Audience Segmentation	Advanced Dynamic Filters & CSVs — Native segmenting by Zendesk user/org attributes, custom fields, tags, ticket histories, or external CSV list imports.	Basic Manual API Queries — Fetching, filtering, and cross-referencing contact attributes requires custom JSON payload scripts.
Email Design & Templates	Visual Drag-and-Drop + Template Library — Ready-to-use HTML template library, dynamic Zendesk placeholders, and rich text editors without code.	Basic Plain Text / Custom Code — Requires custom HTML input fields or external rich-text integrations.
Automation & Drip Sequences	Automated Multi-Step Workflows — Schedule automated drip sequences, delayed follow-ups, and recurring campaigns out of the box.	Single Batch Execution — Delayed sequences require building custom server/cron logic, database state management, and webhooks.
Omnichannel & Ticket Operations	Email, SMS & Bulk Ticket Actions — Broadcast across Email and SMS natively; perform mass ticket updates (tags, assignees, fields, statuses).	Limited Channel Scope — Adding SMS or bulk ticket modifications requires separate custom API endpoints (e.g., Twilio API).
Analytics & Optimization	Built-in Insights & A/B Testing — Real-time tracking of opens, clicks, unsubscribes, spam pre-checks, embedded CSAT, and A/B split testing.	No Native Insights — Analytics require building custom tracking pixels, database listeners, and reporting dashboards.
API & Compliance Risk	Fully Managed Infrastructure — GrowthDot handles Zendesk API rate limits, security compliance, and platform breaking changes.	Self-Managed Risk — Internal dev teams must continuously update code to fix breaking API changes and rate limit bottlenecks.

6. Use cases and benefits of Proctive Campaigns for Zendesk

Bulk email and SMS notifications
Send personalized announcements by email and SMS to thousands of customers at once. Pick an email template, add custom tags, and send SMS alerts for time-sensitive updates.

Incident and outage notifications
When service goes down, notify the affected segments right away. Customers who hear from you first are less likely to open tickets, which keeps inbound spikes and SLA metrics in check.

Automated follow-ups
Set up sequences for onboarding, post-purchase check-ins or CSAT requests, so customers don’t go quiet after an interaction.

Customer segmentation
Filter contacts by custom user fields, organization type, ticket history or tags, and build mailing lists from the result.

Bulk ticket updates
Change status, reassign or add tags across large groups of tickets in a few clicks, instead of editing them by hand.

Template builder and Template library
Use our pre-made eye-catching templates for any situation or create your own using build-in our Template builder.

Final Thoughts

Zendesk Proactive Tickets stopped working on October 21, 2026, and Zendesk Support still has no built-in tool for bulk ticketing. If your team hasn’t moved off it yet, outbound notifications, incident alerts and follow-ups are currently not going out the way they used to.

You have three ways to fix that. You can write scripts against the Zendesk API, build your own app in App Builder, or install a ready-made app. The first two give you full control, but they take developer time and ongoing maintenance. A Marketplace app like GrowthDot Proactive Campaigns is the fastest route to improve customer service. It covers bulk ticket creation, segmented email and SMS, automatic follow-ups and campaign analytics, all inside Zendesk Support.

You can start a free trial from the Proactive Campaigns Marketplace listing and have your first campaign running the same day.

FAQ

Zendesk Proactive Tickets Discontinuation

Zendesk Proactive Tickets will stop working on October 21, 2026. Technical support for the app ended earlier, on June 30, 2026.

No. Zendesk Support does not offer a native bulk ticketing tool. Alternative options include using external APIs, building a custom app with Zendesk App Builder, or installing a third-party solution such as GrowthDot Proactive Campaigns.

You don’t need to export and import your contact lists manually. Proactive Campaigns accesses customer and organization data directly from your Zendesk Support instance. You can filter and segment users, then send targeted email campaigns without transferring data between systems.