Alemba Service Manager vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Alemba Service Manager
Score 7.3 out of 10
N/A
The former VMware Service Manager was an ITSM option from VMware. VMware stopped supporting SM in 2017 and transferred support to VMware partner Alemba. The product is presently supported by Alemba, as Alemba Service Manager.N/A
Zendesk Suite
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
The Zendesk Support suite is a cloud-based customer support software built for better customer relationships. Designed to improve customer satisfaction and to support customers on any channel: text SMS, web, mobile app, phone, email, social media. The vendor states more than 200,000 companies such as Uber, Groupon, Box, Airbnb, and Slack are using Zendesk to lower their support costs, raise productivity, and increase customer satisfaction. Zendesk offers a full suite of products to meet customer…
$55
per month agent
Pricing
Alemba Service ManagerZendesk Suite
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Support Team (Foundational Support Only)
$19
per month agent
Suite Team
$55
per month agent
Support Professional
$55
per month agent
Suite Growth
$89
per month agent
Suite Professional
$115
per month agent
Support Enterprise
$115
per month agent
Suite Enterprise
$169
per month agent
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Alemba Service ManagerZendesk Suite
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Alemba Service ManagerZendesk Suite
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Alemba Service ManagerZendesk Suite
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Alemba Service Manager
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.2
113 Ratings
4% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings8.5112 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings7.269 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings7.475 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings8.171 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.2113 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings8.8112 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Alemba Service Manager
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.1
100 Ratings
4% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings8.096 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings8.289 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Alemba Service Manager
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.1
111 Ratings
5% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings7.685 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings8.236 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings7.367 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings8.7109 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings8.679 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Alemba Service ManagerZendesk Suite
Small Businesses
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Ivanti Neurons for ITSM
Ivanti Neurons for ITSM
Score 9.1 out of 10
Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Alemba Service ManagerZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(2 ratings)
8.3
(151 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(40 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
7.7
(24 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(13 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(10 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(29 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.9
(9 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(18 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.3
(3 ratings)
User Testimonials
Alemba Service ManagerZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
Alemba
When a Service Desk agent receives a request from a user to fulfill and an incident occurs during implementation, VMWare Service Manager (VSM) will be able to link all events and correlate records across the system.
Read full review
Zendesk
Inbound messaging it is top notch, it does it well and couldn't imagine anyone's program doing it better. Like I said before been using ZenDesk for over 7 years and absolutely love it. We use the talk feature with the phone very limited so Zen works fine for us, but if I was running an inbound or outbound call center I don't believe Zen has all the functions I would want as a manager. For limited phone use and mostly email, text, and even web chat, ZenDesk works great. Having the iOS App is so great and flexibility with notifications allows my team to be "on call" anytime without unnecessary interruptions
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Pros
Alemba
  • Manage service processes
  • Manage pools
  • Automate services
Read full review
Zendesk
  • Reporting and Analytics
  • Ease of Agent Training and Use
  • Able to add multiple brands with related custom reports and dashboards
  • Adding a new brand and basic help center is easy to do without the need of an expert or web team
  • Ability of agents and supervisors to see customer history across multiple channels
Read full review
Cons
Alemba
  • Embedded CI (configuration Item) scanner
  • Reporting and dashboarding engine
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Zendesk
  • I think the Graphical User Interface could use a facelift. It not the most aesthetically pleasing platform in my experience.
  • Particular things like where the default is when you click on each and every dropdown menu.
  • The macro integration could be a little more simplified.
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Likelihood to Renew
Alemba
It's performed just how I want it to, so no real complaints really
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Zendesk
Zendesk is super easy to use and navigate. I really enjoy the sleek layout, the ability to tailor tickets, the macro option, and the quick key guide they have to make your use of time even more effective. My whole team loves working with Zendesk and rarely ever has problems.
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Usability
Alemba
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
As an agent it's very simple to use. As an admin it's also easy to use, but sometimes lacks some functionality that would be nice to have such as expanded native 2 way sync functionality for many major apps that are commonly used today like HubSpot and Salesforce. The ability to add followers to tickets to they get updates and are in the know without the customer seeing this agent cc'd is a nice touch. This ensures additional visibility and easily following the communication without having to appear as a CC to the customer, who could accidentally remove that person in a response, thus breaking the visibility
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Reliability and Availability
Alemba
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
In the past year, I'd say I have only noticed maybe two hours total of downtime in my own usage. Very minimal.
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Performance
Alemba
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
There has been minor performance degradation on a very few days out of the two years I have been using the product.
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Support Rating
Alemba
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
Every time I contacted them they were not only very responsive and knowledgable, but always seemed to have a positive upbeat attitude. It probably helps that we did not have significant service outages or sev 1 level issues, but even my lower severity issues were quickly answered. And the positive and upbeat attitude really made things feel comfortable.
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Online Training
Alemba
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
Zendesk has tons of available material for training - videos, webinars, articles, etc. The only reason this is not a 10 is because it can be hard to figure out how to navigate to these things and find what you are looking for.
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Implementation Rating
Alemba
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
I was very satisfied. They have a free trial for 30 days and I recommend you do that and use it. It is very easy to get started with the basics and the build on over time.

The only thing technically complex was single sign-on and integration to Salesforce.com required some tweaks – otherwise setting up system was very easy
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Alternatives Considered
Alemba
It wasn't my selection, it's been used for more than five years in the current organization.
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Zendesk
If spoken honestly Intercom is a level-par with any nearest competitor, Tools like Zendesk has to catchup with them in speed. However, there is an advantage to Zendesk with its simple and easy-to-get software which falls in every mid and small-size business pocket wherein Intercom is way too expensive and needs a tech admin to customize the product. The kick-starting feature with negligible configuration made Zendesk the ideal choice of our organization + the budget fell under our expenses.
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Return on Investment
Alemba
  • Less management time spent on VMs and virtual environment
  • Less money spent on compute
  • Less money spent on servers
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Zendesk
  • The positives weigh more than the negatives here, as it gives us a one-stop portal where we can tend to customer needs using one web app
  • It has also helped us identify areas of improvement based on the reporting feature
  • The value it provides outweighs any missing or lacking features that I'm sure will be available in the future
Read full review
ScreenShots

Zendesk Suite Screenshots

Screenshot of Zendesk Agent WorkspaceScreenshot of Omnichannel MessagingScreenshot of Zendesk TicketingScreenshot of Bots powered by Zendesk AIScreenshot of Tone shift with Zendesk AIScreenshot of Zendesk ticketing side conversations