BMC Helix ITSM vs. Datto Autotask PSA

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BMC Helix ITSM
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
BMC Helix ITSM replaces Remedy. It is a broad suite of ITSM, tools with strong integrations to other BMC tools and in-built ITAM. The product is used mainly by global brands and is offered in on-premise and SaaS configurations.N/A
Autotask PSA
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Autotask PSA is designed as a complete IT Business Management Platform for MSPs, now from Datto (resulting from the Autotask merger with Datto in 2017).N/A
Pricing
BMC Helix ITSMDatto Autotask PSA
Editions & Modules
BMC Helix ITSM
Contact Sales
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BMC Helix ITSMAutotask PSA
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BMC Helix ITSMDatto Autotask PSA
Considered Both Products
BMC Helix ITSM
Chose BMC Helix ITSM
BMC Remedy is the whole package where all of your ITSM operations can be managed. It is a reliable product on which the whole organization can depend on as ITSM is highly critical for any organization. Nobody thinks of using any other tool if they are using this tool. Nowadays, …
Autotask PSA
Chose Datto Autotask PSA
Its definitely has a better layout. Easier to customize. Easier search.
Chose Datto Autotask PSA
Except for multi-tenancy and permissioning for external users, Autotask beats BMC Remedy in every category for an ITSM Incident/Request Management suite. From allowing legitimate multi-tasking to the streamlined and more-straightforward user experience, Autotask takes the focus …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
BMC Helix ITSMDatto Autotask PSA
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
BMC Helix ITSM
8.6
55 Ratings
5% above category average
Datto Autotask PSA
-
Ratings
Organize and prioritize service tickets9.554 Ratings00 Ratings
Expert directory8.041 Ratings00 Ratings
Service restoration8.349 Ratings00 Ratings
Self-service tools8.553 Ratings00 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications8.744 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation8.253 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM reports and dashboards8.753 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM asset management
Comparison of ITSM asset management features of Product A and Product B
BMC Helix ITSM
8.9
50 Ratings
8% above category average
Datto Autotask PSA
-
Ratings
Configuration mangement9.047 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset management dashboard8.747 Ratings00 Ratings
Policy and contract enforcement9.039 Ratings00 Ratings
Change management
Comparison of Change management features of Product A and Product B
BMC Helix ITSM
9.2
51 Ratings
9% above category average
Datto Autotask PSA
-
Ratings
Change requests repository9.351 Ratings00 Ratings
Change calendar8.748 Ratings00 Ratings
Service-level management9.650 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BMC Helix ITSMDatto Autotask PSA
Small Businesses
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
HaloPSA
HaloPSA
Score 8.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Planview AdaptiveWork
Planview AdaptiveWork
Score 6.9 out of 10
Enterprises
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Score 9.6 out of 10
Planview AdaptiveWork
Planview AdaptiveWork
Score 6.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BMC Helix ITSMDatto Autotask PSA
Likelihood to Recommend
7.8
(61 ratings)
7.7
(29 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(7 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
7.8
(12 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.1
(9 ratings)
8.4
(4 ratings)
Implementation Rating
6.6
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BMC Helix ITSMDatto Autotask PSA
Likelihood to Recommend
BMC Software Inc.
There are many ITSM platforms available - but only a very select few are true enterprise leaders. BMC Helix is one. When it comes to managing thousands of incidents daily, BMC Helix helps cut through the noise with incident correlation and predictive problem management.
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Kaseya
In my opinion, Datto Autotask is exceptionally complicated to set up, manage, and use on a daily basis. I would think the target market for this product would be someone managing a team of 20 - 50 people, possibly more. In my experience, for it to run properly you will need to dedicate at least half an FTE to running this product in an organization of that size per month. I would not recommend it for companies with less than 10 people or for companies that value quick communication with their clients. I would not recommend it for companies using Datto's RMM product. The integration exists, but it is clearly a bolt-on. They were not developed together and they are slow to talk to each other. Frequently you cannot add details from RMM sessions into the PSA without manually copying the ticket number, and if the ticket is more than a week old, then you can't even find it with the ticket number.
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Pros
BMC Software Inc.
  • The Service Asset and Configuration Management capabilities of Helix ITSM are awesome. It can be used as a central repository for all SACM information and seamlessly integrated with Helix Discovery.
  • It has the most certified ITIL process modules of any ITSM system. These modules work seamlessly with each other and give you the power to manage any situation effectively.
  • As an Administrator of Helix ITSM you have many tools at your disposal to create customizations, workflows. BMC makes it easy to manage the system, leaving time to develop customizations and workflows.
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Kaseya
  • The graphical calculations on time spent on requests, how long they were open for, who worked on a ticket last.
  • Grouping by priority so you can determine easier what needs to be addressed sooner rather then later. This also helps if Account Management has conversations a technician is not aware of so they can prioritize efficiently.
  • The email updates that are sent out to the technicians so they are aware of upcoming or stale tickets.
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Cons
BMC Software Inc.
  • Customization can be lengthy due to the numerous features included in the software.
  • New staff members require some sort of hands-on training to get to know all the use capabilities.
  • The analytics can be improved to include forecasts and trend analysis.
  • Expensive compared to competitors.
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Kaseya
  • The GUI is a little dated.
  • Some integrations are limited for not being a Datto product.
  • While not as complex to set up as Connectwise, it definitely requires some serious thought during the initial setup.
  • Email processing could offer more options for parsing keywords and allow for more automation.
  • The mobile app is just not worth using in my experience.
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Likelihood to Renew
BMC Software Inc.
We rate it an 8 because BMC Helix ITSM provides valuable features that greatly enhance our IT Service Management. While it meets our needs effectively, there's potential for further improvement in areas like user interface simplicity and customization options. We're satisfied with the platform and look forward to its continued development.
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Kaseya
After using multiple products on the market, Autotask was intuitive and easy to manage.
Read full review
Usability
BMC Software Inc.
At least Remedy is all contained in a single platform, so the interface is consistent. Also, the most heavily performed functions are generally usable. However, to use some of the more advanced modules can be a bit more cumbersome (such as Change Management and CMDB (Not Including ADDM)). So, overall BMC Remedy ITSM is better than some applications like CA SDM or HP SM, but not quite on par with ServiceNow.
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Kaseya
The work flow is much better then other competitors
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Support Rating
BMC Software Inc.
Their tech support is top notch. They respond and get back to us, even on lower level incidents and issues, very quickly. It is rare that we deal with a support technician who does not know what they are doing.
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Kaseya
They are fairly quick at returning a response to a problem and have been able to fix all issues for the most part.
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Implementation Rating
BMC Software Inc.
Satisfied because I didn't have to do it!
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Kaseya
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
BMC Software Inc.
Moving to Helix from on premises Remedy provides all the same benefits of ServiceNow with most of the existing customisations we have developed over the last eight years. There was no feature we needed that ServiceNow provided that Helix could not provide. The biggest factor was Helix's ability to use concurrent licences vs ServiceNow's named licences. We have large numbers of partners who use the system infrequently, but they do need to use it to raise changes or manage incidents/problems. ServiceNow would have been much more costly for effectively the same functionality.
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Kaseya
The portion of Autotask that we've used other companies for prior to using Autotask is the Endpoint Management. The Autotask Endpoint Management (AEM) portal integrates perfectly with their PSA/CRM tools. It's alerting features are much better than the above software as there aren't a bunch of superfluous and unneeded alerts. Instead, it only alerts for things that you specify that you want. Alerts aside, for the PSA/CRM, I don't have much to compare it to as Autotask was the first PSA we tried. It's hard to imagine a PSA having more features or doing a better job than Autotask.
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Scalability
BMC Software Inc.
Again, always room for improvement, but a very stable product none-the-less.
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Kaseya
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
BMC Software Inc.
  • Positive: an introduction to ITIL and viewing Asset, User Management from the perspective of ITIL, and how BMC has implemented those processes
  • Negative: The development team needs to communicate better with the sales and support side, and they need offer an open API
  • Negative: Currently the Asset Management side has little security and validation of Asset input: anyone can make API (mostly), at any item, which is a problem that I am apart of solving.
  • The UX needs updating, badly. Its quality is poor: it functions, but it is cumbersome, click-heavy and requires several hours to understand how to function with it. Also, it needs to ditch IE11 support, altogether.
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Kaseya
  • We were able to identify the profitability of our entire client base.
  • We identified a loss of over 1 million dollars for time unbilled consultancy fees using metrics derived from Autotask.
  • Autotask helped us serve our client base in a professional manner, it's like having an entire department at your finger tips.
  • Autotask is the heartbeat of our operation.
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ScreenShots