What users are saying about
Cherwell Service Management
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Top Rated
97 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 7.9 out of 100
Based on 97 reviews and ratings
Top Rated
239 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.7 out of 100
Based on 239 reviews and ratings
Feature Set Ratings
- Cherwell Service Management ranks higher in 1 feature set: Incident and problem management
Incident and problem management
8.7
Cherwell Service Management
87%

8.5
Spiceworks Help Desk
85%
Cherwell Service Management ranks higher in 7/9 features
Cherwell Service Management ranks higher in 7/9 features
Organize and prioritize service tickets
9.8
98%
46 Ratings

8.8
88%
51 Ratings
Expert directory
8.2
82%
36 Ratings

7.6
76%
44 Ratings
Service restoration
8.1
81%
29 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Self-service tools
9.0
90%
45 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications
8.3
83%
33 Ratings

8.3
83%
39 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation
8.4
84%
42 Ratings

8.2
82%
42 Ratings
ITSM reports and dashboards
9.3
93%
45 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission
N/A
0 Ratings

9.1
91%
51 Ratings
Ticket response
N/A
0 Ratings

9.1
91%
50 Ratings
ITSM asset management
9.0
Cherwell Service Management
90%

Spiceworks Help Desk
Feature Set Not Supported
N/A
Cherwell Service Management ranks higher in 3/3 features
Cherwell Service Management ranks higher in 3/3 features
Configuration mangement
9.2
92%
36 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Asset management dashboard
9.2
92%
35 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Policy and contract enforcement
8.7
87%
26 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Change management
9.5
Cherwell Service Management
95%

Spiceworks Help Desk
Feature Set Not Supported
N/A
Cherwell Service Management ranks higher in 3/3 features
Cherwell Service Management ranks higher in 3/3 features
Change requests repository
9.2
92%
42 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Change calendar
9.7
97%
38 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Service-level management
9.6
96%
39 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Self Help Community
Cherwell Service Management
Feature Set Not Supported
N/A

8.7
Spiceworks Help Desk
87%
Spiceworks Help Desk ranks higher in 2/2 features
Spiceworks Help Desk ranks higher in 2/2 features
External knowledge base
N/A
0 Ratings

8.9
89%
45 Ratings
Internal knowledge base
N/A
0 Ratings

8.4
84%
45 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Cherwell Service Management
Feature Set Not Supported
N/A

7.5
Spiceworks Help Desk
75%
Spiceworks Help Desk ranks higher in 5/5 features
Spiceworks Help Desk ranks higher in 5/5 features
Customer portal
N/A
0 Ratings

8.3
83%
43 Ratings
IVR
N/A
0 Ratings

7.0
70%
9 Ratings
Social integration
N/A
0 Ratings

6.6
66%
25 Ratings
Email support
N/A
0 Ratings

8.7
87%
44 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration
N/A
0 Ratings

6.9
69%
26 Ratings
Attribute Ratings
- Cherwell Service Management is rated higher in 1 area: Support Rating
- Spiceworks Help Desk is rated higher in 5 areas: Likelihood to Recommend, Likelihood to Renew, Usability, Availability, Implementation Rating
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
Cherwell Service Management
84%
51 Ratings

8.8
Spiceworks Help Desk
88%
80 Ratings
Likelihood to Renew
8.3
Cherwell Service Management
83%
10 Ratings

10.0
Spiceworks Help Desk
100%
29 Ratings
Usability
7.2
Cherwell Service Management
72%
3 Ratings

8.5
Spiceworks Help Desk
85%
8 Ratings
Availability
9.0
Cherwell Service Management
90%
4 Ratings

10.0
Spiceworks Help Desk
100%
6 Ratings
Performance
Cherwell Service Management
N/A
0 Ratings

8.0
Spiceworks Help Desk
80%
2 Ratings
Support Rating
8.8
Cherwell Service Management
88%
27 Ratings

8.6
Spiceworks Help Desk
86%
49 Ratings
Implementation Rating
7.7
Cherwell Service Management
77%
2 Ratings

10.0
Spiceworks Help Desk
100%
13 Ratings
Product Scalability
Cherwell Service Management
N/A
0 Ratings

10.0
Spiceworks Help Desk
100%
1 Rating
Likelihood to Recommend
Cherwell Service Management
Cherwell is a well-rounded product that can really be utilized as far as one's imagination can stretch. I've used the product in both a corporate and medical environment, where the tool was used for vastly different reasons (i.e., ITSM, business & retail functions, vs hospital orderlies & medical equipment tracking in a CMDB, etc.). Cherwell is so versatile that you can really use it to develop any workflow or process that is unique to your line of business - there are more than enough functions and tools available within Cherwell to effectively manage any enterprise solution your organization needs. The major drawback of flexibility is supportability. Given that you can essentially develop anything you want (content-wise) in Cherwell, it can quickly become highly complex and difficult to support by anyone other than the original developer. Documentation is key (F-spec & T-spec especially!) when developing larger solutions in Cherwell.

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Retail Company, 5001-10,000 employeesSpiceworks Help Desk
It's a great helpdesk solution - we currently have five years of data within it, roughly 25,000 tickets. The older edition is a great inventory and software license tracking tool. It is easy for users to use the interface and submit tickets and requests on the web, and its email integration is solid. The new version is a below-average system monitoring tool, only giving up/down status and a few other metrics.
Director Of Information Technology and HIPAA Privacy Officer
Continuum of CareHospital & Health Care, 501-1000 employees
Pros
Cherwell Service Management
- Cherwell's email handling automation works flawlessly. The only time that I have ever needed to reset the automation service that drives it is when my own server that houses the small connecting agent has some kind of problem and disconnects us from our hosted Cherwell instance. It just works. Emails to a certain address always result in a new ticket or update to an existing ticket.
- Cherwell is literally 100% customization in so many ways that it would be pointless to try to enumerate them. There is a very sizable list of already-created customizations (called "mApps") that you can download and apply to your instance. If you don't like them you can roll them back in seconds. But you can add and configure entire modules using one of these pre-defined, completely free, add-on packages. It's so easy to add features this way that I check the list of available mApps every month or so just to see what functionality I can add.
Senior Systems Administrator
DRT Holdings, Inc.Aviation & Aerospace, 501-1000 employees
Spiceworks Help Desk
- It helps to multitask, even on the go with the mobile App.
- We can customize to meet your needs with automated responses, notifications, and templates.
- Detailed reports allow managers to keep track [of] and analyze data.
- Allows for a database to store notes helpful for future tickets.
Software Support Specialist
Kerkering, Barberio & Co.Accounting, 51-200 employees
Cons
Cherwell Service Management
- Cherwell lacks modern UI capabilities such as responsive forms and CSS styling for web portals.
- Built-in reporting engine is hard to use and resource intensive to run.
- No patching model for small platform fixes, must upgrade to receive platform code changes.
Associate Director, IT Service Management
University of MissouriHigher Education, 10,001+ employees
Spiceworks Help Desk
- I have always wanted a way to redirect a support request into another IS bin, such as a development task.
- It's possible to extract the data from the Spiceworks database, but it would be helpful if the process to do so were easier.
- Improved ability to customize the system generated emails to improve the formatting and company branding.

Verified User
Supervisor in Information Technology
Chemicals Company, 51-200 employeesPricing Details
Cherwell Service Management
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Spiceworks Help Desk
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Likelihood to Renew
Cherwell Service Management
Cherwell Service Management 8.3
Based on 10 answers
So far we've been really happy with Cherwell Service Management. We are aware that there are cheaper solutions out there and cost is always a factor. As we continue to dial it in and make improvements one thing we'd like to see is a better way to classify and categorize the work. For first time users it can be quite confusing to get your tickets assigned to the correct group with an organization as large as ours.

Verified User
Team Lead in Information Technology
Financial Services Company, 1001-5000 employeesSpiceworks Help Desk
Spiceworks Help Desk 10.0
Based on 29 answers
Spiceworks is a free tool, so there would be no hesitation if we are required to upgrade it. We have installed Spiceworks on a dedicated server with more than enough resources to get the most from this tool, so we will have this running in our department for years to come.
CISO (Chief Information Security Officer)
SAVANNAH STATE UNIVERSITYHigher Education, 501-1000 employees
Usability
Cherwell Service Management
Cherwell Service Management 7.2
Based on 3 answers
It is a product that can be heavily customised. We have many dashboards to suit different user roles that you can drill down to extract the information you require. Within our organisation there are a lot of expert end-users who produce these dashboards and short-cuts. An in-house development team to review requests and roll them out into the live environment should also be considered. The development role does not need to be a full-time just needs somebody with suitable expertise.

Verified User
Analyst in Corporate
Government Administration Company, 10,001+ employeesSpiceworks Help Desk
Spiceworks Help Desk 8.5
Based on 8 answers
Spiceworks is user friendly and easy to set up. It can be customized to suit your needs. If there are any problems, you can go to the community forums for support and be in contact with many IT Pros, as well as the Spiceworks support staff and development teams who are always happy to help users out
Systems Administrator
Withers & RavenelCivil Engineering, 51-200 employees
Reliability and Availability
Cherwell Service Management
Cherwell Service Management 9.0
Based on 4 answers
No answer on this topic is available.
Spiceworks Help Desk
Spiceworks Help Desk 10.0
Based on 6 answers
We use it both locally on our own server so up time is decided by us and we also use the hosted help desk. We have never had an outage of that.
Systems Administrator
Costa Del MarSporting Goods, 51-200 employees
Support Rating
Cherwell Service Management
Cherwell Service Management 8.8
Based on 27 answers
We generally have a good time with Cherwell support, however, there are the few niche cases where I have to explain how Cherwell works to the customer support agent on the other end. A little more product education for tier 1 support could go a long way in helping expedite support requests from SaaS customers.
MSC Operations Engineer
Software Information SystemsInformation Technology and Services, 51-200 employees
Spiceworks Help Desk
Spiceworks Help Desk 8.6
Based on 49 answers
Spiceworks has been working out of the box, and some of the basic customizations have been successful with just our internal staff handling. We don't have any other issues with the tool. It provides us with the inventory information we want in a quick and concise report in a variety of formats for our team.

Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology
Retail Company, 201-500 employeesImplementation Rating
Cherwell Service Management
Cherwell Service Management 7.7
Based on 2 answers
We had access to the old system that Cherwell replaced. Some things were difficult to find in the beginning but it was a learning curve that got easier after a few days.

Verified User
Analyst in Corporate
Government Administration Company, 10,001+ employeesSpiceworks Help Desk
Spiceworks Help Desk 10.0
Based on 13 answers
If you can spin up a VM to run it on, you'll thank yourself later. If you have remote sites, set up a local server (or dedicated computer) at each site and set them up as remote collectors for the main site. You'll save time and bandwidth
Systems Analyst II
ClaycoConstruction, 501-1000 employees
Alternatives Considered
Cherwell Service Management
Much more customizable than other products, especially when ran in a self-hosted environment. Cherwell [Service Management] allows for greater flexibility of custom development and integrations to allow for automating tasks that traditional ITSM apps are not well suited for. Cherwell [Service Management] gives you the freedom to develop your own objects with minimal licensing costs.
IT Systems Analyst
Tallgrass EnergyOil & Energy, 501-1000 employees
Spiceworks Help Desk
EGroupware UI is clunky and hard to use, Jira is great but the pricing is expensive in comparison with spice works that has a free version and you can test it out properly before buying and make a correct decision based on your business plan and company objectives with the right software.
Ruby on Rails Developer
Chunch.esInformation Technology & Services, 1-10 employees
Return on Investment
Cherwell Service Management
- As with any standard ticketing system, it helped decrease the time before first contact with clients.
- Our department was always concerned with keeping a low budget, and it was cheaper than most.
- My supervisor could easily tell how many resources were being put into each employee, so we had more visibility of our team's capabilities at a given time if we needed to take on something complex.
IT Consultant
Great Lakes Health ConnectComputer Hardware, 501-1000 employees
Spiceworks Help Desk
- Positive - Allow organizations to implement structured Help Desk procedures.
- Positive - IT can begin to quantify their tickets and uncover needs within the organization.
- Positive - IT can develop a solid roadmap with [the] management of future needs, equipment refresh schedules, etc.
- Positive - IT can pinpoint employees who may need extra training or updated equipment based on historical ticketing data.
President
Geeks-r-Us, Inc.Computer & Network Security, 1-10 employees