Freshdesk vs. ServiceNow IT Service Management

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Freshdesk
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Freshdesk (a product of Freshworks Inc.) is a customer service solution with enterprise capability. Freshdesk unifies channels, conversations, AI capabilities, customer insights, and advanced ticketing into the Freshdesk Command Center so agents are ready to resolve. With Freddy, People-first AI, customer service teams can take AI agents live in minutes to fully resolve complex and simple queries, get response and resolution assistance from AI copilot, and stay ahead with AI insights.…
$18
per month per user
ServiceNow IT Service Management
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Built on the ServiceNow Now Platform, the IT Service Management bundle provides an agent workspace with knowledge management, and modules supporting issue tracking and problem resolution, change, release and configuration management.N/A
Pricing
FreshdeskServiceNow IT Service Management
Editions & Modules
Growth
$18
per month per agent
Pro
$59
per month per agent
Enterprise
$95
per month per agent
ITSM Standard
Custom Quote
ITSM Pro
Custom Quote
ITSM Enterprise
Custom Quote
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
FreshdeskServiceNow IT Service Management
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsITSM Pro and ITSM Enterprise also are available with optional "Plus" add-ons. These include AI Agents, an AI Agent Studio, and other features that augment the capabilities of the platform using AI Virtual Agents to automate tasks.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
FreshdeskServiceNow IT Service Management
Considered Both Products
Freshdesk
Chose Freshdesk
Good platform for organizing the tickets from different sources and making sure no single communication is missed in the cracks. Automations bring productivity. Customization is not easy unless you learn the SDKs/ APIs. but has a great deal to offer. Integrations with other …
ServiceNow IT Service Management
Chose ServiceNow IT Service Management
Task management is easy in ServiceNow compared to JIRA, Freshdesk, and other tools. Asset management and change management is easy in ServiceNow. Community support is the major advantage for ServiceNow. The API and extensibility of ServiceNow are very high. Considering …
Features
FreshdeskServiceNow IT Service Management
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Freshdesk
7.8
198 Ratings
5% below category average
ServiceNow IT Service Management
9.0
69 Ratings
9% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets9.2194 Ratings9.468 Ratings
Expert directory8.1131 Ratings8.552 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications4.54 Ratings9.064 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation6.45 Ratings9.561 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission9.3194 Ratings00 Ratings
Ticket response9.1194 Ratings00 Ratings
Service restoration00 Ratings8.557 Ratings
Self-service tools00 Ratings9.566 Ratings
ITSM reports and dashboards00 Ratings8.563 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Freshdesk
8.5
176 Ratings
6% above category average
ServiceNow IT Service Management
-
Ratings
External knowledge base8.6160 Ratings00 Ratings
Internal knowledge base8.5164 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Freshdesk
8.9
185 Ratings
11% above category average
ServiceNow IT Service Management
-
Ratings
Customer portal9.0157 Ratings00 Ratings
IVR9.158 Ratings00 Ratings
Social integration8.699 Ratings00 Ratings
Email support9.2184 Ratings00 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration8.6117 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM asset management
Comparison of ITSM asset management features of Product A and Product B
Freshdesk
-
Ratings
ServiceNow IT Service Management
9.2
62 Ratings
10% above category average
Configuration mangement00 Ratings8.561 Ratings
Asset management dashboard00 Ratings9.160 Ratings
Policy and contract enforcement00 Ratings10.053 Ratings
Change management
Comparison of Change management features of Product A and Product B
Freshdesk
-
Ratings
ServiceNow IT Service Management
9.2
63 Ratings
7% above category average
Change requests repository00 Ratings9.063 Ratings
Change calendar00 Ratings9.057 Ratings
Service-level management00 Ratings9.559 Ratings
Best Alternatives
FreshdeskServiceNow IT Service Management
Small Businesses
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
SysAid
SysAid
Score 8.9 out of 10
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
FreshdeskServiceNow IT Service Management
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(262 ratings)
9.4
(80 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.7
(26 ratings)
9.0
(13 ratings)
Usability
9.4
(43 ratings)
9.0
(13 ratings)
Availability
7.9
(7 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(7 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(42 ratings)
7.3
(22 ratings)
In-Person Training
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.5
(4 ratings)
1.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.3
(193 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Configurability
7.0
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.7
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.3
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.8
(7 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
8.9
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.2
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
FreshdeskServiceNow IT Service Management
Likelihood to Recommend
Freshworks Inc
Overall, it does a great job of handling support, which is our user case. It is best for narrowly focused issues and issues that are resolved in a few interactions. When issues are broad and have several paths of issues and/or corrections it is not easy to segment off the work and responses necessary. This makes it hard to have several support personnel work on an issue that is more diverse and requires multiple skill sets.
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ServiceNow
In our organization, we are using ServiceNow extensively. Change Management, Incident Management, Problem Management, Time tracking are few modules which we use extensively. This sort of model will work for any product or service based companies as the product is built on ITIL framework. So this product will be suited for small or large scale companies to better organize and add controls and track SLA's for technology or business process.
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Pros
Freshworks Inc
  • No prior experience with similar platforms is required to use Freshdesk. I found its interface to be quite intuitive, at least for the end user.
  • It's easy to connect with other platforms, so you can sync and manage data from other platforms because the integrations work correctly.
  • Freshdesk's technical support is quite responsive, with short and effective response times. They have easily handled my questions and issues.
  • It has tools for customizing automated chats, answering frequently asked questions before transferring to an agent. Its configuration is extensive and highly customizable.
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ServiceNow
  • When I have a number of requests to make, for example a request to add a dozen or so user accounts to more than one group account in Active Directory , I can put all the needed information into the initial form, add it to my "shopping cart" and all of that information remains on the screen for the next item for which I only need to edit a few items (like the AD group name in this example), and keep adding them to the shopping cart until I have them all. When I "Check Out" each of those items is generated as a separate task under the one request. It simplifies and expedites the creation and tracking of these kinds of requests.
  • I can easily and quickly see what tickets are currently assigned to me in order to prioritize them and remain aware of my workload.
  • Numerous fields for CIs can be used when trying to find the entry for a particular item. For example, IP Address, server name, raw text, classification, and so on.
  • To help with making sense out of related tasks, when a task is assigned to me and I need to open another task for a different team to work in order to complete my task, I can open a sub-task from my ticket so that the relationship between the two can be pulled up later into reports. For example, I may have a task to build a new vm, and need to open tasks for networking, security accounts, software installation and so on. By opening sub-tasks from my assignment, the time spent by all parties concerned is tied together for more meaningful cost accounting.
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Cons
Freshworks Inc
  • Freshdesk is buggy, full stop. I don't know how many support tickets I submitted related to user login.
  • There can be a language barrier with support and sales.
  • There were a couple of hours-long outages that significantly impacted my company's customer experience.
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ServiceNow
  • It is hard to find areas for improvement, the tool is very powerful. That said, building the CMDB still involves some manual interaction which was not how it was presented in demos.
  • The CMDB data is almost too deep and detailed. When you build the relationship map it can be so large that it is overwhelming. You can limit this, but the default maps are massive if you are discovering lots of device classes.
  • The product is expensive. Since they are the leader in the industry and the product has tons of features, they definitely charge for it!
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Likelihood to Renew
Freshworks Inc
New support agents can learn the system quickly, minimizing training time and maximizing productivity from day one. Agents are more willing to use a system that is simple, reducing resistance to change and ensuring all interactions are logged (a common problem with complex systems). The platform is known for being easy to set up and customize, allowing teams (especially smaller ones) to get started with minimal technical expertise.The platform makes it easy to set and monitor Service Level Agreements (SLAs), ensuring customers get timely responses and helping managers enforce performance standards.
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ServiceNow
To be completely honest setting up a new ticketing system can be a pain in the ass. Once you have it setup and customized the way you want it, you don't want to switch unless you're unhappy with the product. Unless future releases and updates really muck the system up, I wouldn't change.
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Usability
Freshworks Inc
Freshdesk is extremely easy to use as implemented it on our own with average technical skills. A lot of the options are straightforward and Freshdesk provides easy-to-understand explanations for some of the more complex-sounding ones. We recently onboarded new specialists and they were able to learn Freshdesk with minimal training.
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ServiceNow
The dashboard is so confusing, [there are] many clicks to open a task and search by a ticket. The Enterprise customisation [we did] has finished to kill the software and creates a really bad experience on a daily basis. [It is] So slow, and so many clicks to process a ticket. Works only on IE so, that [should] make you realize that [it] is a bad idea.
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Reliability and Availability
Freshworks Inc
I have encountered a lot of errors in the Freshdesk, however, they tend to resolve it on priority or at least they will share the timeline by when this can be resolved. Most of the time the issue has been from the other partner's end. They take time to resolve their vendor issues and they don't have any timelines in case of developed app errors.
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ServiceNow
We have never had any issues with ServiceNow's availability that I am aware of in the two years I have been using it.
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Performance
Freshworks Inc
The reports take a lot of time to download if the time period is large. Also, the tickets take their sweet time to open and load. It is not fast as Zendesk. Only 30 tickets are visible in a single go and there isn't any option to select all. If we need to change the pages and dashboards it takes a lot of time to open.
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ServiceNow
For a massive system, page loads are reasonably quick, including searches.
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Support Rating
Freshworks Inc
Because I never worked with a company that responds so quickly to their customer! They are always fast at responding and very open to new ideas and quickly turning them around to include them in future releases. They walk us through when we need assistance and are very good at communicating. Overall top notch support
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ServiceNow
I would give it this rating because we have had no major issues with the support for ServiceNow after we implemented it at our organization. They seem to respond promptly and efficiently if we ever do need to open a support case with them about an issue we are having.
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In-Person Training
Freshworks Inc
Support Team's knowledge and understood the company's requirement, and always shared the insight of the usage of the tool to it s full potential, moreover the team checks periodically to check if we using the tool right and if we are facing any kind of challenges. Also they would update us on new features that can make the work easy.
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ServiceNow
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Freshworks Inc
Video tutorials, questions answers round before and after testing and Fresh desk team would always share best practices on the needs. Furthermore would periodically check if we are able to work smoothly. Would send alerts to known any issues, send recommendation on new features. Freshdesk team always available when we need certain advise.
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ServiceNow
To type in what should be a text box, you have to click an empty cell, a tiny text box pop up opens with a check box and an X. You the. Type in the text box and have to click the check mark. If you have a bunch of fields to fill out, doing this is very annoying. Absolutely know thought went in to this. I'm sure somebody in marketing thought it was a good idea. It wasn't.
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Implementation Rating
Freshworks Inc
Our team easily implemented Freshdesk, and as soon as we started, we were pros with it. In a matter of days, we had integrated signatures and canned responses. The biggest problem was the Help Center part, but after some time, that was also integrated. We did not know some features when we started, but that is normal.
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ServiceNow
Without exception, every client I have worked with has been very happy with their resulting product. While this is partly due to my work, I must point out that the platform is the winning decision, not the implementer.
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Alternatives Considered
Freshworks Inc
Freshdesk has a more modern and intuitive user interface, while Help Scout's interface is simpler and more minimalist.In case of features, Freshdesk offers a wider range of features, includes omnichannel support, AI powered automations, and advanced analytics. Help Scout is more focused on providing a simple and efficient ticketing system.
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ServiceNow
We used to use Jira to handle service tickets but it's way too robust for something this straightforward. Due to the nature of Jira, you needed to already have a lot of documentation and knowledge about who should be assigned the ticket, so the lift of creating a ticket was time consuming.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Freshworks Inc
I was not very involved with the purchase/contract (my company purchased Fresjdesk before I was brought on), but I will say that pricing per agent made it difficult to grow our support team. Additionally, we were kind of disappointed after our upgrade because it didn't solve our pain points as much as we expected.
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ServiceNow
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Freshworks Inc
My company had Freshdesk agents from support and success. It's generally difficult to customize permissions for different agent "roles." We were a fully distributed company, so "multiple sites" doesn't apply to us. We found Freshdesk features lacking as we grew our customer base, and adding agents wasn't easy because price steeply increases with number of agents.
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ServiceNow
ServiceNow works as an enterprise solution.
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Professional Services
Freshworks Inc
Very professional, they would always ask for the steps followed and where we went wrong, they would politely share the video recording to review in case any other team member faces the same issue
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ServiceNow
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Freshworks Inc
  • Increased response times - Client Success maintains at 98% SLA for resolution
  • Categorization of feedback and issues - custom ticket fields make it easier for us to review why clients contact us on a high level
  • Standardization of internal procedures via templates, canned responses and automations
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ServiceNow
  • Overall ServiceNow has a positive impact on getting the SLA of tickets down in supporting our customers.
  • One negative impact has been the amount of time to get the product to produce an ROI, it's almost too big to fail and too big to replace. You almost become committed to the product. Good or bad.
  • Another negative impact would be if you track metrics of employees and time tracking, there is a lot of scenarios where engineers will track time on tickets but not get credit for closing them as the assignee function of tickets can only be tied to one user and credits only the engineer who closes the ticket.
  • Another positive impact would be the level of security for permissions and scaling the workloads is robust and you will get out of the system what your team is willing to put in.
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ScreenShots

ServiceNow IT Service Management Screenshots

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