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ManageEngine ADManager Plus vs. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    ManageEngine ADManager Plus

    Score9.1 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    ManageEngine ADManager Plus simplifies enterprise-wide Windows Active Directory management and reporting.

    $595

    per year per domain

    ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/AServiceDesk Plus is free help desk software from ManageEngine, a division of Zoho Corporation.

    $10

    Starting Price Per Month

    Pricing
    ManageEngine ADManager PlusManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Editions & Modules
    Free Edition
    $0
    No Expiration Supports up to 100 domain objects
    Standard
    $595
    per year 1 Domain & 2 help desk Technicians
    Standard Edition
    $595
    per year Priced per domain; scales with the number of domains, technicians, and add-ons.
    Professional
    $795
    per year 1 Domain
    Professional Edition
    $795
    per year Priced per domain; scales with the number of domains, technicians, and add-ons.
    Standard
    $1,195
    per year 1 Domain & 5 help desk Technicians
    Professional
    $1,795
    per year 1 Domain & 2 help desk Technicians
    Standard
    $2,145
    per year 1 Domain & 10 help desk Technicians
    Standard
    $3,345
    per year 1 Domain & 20 help desk Technicians
    Professional
    $3,345
    per year 1 Domain & 5 help desk Technicians
    Professional
    $5,395
    per year 1 Domain & 10 help desk Technicians
    Standard
    $5995
    per year 1 Domain & 50 help desk Technicians
    Standard
    $7795
    per year 1 Domain & 100 help desk Technicians
    Professional
    $7,795
    per year 1 Domain & 20 help desk Technicians
    Standard
    $10,795
    per year 1 Domain & 200 help desk Technicians
    Professional
    $10,795
    per year 1 Domain & 50 help desk Technicians
    Standard
    $11,995
    per year 1 Domain & 500 help desk Technicians
    Professional
    $11,995
    per year 1 Domain & 100 help desk Technicians
    Professional
    $15,595
    per year 1 Domain & 200 help desk Technicians
    Professional
    $17,995
    per year 1 Domain & 500 help desk Technicians
    Standard
    Free
    per year 1 Domain
    Standard
    $10.00
    Starting Price Per Month
    Professional
    $21.00
    Starting Price Per Month
    Enterprise
    $50.00
    Starting Price Per Month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    ManageEngine ADManager PlusManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsEach additional domain: Standard = $345. Professional = $595. These prices are for an annual license. ADManager Plus license is xml-based and supplied through e-mail. Each ADManager Plus license includes an administrator account by default. ADManager Plus offers two main add-ons: a Governance, Risk and Compliance add-on for access certification and advanced compliance capabilities, and a Backup and Recovery add-on for AD, Entra ID, and Google Workspace user objects.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    ManageEngine ADManager PlusManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Considered Both Products
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    Chose ManageEngine ADManager Plus
    My company already owned ADManager when I started with them. If I remember correctly, it was chosen because it is a fairly cheap tool and because we also use Manage Engine's Service Desk Plus application. ADManager's main competitor (in my eyes) would be PowerShell, now that I …
    Incentivized
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    22 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    7 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    22 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    22 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    20 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    20 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    Features
    ManageEngine ADManager PlusManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of ManageEngine ADManager Plus and ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Feature
    ManageEngine ADManager Plus
    -
    Ratings
    ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    7.5
    22 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings8.022 Ratings
    Expert directory00 Ratings6.015 Ratings
    Service restoration00 Ratings7.217 Ratings
    Self-service tools00 Ratings7.020 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings7.716 Ratings
    ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings8.818 Ratings
    ITSM reports and dashboards00 Ratings7.520 Ratings
    ITSM asset management
    Comparison of ITSM asset management features of ManageEngine ADManager Plus and ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Feature
    ManageEngine ADManager Plus
    -
    Ratings
    ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    6.1
    17 Ratings
    28% below category average
    Configuration mangement00 Ratings6.616 Ratings
    Asset management dashboard00 Ratings6.516 Ratings
    Policy and contract enforcement00 Ratings5.112 Ratings
    Change management
    Comparison of Change management features of ManageEngine ADManager Plus and ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Feature
    ManageEngine ADManager Plus
    -
    Ratings
    ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    6.8
    18 Ratings
    22% below category average
    Change requests repository00 Ratings7.717 Ratings
    Change calendar00 Ratings5.813 Ratings
    Service-level management00 Ratings7.016 Ratings
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    ManageEngine ADManager PlusManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
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    No answers on this topic
    Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    SAP Access Control
    Score8.8 out of 10
    SysAid
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    SAP Access Control
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Ivanti ITSM
    Score6.4 out of 10
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    User Ratings
    ManageEngine ADManager PlusManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (22 ratings)
    9.0
    (22 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    8.7
    (15 ratings)
    7.7
    (6 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (5 ratings)
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Professional Services
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    ManageEngine ADManager PlusManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Likelihood to Recommend
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    The interface has really improved and modernized over the years. It integrates perfectly with Active Directory and can do just about anything you can imagine. It's speedy, too—large tasks don't take long at all. I've used this product for many, many years (over a decade) and have rarely needed support, but when I have reached out for assistance, they've been helpful. The price is fantastic for what you get. It can seem like a one-trick pony at first, but the more you use it, the more you realize what else you can do with it. ADManager Plus is chock-full of tools that you'd think Microsoft would include out of the box, but after 25+ years of Active Directory, it's clear they have no interest in doing so. ADManager Plus fills all the gaps left by Microsoft. Simple mass imports with automatic OU assignments, mass changes to existing accounts, etc. Some of this can be done through PowerShell, sure, but this makes it easy.
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    We use the free version, it allows up to 10 technicians to be added to the system, but that has never been an issue, as we are a small team. The functionality and usability of MESDP are great and can work with larger teams too. It is well suited to be used as a main Ticketing system, and this is not limited to IT only, I am sure other teams that need to keep track and log issues will be able to utilize MESDP without any issues. There is a self-service portal as an option, however, we do not use it as of yet, as there has not been the need for it. If you would need to use the same instance within multiple departments, this may be a bit tricky to achieve, as there is no easy way to limit visibility to tickets from other departments, however, I am sure there is a way around it.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    • It is very good in the bulk user creation. With this tool, we can create a number of users in just a few minutes rather than following a long old process.
    • It is good for bulk user account modification. You can select a lot of users and make changes as per the requirements.
    • ManageEngine ADManager Plus is helping us a lot in the report generation of user accounts, passwords, groups, and other reports that are helping us a lot.
    • This tool also helps us with mailbox creation and shared mailbox creation
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    • It is very easy to create business rules that automatically route email tickets to the correct department and apply templates to correctly categorize the incident.
    • The technician auto-assign function allows email tickets to be fairly apportioned using a round robin technique. We do not cuurently use the load balancing technique which is also available.
    • It is very easy to bulk edit requests to correct miscatergorization by Analysts. (i.e. Incidents vs. Service Requests)
    • Coordinating communications and notifying ticket holders when a network or application event is resolved is very simple.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    • They need to improve their report in terms of modification, like you will not get a lot of customization options in the report.
    • In the password report if you are applying filter in Days since password last set and selecting the password change date from day 0 and again you want to select the Account status as Enable then you cannot do this.
    • If you have more than 1 domain and you are trying to modify users in both domains in a single attempt, you cannot do this.
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    • Reporting tools; the report features can be a little limited, it can be quite tricky to get the information you want displayed in detail
    • You can set required fields within the ticket template, which should mean the user has to complete them before they can submit the ticket, however this often doesn't enforce correctly
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    We are very satfisfied with the software and when time permits, we hope to explore additional features we are not using. It has a lot of we ae not currently using due to staffing shortages.
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    Because this is the best tool, we have given ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus a rating of 9 out of 10 because it provides a good overall IT service management experience, especially for ticketing, asset management, automation, and reporting. It has helped us organize IT support processes and improve visibility. For ticketing.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    For the most part, ADManager usability is pretty great, once you understand it. There is a decently large learning curve, mainly when using the api integration and automations. For simple things, like unlocking accounts, it is very usable. Understanding the way to customize reports and automations is where it lost points.
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    As any other feature-rich software package, starting out with ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus has a little bit of a learning curve, but it usually doesn't take very long until you can use the basic features. Training new technicians on the use of the software does not take very long, and for users to submit tickets it is as easy as sending an email.
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    Performance
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    Yes, it loads very quickly and moving between pages is very fast
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    This is one of their lacking points... Every time I have needed support the first thing they want to see is our log files. And then it can take days or weeks to hear back from them and sometimes you have to follow up yourself or they will just close your request. If you can actually get someone on the phone or a sessions scheduled to troubleshoot, sometimes you'll be lucky enough to solve your problem. We used to have a major new hire automation running in ADManager and it broke after updating the software. We went back and forth with them for a month or so and they were not able to resolve the issue, I ended up writing a PowerShell script and scheduling it to do the work that was being done before. This also allowed me to make the automation better than ADManager allowed.
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    I have a few issues with MESDP and even though we use the free version, the support staff was very quick to respond and extremely competent and helpful. Luckily, I have only had to use them a couple of times over the 2.5 years I have been using their product, but they strike me as very competent, friendly and helpful, regardless of the version of their product you use.
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    Alternatives Considered
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    We decided to use ManageEngine ADManager Plus due to the compatibility it had with our systems. We run a hybrid environment and ManageEngine ADManager Plus was the system that fit into our infrastructure the best. It also provides the most opportunity for growth in the way we want and does not require us to build on systems we are not yet ready to implement.
    Read full review
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    Spiceworks was free, which obviously had both benefits and limitations - I will say that the community around Spiceworks has always been great. If we could replicate that experience with the ME user base, it would be terrific.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    We are currently deploying on 1 department
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    No answers on this topic
    Professional Services
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    They are able to demo the product and clearly explain use case scenario's and how to do things
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    • The built-in reports and queries are invaluable. You simply won't have this information in a vanilla AD environment.
    • The ease that you can access the information you need about your environment is outstanding. You can access the information you need quickly so you can make better decisions on managing your business.
    • The ability to easily designate techs with limited access is great. This offloads menial administration duties from your higher level techs so your not paying high level folks to do redundant tasks.
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    • The tool does not scale well from an ROI perspective. As you add a customer, you must add a new instance, hence a new license.
    • The tool is probably on the expensive side (34,000 USD per 130 technicians per year).
    • There is no usage beyond incident, change, and problem management. The CMDB feature is extremely limited and cannot generate additional ROI. There is no knowledge-base or integration with other software (other than ME Desktop Central).
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    ScreenShots

    ManageEngine ADManager Plus Screenshots

    Screenshot of A unified dashboard to help administrators spot, prioritize, and act in one place.Screenshot of the interface to build end-to-end automation templates with a drag-and-drop sequenceScreenshot of where to visualize attack paths across AD, trace how a single account could escalate to privileged access, and close the gaps before attackers find them.Screenshot of how to onboard new hires at scale — import a CSV, pick a container, and create users in minutes.Screenshot of some of the over 200 prebuilt AD reports that are ready to run, schedule, or export.