ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs. SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
ServiceDesk Plus is free help desk software from ManageEngine, a division of Zoho Corporation.
$10
Starting Price Per Month
SolarWinds Service Desk
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
SolarWinds Service Desk (formerly Samanage) is a cloud-based, multi-tenant IT service desk and asset management software for IT and enterprise service management. Samanage is on a single, always new instance of software. The service desk includes a self-service portal, service catalog, knowledge base, and SLA management tool. The integrated agent-based asset management solution collects contracts and licensing data from Windows, Mac, Linux, and Unix systems.N/A
Pricing
ManageEngine ServiceDesk PlusSolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
Editions & Modules
Standard
$10.00
Starting Price Per Month
Professional
$21.00
Starting Price Per Month
Enterprise
$50.00
Starting Price Per Month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ManageEngine ServiceDesk PlusSolarWinds Service Desk
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ManageEngine ServiceDesk PlusSolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
Considered Both Products
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Chose ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Just ended up being the winner of the tortoise race. Showed the most promise but costs to fulfill those promises made it fall short of expectations.
SolarWinds Service Desk
Chose SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
We went with SWSD because of the ease of usability. The UI was very easy for everyone who tested the various platforms to understand and navigate. We also felt that the customer service and support of the Samanage team was above the rest. Knowing that any solution we went …
Chose SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
We used Spiceworks for approximately 9 years before moving to Samanage. While reviewing many systems available, we decided on Solarwinds Service Desk for the following primary reasons:
  • Cloud-hosted and easily accessible from anywhere
  • Workflow customization
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
ManageEngine ServiceDesk PlusSolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
8.9
19 Ratings
9% above category average
SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
8.0
96 Ratings
2% below category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets10.019 Ratings9.395 Ratings
Expert directory9.012 Ratings7.956 Ratings
Service restoration10.014 Ratings7.357 Ratings
Self-service tools8.017 Ratings8.085 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications9.013 Ratings8.967 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation7.015 Ratings8.176 Ratings
ITSM reports and dashboards9.017 Ratings6.486 Ratings
ITSM asset management
Comparison of ITSM asset management features of Product A and Product B
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
8.7
14 Ratings
6% above category average
SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
6.9
81 Ratings
17% below category average
Configuration mangement8.013 Ratings6.973 Ratings
Asset management dashboard9.013 Ratings6.980 Ratings
Policy and contract enforcement9.09 Ratings6.963 Ratings
Change management
Comparison of Change management features of Product A and Product B
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
9.7
15 Ratings
15% above category average
SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
8.0
79 Ratings
4% below category average
Change requests repository9.014 Ratings8.663 Ratings
Change calendar10.010 Ratings7.743 Ratings
Service-level management10.013 Ratings7.871 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ManageEngine ServiceDesk PlusSolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
Small Businesses
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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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
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Score 9.1 out of 10
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User Ratings
ManageEngine ServiceDesk PlusSolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(19 ratings)
7.9
(118 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
6.0
(1 ratings)
6.5
(8 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(3 ratings)
8.9
(7 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.7
(7 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.9
(4 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(3 ratings)
8.0
(92 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.9
(3 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
4.5
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.9
(4 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(2 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.7
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
ManageEngine ServiceDesk PlusSolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
Likelihood to Recommend
ManageEngine, A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
ServiceDesk Plus is very easy to configure at the start, and then adjust the categories and rules as the implementation is refined. Its greatest strength is the ability to program without requiring a full time administrator. There is very little jargon involved. Reporting not so much. The canned reports are useful but do not always cover some of the basics. Fortunately, the user groups freely share report definitions so one could springboard from something close to your desired result.
Read full review
SolarWinds
If you are looking for a way to support a company and bill based on the outcome this software works really well. If it's a quick password change there was no charge, but if it's troubleshooting things you click the box to charge. It works really well for this. Also bringing all your assets into this and associating them to a client works well. I can't think of anything that this software would not be less appropriate for. It works well for what we use it for.
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Pros
ManageEngine, A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
  • Ticket logging for end users, so they can see the progress on their help requests
  • Asset management; it has an agent that can be installed on machines which can then feed back information on installed software, active times, logged on user etc
  • Project management; larger projects can be managed within ManageEngine ServiceDesk as well as end user help tickets, where progress/milestones etc can be recorded
  • Active Directory import of users, so that it automatically updates when users are created/deleted and links their accounts in ManageEngine ServiceDesk with their email address as well to enable email alerts
Read full review
SolarWinds
  • Approval flows: You can have multiple layers of approval required for the tickets and service requests you design. This helps us show auditors that access to privileged systems and data was formerly reviewed and approved by the appropriate managers.
  • Easy to design forms: You don't need to spend hours reading the documentation to figure out how to create forms. It's simple enough that you can just jump right in and start creating them with minimal training.
  • Lots of options and features are available for you to include in your forms.
  • Integrates well with SAML-based SSO and has capabilities for MFA.
  • Easy and useful search function. Need to find that ticket from last year that you worked for a particular user or issue? Just search by keyword or username, and it'll quickly find the ticket.
Read full review
Cons
ManageEngine, A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
  • When trying to select the top row ticket, you have to be careful not to select all tickets. Happened to us twice and we assigned all open tickets to one technician. Took a few minutes to correct.
  • Site is sometimes a bit sluggish to respond. Don't know if that is an issue with our network infrastructure or the program itself, though.
  • When users send emails to the help desk, we sometimes experience delays until the tickets appear on the site for the technicians.
Read full review
SolarWinds
  • There is potential to greatly improve the capacity for cascading attributes. Currently, categories are limited to a top-level category and one subcategory. This leaves a fairly shallow decision tree.
  • Greater flexibility to modify the layout of incident request forms.
  • More integration options for cloud file-sharing platforms. Solarwinds Service Desk has tie-ins to Dropbox but not other vendors.
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Likelihood to Renew
ManageEngine, A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
we are looking at other tools like Zendesk which may replace ServiceDesk. We are currently evaluating both tools to see which one would serve our needs better
Read full review
SolarWinds
My renewal is soon coming up, it is fairly likely I will renew again for the 5th year. I may consider evaluating what else is out there, It was requested by my staff to not make a change. They feel that SSD fits our needs, is easy to use and should keep it.
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Usability
ManageEngine, A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
It is still very cumbersome, lots of data entry on the back end to build how we want it but it is still not completely user friendly. Many functions still dont work and contacting someone for help isnt always easy or we get told solutions for issues we have just arent built yet.
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SolarWinds
Solarwinds Service Desk has a very "user friendly" interface. Everything looks nice and neat. And, learning how to use the system is very easy. It provides multiple services that are easy for most people to grasp, and allows for great organization of incidents and assets. Support for Solarwinds Service Desk has a good response and resolution time and are easy to work with.
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Reliability and Availability
ManageEngine, A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
No answers on this topic
SolarWinds
Because the data is stored on Amazon Web Services (AWS) there are very rarely any outages. There have been some times when the product has been slow to load, but because the interface is web based it could be anything between my computer and AWS that was causing the issue. But also, because the application is web based it can be access from anywhere which makes it very convenient
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Performance
ManageEngine, A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
No answers on this topic
SolarWinds
When the system is working, the pages load very quickly. We run reports all the time in the system. The reporting can be extremely complex or very simple. Either way, we have not had any issues with the reports. We do not currently integrate Solarwinds Service Desk with any other software.
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Support Rating
ManageEngine, A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
Our network administrator usually gets a good response when contacting ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus customer service. They are quick to respond and so far have been able to eliminate most of our issues. We have been through several upgrades of the software over the years and have no issues to report in regards to customer service.
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SolarWinds
SolarWinds support department will respond to you quickly from the time of purchase to after-purchase instructions & supporting, and the company is great in customers support. In buying a software, our organization always has a priority for the seller and support and accountability is very important to us, and the manufacturer or seller must be responsible and supportive.
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Online Training
ManageEngine, A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
No answers on this topic
SolarWinds
When we first purchased Samanage (now Solarwinds) they provided us with an informational training session to show us all of the basics on how the service works and showed us everything we were interested in using. There are still some areas of Solarwinds that we do not yet utilize but I know if we choose to use them in the future we would be able to schedule another session with our representative to have them show us what we need to know.
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Implementation Rating
ManageEngine, A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
No answers on this topic
SolarWinds
The implementation process for our organization was fairly simple. We set up an email address to receive the emails from the system (for incident creation), and we allowed the system to spoof our IT email to respond to requests. Solarwinds helped us with the rest of the implementation, and it took less than a week to get the system fully operational.
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Alternatives Considered
ManageEngine, A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
Compared to Cherwell, SDP is much much faster, and easier to deploy, set up, and use. But it does not have automation, and has limited customization. Since it is smaller and easier, it does not require any development effort. On the other hand, it is far more expensive, considering its lower capabilities, and its licensing model is not concurrently based (each technician uses up a license, even if the technician is not actively logged in and using the tool).
Read full review
SolarWinds
We chose SolarWinds Service Desk for its user friendly platform compared to what we had. Its was easier for requestors to submit tickets, provide feedback, merge tickets, build a suitable approval process. Our organization had a hard time going back and forth with the end user on providing a status on their request or issue, where most users just didn't follow through or lost interest in their issue. We would have to send multiple emails to get any type of feedback and that's something we did not want to keep on doing.
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Scalability
ManageEngine, A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
No answers on this topic
SolarWinds
We have over 500 computers and tablets across our organization and this has helped us greatly in keeping track of where computers are and who is currently using it. I can see this product being useful to groups both larger and smaller than us and I really appreciate this product.
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Return on Investment
ManageEngine, A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
  • ServiceDesk Plus has helped our organization see what issues we face on a more global picture and we are able to take the time and resources to correct them in a timely manner.
  • The only negative part about ServiceDesk Plus is it can become costly when you see and use all the features it has to offer.
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SolarWinds
  • We are more easily able to quantify user satisfaction with support.
  • We are able to develop SLAs that quantify and define the obligation of our support teams.
  • The actual cost of Solarwinds Service Desk per agent user is high in our estimation. The more you implement this platform across your organization, the more tightly tethered you are to this solution.
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ScreenShots

SolarWinds Service Desk Screenshots

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