ServiceNow IT Service Management vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ServiceNow IT Service Management
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
ServiceNow is a fast-growing service management provider that went public in 2012. 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, and (on the higher tier ITSM Professional plan) ITAM and software asset management.
$10,000
per year
Zendesk Suite
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
The Zendesk Support suite is a cloud-based customer support software built for better customer relationships. Designed to improve customer satisfaction and to support customers on any channel: text SMS, web, mobile app, phone, email, social media. The vendor states more than 200,000 companies such as Uber, Groupon, Box, Airbnb, and Slack are using Zendesk to lower their support costs, raise productivity, and increase customer satisfaction. Zendesk offers a full suite of products to meet customer…
$55
per month agent
Pricing
ServiceNow IT Service ManagementZendesk Suite
Editions & Modules
Starting Price
$10,000.00
per year
Support Team (Foundational Support Only)
$19
per month agent
Suite Team
$55
per month agent
Support Professional
$55
per month agent
Suite Growth
$89
per month agent
Suite Professional
$115
per month agent
Support Enterprise
$115
per month agent
Suite Enterprise
$169
per month agent
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ServiceNow IT Service ManagementZendesk Suite
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ServiceNow IT Service ManagementZendesk Suite
Considered Both Products
ServiceNow IT Service Management
Chose ServiceNow IT Service Management
Our Company uses Service now for a long time. I have seen the evolution and honestly the product has recently surprised me. The improvements have been incredible in terms of speed and ease of use. My team is very happy with the product. The interaction has improved remarkably …
Chose ServiceNow IT Service Management
We looked into a few different tools. We POC'ed Jira, and while it did a lot of things well, it didn't meet our needs. ServiceNow has a lot of different features that were attractive to our firm and ultimately, we decided the extra cost was well worth it. Zendesk was another …
Chose ServiceNow IT Service Management
Both platforms were very well tested, widely used solutions for managing enterprise IT services in the industry. ServiceNow was the more future-proof of the two, giving our organization more value by integrating into the tools we already have. Remedy remains a monolithic …
Chose ServiceNow IT Service Management
Other products did not have the needed functions. Pricing was also very advantageous with ServiceNow. The industry needs in this area are constantly evolving, so it is important to choose a tool that allows for the integration, workflows, and customer experience required. …
Chose ServiceNow IT Service Management
ServiceNow seems to be able to scale as large as you would like it to and outpaces the competition as far as ease of licenses and growth. While it is clunky it really allows you to drill down to the smallest workflow or permissions to really allow the system to build around …
Chose ServiceNow IT Service Management
We previously had our Change management process in Sharepoint which was cumbersome and very manual. Bringing this process into ServiceNow was one of the best things we could have done. With Zendesk, we decided to use that system for another department and it just doesn't …
Zendesk Suite
Chose Zendesk Suite
I started in the company with Zendesk Support Suite already, so experience with it was an easy learning curve. Freshservice is just as good as well. The GUI interface is friendly to look at and easy on the eyes. When you're in support and [staring] at the screen all day, …
Chose Zendesk Suite
It's as good as ServiceNow. Zendesk was selected mainly based on price and performance.
Chose Zendesk Suite
  • SugarCRM - limited functionality compared to Zendesk.
  • Salesforce - We also use this. Zendesk has less functionality and is not as easily customizable or flexible, but it is still a good value.
  • ServiceNow - Great for incident management, but just broke out into the CRM realm and …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
ServiceNow IT Service ManagementZendesk Suite
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
ServiceNow IT Service Management
8.3
67 Ratings
2% above category average
Zendesk Suite
8.1
109 Ratings
3% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets8.966 Ratings8.4108 Ratings
Expert directory7.650 Ratings7.268 Ratings
Service restoration7.655 Ratings00 Ratings
Self-service tools9.064 Ratings00 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications7.662 Ratings7.374 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation8.359 Ratings7.970 Ratings
ITSM reports and dashboards8.861 Ratings00 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.1109 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings8.8108 Ratings
ITSM asset management
Comparison of ITSM asset management features of Product A and Product B
ServiceNow IT Service Management
8.5
60 Ratings
4% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Configuration mangement8.259 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset management dashboard8.658 Ratings00 Ratings
Policy and contract enforcement8.752 Ratings00 Ratings
Change management
Comparison of Change management features of Product A and Product B
ServiceNow IT Service Management
8.1
61 Ratings
3% below category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Change requests repository7.661 Ratings00 Ratings
Change calendar7.455 Ratings00 Ratings
Service-level management9.157 Ratings00 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
ServiceNow IT Service Management
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
7.9
97 Ratings
2% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings7.893 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings8.088 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
ServiceNow IT Service Management
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
7.9
107 Ratings
3% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings7.484 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings7.835 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings7.366 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings8.5105 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings8.579 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ServiceNow IT Service ManagementZendesk Suite
Small Businesses
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
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
SAP Service Cloud
SAP Service Cloud
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ServiceNow IT Service ManagementZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
(78 ratings)
8.3
(147 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(13 ratings)
10.0
(40 ratings)
Usability
6.3
(11 ratings)
6.9
(20 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.6
(13 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(10 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(22 ratings)
9.0
(29 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
1.0
(1 ratings)
7.9
(9 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(3 ratings)
9.0
(18 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.3
(3 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ServiceNow IT Service ManagementZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
Read full review
Zendesk
The ability to Merge tickets is a good to have feature. Navigation is easy from one ticket to another ticket without having to go back to the list. Admin options should be more clear, internal menu navigation is complex and creates more confusion while arranging the sections and articles. Channel Management is good but Forum management can be brought in with more flexibility. More Apps integration or flexibility in APIs so that a newbie can also integrate the application into the software. A redundant software that brings in 360-degree communication of support/service concepts into practicality however if the option to compile texting with platforms like ringcentral, Twilio or Dialpad will be an awesome thing to share ticket updates with custom templates.
Read full review
Pros
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.
Read full review
Zendesk
  • Reporting and Analytics
  • Ease of Agent Training and Use
  • Able to add multiple brands with related custom reports and dashboards
  • Adding a new brand and basic help center is easy to do without the need of an expert or web team
  • Ability of agents and supervisors to see customer history across multiple channels
Read full review
Cons
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!
Read full review
Zendesk
  • I think the Graphical User Interface could use a facelift. It not the most aesthetically pleasing platform in my experience.
  • Particular things like where the default is when you click on each and every dropdown menu.
  • The macro integration could be a little more simplified.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
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.
Read full review
Zendesk
Zendesk is super easy to use and navigate. I really enjoy the sleek layout, the ability to tailor tickets, the macro option, and the quick key guide they have to make your use of time even more effective. My whole team loves working with Zendesk and rarely ever has problems.
Read full review
Usability
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.
Read full review
Zendesk
As an agent it's very simple to use. As an admin it's also easy to use, but sometimes lacks some functionality that would be nice to have such as expanded native 2 way sync functionality for many major apps that are commonly used today like HubSpot and Salesforce. The ability to add followers to tickets to they get updates and are in the know without the customer seeing this agent cc'd is a nice touch. This ensures additional visibility and easily following the communication without having to appear as a CC to the customer, who could accidentally remove that person in a response, thus breaking the visibility
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Reliability and Availability
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.
Read full review
Zendesk
In the past year, I'd say I have only noticed maybe two hours total of downtime in my own usage. Very minimal.
Read full review
Performance
ServiceNow
For a massive system, page loads are reasonably quick, including searches.
Read full review
Zendesk
There has been minor performance degradation on a very few days out of the two years I have been using the product.
Read full review
Support Rating
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.
Read full review
Zendesk
Every time I contacted them they were not only very responsive and knowledgable, but always seemed to have a positive upbeat attitude. It probably helps that we did not have significant service outages or sev 1 level issues, but even my lower severity issues were quickly answered. And the positive and upbeat attitude really made things feel comfortable.
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Online Training
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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Zendesk
Zendesk has tons of available material for training - videos, webinars, articles, etc. The only reason this is not a 10 is because it can be hard to figure out how to navigate to these things and find what you are looking for.
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Implementation Rating
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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Zendesk
I was very satisfied. They have a free trial for 30 days and I recommend you do that and use it. It is very easy to get started with the basics and the build on over time.

The only thing technically complex was single sign-on and integration to Salesforce.com required some tweaks – otherwise setting up system was very easy
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Alternatives Considered
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.
Read full review
Zendesk
Although a bit pricey, it does the job well. We are happy with the results it provides; our team is also quite satisfied on how easy it is to use, login and start working. Compared to the other two we have tried, Zendesk takes the cake. It makes Customer Management much easier, more efficient, and more effective.
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Scalability
ServiceNow
ServiceNow works as an enterprise solution.
Read full review
Zendesk
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
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.
Read full review
Zendesk
  • The positives weigh more than the negatives here, as it gives us a one-stop portal where we can tend to customer needs using one web app
  • It has also helped us identify areas of improvement based on the reporting feature
  • The value it provides outweighs any missing or lacking features that I'm sure will be available in the future
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ScreenShots

Zendesk Suite Screenshots

Screenshot of Zendesk Agent WorkspaceScreenshot of Omnichannel MessagingScreenshot of Zendesk TicketingScreenshot of Bots powered by Zendesk AIScreenshot of Tone shift with Zendesk AIScreenshot of Zendesk ticketing side conversations