SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD) vs. SysAid

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
SolarWinds Service Desk
Score 8.1 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
SysAid
Score 8.9 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
SysAid is an ITSM platform that enhances service delivery with AI Agents, chatbots, workflow automation, and asset management. AI Copilot categorizes tickets, provides case summaries, and offers sentiment analysis. The AI chatbot, available via chat, email, and Teams, speeds support.N/A
Pricing
SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)SysAid
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SolarWinds Service DeskSysAid
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
Additional DetailsSysAid Copilot is available as an add-on for any plan. It bakes generative AI into every aspect of service management.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)SysAid
Considered Both Products
SolarWinds Service Desk
Chose SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
Samanage is far better than both. SysAid had similar features, but Samanage seems to execute them all much better. Also, Samanage HQ is located in the USA, which is very convenient for us.
Chose SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
We looked at ServiceNow, SysAid and Track-It! and Samanage came out on top because it did everything well. The other three were all more proficient in some things, but they were not a complete package.
Chose SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
SSD has more features and simplicity in implementation, and working with it is very important to us. It is also very reputable in terms of company security and safety. Helpdesk software should be designed user-friendly in mind. The SolarWinds desktop is created in the cloud …
Chose SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
This tool was selected prior to my coming to work for Injured Workers Pharmacy. The key reasons for its selection were to quickly be able to separate traditional IT incidents from IT developer incidents as well as which incidents were actually requests for new functionality …
Chose SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
No asset management available for the other products at the time, which is why we went with Samanage.
SysAid
Chose SysAid
SysAid is super nice. I cannot say enough how great the auto-assign ticket feature is. That alone is a game-changer. Our query to assign tickets is very complex because we use SysAid to manage tickets for our standard helpdesk tickets (divided by site location), student …
Chose SysAid
At the time, SysAid was the most complete with the possibility to have parallel workflow as well as incremental ones. Custom fields were very important for us. We wanted also to try to apply ITIL fundamentals. Setting and user interface were much appreciated as they were very …
Chose SysAid
[SysAid had a] much more customizable and better implementation team.
Chose SysAid
We chose SysAid over the cost concern. Also, SysAid is a power all-in-one application that can do all the work. We ended up using different applications for different tasks (patch management, anti-virus and asset management) because other management and performance issues.
Features
SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)SysAid
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
7.0
97 Ratings
16% below category average
SysAid
8.8
188 Ratings
7% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets8.096 Ratings9.6187 Ratings
Expert directory6.057 Ratings8.0154 Ratings
Service restoration6.058 Ratings8.7135 Ratings
Self-service tools7.086 Ratings8.0181 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications8.967 Ratings9.5136 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation6.077 Ratings9.1155 Ratings
ITSM reports and dashboards7.087 Ratings8.9164 Ratings
ITSM asset management
Comparison of ITSM asset management features of Product A and Product B
SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
7.3
82 Ratings
12% below category average
SysAid
8.3
163 Ratings
1% above category average
Configuration mangement8.074 Ratings9.1153 Ratings
Asset management dashboard6.980 Ratings8.9160 Ratings
Policy and contract enforcement7.064 Ratings7.0111 Ratings
Change management
Comparison of Change management features of Product A and Product B
SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
7.0
80 Ratings
19% below category average
SysAid
8.9
153 Ratings
4% above category average
Change requests repository7.064 Ratings9.2139 Ratings
Change calendar7.044 Ratings8.2118 Ratings
Service-level management7.072 Ratings9.2145 Ratings
Best Alternatives
SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)SysAid
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
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Score 9.2 out of 10
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)SysAid
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(119 ratings)
9.1
(189 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
6.5
(8 ratings)
8.7
(22 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(8 ratings)
8.0
(48 ratings)
Availability
8.7
(7 ratings)
9.1
(6 ratings)
Performance
8.9
(4 ratings)
9.1
(6 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(92 ratings)
8.3
(56 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.1
(3 ratings)
Online Training
8.2
(2 ratings)
9.1
(5 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.9
(3 ratings)
8.3
(12 ratings)
Configurability
7.3
(1 ratings)
9.1
(3 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(15 ratings)
Ease of integration
4.5
(1 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.9
(4 ratings)
9.1
(6 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(10 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(2 ratings)
9.1
(5 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.7
(2 ratings)
9.1
(5 ratings)
User Testimonials
SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)SysAid
Likelihood to Recommend
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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SysAid Technologies
SysAid just works. For the number of built in features, it is relatively easy to use and get started with. Getting started with SysAid is hassle free as well. Once setting up the RDS on prem, rolling out to all of the machines is a breeze. The cloud service takes over from there. Device scans will immediately begin sending data to SysAid cloud that provides hardware and software information.
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Pros
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.
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SysAid Technologies
  • Email integration. End-users can interact with the ticketing system exclusively through email, and admins can message exclusively within a ticket. All communications are linked directly to user accounts including SysAid admin accounts.
  • Ticket management is very customizable. You can add categories, statuses, action and communication automation, ticket sorting, and much more.
  • knowledge base links directly to tickets, so repeat issues are easy to solve.
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Cons
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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SysAid Technologies
  • The Help tool could use some refining. Particularly indicating the order in which steps must be done. A clear example is the creation of customized fields or lists.
  • Formatting of the ticket. There is no possibility to create dynamic tables, use more than one column. I would want to have more flexibility without having to pay for Professional Services
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Likelihood to Renew
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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SysAid Technologies
This rating reflects our overall satisfaction with the platform’s performance, reliability, and flexibility in meeting our IT service management needs. SysAid has streamlined our ticketing processes, enhanced asset management, and improved operational efficiency through automation and reporting. The system’s adaptability across multiple departments has added significant value beyond IT. An excellent service tool.
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Usability
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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SysAid Technologies
Whilst it delivers on most of the features it comes with, I feel Change Management needs a complete re-do as it is really complicated, and think it should be made to be straightforward. For the free services of their Market Place, they should develop a platform where one can just browse for the script (downloaded) and apply the patch, without having to go into various places in code to activate the service. or at least, build the integrations into the system and have [a] section under settings, or even straight from the Market Place, where one can just enable the service, and if required, be prompted to input additional information, including credentials.
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Reliability and Availability
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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SysAid Technologies
Another of the benefits of sysaid is that it is highly available when working in on-premise environments.The only times the system is down is when a restart of the services is required to add a new feature. Apart from that, we have not had any problems.In the case of the cloud, the only condition I have seen where sysaid is not available is because the internet link is down or damaged.
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Performance
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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SysAid Technologies
In the case of system performance, I have seen that no matter the number of assets and users, Sysaid responds in the same way and at the same speed. The reports that are scheduled do not have any details because they arrive directly to your email. In the same way, when it is integrated with other systems, for example through the API or by email, we have not seen any failure due to the integration. It works very well with or without integrations.
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Support Rating
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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SysAid Technologies
SysAid support is fast and effective. They support their own product, so they know it well. I can expect a response to my request in less than 24 hours and often in less than an hour. Their sales, customer support, and technical support staff are experts in the area of the support request ticket, so we seldom are transferred to another support agent. Their system is well designed and one of the best of all the applications we use.
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In-Person Training
SolarWinds
No answers on this topic
SysAid Technologies
My team was greatly assisted and trained well. Despite the time zone difference the trainer made every effort to be available during times that were suitable for us and the assistance and help offered was extremely appreciated by my team. A wonderful experience by the team.
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Online Training
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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SysAid Technologies
The training I received was very good, they gave me tasks to carry out and then they checked what I had done.It was gratifying that the instructor noticed that I had made very fast progress because I had done the implementation myself and it was very fast. At least I remember that after 5 days I had already finished almost 90% of all the implementation tasks.
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Implementation Rating
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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SysAid Technologies
It is recommended that it be synchronized with the active directory for a better experience, also using the network scanning tools are very useful both to maintain your hardware and software inventory. See all the documentation found on the portal where they suggest good practices for the use of SysAid and exploit it from the first time
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Alternatives Considered
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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SysAid Technologies
There are many items offered on the other platforms that SysAid does not have. However, for a smaller or medium-sized business that needs a simple and easy way to get tickets flowing and allow users to help themselves, this is an excellent way to start.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
SolarWinds
No answers on this topic
SysAid Technologies
When we purchase it, the plans were different and mainly we acquired lifetime licenses. in the past year, we migrated to the cloud version. In both cases, the pricing structure was accurate, although they could provide some extra flexibility to pay for exactly what we need in the business.
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Scalability
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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SysAid Technologies
Le doy esta calificación porque los módulos que contiene se pueden usar para casi cualquier departamento, tanto gestión de tickets como inventarios de equipos, hemos utilizado una versión gratuita en Ingeniería para gestionar sus tiempos en las tareas asignadas, es lo único que utilizan pero podrían usar fácilmente el módulo de inventario para su herramienta y el módulo de proyectos también
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Professional Services
SolarWinds
No answers on this topic
SysAid Technologies
We have used SysAid since 2008. Through out these years, we find that SysAid support is very helpful and professional. The respond that we get is very fast and they will help us until we have solved our problem that we reported to them. So far, we are very happy with SysAid support.
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Return on Investment
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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SysAid Technologies
  • How easy it is to configure the app to our existing ITIL process. The ability to pick what services we would like to have as well as the ability to integrate using API as well as the marketplace.
  • Intuitive interface. Integration to Outlook. Easy reporting.
  • It has a very user-friendly interface and effective management capabilities.
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ScreenShots

SolarWinds Service Desk Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of

SysAid Screenshots

Screenshot of Monitoring & Fine Tuning - Gives the admin control over the quality of answers that the AI Chatbot provides, through the ability to edit and fine-tune the answers.Screenshot of Ticket Journey - Admins can deep dive into the history and context of a ticket, quickly, with ticket journey filters, while reviewing a chronological, consolidated view of everything to help reach a resolution, faster – including all actions takenScreenshot of a Ticket Queue, which offers a consolidated, easy-to-navigate view of the ticket queue to help admins resolve issues more more efficiently.Screenshot of AI Chatbot, a conversational self-service experience that uses Generative AI to help employees work through issues by delivering answers based on what it has learned by absorbing knowledge base articles, internal data, and ticket resolution historyScreenshot of the workflow automation that digitizes processes without coding or scripting. Users can automate complex processes with simple design and editing capabilities, and real-time visibility of the end-to-end process.Screenshot of the SysAid AI Agents that empower IT teams with intelligence that thinks, learns, and acts securely. Designed to enhance—not override—IT operations, they anticipate needs, make informed decisions, and adapt responsibly