SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD) vs. SysAid

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
SysAid
Score 8.0 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
SysAid is presented as comprehensive ITSM platform with generative AI baked into every element of service management. With a fully conversational experience wrapped into the UI, SysAid aims to empower organizations to unleash their full potential for productivity.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.
Top Pros
Top Cons
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)
8.0
96 Ratings
2% below category average
SysAid
8.4
154 Ratings
3% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets9.395 Ratings8.7154 Ratings
Expert directory7.956 Ratings8.0123 Ratings
Service restoration7.357 Ratings8.1106 Ratings
Self-service tools8.085 Ratings8.7148 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications8.967 Ratings7.9110 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation8.176 Ratings8.7123 Ratings
ITSM reports and dashboards6.486 Ratings8.7132 Ratings
ITSM asset management
Comparison of ITSM asset management features of Product A and Product B
SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
6.9
81 Ratings
17% below category average
SysAid
8.2
135 Ratings
0% above category average
Configuration mangement6.973 Ratings8.1126 Ratings
Asset management dashboard6.980 Ratings8.3132 Ratings
Policy and contract enforcement6.963 Ratings8.289 Ratings
Change management
Comparison of Change management features of Product A and Product B
SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
8.0
79 Ratings
4% below category average
SysAid
8.5
123 Ratings
2% above category average
Change requests repository8.663 Ratings8.6114 Ratings
Change calendar7.743 Ratings7.994 Ratings
Service-level management7.871 Ratings8.8116 Ratings
Best Alternatives
SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)SysAid
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
Ivanti Neurons for ITSM
Ivanti Neurons for ITSM
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)SysAid
Likelihood to Recommend
7.9
(118 ratings)
8.7
(156 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
6.5
(8 ratings)
9.1
(15 ratings)
Usability
8.9
(7 ratings)
8.8
(41 ratings)
Availability
8.7
(7 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
Performance
8.9
(4 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(92 ratings)
9.0
(51 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Online Training
8.2
(2 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.9
(3 ratings)
8.3
(8 ratings)
Configurability
7.3
(1 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(13 ratings)
Ease of integration
4.5
(1 ratings)
5.1
(2 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.9
(4 ratings)
8.9
(4 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(8 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(2 ratings)
9.1
(3 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.7
(2 ratings)
9.1
(3 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 has been great in our management of handling tickets within our Helpdesk but has also allowed us to include other departments. Having work flows has helped us with onboarding and setting up approval process for phones and computers, along with auto prompting end user with additional required info for requests and incidents minimizing the back and forth communication for basic info.
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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.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
SysAid Technologies
  • There are still issues with how well the cloud version of SysAid performs. It can be slow at times. It can be offline every so often (very rarely).
  • There is a lot to learn with this solution so reaching out to their Support is crucial.
  • Cost. This is not the cheapest solution and cost is not an issue for us, but it might be for some companies. I think it is very reasonably priced and you get what you pay for.
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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
Having personally used SysAid for the past 10 years or so, when it was still in its infancy, the trajectory of its improvement and the pricing, there is no doubt that it will be soon an overall market leader, because whilst there other services with options that SysAid doesn't have or haven't mastered, they come at [an] eye-watering price, and in my comparison, for up to 300% more.
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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
SysAid is easy to use and configure. There are some technical components to the configuration, but their implementation of the SysAid system allows for easy self-service. There was only one time that SysAid could not provide a solution to my direct need. We quickly found a workaround. The issue was integration with Microsoft Office 365 when it was first released. The connection between SysAid and Outlook was problematic. It was not long before SysAid had resolved the issue and provided that integration.
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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
Ha habido pocas veces que no ha estado disponible pero siempre avisan con antelación cuando el servicio no estará activo por una situación controlada
Read full review
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
No, In my company it is integrated with the Control-M and when ever we receive any incident of the control M console, we receive a ticket at the same time on SysAid
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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
I have had nothing but positive experiences working with the SysAid support team. There are multiple pathways to request and receive support, which are all connected with each other. I get an efficient and effective response most of the time and when there is not immediately a good answer, they create a support request to follow up for resolution.
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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
Training was well structure and delivered. Questions were thoroughly answered and any issues we had were provided with support and help.
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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
In the initial stage we implement separate SysAid servers for head and branch offices. When we managed to link up our offices via point to point VPN, we manage to console them into one server. All the assets and devices on branch office were divert back to the server in head office
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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
SysAid, compared to other helpdesk software, was reasonably cost-effective; they provided seamless integrations and were willing to redesign the software to meet our needs. One of their current features that is winning with my organization is the SysAid bot. This is a great idea, and we hope that in the future, we will be able to customize this to our organization's needs.
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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
Professional services is just that professional, i have had the opportunity to use this service on several occasions, a technical issue comes up, i made an appointment for one hour and i am contacted at the required time, the representative that hold of my system and goes through the problem while i look on so its also a learning process
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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 IT Ticketing DashboardScreenshot of AI ChatbotScreenshot of Ticket JourneyScreenshot of Workflow DesignerScreenshot of Monitor & Fine TuningScreenshot of AI Case Summarization