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Primarily network discovery, inventory and help desk. We used the alerts system regularly until we replaced that functionality with a true …
Spiceworks Help Desk
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Spiceworks Help Desk
Top Rated
Spiceworks Help Desk
Overview
What is Spiceworks Help Desk?
Spiceworks offers a set of free tools for IT network management and help desk support ticketing. The inventory management system essentially provides comprehensive device information for asset management. The Spiceworks Network Monitor provides information on observed IT for problem tracking...
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Top Rated
2022
Most Loved
2022
Popular Features
View all 13 features- External knowledge base (46)8.787%
- Ticket creation and submission (52)8.585%
- Ticket response (51)8.181%
- Organize and prioritize service tickets (52)8.080%
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Free
Cloud
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- No setup fee
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- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting / Integration Services
Product Demos
Run an IT help desk with Spiceworks
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What is Spiceworks Help Desk?
Spiceworks offers a set of free tools for IT network management and help desk support ticketing. The inventory management system essentially provides comprehensive device information for asset management. The Spiceworks Network Monitor provides information on observed IT for problem tracking and server performance monitoring. And finally, the Spiceworks Help Desk Software lets IT personnel stay on top of issues across the network with a ticketing system. Help desk roles with role-based permissions and notifications allow tasks to be allocated across team members. If the user wishes to host Spiceworks apps and tools locally, then they are free. For cloud-based service, Spiceworks bills $12 per IT user per month, or $10 monthly per user if paid annually.
Spiceworks was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas, also with a European headquarters in London (since 2012), and was backed by multiple investors, notably Goldman Sachs. In 2019 Spiceworks was acquired by Ziff Davis, a division of J2 Global. It is now a J2 Global company, operating under the name Spiceworks Ziff Davis.
Spiceworks Help Desk Video
Spiceworks Help Desk Overview
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Spiceworks Help Desk Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Spiceworks offers a set of free tools for IT network management and help desk support ticketing. The inventory management system essentially provides comprehensive device information for asset management. The Spiceworks Network Monitor provides information on observed IT for problem tracking and server performance monitoring. And finally, the Spiceworks Help Desk Software lets IT personnel stay on top of issues across the network with a ticketing system. Help desk roles with role-based permissions and notifications allow tasks to be allocated across team members. If the user wishes to host Spiceworks apps and tools locally, then they are free. For cloud-based service, Spiceworks bills $12 per IT user per month, or $10 monthly per user if paid annually.
Spiceworks was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas, also with a European headquarters in London (since 2012), and is generously backed by multiple investors, most notably Goldman Sachs.
BMC FootPrints, BMC Helix Remedyforce, and Pulseway are common alternatives for Spiceworks Help Desk.
Reviewers rate Email support highest, with a score of 8.8.
The most common users of Spiceworks Help Desk are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Reviews and Ratings
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April 26, 2021
Spiceworks Help Desk Review
Spiceworks Help Desk is used to manage our entire IT helpdesk operation. Users across the entire company access it to submit helpdesk tickets, make purchase requests, and check status. The IT department I oversee works the individual ticket items.
- Workflow
- Customization
- Inventory
- Response Management
- Escalation
- The desktop version has been supplanted by the online version (and a local version of that online version), losing a lot of core functionality
- Ticket collision
- Ticketing
- Reporting
- Inventory
- System Alerts
- The Community
- Spiceworks Live Events
91.66666666666666%
9.2
90%
9.0
72.5%
7.3
- At the low price of free, it has had instant ROI over previous helpdesk tracking, even when including the value of labor spent on ticket management
- The live events are always educational and worth the time.
- The community is top notch
- The product reviews are unbiased and fair, as well as coming from real-world users
[Its] simplicity, [the] easy user interface for both technicians and end-users, and stability, plus the ability to locally control data access (we're highly regulated regarding privacy and records rights), puts it in its own class. While it may not do everything larger systems do, it does all of the things our company needs. It performs well even after five years and two migrations in server operating systems, and the reporting tools are available in both simple and complex (SQL-based) formats for deep capabilities.
The community is top-tier, and their use of gamification principles goes beyond other communities to being an honestly fun system. The live events are worth every second spent watching them, and their annual conference is, in my opinion, the best conference of the year.
The community is top-tier, and their use of gamification principles goes beyond other communities to being an honestly fun system. The live events are worth every second spent watching them, and their annual conference is, in my opinion, the best conference of the year.
900
All business functions. The IT Department are the heaviest users, but the helpdesk is accessible to all staff in order to help them process technology support, project, and purchase questions.
5
We have four technical staff and me (the director). Three are helpdesk support specialists, one is a healthcare informatics specialist.
- IT Support
- IT Projects
- IT Purchases
- We track project timelines in it
- Other service departments - HR, Finance, etc. that are service oriented.
Yes
It replaced an old Excel tracking sheet my predecessor used.
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Prior Experience with the Product
Product usability is key - free is great, but if the users can't make use of the helpdesk easily then free has no value.
I would not change my decision at all.
- Implemented in-house
Yes
First phase was IT-use only, replacing the tracking system.
Second phase was taking that data, reviewing it, and setting items like categories and SLAs
Third phase was implementing those items into Spiceworks
Fourth phase was setting up email integration to our helpdesk email
Fifth phase was opening up the web interface
Sixth was launch
Second phase was taking that data, reviewing it, and setting items like categories and SLAs
Third phase was implementing those items into Spiceworks
Fourth phase was setting up email integration to our helpdesk email
Fifth phase was opening up the web interface
Sixth was launch
Change management was a minor issue with the implementation
We had been using a dedicated helpdesk email since before my hire, so staff [was] used to using the email. We added website support, which required notification but not much change management.
- No major issues were encountered.
No, we did not. We had not need of it, and I'm not even sure its available.
No
We had a log and temp file issue crash our database, the team (even though the product is free!) worked incredibly diligently to get us back up and running in a single evening.
- Task and follow-up entry
- Reporting
- Inventory
- Add-ons and plugins (like every system)
Yes
The community and helpdesk are separated, which is smart - we can handle tickets on the go easily, and my team updates in the field frequently.
October 04, 2019
Hey Security Practitioners! Here is the perfect free tool to install for performing a risk analysis on your network!
I use it to scan our entire network infrastructure. I use it primarily as a tool to inform me of our security posture. It identified gaps such as workstations without antivirus installed and even how many workstations running a particular operating system is on our network. This tool is very cost efficient (free to be exact) that a security practitioner can use to perform risk analysis. I highly recommend this for security administrators who have a limited budget but still need an effective tool to help in identifying security vulnerabilities on their network.
- Identify workstations with running various operating systems on your network.
- Identify workstations running various anti-virus programs on your network.
- Identify workstations and servers running low on storage capacity.
- Provide dashboards to easily view the current state of your network.
- Spiceworks uses a lot of system resources and does need room for improvement in this area on Windows systems. Sometimes it can hang and a system reboot will clear up the issue.
- Spiceworks should be able to be installed on non-Windows systems such as Linux, Apple MAC OS, or other flavors of unix. So it should have a Linux install available for servers running this OS.
- Running Spiceworks on a workstation along with other programs is not recommended. I would advise installing it on a dedicated server.
84%
8.4
95%
9.5
62%
6.2
- Considering that we have a limited budget and resources for security tools, Spiceworks has had a positive ROI in our department because we can use it to perform risk analysis on our network without the overhead cost of purchasing a similar tool to perform this function.
- The reporting feature of Spiceworks is great. You can create your own reports based on the criteria you want on your network, such as searching for workstations that run a particular operating system or systems running an outdated antivirus program.
- The real-time monitoring is an important feature. I do not have to initiate a scan of the network after I have setup Spiceworks to scan a subnet. It will automatically scan the network and identify new systems being attached to your network.
I searched for other free network scanners on the web, but they could not compare to what I got with Spiceworks. Other free scanners I found were:
1. Limited in the number of devices it could scan on your network. This would not work for us.
2. Provide a trial period for their scanners. This would not work because we needed something permanent with all the features working.
3. Were difficult to install. You needed a high level of linux/unix experience to get their solution to work.
4. Required a small agent installation on every device you wanted to scan. This was out of the question since we couldn't touch every desktop to install their agent.
1. Limited in the number of devices it could scan on your network. This would not work for us.
2. Provide a trial period for their scanners. This would not work because we needed something permanent with all the features working.
3. Were difficult to install. You needed a high level of linux/unix experience to get their solution to work.
4. Required a small agent installation on every device you wanted to scan. This was out of the question since we couldn't touch every desktop to install their agent.
1
I use it in the information technology department here on my job. I am responsible for cybersecurity at my institution and Spiceworks is a great tool for performing risk analysis on our network. As a security practitioner, we are under staffed and we have a limited budget. Spiceworks is a great complement to the tasks of knowing what is on your network. If you don't know what is on your network, how can you protect it?
1
Currently, I am the only person in my organization who is supporting Spiceworks. I have over 25 years working in information technology, but I believe any computer professional who understands Windows operating systems and software installation could easily use Spiceworks. This tool would easily help any IT shop, large or small. It would especially be usefull for security practitioners who need a tool to perform risk analysis so that they can protect what is on their network.
- Risk Analysis tool
- Cost efficient
- Easy to use
- Easy reporting features
- Easy to install and get up and running.
- I never heard about Spiceworks being used as a security risk analysis tool, but I quickly recognized it and am glad that I did.
- I like the fact that I can create custom reports that I can show my supervisor.
- The fact that the tool is free is a great plus. I know that it has saved our department $$$ because we don't have to pay for a similar product along with subscription fees.
- Spiceworks can identify workstations and servers that are running low on disk drive capacity. We could eventually use it as a means of identifying systems that need to be upgraded.
- We could also use Spiceworks to identify outdated applications which could require an upgrade.
Yes
Before Spiceworks, we had a manual process of performing a security risk analysis. We used an Excel spreadsheet and and had to record what we had on our network. This proved to be next to impossible since we have many subnets and hundreds of computers on our network. We basically didn't know what we had on our network until we installed Spiceworks. Now we are able to make better decisions on what needs to be upgraded in terms of workstation that are obsolete, resulting in a more secure environment.
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
Price was the most important feature, after that would be product usability. We have a limited budget for security tools and we have limited personnel with security experience, so we were tasked to find a free tool with great usability. That was a hard task because you can't find many applications that would fit that bill, but fortunately, Spiceworks did fit that bill and we are glad for it.
Well, if I had to do it all over again, I would make sure that the product I was evaluating could be installed on a dedicated server to test and not on my workstation. Because I enjoyed the functionality of Spiceworks when I initially installed it on my workstation, it was using a lot of my system resources because I use my system for other tasks. I should have installed it the first time to a dedicated server like its on now.
- Implemented in-house
No
Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled
When I initially installed Spiceworks, it was on my personal workstation. After getting used to working with the application, I discovered that it needed to run on a dedicated server instead of my workstation. I was able to coordinate with our server administrator to install Microsoft virtual server with dedicated CPU and RAM resources so that Spiceworks could run successfully. Once the server was setup, I reinstalled Spiceworks and it has worked for us ever since.
- I had to backup my existing Spiceworks installation from my workstation and install it on the dedicated server we setup for it.
- No other issues came up once we ported the installation to the dedicated server.
- Installation is very easy to get the system up and operational within an hour!
- Scanning your network is a breeze with this tool.
- Dashboards are great so you can visually view your network.
- You really should install this on a system dedicated to Spiceworks only, preferably on its own server.
- I would recommend a system running 16GB of RAM or more.
- You may have to tweek the report functions to create the output you want to see.
April 04, 2016
Spiceworks Review
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Spiceworks is being used by our IT department only, currently. We installed it initially to use it to inventory our network. We have recently started using it for service monitoring and various other uses via plugins and add-ons.
- Network device inventorying.
- Locating new devices and rogue devices.
- Inventorying installed software to maintain compliance with guidelines.
- Keeping up with hardware specs for life-cycle management.
- Identifying unusual network traffic.
- Keeping up with server up-time and alerting if a server or cloud service is down.
- Asset location tracking.
- Verifying Warranty information on brand name PCs.
- Their help desk feature, while robust, tends to be a little quirky for end users.
75%
7.5
85%
8.5
80%
8.0
- Most parts of Spiceworks are Free, so how can one complain about that!
Footprints, Zendesk, and TrackIt.
IT, Administration, Inventory, Security, Helpdesk, Technicians
4
Sys Admins, dba's, repoting, techs
- Device Inventory management
- Rogue Device detection
- Network Mapping
- Identification of Applications on Workstations.
- Workstation hardware specifications analysis.
- Lifecycle management of Workstations
- Looking into the helpdesk features which appear quite robust.
- Internal FAQ and Knowledgebase.
No
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Third-party Reviews
Trial use of the product.
Would not change this process
- Implemented in-house
No
Change management was minimal
N/A
- The fact that it cannot use Microsoft SQL for its db, but instead it self-install it own little SQL lite.
- This makes it difficult for us to use with our primary reporting server/service.
No
It is vendor and ad supported for most options.
No
Setup
- Overall the product is simple to set up and get up and running in a minimal amount of time.
- I wish Spiceworks would support installation on Microsoft SQL as opposed to forcing the use of its built in SQL-lite which makes reporting outside of the UI difficult at best.
June 06, 2014
Spiceworks, Where IT goes to work
The IT department uses Spiceworks as our ticketing software for internal support. We were looking for somthing to replace the very bulky ticketing software we had been using.
- But it's created and supported as if it was a very expensive program.
- Web-based. Got a browser? You can get your tickets.
- MUCH. INFORMATION. If you know a little SQL, you can get it to tell you just about anything about your network.
- Community. Adjacent to the program is a flourishing community of, I think at this point, over 5 million users. Reviews, how-tos, vendors, anything you could need in a forum, plus a plate of bacon.
- Access to devs. Not only is their support great, but through the community, you can get some access to the developers. I'm currently bugging them over some feature requests. :)
- Plug-ins. There are a few features, like nesting sub categories when creating a ticket that you would expect to be standard, but are only supported by plugins. It's not fun when you depend on a feature you get from a plugin, and the creator stops working on it.
- SQLite isn't my favorite thing in the world, but it's what I have to fight to write custom reports.
- It takes a lot less time to open tickets
- Track-it and Service Center
Spiceworks does so much more than any of the ticketing systems I've used. The inventory feature is so helpful.
- Implemented in-house
No
Change management was minimal
- Learning how to get a third-party plugin to play right.
Yes
Yes. I reported an issue I had in a non-official venue on the forum. Within a few hours, a member of the support team had reached out to me for more information, which I got to him. He recognized it as a bug, gave me a workaround until it was fixed, and the same time, helped me find a work around for another issue that came up due to using an older version.
Every time I have contacted support (which has not been often), I have gotten wonderful support. Quick response times, coherent and detailed explanations, and they stick it it out until you're happy.
- Creating/working with tickets
- Inventory
- Reporting
- Everything
- writing custom reports in SQLite
Yes
Very well. They have done so much more with the recent updates to the mobile apps.
We use Spiceworks within the company as an asset management/discovery tool for all of our networking and computing equipment. It's the primary inventory for our desktop and mobile PCs and tablets and software licenses. It automatically discovers and inventories anything attached to your network, and you can also add in other devices to the database as well. It has a very robust help desk built in, and it has tools to put its users directly in touch with vendors and re-sellers for quotes on hardware, software, and services. The community forums are an invaluable resource because it puts IT professionals in touch with each other to share advice, support, software and hardware reviews, and user generated scripts and plugins, etc. The software itself is invaluable, and the community is second to none when it comes to getting real answers from real IT professionals.
With Spiceworks, I can solve computer problems from start to finish. For example, a user submits a ticket to Spiceworks Help Desk, then I use Spiceworks Inventory to compare his computer to similar machines and to see what software is installed that could be causing problems, I can go to the Spiceworks Community forums to get advice on how to solve the problem or to read product reviews, and then I can even get quotes from vendors for the replacement parts or new software, all without having to leave Spiceworks.
With Spiceworks, I can solve computer problems from start to finish. For example, a user submits a ticket to Spiceworks Help Desk, then I use Spiceworks Inventory to compare his computer to similar machines and to see what software is installed that could be causing problems, I can go to the Spiceworks Community forums to get advice on how to solve the problem or to read product reviews, and then I can even get quotes from vendors for the replacement parts or new software, all without having to leave Spiceworks.
- Help desk software is easy to set up and manage and has a user portal with room for a FAQ or self-support as well as a robust ticketing system.
- Network inventory discovery in Spiceworks is better than many expensive solutions that I've used, and it's completely free.
- I get quick answers to complicated questions in the community forums. Many IT Superheroes are more than happy to help you out with technical problems or offer up advice.
- With Spiceworks, I can solve computer problems from start to finish. For example, a user submits a ticket to Spiceworks Help Desk, then I use Spiceworks Inventory to compare his computer to similar machines and to see what software is installed that could be causing problems, I can go to the Spiceworks Community forums to get advice on how to solve the problem or to read product reviews, and then I can even get quotes from vendors for the replacement parts or new software, all without having to leave Spiceworks.
- There has been talk of adding a Wiki feature to SpiceWorks, which I think would be a great addition.
- Only runs on Windows. It will automatically discover and inventory any OS, but the software itself must be hosted on Windows.
- FREE, so the only investment was the time it takes to install and configure, which can be done in an afternoon.
- Spiceworks Help Desk has greatly reduced the time it takes to address and solve users' problems, and to keep a record of all help desk activities.
- Network/PC/Hardware/Software Inventory used to be very time consuming and was often inaccurate. Spiceworks does inventory for you, so it's always accurate and up-to-date.
- Spiceworks will notify me when one of my network resources stops responding to pings, which allows me to quickly address problems before they can have a negative impact on our business.
- Sysaid,Mediawiki,Liferay,nmap
I selected Spiceworks because it replaces a lot of different software packages. By combining inventory, help desk, purchasing, and support forums, I can solve just about any problems with IT infrastructure in my organization from start to finish with tools in Spiceworks. Plus, it's free, so there is really no contest, Spiceworks wins hands-down.
2
IT Department of two, both of us use Spiceworks on a daily basis. Every user in the organization can access the help desk, either through email or through the Spiceworks user portal.
2
I think anyone who has intermediate computer skills would have no problem installing and supporting Spiceworks.
- Help Desk
- Inventory Management
- Knowledge Base
- Community support forums
- Offline device notifcation
- In addition to hardware and software inventory, I've used Spiceworks to keep track of contact information for vendors, service providers, utility contractors, etc.
- The community has grown at an unexpected rate, and keeps getting better every day.
- More reliance on the help desk for ticketing. Right now users initiate support through telephone, email, walk-in, etc. so many times a support ticket is never created. If our company keeps growing, we'll be relying much more heavily on the help desk than we are now.
- Help desk portal can be a great tool for self-support and FAQ before users submit a ticket, but we haven't done much to implement that yet.
- Implemented in-house
No
- After inventory scans, network devices sometimes show up incorrectly or not at all if they're not configured properly.
- Inventory is very easy, and there are great articles about configuring your devices to make sure Spiceworks can accurately scan them.
- The community is one of the most helpful and professional support forums that I've ever been a part of. Many major IT companies are involved in the community, so you can often speak directly to a representative of the company whose product or service you're having trouble with or researching.
- Help desk is much better than the previous (paid) help desk software that we had been using before Spiceworks.
- The only difficulties I've experienced with Spiceworks is related to automatic scans of network devices. Some devices don't show up properly in the inventory. This is usually something that can be fixed by changing settings on that device.
Yes, but I don't use it
Yes
Very smooth, minimal downtime, no work at all on my part. New releases seem to be a little bit slower than their predecessors because of increased system requirements.
Installing an update is as easy as downloading the new executable installer and waiting for it to finish. Everything is pretty much automatic.
Installing an update is as easy as downloading the new executable installer and waiting for it to finish. Everything is pretty much automatic.
- Each upgrade has many bug fixes and improvements.
- More integration with out systems on our network.
- I'd like to see a Wiki implemented, I've heard that this feature may be on the way.
No
No