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Spiceworks Help Desk

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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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Spiceworks Help Desk has proven to be a versatile and valuable tool for various organizations. Users have utilized this software to …
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Best free product available

8 out of 10
July 01, 2022
Primarily network discovery, inventory and help desk. We used the alerts system regularly until we replaced that functionality with a true …
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Great Free Help Desk

8 out of 10
April 26, 2021
Incentivized
We use Spiceworks Help Desk for internal tickets. Most of our users submit support requests through email and Spiceworks picks them up and …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 13 features
  • Ticket creation and submission (53)
    9.2
    92%
  • Ticket response (52)
    8.9
    89%
  • External knowledge base (47)
    8.8
    88%
  • Organize and prioritize service tickets (53)
    7.5
    75%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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All Tiers

Free

Cloud

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

Spiceworks Help Desk Demo

YouTube
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Features

Incident and problem management

Streamlining ticketing and service restoration processes

7.5
Avg 7.9

Self Help Community

Features that allow customers to self-service for support issues.

7.3
Avg 7.7

Multi-Channel Help

Features related to providing customer service and support via different communication channels. Communications are organized by ticket/customer/channel for the convenience of agents.

5.2
Avg 7.7
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Product Details

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

Spiceworks Help Desk Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

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 Ticket creation and submission highest, with a score of 9.2.

The most common users of Spiceworks Help Desk are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(246)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Spiceworks Help Desk has proven to be a versatile and valuable tool for various organizations. Users have utilized this software to efficiently manage their IT support requests, providing a solid interface and quick communication with both users and the IT team. The built-in help desk facilitates smooth communication with vendors and resellers for quotes on hardware, software, and services, making it a convenient one-stop solution. Additionally, Spiceworks Help Desk serves as an asset management discovery tool for networking and computing equipment, offering a primary inventory for desktops, mobile PCs, tablets, and software licenses. With its scanning capabilities, it can even identify security vulnerabilities in the network infrastructure.

The community forums within Spiceworks Help Desk provide a valuable resource for IT professionals to share advice, support, reviews of software and hardware, and user-generated scripts and plugins. Users have reported solving computer problems from start to finish by utilizing features such as inventory comparison, advice from the community forums, and vendor quotes within the platform. The software also allows for analytics on types of requests, time to resolution, and request volume, enabling users to track trends and optimize their support processes.

Spiceworks Inventory is another essential component of the Spiceworks suite that enables users to discover and inventory network-connected devices like iLO, Windows, Linux, Macs, printers, routers, switches, etc. It provides detailed device information such as make, model, warranty info, RAM, CPU, disk space, hardware components, and applications. This feature allows for effective system management within the organization.

Overall, Spiceworks Help Desk has been praised for its ease of use during setup and its clean interface. It offers incredible monitoring features along with a variety of customization options that cater to individual needs. With its wide range of functionalities encompassing help desk management, inventory tracking, security monitoring, and knowledge base centricity - all backed by excellent customer support - it has become a go-to solution for IT professionals across industries.

Intuitive and User-Friendly Interface: Users have consistently praised the intuitive and user-friendly interface of Spiceworks Help Desk. Many reviewers have stated that the clean and efficient design of the ticketing system makes it easy to navigate and manage support requests. This user-friendly interface contributes to a smooth and seamless task completion, enhancing the overall user experience.

Convenient User Portal: The user portal in Spiceworks Help Desk provides a convenient landing page for end users to create and update tickets. Numerous users have expressed appreciation for the accessibility factor, as the user portal can be accessed via a browser without requiring specialized software. This accessibility adds to the usability and convenience of Spiceworks Help Desk, allowing anyone to submit help requests easily.

Customization Options: The ability to customize workflows, inventory management, and response management in Spiceworks Help Desk has been highly valued by users. Many reviewers have mentioned how they appreciate the flexibility provided by this software, as it allows them to tailor it according to their specific business needs. The customizable aspects contribute to its adaptability and usefulness for different organizations.

Loss of desktop functionality: Several users have reported that the replacement of the desktop version of Spiceworks with the online version has resulted in a loss of core functionality.

Limitations in cloud email integration: Some users have expressed dissatisfaction with the cloud version of Spiceworks, specifically regarding its limitations when receiving emails from specially made applications. This limitation negatively impacts the overall user experience.

Resource-intensive and occasional hanging: Users have experienced issues with Spiceworks using a significant amount of system resources, particularly on Windows systems. Additionally, some users have mentioned that they encounter occasional hangs or freezes while using the software, although a system reboot usually resolves this problem.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-4 of 4)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Joe Foran | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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
It's a great helpdesk solution - we currently have five years of data within it, roughly 25,000 tickets. The older edition is a great inventory and software license tracking tool. It is easy for users to use the interface and submit tickets and requests on the web, and its email integration is solid. The new version is a below-average system monitoring tool, only giving up/down status and a few other metrics.
  • Ticketing
  • Reporting
  • Inventory
  • System Alerts
  • The Community
  • Spiceworks Live Events
Incident and problem management (6)
91.66666666666666%
9.2
Organize and prioritize service tickets
90%
9.0
Expert directory
70%
7.0
Subscription-based notifications
90%
9.0
ITSM collaboration and documentation
100%
10.0
Ticket creation and submission
100%
10.0
Ticket response
100%
10.0
Self Help Community (1)
90%
9.0
Internal knowledge base
90%
9.0
Multi-Channel Help (4)
72.5%
7.3
Customer portal
70%
7.0
Social integration
50%
5.0
Email support
100%
10.0
Help Desk CRM integration
70%
7.0
  • 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
  • Jira Service Management (Jira Service Desk), SysAid and Dragon RMM (ITarian / Comodo ONE)
[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.
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.
We have been using it for five years. I myself have used it for sixteen years (since 1.0), and I find it to be the ideal helpdesk in terms of simplicity and directness of the work entered versus the reports and data that you can extract. It is easy for the end-users to email or use[s] the web interface, and my techs are able to quickly assess, prioritize, and take action based on the simple interfaces. The knowledge base lets our staff self-solve their most common issues, and the integration with rules allows us to provide self-service recommendations based on keywords that a user may type (such as the world password, the word forgot, or the word log-in triggering account reset article access).+
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
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.
It's a simple, single-server implementation. Communication, like in most projects, remains the most important piece.
I have never not had a good experience with their support team - they are professional AND personable, and they go above and beyond in trying to help customers.
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.
It is logically organized, flows well from one task to the next, and enables users to get up and running in no time. I have trained five people in my career, and never took more than an hour each.
  • 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.
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.
Well Suited: Free solution with many many uses that is supported by many major vendors.
Needs some work: Knowledge base needs to be more easily customizeable for internal systems only.
Incident and problem management (6)
75%
7.5
Organize and prioritize service tickets
90%
9.0
Expert directory
70%
7.0
Subscription-based notifications
70%
7.0
ITSM collaboration and documentation
70%
7.0
Ticket creation and submission
70%
7.0
Ticket response
80%
8.0
Self Help Community (2)
85%
8.5
External knowledge base
100%
10.0
Internal knowledge base
70%
7.0
Multi-Channel Help (5)
80%
8.0
Customer portal
80%
8.0
IVR
70%
7.0
Social integration
80%
8.0
Email support
90%
9.0
Help Desk CRM integration
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.
It is a very versatile and useful product that continue to get better.
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.
The fact that it cannot use Microsoft SQL for its db, but instead it self-installs it own little SQL lite. This makes it difficult for us to use it with our primary reporting server/service.
No
It is vendor and ad supported for most options.
Never had a question or issue go unresolved or unaddressed.
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.
It requires a bit of exploration and playing, but once learned it is quite robust.
August 19, 2015

Spicetabulous

Demitri Pevzner | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Within our organization, Spiceworks is being implemented as a ticketing and inventory solution for the helpdesk team. It has been instrumental in providing my team with the tools required to quantify our achievements, simplify our job, and give us a level of transparency that our branch managers appreciate. The ability to generate monthly and quarterly reports and show our productivity levels is definitely a tremendous asset, in addition to having the ability to quantify our daily/weekly workload.
  • Allows my team to quantify their daily workload and predict heightened workload based on trends.
  • Allows me to provide my employer with solid tangible data when it comes to proposals, or requests for additional budget/head count.
  • Provides a simpler means to inventory our hardware.
  • Better ticketing views. I would like to see nested ticket attributes and categories.
  • SpiceWorks as a non web-based app would be nice to have.
  • More bandwidth, network, and hardware monitoring features would be a big plus.
I would say Spiceworks is a well rounded Swiss army knife, that comes with a pre-built knowledge database, and a community of like-minded IT professionals. This is truly a priceless asset, as I am able to get live feedback from real professionals. Having a group of experts offer advice on your infrastructure issues is great, but having it part of your one stop shop for helpdesk needs is overly convenient.
  • Faster helpdesk turn-around.
  • More efficient inventory management.
  • Transparency.
At first I was drawn to the fact that this was a free tool, but in time I began exploring functions that I had not originally considered useful or critical. Coming for a diverse background, I have used a number of ticketing tools, but Spiceworks covers all your basics well, as well as providing the end user with plug ins to expand it's functionality to an impressive extent.
5
Company's product and support team.
2
STandard IT and networking.
  • cost
  • functionality
  • ease of use
  • report function
  • predicting demand trends
  • network diagnostic
  • hardware diagnostic
At this point I see no need to obtain a more costly alternative, as Spiceworks gives me everything I currently need.
No
Excellent service, knowledgeable staff.
No
Originally when I had questions when selecting a ticketing system. Spiceworks was shown as a great tool in both function, and implementation.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Spiceworks is great for tracking helpdesk requests from start to finish.
  • Inventory (tracking networked and other assets) suffices for SMB / SME but gets unwieldy in larger environments.
  • SMB / SME provider community is very helpful.
  • The search function does not support boolean logic and is a bit lacking.
  • Knowledge base needs work in search and sharing.
  • Saving several thousand dollars per year and accomplishing the same.
It's free and does the job. We use Google Docs and Evernote as knowledge base replacements.
Spiceworks is a portfolio company.
60
Two helpdesk personnel and the rest for ticket submission and tracking.
1
Helpdesk personnel
  • IT Helpdesk
Helpstar
Track-It
  • Implemented in-house
  • Self-taught
Easy, but the on-line videos are helpful from a how-to-use perspective.
No
N/A
The community support is strong but can be slow, like all communities, on difficult items.
Two points off for Search and Knowledge Base.
System has run without issue for a year. Upgrades are quick and easy,
  • All SNMP enabled devices.
  • Windows servers and workstations.
High-level integration and easy to accomplish.
N/A
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