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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)
    9.3
    93%
  • 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.

7.4
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 9.3.

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

(244)

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

(26-50 of 70)
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Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I looked at a few other options a long time ago and never really found anything that was simple and effective like Spiceworks and that gave me the community of people that are passionate about IT. I had a Kace setup and it never really got off the ground because I needed someone to just figure that part out and never had the time to make it work.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Spiceworks was a better solution for our team since it provided a quick and easy system for managing basic IT support requests. We didn't need something overly complex or customer facing, just something to better manage our internal needs. Because of this, something simpler and lower cost was a better solution for our needs.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The main commercial alternative product evaluated was Zendesk, which was not selected because of the price. The second alternative researched was the osTicket, which was not selected as it was complicated to configure. With hindsight, I would suggest using osTicket instead of Spiceworks, as Spiceworks' use of SQLite as a database instead of MySQL created multiple issues. Currently, our organization is looking into a solution called incident IQ, which is specifically targeted at K-12 organizations. During the Spiceworks selection, our understanding of our requirements for the ticketing system was limited. Spiceworks allowed us to train our personnel in use of the ticketing system for free as well as to better understand our needs. It is perfect for this purpose.
Valery Mezentsau | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Based on pervious experience with different solutions we were reviewing BMC Track-It, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus and a few less common solutions. We were comparing needed functionality vs deployment process vs price.
Spiceworks won based on two of three points.
Andrew Shannon | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Spiceworks was the best solution by far, and it was also free, so it was impossible to beat. Also the community of IT pros using Spiceworks is huge and makes it even more of a clear winner. When it comes to help desk and inventory software, there was not really any competition when comparing to Spiceworks.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I was not directly involved in the evaluation but I know that cost (free) was a large driver in the choice of Spiceworks. I have used WebHelpDesk which at that time was somewhat Mac-centric and as an Apple Administrator that feature was appreciated.
Andrew Murphy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I've used a specialized home based Notes database system prior to Spiceworks. That system was a kludge and outgrew what it originally was supposed to be. We had to make things work in it. Spiceworks is a generic system that while basic allows you to track your issues. It's a good system to use for a small shop.
Kenneth Hess | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We didn't evaluate any other inventory management software since I knew about Spiceworks Inventory before I came to this position. I had no need to evaluate any competing product. Spiceworks Inventory, in my opinion, fills a void in this market, which is why it has been so successful. Inventory software is either very expensive or very "dumb" in that you have to enter your assets manually.
December 11, 2018

Spiceworks is worth it!

Laurance J. Specht | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Formstack was used prior to my start and it was not effective. Spiceworks has been the only product I have used in the last 3 years. It is cost effective, easy to set up and is loaded with features for the price (free). The inventory feature allows you to build device and user history that helps support management. Can't beat it for the price for a small organization.
Michael Timms | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Out of the software that I have listed above, Spiceworks was selected over the others solely based on price. That does not mean that Spiceworks is less effective, it is just that the others have different features, but you pay for those features. Purely as asset management, Spiceworks is excellent, and it suits my needs.
Phillip Barrios | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Spiceworks was much simpler to install/implement. OpenNMS caused me several issues as I made it through the install, and then the finished product was not very impressive. I feel like I could have benefited from a more guided installation process, as there was some guessing on my part, which I suspect led to the less than satisfying end-result.
Louis F. DeWeaver III, M.S.I.S. | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
When considering Ipswitch’s WhatsUp Gold vs. Spiceworks it is important to start off by listing the features that are important to maintaining optimum network performance for your business. Clearly both are capable of monitoring networks. I am happy with Spiceworks. It meets all the features I need and it even has additional ones I don't. For the support you get from the forums and for the cost (free) I don't think you can beat the system and the advertising is not as intrusive as I thought it would be and that was my main issue when I first installed it. WhatsUp Gold, on the other hand, was replaced by Spiceworks because of the training that is needed to use WhatsUp Gold to its full potential and if we wanted to use the network inventory feature we would have to pay extra.
William Baker II | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
ChangeGear is a full blown IT management system and does lots of things very well, but the beauty of Spiceworks is that its not as complicated to use as ChangeGear. (I only used both systems for 6 months as basically Help Desk Tech, so I didn't use the system for more than that.)
August 19, 2015

Spicetabulous

Demitri Pevzner | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
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