Freshdesk vs ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus comparison

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3,291 views|1,982 comparisons
93% willing to recommend
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7,101 views|3,631 comparisons
89% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Freshdesk and ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Help Desk Software solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Freshdesk vs. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus Report (Updated: May 2024).
772,567 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"It is quite easy to program custom apps and integrate them.""Its simplicity is most valuable. It is easy and simple, and it requires negligible training effort. I don't spend all my time goofing around trying to find stuff in the ticketing system.""Freshdesk has allowed us to measure and track the response and resolution time of tickets which has been reduced from seven to eight hours down to 30 minutes to one hour.""Technical support is outstanding.""I like that it's very user-friendly. The way they designed this application, any layperson can just do some drag and drop actions and use it. It's not that difficult. It's also easy to implement. The most important thing is, you don't need to go to this application to create a ticket. You just send out an email, and the ticket is created automatically. I have never seen a feature like this before.""It's free of charge for us. For our scale of business, it's very important. We don't have a lot of tickets.""Freshdesk significantly improved our customer issue resolution process. We can now easily record and track all customer requests, ensuring that no tickets are lost.""There is the option to create different roles for specific users. We make use of groups for each customer service team which has been very effective. We are able to apply different sets of rules for each group which determines how they interact with customers and escalate issues."

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"Service Catalog and Project Management are awesome features. Customers love them because they are easy to use and simple to install.""The ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus SaaS model helped us because it was easy on our pockets but also easy to use, configure, and manage.""Easy to setup with a user-friendly interface that works well on cloud. It has a lot of important features: workflow builder, configuration management database, and recorded solutions.""CMDB as a baseline, incident management, service request management, and license management are valuable features. It offers really interesting features for complete use in an enterprise. You have one platform, and you could set up different service functions for HR, engineering, or another team in the same platform.""The strength is its pricing. It is easy to use.""There are a lot of great templates that you can take advantage of.""ServiceDesk Plus manages all our requests, both internal and external requests, for not only ticketing but users' requests.""We not only handle tickets, but also requests from many departments. All are easy to manage."

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Cons
"It would be helpful to pull reports or schedule them based on agents, users, ticket numbers, or responses.""While it's good for a small number of tickets, definitely in the future, we will require something more powerful.""I would like to be able to change the subject in emails for ourselves. If we could have the option to do that, it would improve our speed and the overall cleanliness of the CRM.""Having so many tags makes everyday work a lot more complicated, and a lot more time-consuming.""The reporting, analysis modules and insights capabilities for this solution could be improved.""I would like to see improvements in the account management aspect, having a customer portal for better visibility into my subscription, invoices, and trouble tickets.""If Freshdesk had forms in it so that I could go to the portal and fill out a service request, that would improve it immensely and make it more valuable for enterprise customers, but that's not a current functionality. You can't have a certain catalog of any type. You can't be like, "Hey, I want to just go submit a ticket," and then type in. You can't prompt them to ask anything. It is just a blank form.""I would like to see a little bit more color in the solution."

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"For ITIL functions, it should be more complex, including financial functions. We are expecting it to be easier for customization within workflows and templates.""There is room for improvement in the automation. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus should take note of repeated incidents and automatically offer solutions to them.""I'd like to understand more technical features due to the fact that I want to teach globally. I understand all the questions in the search engine. I want to find more technical information about the product.""Compared to other ITSM tools, ServiceDesk will have to step up their knowledge base tools. If they could make it open enough to be integrated with other applications or other systems it would be very useful.""The self-service feature for end users and the knowledge base need to be improved.""The solution has all the features, but it is not clear. The UI and UX need to be improved because it is not easy to configure on the go.""As a partner, their technical support can respond better to the tickets. We provide deployment services and also support products as a partner. We get a lot of tickets from clients complaining about certain issues related to the system, but when we send or escalate an issue to the agent, sometimes, there is a delay. That's something that they could improve on. Because we are a local partner, we are able to copy to some employees who can try to push a ticket to close, but it would be best if they can respond a bit quicker.""Its reporting could be improved. The current list of predefined reports seems to be fine for most of the customers, but there should be some tools to allow us to create highly customized reports for measuring different KPIs. We should also be able to connect some kind of BI to it. We haven't yet implemented it, and we are currently evaluating it. We are looking for advanced integration options where we could integrate it with our SCCM and Azure environments as well as with other Office solutions. For direct communication with customers, we are looking for a chatbot or a similar feature."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It was definitely not expensive. It was two grand or maybe three grand total for a year. It has just straight and simple standard licensing fees. There is no additional fee."
  • "The price could be better, but it's okay. Compared to ServiceNow and JIRA, Freshworks offers a competitive price. There are also additional licensing costs because you need Microsoft Outlook. Each new email account costs around $15 to $19."
  • "The best system plan is enterprise. It costs basically 79 Euros per agent per month when it's billed annually and 95 Euros per agent per month when it's billed monthly."
  • "We use a licensing model only so we pay for the number of agents we have configured in the system only."
  • "Freshdesk was the best solution with the best price. It was cost efficient and included all the features that we needed."
  • "We use a combination of Freshdesk, Freshservice, and Freshchat. We use the whole suite. Weirdly enough, we pay more for Freshdesk than we do for Freshservice. I would rate it a three out of five in terms of pricing. You can get different bundles, and you can always move to different plans that are standard. Freshservice can go anywhere from $19 up to $120 per agent, per month. There is such a wide range, and it is very customizable to your needs."
  • "It is costly."
  • "The pricing is pretty manageable and acceptable."
  • More Freshdesk Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The prices are attractive. Customer can use a subscription if they do not have enough budget."
  • "The cost of licensing is approximately ten dollars per suite, per month. When scaling up, there are a lot of other expenses such as infrastructure, the telecommunication companies, etc."
  • "For our 500 assets that are using the professional version of the solution, we pay somewhere between $4,000 and $5,000 per year."
  • "The only issue for us is the pricing, which is quite high in comparison with the competition."
  • "Its price is very lucrative. It would be great if the price can come down, but overall, its price is great. It is half or maybe one-third of the price of other market leaders."
  • "For 90 service agents and our need for a cloud solution with incident management and service request management, it annually costs around 12,000. If you need additional development or deployment support from the vendor, there might be an additional cost."
  • "We use the cloud model, which is subscription-based, and each year, the subscription fees seem to go up, making it a more expensive solution."
  • "It is cheaper than the competitors."
  • More ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Freshdesk significantly improved our customer issue resolution process. We can now easily record and track all customer requests, ensuring that no tickets are lost.
    Top Answer:I would like to see improvements in the account management aspect, having a customer portal for better visibility into my subscription, invoices, and trouble tickets. Additionally, more flexibility in… more »
    Top Answer:I use Freshdesk to manage IT support tickets for our team of 15 IT professionals across multiple countries. It has been effective in ticket management, and we find the price-to-functionality ratio… more »
    Top Answer:The platform's most beneficial features are incident management, change management, request management, and asset management.
    Top Answer:The product's asset management tool needs improvement. It operates on an agentless system, relying on the patch management tool for agents. It is time-consuming as users must run a script and log in… more »
    Ranking
    9th
    out of 59 in Help Desk Software
    Views
    3,291
    Comparisons
    1,982
    Reviews
    9
    Average Words per Review
    667
    Rating
    8.1
    4th
    out of 59 in Help Desk Software
    Views
    7,101
    Comparisons
    3,631
    Reviews
    19
    Average Words per Review
    465
    Rating
    7.7
    Comparisons
    Learn More
    Overview

    Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer support solution that provides organizations with the features necessary to effectively streamline their support processes. This includes powerful multichannel capability, integrated game mechanics, smart automations, and more.

    The solution is designed to automate agent workflows and resolve routine questions using AI and bots. Freshdesk allows managers to prioritize, categorize, and assign tickets to their agents, making it easy for them to collaborate and quickly respond to customers. 

    Freshdesk Features and Benefits

    Some of the solution's top features and benefits include:

    • Simplified ticketing: With Freshdesk, you can easily prioritize, manage, and assign trackable tickets. The management system ensures that multiple agents don’t work on the same ticket by accident. You can easily set deadlines for ticket resolution based on specific categories and create custom statuses that suit your workflow to identify what stage a ticket is in.
    • Automation: Automatically assign tickets to agents and groups based on keywords and requests and set up automated repeated actions and provide quick, consistent responses to common questions using pre-formatted replies. In addition, you can choose to prevent the reopening of tickets when customers reply with a thank you.
    • Improved collaboration: Share tickets with other teams while retaining full visibility into the progress being made on the issue. Related tickets can be linked together to better keep track of the big picture. Tickets can also be split into smaller child tickets and assigned to multiple agents to help resolve complex, multi-stage issues.
    • Build up your knowledge base: Create effective support documentation by enabling agents to convert their ticket replies into knowledge base articles, while they reply.
    • Metrics and reporting: See how different agents and groups are performing by viewing various help desk metrics and improve performance by identifying problems based on insights.

      With Freshdesk’s reporting tools, you can schedule the periodic delivery of out-of-the-box and custom reports to your inbox. The solution’s customer satisfaction reports provide you with feedback on how your customers rate your support.
    • Forum moderation: Set up moderation workflows to ensure that forum posts that violate your guidelines are not immediately published. Critical issues raised in the community are automatically converted into tickets to ensure they get the required response.

    • Integration: Freshdesk’s open API can be used to integrate the solution with multiple  third-party systems. 
    • Comprehensive security: Freshdesk’s security features allow you to:

      • Set custom access permissions for agents.
      • Perform comprehensive audits of networks and systems.
      • Secure your own support domain or vanity URL with custom SSL certificates.
      • Whitelist IP ranges and restrict login access outside of work, or link IP whitelisting to a VPN.
      • Set up SSO scripts for credential authentication.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Freshdesk stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its effective ticketing system and its intuitive interface.

    Deepak B., an application manager, writes, “Freshdesk has allowed us to measure and track the response and resolution time of tickets which has been reduced from seven to eight hours down to 30 minutes to one hour. This information is valuable for board meetings.”

    ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus (MSP) is a comprehensive help desk tool that has built-in asset and project management. MSP can be deployed in the cloud or on premises. The solution enables its users to track configuration changes, map relationships, and view graphical displays of data for more informed decision making. 

    The two main focus points of MSP are IT request tracking and asset management. MSP’s integrated centralized management console enables technicians and system administrators to efficiently resolve complex issues and keep track of their organization’s needs and ensure constant availability.

    With MSP's automation of multiple service desk processes, you can easily save time by automating repetitive and simple tasks such as task assignment, notifications, and categorizations. The automation of multiple processes helps reduce errors and lower costs while ensuring a fast turnaround of ticket handling processes.

    ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus Features and Benefits

    MSP has a wide variety of features to help you optimize your help desk management:

    • Dynamically update workflows: Create visual change workflows on a drag-and-drop canvas and customize these workflows on demand according to your organization’s needs.
    • Implement your workflow’s actions: Define actions such as notifications, switches, and automatic updates and approvals throughout the lifecycle of your workflow.
    • Flexible role administration: Provide custom viewing, editing, and approval access levels to various stakeholders and users.
    • Perform seamless integrations: Integrate with popular third-party products and access them from your IT help desk console.
    • Rapid troubleshooting: Improve your customer service by communicating with users by launching remote sessions directly from their tickets to quickly resolve their issues.

    • Control end-user workstations: Trigger software installation and removal on remote  workstations from within the management console.
    • Automatic anomaly notification: Resolve issues before they affect your enterprise. Automatically receive notification when a performance anomaly is detected in your servers or applications.
    • Auto-assign tickets: The technician auto-assign tool, which can be set up using a load balancing algorithm, eliminates the need to assign tickets to technicians manually. This helps ensure that tickets are distributed to technicians fairly and on time.
    • Automatic notifications and reports: Set up a notification system to guarantee that the necessary notifications reach stakeholders on time, and that customers are kept updated regarding the status of their tickets. In addition, schedule reports to be sent to users periodically. 
    • Implement your custom code: Program flexible automation enhancements with your own custom scripts and run them directly from the main dashboard.
    • Customize templates: Create custom and user-friendly templates using the solution’s simple drag-and-drop canvas. 

    Reviews from Real Users

    MSP stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its comprehensive workflow management toolset and the flexibility it offers its users.

    Mykola S., head of global IT delivery at Acino Pharma AG, writes, “CMDB as a baseline, incident management, service request management, and license management are valuable features. It offers really interesting features for complete use in an enterprise. You have one platform, and you could set up different service functions for HR, engineering, or another team in the same platform.

    Sample Customers
    Honda, 3M, Hugo Boss, Petronas, Sony Pictures, The Atlantic, goodreads, Clear Channel Radio, Penn University of Pennsylvania, unicef, Kuoni, Movember
    Tranter IT Infrastructure Services Limited, Sterlite Technologies, averda, Radiology Associates
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company21%
    Retailer21%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Comms Service Provider11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company23%
    Media Company6%
    Retailer6%
    Real Estate/Law Firm6%
    REVIEWERS
    Healthcare Company10%
    Reseller10%
    Government8%
    Computer Software Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization55%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Financial Services Firm5%
    Comms Service Provider3%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business59%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise28%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business28%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise56%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business42%
    Midsize Enterprise32%
    Large Enterprise27%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise61%
    Large Enterprise25%
    Buyer's Guide
    Freshdesk vs. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Freshdesk vs. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    772,567 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Freshdesk is ranked 9th in Help Desk Software with 27 reviews while ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is ranked 4th in Help Desk Software with 57 reviews. Freshdesk is rated 8.4, while ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Freshdesk writes "Incredibly user-friendly, flexible, and affordable". On the other hand, the top reviewer of ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus writes " Easy to configure and affordable compared to other software options". Freshdesk is most compared with JIRA Service Management, ServiceNow, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Spiceworks and Zoho Desk, whereas ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is most compared with ServiceNow, JIRA Service Management, Freshservice, BMC Helix ITSM and OpenText Service Management Automation X (SMAX). See our Freshdesk vs. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus report.

    See our list of best Help Desk Software vendors.

    We monitor all Help Desk Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.