ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs ServiceNow comparison

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5,984 views|3,082 comparisons
89% willing to recommend
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17,234 views|10,371 comparisons
91% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Jan 4, 2023

We compared ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus and ServiceNow based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Users of ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus say that it is easy to install and set up, and that deployment is easy. In contrast, ServiceNow users provide mixed reviews regarding setup.
  • Features: Valuable features of ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus include its flexibility and user-friendliness. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus users find its reporting tool to be lacking.

    ServiceNow users appreciate many features, including its scalability, service data model, IT business management modules, human resource management, stability, incident management, chain management, and problem management features. Users have mentioned that the reporting feature and the change requests feature need to be improved.
  • Pricing: Users of ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus are divided over how they feel about its cost, while users of ServiceNow say it is expensive. 
  • Service and Support: ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus users are divided over how effective they feel its support team is. Reviewers of ServiceNow feel its support team is knowledgeable and effective. 
  • ROI: Users of both solutions say that they have seen returns on their investment. 

Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, ServiceNow is the preferred product. This is because users cannot agree on whether or not ManageEngine ServiceDesk’s service and support team is effective.

To learn more, read our detailed ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs. ServiceNow Report (Updated: May 2024).
771,170 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Q&A Highlights
Question: What is the biggest difference between ManageEngine ServiceDesk and Service Now?
Answer: If you need a completed ITIL helpdesk system with Asset Management and Project Management without the hassle of having additional plug-in and can be additional costs, you might need to consider Servicedesk Plus. It's been in the marketing for more than 11years, with customers globally.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The solution is interactive and flexible so engineers find it much easier to work with than other tools.""What I found most valuable in ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is its ticketing function plus change management, which helps us monitor all service requests within the team and even extend the requests to level two support.""The solution offers a lot of opportunities for integrations.""It's stable.""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.""I have been impressed by how easy it is to operate and how easy the structure is to manage service tickets. If they request an incident problem train, it's a very strong model. Another strong feature in the tool is the CMDB.""The management of this application is good.""I like the catalog features and workflow. I also like the knowledge space."

More ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus Pros →

"It has more extensive features as compared to the other competitors.""I like that in ServiceNow creating workflows is simpler than that in HP Service Manager. Also, I really like the customization feature. It allows us to customize the service portal and permits us to do a lot of customization per business needs.""I think the technical support is pretty good. They can be a little bit slow sometimes, but overall I think they're good.""It facilitates the monitoring of major incidents and provides insights into the effort expended to resolve each incident.""It is a very promising product. They have a new release every six months. They're investing quite a lot, and you can do many creative things with the product. If you know how it works, you can have stricter rules in the product.""You can scale the solution.""The most recent addition of SAM Premium is a game changer for many organizations.""The solution is easy to use, simple to make queries, flexible to configure, integrates well, and supports all of our companies needs."

More ServiceNow Pros →

Cons
"Improvement is needed in the Software Assets Management functionality.""Currently, I cannot configure more than one point of contact. I have the MSP version, and we have around 80 or 90 customers. I don't see the features where I can configure multiple contact points for a customer so that they're notified when we are having an outreach or when we want to send them a planned maintenance notification. Other things that are lacking are mapping SLAs with vendors and mapping back on the tickets.""I think the user interface needs to be improved and needs to be enhanced to be more supportive to users.""We have experienced issues with tables, sheets and columns not displaying properly. This is temporarily fixed with updates but then reoccurs. The way tickets are displayed is messy.""When I think of improvements the first thing that comes to mind would have to be the active management function. I have encountered some bugs with this aspect of the tool. I wouldn't necessarily identify these issues as bugs, they're more like processes issues associated with the scanning assets; the process could be improved.""I would like to see a clearer distinction between ManageEngine Cloud, ServiceDesk Plus, and ManageEngine Enterprise. That way, choosing the best one is better informed. Initially, I struggled to understand the difference, but I figured it out later.""There are some performance issues. The solution we used before this ran through a centralized server for remote control and it was much more responsive than this one is. There is a bit of a lag with the remote control option.""The solution does not have an automated approach to integration with other ManageEngine products."

More ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus Cons →

"It's moving at a very fast pace. It is difficult for developers or engineers to keep up with it. That's the only issue.""It's too complicated and there are too many options.""The high price is a huge barrier in Portugal.""Their GUI could be updated.""They need to be providing vendors and implementation partners with materials and guidance on implementation.""The reporting, which also includes dashboards, needs to be improved, and there should also be the ability to turn on and off portions of Project Management. Currently, as soon as you install the new version, you've got to go back there and make all the tweaks. There should be just a configuration file that goes to the new version.  The Project Management module does not leverage the knowledge base the way it should, and there is no built-in ability to get to the articles. Resource management should be easier. It would be amazing if they can make resource management a little bit more graphical. There are other solutions that I've seen where resource management was a more visual experience.""This solution needs to be improved for global use. Currently, it's very oriented to the processes and needs of the US customer base, like their compliance solution or GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance), and not so much for customers from other parts of the world. Some users may like the things that ServiceNow is improving, but those are very oriented to users based in the United States and Europe.""It should enhance its offerings by providing the chance to obtain course certifications at an affordable fee."

More ServiceNow Cons →

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 →

  • "The first impact for the customer is that it is expensive, but do not forget that it is a solution that includes infrastructure; a single cost, easy to justify."
  • "It has a higher cost compared to local/regional solutions."
  • "We know that ServiceNow is not cheap, it's more expensive than other solutions. But we are trying to increase our ability to handle tickets so that the cost per ticket is less."
  • "It's sold as a less expensive solution, but it has to be highly modified. That's where you get into the cost."
  • "ServiceNow pricing is an art, not a science. The deal depends on how commercially savvy you are, which does make it something that is quite difficult to get right. It is most definitely an opportunity area for ServiceNow to improve and have more visibility around pricing of the different products within the platform."
  • "ServiceNow is a leader and its pricing is quite good, quite competitive... Sometimes some plugins are not priced reasonably but, generally, the platform itself, its modules, are priced reasonably."
  • "Isn't pricing always too much? We really do chafe at the ITIL licensing. ITOM is also pretty expensive."
  • "Initially, the licensing model ServiceNow came up with was very good. But now, from a licensing perspective, they are changing their model day by day. It is becoming a bit expensive for customers."
  • More ServiceNow Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    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 »
    Top Answer:The short answer is that OutSystems is far better for 2 main reasons. Firstly, with Service Now you are locked into that platform for good. The business model is to lock in and then keep pumping the… more »
    Top Answer:Hi Netanya I will choose ServiceNow because ServiceNow is a very good tool compared to Microsoft PowerApp.  Because ServiceNow has a very strong module (Performance Analysis) reporting which will… more »
    Top Answer:The solution has a user-friendly interface.
    Ranking
    Views
    5,984
    Comparisons
    3,082
    Reviews
    19
    Average Words per Review
    465
    Rating
    7.7
    Views
    17,234
    Comparisons
    10,371
    Reviews
    23
    Average Words per Review
    420
    Rating
    8.4
    Comparisons
    Learn More
    Overview

    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.

    ServiceNow is a cloud-based task-management platform that specializes in IT operations management (ITOM), IT services management (ITSM), and IT business management (ITBM). ServiceNow allows users to manage their teams, projects, and customer interactions using a variety of different plugins and apps with which it easily integrates.

    ServiceNow offers prebuilt applications to support any process, as well as a framework and tools that allow you to build your own.

    ServiceNow’s service management solutions include change, request, incident, problem, and cost management, as well as HR, IT, field service, and facilities management solutions. They also cover business management solutions such as vendor performance management, financial management, performance analytics and project portfolio suite, as well as governance, risk, and compliance.

    “The Smarter Way to Workflow”

    ServiceNow’s activities, processes, and tasks are overseen as part of a comprehensive managed workflow that supports such features as real-time collaboration, communication, and resource sharing. ServiceNow’s suite of products allow for operation using serverless computing, and include the categories of Business Apps, Customer Service, HR, IT, and Security.

    ServiceNow can be used to support most workflows because of the wide range of tools it offers. These include on-suite ticketing tools, predictive modeling to manage workflows, and benchmarking for the tracking of progress. ServiceNow can assist with artificial intelligence and machine learning processes and can be used to organize the cases of a help/service desk as well as for instance management and problem management. It also smoothly integrates with many legacy systems.

    ServiceNow offers service management software for industries including:

    Cloud services
    Education
    Financial services
    Government
    Healthcare
    Manufacturing
    Telecommunications

    Reviews from Real Users

    PeerSpot users prefer ServiceNow to its competitors because of its scalability, stability, and ease of use. It helps everyone in the company to be on the same page by creating a single source of record across all departments. One user stated that “I’ve definitely used over 20 project management solutions, but they can't be compared with ServiceNow.” Another said that “ServiceNow is an industry leader in multiple areas and provides an excellent ROI.

    Sample Customers
    Tranter IT Infrastructure Services Limited, Sterlite Technologies, averda, Radiology Associates
    AAA, AstraZeneca, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Broadcom, Christus Health, Epicor, Equinix, GE Capital, Intuit, KPMG, Loyola Marymount University, OshKosh, Quantas, RedHat, Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss Re, U.S. Department of Energy, Safeway, Yale University, and Zillow    
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Healthcare Company10%
    Reseller10%
    Government8%
    Computer Software Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization54%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Financial Services Firm5%
    Comms Service Provider3%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Healthcare Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization22%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Government7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business42%
    Midsize Enterprise32%
    Large Enterprise27%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise60%
    Large Enterprise25%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise65%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise30%
    Large Enterprise55%
    Buyer's Guide
    ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs. ServiceNow
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs. ServiceNow and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    771,170 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is ranked 4th in IT Service Management (ITSM) with 57 reviews while ServiceNow is ranked 1st in IT Service Management (ITSM) with 212 reviews. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is rated 8.0, while ServiceNow is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus writes " Easy to configure and affordable compared to other software options". On the other hand, the top reviewer of ServiceNow writes "A stable and scalable solution that has excellent features and is useful for collecting data and building KPIs". ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is most compared with JIRA Service Management, Freshservice, BMC Helix ITSM, Zoho Desk and SCSM, whereas ServiceNow is most compared with BMC Helix ITSM, Microsoft Power Apps, Pega BPM, IBM Maximo and BMC Helix Discovery. See our ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs. ServiceNow report.

    See our list of best IT Service Management (ITSM) vendors and best Help Desk Software vendors.

    We monitor all IT Service Management (ITSM) 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.