Freshservice vs ServiceNow vs Zendesk comparison

Cancel
You must select at least 2 products to compare!
Freshworks Logo
2,239 views|1,601 comparisons
96% willing to recommend
ServiceNow Logo
18,901 views|11,428 comparisons
91% willing to recommend
Zendesk Logo
3,124 views|2,028 comparisons
93% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Freshservice, ServiceNow, and Zendesk based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, Atlassian, BMC and others in Help Desk Software.
To learn more, read our detailed Help Desk Software Report (Updated: April 2024).
769,479 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
"The solution has been very helpful engineering insights into the client's environment. We have been able to manage calls and incidence very efficiently which provides us with a clear understanding of the system warranty and the actions that we might need to take in terms of insights. The system is very dynamic and prevents any kind of over sides which is yours that there is smooth contract management. Also we can easily uphold SLAs and deliver enhanced services without breaching any agreements.""We found the initial setup to be very simple.""You can just register and within five to minute minutes, you are ready to go.""We really like the Freshchat widget that allows people to engage with our FAQs on any kind of webpage or web property.""The overall functionality of the product is excellent.""It allowed the development team to concentrate on the client’s requirements instead.""Its ease of use is fantastic. It is just above and beyond, especially when you compare it to something like Cherwell, Salesforce, or anything like that. It is on its own level. It is so easy to administer. The way everything is organized and the way it builds its own documentation is very good.""We find its ability to track what's going on with each request very valuable. We are also able to merge ticket requests and assign them to different groups in the company. We have another department that uses the same system."

More Freshservice Pros →

"Easy to integrate with third-party applications.""Creating a ticket is much simpler in this tool. That is one big advantage. Also, the simplicity and ease of use are much better. I've used HPSM and it is very complex in comparison to ServiceNow.""The workflow makes things extremely efficient and it improves effectiveness.""ServiceNow is a cloud-based platform, so people won't need to worry about investing on hardware to host it. Being on the cloud, it is available 24x7. It's scalable, stable, and multifeatured, with a straightforward setup and good technical support.""The most valuable feature is the flexibility of development for customization.""The most valuable aspect of the solution is the possibility of the application development cap so that we can digitize workflows.""In financial management, this platform has the infrastructure allowing us to expand the way we want to. For example, it gives you many business rules and budget models that you can use to optimize your workflow. It does not put you in a box. Additionally, integrating this solution with other platforms is extremely easy to do.""In the Service Portal, the widget concept - and the way we have developed our widget - is pretty simple. We can leverage a lot on top of it."

More ServiceNow Pros →

"The feature to move over my customer experience team tickets for different specialists is very valuable for my team.""One of the most valuable features is the ease of use. If you take the standalone product, it is so easy to use, but if you want a tailor-made Zendesk Guide, you can't do it yourself. However, you can use a template that already exists—they have a lot, and they're very cheap, around 300-400 euros—and use it on all your brands. It's a very easy product to use.""It's a very stable tool, very powerful.""It is very easy to connect back and forth between the requester and the person fulfilling the ticket.""It has good management, the ability to sign tickets based on content, the multi-channel support, the self service portal, the integration with Salesforce, the setup process, and the product features as we are currently using them.""One of the most valuable features is that Zendesk gives you a lot of configurability, and a lot of leeway in terms of customizing the look and theme. Zendesk offers you the facility to design your own landing page, as well as the look and feel of the entire knowledge base. At the same time, they offer themes that you can simply purchase and implement. Either way, it can really be turned into the right look and feel of the knowledge base required by our company, which is very important—if you have a bland-looking page, most of the time, people will lose interest. Zendesk also allows you to test the customizations before you publish it. It gives you a sandbox location where you can test everything new that you're trying to create and publish, which is very interesting.""The product offers very good management. It has a great ability to assign tickets based on content.""We rarely had issues with Zendesk."

More Zendesk Pros →

Cons
"They can improve the search. While searching the inventory, when I cancel a selected category, the search box disappears, and I have to reload the page. It is a small glitch. Currently, we can have only one plan per subscription. All users have to be on the same plan. We can't have two users for plan A and five users for plan B. It might be good if there was an option to have different plans within one subscription so that you can assign each agent to the corresponding plan.""We'd like to see a CMDB, a Configuration Management Database, in the future.""Their analytics need improvement.""The product should look at BCM or ServiceNow and see if there are features that would make nice additions. It would help them stay competitive.""On the reporting side, when we were doing reporting, one thing that was a bit of a limitation was when you had a data list containing a list of changes that have occurred for the whole time and you had to fit the list onto a page. If the list went over the page, it would just truncate it at the page. You wouldn't get all your data. So, it didn't work. That was one big stand-out for me. What we tended to do was convert things into a more readable format, and then we had more targeted exception reporting, but it would be nice to have a full list of things that could be automatically generated and that can flow over pages.""A chat bot needs to be added to the portal.""You can't implement a complicated delivery workflow. We don't have the same problems with incident and change workflows. It's only for delivery workflow. They have a mechanism for modifying your incident or change workflow. There's a visual interface for that, so there's no reason not to have the same function for request management.""The chat portal is not that great."

More Freshservice Cons →

"Vulnerability management could be improved. Also, integration with tools such as Microsoft Defender ATP needs improvement.""Loads slower than expected, and its user interface needs improvement. Support for this product also needs to improve on their response time.""Once a change request has been created once it's been approved and been submitted, there is no way to go in on that particular change request and submit an additional task.""It is annoying that ServiceNow keeps on changing back to Quebec every six months.""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.""A new user does need training or time to learn the solution before jumping in. It was very hard in the beginning to understand everything. I couldn't find the models I needed at the time.""We do a lot of relatively advanced stuff for the size that we are, but ServiceNow itself is so big and to some extent, there is a significant amount of complexity that you have, a big learning curve I would say, in order to really get on board.""It's a great platform, but there's still room for improvement. As the solutions stands now, you do need a lot of previous experience to use it. It would be great if they could develop some use case templates. This would be beneficial for a small and medium-sized businesses."

More ServiceNow Cons →

"The solution itself wasn't easy to set up.""Sometimes if there was a way to just flag the actual issue out of those email chains - that would be really helpful.""Zendesk Guide could be improved by allowing us to put our assets in one location. What happens now for each article, for example, is we have to upload the images for that article to that location, so the image reuse is still not something that they have perfected. If they could allow us to update all the images in one location, and then pull the image from there, it would be easier when working on Multibrand projects. There are no Multibrand updates available—we have to update each brand manually. For my company, I have come up with an API tool which allows me to push the content to multiple brands together, but if you don't have something like that, you have to manually do it.""The solution could integrate better with QR codes from some websites such as Facebook.""It wasn't easy to set up so we're only using a third of all of the features,""The price of the solution should be reduced.""If I write an article, and I have a team of 30 people, and they all have a Zendesk account, when I write an article, I send them an email. "Hey guys, I just wrote this article. It's one of the most popular topics this month on which we are not covered. Please check it and make sure that you include it in your resolutions". The issue is, once I send it to those 30 people, and they open it, the next morning, that article is the most popular article.""There is always a network issue with Zendesk. But we don’t know whether it is managed. The network issue is that when I call, it does not let us."

More Zendesk Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It is good for the price you pay. It has different plans. If you need all features, you need to go for a higher plan. Currently, with the second tier plan, you cannot completely separate the group of agents. So, the agent in each group can see another person's ticket. You also cannot modify the rules based on the viewable, readable stuff and cannot have a custom role in this plan. If you want to do that, you have to go for a higher plan. It works in our case because it doesn't matter if the other group can see our ticket because it doesn't contain anything sensitive. We also didn't need the project or change management features. That's why we didn't go with a higher plan."
  • "The pricing information is on their website. It's my understanding that their Pro Plan, for example, is around $89/month."
  • "Its price is great. Its pricing is supposedly a lot less than ServiceNow and other alternatives."
  • "One of the key benefits of Freshservice is license management. Asset management has the possibility to keep track of licenses and that's very useful. The price of the solution is very good."
  • "The price of Freshservice could improve, it is expensive."
  • "It was a middle tier. It wasn't an expensive one. It was a tier model usage. Licensing costs varied between admin users and regular users."
  • "Freshservice price is competitive, it is not more than other solutions on the market."
  • "It is $34 per license, per agent. Currently, we don't see any add-ons at extra fees."
  • More Freshservice 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 →

  • "We pay for the solution on a yearly basis and my understanding is that the cost is about $30,000. That's the cost for 24 to 25 agents."
  • "The price is very competitive."
  • "Zendesk's licensing is not cheap. For Enterprise, we are paying $200 per agent. It's a per-month cost, so it's pretty steep. There are some services you need to pay extra for. For example, with Zendesk Guide, we had to buy the most expensive offering in order to get Multibrand and everything. We also had to pay a lot of money for themes."
  • "There are different plans that are offered. We are using the entry-level plan. The overall price of the solution should be reduced. The price is too high."
  • "You have to pay extra for better support. So it's not only the license that you pay for, but you have to pay extra for the support as well."
  • More Zendesk Pricing and Cost Advice →

    report
    Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Help Desk Software solutions are best for your needs.
    769,479 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer: The solution has been very helpful engineering insights into the client's environment. We have been able to manage… more »
    Top Answer:The cost at the current timing is very reasonable but as the product gains popularity, I anticipate it might become… more »
    Top Answer:I would suggest that Freshservice enhance its technical capabilities, particularly when it comes to ICT network… 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… more »
    Top Answer:Hi Netanya I will choose ServiceNow because ServiceNow is a very good tool compared to Microsoft PowerApp.  Because… more »
    Top Answer:It is user-friendly and simple to use.
    Top Answer:I found the user experience with vendors on Zendesk to be straightforward, especially when it comes to understanding and… more »
    Top Answer:You have to pay extra for better support. So it's not only the license that you pay for, but you have to pay extra for… more »
    Top Answer:As per me, there arent much significant issues or areas for improvement with Zendesk, as my usage of it is limited. I… more »
    Ranking
    5th
    out of 59 in Help Desk Software
    Views
    2,239
    Comparisons
    1,601
    Reviews
    20
    Average Words per Review
    748
    Rating
    8.2
    1st
    out of 59 in Help Desk Software
    Views
    18,901
    Comparisons
    11,428
    Reviews
    23
    Average Words per Review
    420
    Rating
    8.4
    10th
    out of 59 in Help Desk Software
    Views
    3,124
    Comparisons
    2,028
    Reviews
    6
    Average Words per Review
    539
    Rating
    8.2
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Flint
    Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell
    Learn More
    Overview

    Freshservice is an intelligent, cloud-native service management solution. It provides efficiency and agility through AI to create a contextual and intelligent experience. The solution also empowers employees to work whenever and wherever they need to work. Freshservice powers integrations and workflows at the enterprise scale, building upon an open platform and marketplace with connectors and APIs that you can extend and customize.

    Freshservice Features

    Freshservice has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • ITIL-aligned processes
    • Intelligent AI/ML capabilities
    • Advanced CSAT
    • Extensible platform
    • Self-service portal
    • Smart automations
    • Service catalog
    • Effective monitoring and alerting
    • Out-of-box analytics
    • Mobile app
    • Marketplace apps

    Freshservice Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing Freshservice. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Intelligent service management and customized workflows: Freshservice offers powered bots, automation, and orchestration to help you make management more efficient and gives you the ability to customize all workflows.
    • Fast time-to-value: Freshservice’s out-of-the-box features help you quickly deploy it and enable easier adoption, at scale.
    • Minimizes downtime: Freshservice prevents critical issues by identifying the right alerts, collaborating with context, and delivering an enhanced end-user experience.
    • Extensible: The solution is extensible and allows organizations to access enterprise-scale tools to customize, integrate, and automate business workflows.
    • Support: Freshservice has 24/7 support so your issues can be addressed around-the-clock.
    • Boosts productivity: The Freshservice solution helps improve employee productivity. It helps you prioritize work better with real-time custom dashboards.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the Freshservice solution.

    A Senior Helpdesk at a non-profit says, “I like the workflow automation capabilities, where based upon certain actions, it will automatically go and route tickets to a particular person. It is fairly user-friendly.”

    PeerSpot user Cesar Q., CIO at Grupo Kasto, mentions, “The analytics are very good. The solution offers very nice incident management. The overall functionality of the product is excellent. The change management is helpful. They have an agent that we installed in every single asset. We have the inventory for all assets automatically. Contract management is very valuable for us as an IT department, as we have the information for every single computer across the company. We are starting to use the project management aspects right now. We have different projects and we have all the information in the same solution, in the same place. It makes everything more centralized and easier to access. The user interface is very nice and the solution is easy to use. You don't need to be an expert in order to navigate around and use the product. You don't need to read a lot of manuals in order to figure everything out. It's pretty intuitive.”

    A Network Analyst at a real estate/law firm shares, "We find its ability to track what's going on with each request very valuable. We are also able to merge ticket requests and assign them to different groups in the company. We have another department that uses the same system."

    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.

    Zendesk Support is intuitive, and it's built with support agents in mind. Everything they need lives in a single, dynamic help desk interface so it's easy to be productive and manage customer interactions.

    Sample Customers
    Sinclair Broadcast Group, Western Carriers, Judson University, Golf Canada, Travix, Proxama, Paymentez, Ready Auto Transport
    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    
    Mailchimp, Tesco, Vimeo, Instacart, Mediaocean, Slack, Uber
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Comms Service Provider18%
    Manufacturing Company18%
    Insurance Company12%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company26%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Government6%
    Educational Organization5%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Healthcare Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization22%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Government7%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company24%
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Construction Company10%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company22%
    Educational Organization10%
    Financial Services Firm6%
    University6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business62%
    Midsize Enterprise3%
    Large Enterprise34%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise62%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise65%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise30%
    Large Enterprise56%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business46%
    Midsize Enterprise35%
    Large Enterprise19%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise55%
    Buyer's Guide
    Help Desk Software
    April 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, Atlassian, BMC and others in Help Desk Software. Updated: April 2024.
    769,479 professionals have used our research since 2012.