BMC FootPrints Service Core vs Spiceworks comparison

Why PeerSpot?

BMC Helix and Spiceworks are both solutions in the Help Desk Software category. BMC Helix is ranked #29, while Spiceworks is ranked #15 with an average rating of 9.0. Additionally, 90% of BMC Helix users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of Spiceworks users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

Spiceworks and BMC FootPrints Service Core are both IT service management tools designed to enhance ticket management and infrastructure efficiency. While Spiceworks offers competitive pricing and support options attractive to budget-conscious organizations, BMC FootPrints Service Core provides a comprehensive set of features that appeal to businesses seeking robust capabilities.

Features: Spiceworks is favored for its network monitoring, help desk capabilities, and integrated knowledge base, which are ideal for small to medium enterprises. It offers a simple ticketing system and effective network scanning. BMC FootPrints Service Core stands out with its ITIL compliance, detailed project management tools, and robust automation capabilities, addressing the needs of larger organizations with more intricate requirements.

Room for Improvement: Spiceworks could enhance its inventory accuracy and reporting features, while users note that its user interface could be more intuitive. Integration capabilities with external systems also present an opportunity for improvement. BMC FootPrints Service Core might improve its deployment complexity and provide more straightforward customization options. Additionally, its user interface could benefit from being more streamlined.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Spiceworks is applauded for its easy and rapid deployment, supported by a large, active user community. This setup is advantageous for businesses looking for minimal setup time. BMC FootPrints Service Core, although it involves a more complex installation process, benefits from professional customer service that provides guidance and support during the setup phase.

Pricing and ROI: Spiceworks is notable for being a cost-effective solution, offering significant ROI for smaller businesses with virtually no cost barriers. BMC FootPrints Service Core, despite its higher initial cost, provides extensive ROI through its comprehensive feature set, which is valuable to enterprises prepared to invest in enhanced functionality.

To learn more, read our detailed BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Spiceworks Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Spiceworks

September 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Automation Anywhere

Featured Reviews

Venkat Sivaprakash

Management Consultant at Accenture

Has significantly improved document-driven workflows and reduced processing time across finance and HR functions

Automation Anywhere has evolved significantly and upgraded itself to provide agentic AI and AI-based automation solutions for document automation. The product has matured considerably over time. We can create workflows that can call an API. We can include prompts in particular workflows for ChatGPT-related functions, connecting to an LLM and RAG to perform tasks. For document automation, modern features are available to train documents, ensuring high accuracy and repeatability over time. The system is very easy to use. I recently completed a course in document automation, typically designed for people involved in coding and technical aspects. Though I understand coding comprehensively, I don't do actual coding. The course was very accessible. Currently, extensive coding isn't necessary due to the hybrid model incorporating GenAI aspects, low-code, no-code capabilities, APIs, and numerous pre-built objects in Automation Anywhere. The features include GenAI-driven prompting methods and workflow creation capabilities. In these workflows, we can create decision boxes and call APIs without coding. We simply pull objects, drop them, connect them, and add minimal coding when needed. The most crucial aspect isn't coding but rather sizing the automation and fleshing out the details. Automation Co-pilot takes notes and performs automated analysis. It can extract details from videos, summarize conversations, and provide detailed information. During calls, it identifies instructions and performs tasks such as preparing reports and reconciliation. Automation Anywhere can also connect with Microsoft Co-pilot. Through Co-pilot, real-time operations can be executed, allowing direct interaction between vendors and automation through this component.

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reviewer1765752

System Engineer at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees

A flexible, comprehensive, integrated IT service and asset management platform with good technical support

We use BMC FootPrints Service Core to manage network issues, infrastructure issues, software issues, and ERP. We also use it to manage our facility. So, we do some work orders and also use it as an extra ticketing system Technical support is good. It would be better if it were more…

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Rohit Samel

Account Manager Enterprise Sales at Navdeep Technologies Pvt.Ltd

Cloud storage with no hardware needed and great comprehensive reports

The software is cloud-based, so I do not need to store any data locally. It is a fully software-based solution, eliminating the need for investment in hardware. We have the capability to create reports as needed. It is good software to use, as there were no incidents where I needed to contact technical support. Additionally, it is free software.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The ability for it to be able to be scaled rapidly. For us, it has certainly provided a range of flexibility that we hadn't appreciated before we started. This means that in times of high demand for processes to be completed, we're able to quickly scale up on demand. That gives us that additional flexibility without the need to potentially consider contingent labor increases. So, it's sort of a head count avoidance increase. So, that's proved very useful for us."

"AA allows you to create processes using 3 types of robots: Task Bot, Meta Bot, and IQ Bot. Instead of rewriting redundant code for processes, a meta bot can be used instead. This type of robot is best used for complex scalable processes. IQ Bot: The most powerful of the 3 types of robots is the IQ Bot."

"Automation Anywhere helped me achieve three main goals: reducing repetitive manual work, improving process consistency, and scaling automation while maintaining centralized control and monitoring."

"It has allowed us to generate additional revenue without having to hire additional people."

"My experience with the deployment of the solution is positive; it's fast, and we have not encountered any problems related to that."

"The Capture command has been a lifesaver for me in each of my use cases and the advanced Excel functionalities like running macro, reading and manipulating data, etc. It allows the bot creator to leverage the inbuilt functionalities that AA2019 has to offer to a great extent."

"On a scale of one to ten, I rate Automation Anywhere a ten."

"It is easy to use for non-technical people, with a simple drag-and-drop interface, so they don't need to be technically savvy to automate their processes."

More Automation Anywhere pros

"I feel confident in saying that BMC FootPrints Service Core is definitely one of the best products in the market."

"It has helped the help desk team. We get our tickets in and are able to support our customers, the end-users, with this solution."

"Ability to auto-generate email messages, process email messages, and approvals."

"I like the fact that FootPrints is a relational database, so every item in the database can be linked to another. This helps create history and audit trails for each CI."

"I have used Tier II BMC support a few times. They were very responsive and recreated my environment in their lab to support me."

"Now all IT related issues, problems, changes and even projects are more controlled using Footprints."

"This is certainly a solution that I recommend for big enterprise."

"Having a one stop shop for linked assets and tickets has improved end user adoption and led to a reduction in phone/email tickets."

More BMC FootPrints Service Core pros

"The nice thing about Spiceworks is always it's free."

"If you are a small – medium sized business you cannot go wrong with using Spiceworks to help you provide an A+ IT support as it is free."

"The nice thing about Spiceworks is always it's free. Monitoring of printers for low toner. Finding machines that have low memory or low hard disk space."

"Since it's free, and only takes about two hours to setup, it's got a 100% ROI."

"If you want an all in one solution for your IT to support your company, Spiceworks has a nice built in integrated system."

"It has increased the productivity of our IT department by speeding up service requests and managing and organizing them."

"It lets us know whether devices are getting out of date and tracked warranties. Spiceworks also gave me visibility in terms of what software was installed on each device and its status."

"SpiceWorks is an easy to install and maintain inventory and help desk system for SMBs and it's free!"

More Spiceworks pros

Cons

"Apart from the Chrome issue, which took them maybe a week to fix, we lost a lot of processes during that time, but it just happens unfortunately."

"If you want to use Chrome then there are three or four additional steps that need to be completed."

"The main disadvantage of Automation Anywhere is its high cost."

"There is a limitation with Automation Anywhere where if you want to build your own packages and deploy them, it is very difficult."

"If we are going through the high availability in the IQ Bot setup, it's a bit complex."

"They need to improve the REST Api documentation because it is not well detailed or clear enough for beginners, and they need to provide some out-of-the-box AI and ML functions such as image classification and object identification."

"It is nice being able to develop and manage/schedule scripts from the same web browser interface, but there are times I wish that the bot developer screen was made more user friendly."

"The mobile application can be improved by adding more functions and capabilities because right now, only a few features are enabled for mobile users."

More Automation Anywhere cons

"Reporting could be improved along with the option to create more fine tuned reports and to create specific fields for each type of ticket."

"To improve the product for our usage, the pricing maybe could be a bit lower."

"We need more customizable reporting functionality. We could also use more collaboration of service desk tickets. This will allow for two departments to share the same information, track the progress of the total task scope no matter how complex the request is."

"It is pretty clunky and not very intuitive. Even though I have used it for many years, I don't think it is a very good ITSM platform in general. In the telecom space, a lot of telco providers use this solution, but from my perspective, it is not very user friendly. It is a bit more laborious. There are still too many human touchpoints. There can be a little bit more automation. It would also be good to integrate it with other tools. Integration is quite difficult, especially in the telco space."

"Hyphens are not allowed in the quick search bar. This has created a problem in our environment where we use hyphens in our asset names."

"The mobile version of this product does not support asset management."

"There are still a few odd issues in FootPrints 12.x, which are frustrating."

"The workflow should be made to be more user-friendly. It should also have more granular scalability."

More BMC FootPrints Service Core cons

"Mac networking needs improving, as everything has to be manually entered in a Mac environment."

"There are a lot of disadvantages to Spiceworks because it's not an agent-based solution."

"One of the biggest ways in which Spiceworks could improve is by developing better and more automated workflows. For example, in another solution called ServiceDesk by ManageEngine, you can have levels of approval in the event that there is a request for new software, or when someone requests a VPN or WiFi connection. This kind of multi-stage approval feature provided by ServiceDesk does not appear to exist in Spiceworks, and it is one of their main shortcomings for me."

"On larger networks, performance can be slow."

"Spiceworks could improve the upgrade procedure. It regularly fails and we have to use the workaround to get a new version installed."

"The help desk ticketing system is functional but fairly basic."

"I think troubleshooting errors became the most frustrating part since it is free; you can’t complain."

"As our database grew in size, so did the frequency we had to restart the application on the server."

More Spiceworks cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The major reason that we selected Automation Anywhere was the licensing model."

"In terms of pricing, it's not at all cheap, and that's a concern. The licensing cost is very high. While I don't know the exact prices of other tools, Microsoft offers the lowest pricing for its RPA platform compared to UiPath and Automation Anywhere."

"Automation Anywhere is affordable."

"It's very good in terms of cost and pricing."

"We have seen the tangible benefits of taking monotonous work off people's plates, creating capacity, and cost reductions."

"It depends. For example, for my group, we are centralizing the infrastructure in Paris. Our contract is signed with Automation Anywhere in France. The currency and the pricing of Automation Anywhere in France can appear beneficial and interesting for Germany and Scandinavian countries, but when we share our infra and are internally charging other countries such as Poland, Brazil, or some other country with a lower currency value as compared to Euro, it becomes less beneficial. They would prefer to sign the contract directly with Automation Anywhere because they will benefit from a price that is as per their local market."

"Yearly, our licensing costs are about $90,000 to $100,000. There will be additional licensing costs when we add more Bot Runners to our infrastructure."

"The ROI is really good. We have saved time and money."

More Automation Anywhere pricing and cost advice

"Cost was on par with other service desk products, and well below Remedy, while still being a BMC product."

"This solution has good pricing."

"Our costs are well over $250,000."

"The licensing for FootPrints is a perpetual license with an annual support fee."

"It might be about $300 annually for a bigger company. If you pay annually, it's better and cheaper."

"The tool is cheap."

"The product is free! Get it now."

"Seeing that it is a low-cost solution, I would advise you to go ahead with Spiceworks and experiment with it to see if you can get things working properly, especially if you currently don't have any existing service desk software in place."

"It's free."

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Comparison Review

it_user174738

IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

May 31, 2015

Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor

I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Outsourcing Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Construction Company

20%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Outsourcing Company

Construction Company

14%

Outsourcing Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	161
Midsize Enterprise	86
Large Enterprise	561

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	24
Midsize Enterprise	14
Large Enterprise	10

Questions from the Community

How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

It depends on your use case. Is it simply to automate a couple of processes? Is it to augment a human team? AA is ver...

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How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

From my experience using AA tool, it depends on the applications that you want to automate, because there some applic...

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How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

It is a highly preferred RPA tool. You can check my Automation Anywhere Review to know more.

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What needs improvement with Spiceworks?

I am unable to provide suggestions for improvement at this moment, however, I can provide feedback later. Currently, ...

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What is your primary use case for Spiceworks?

If our customers need backup support, we can work with them and provide it. Whatever solution the customer requires, ...

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What advice do you have for others considering Spiceworks?

It performs its intended functions. We may use it, but perhaps not for ourselves, but for our customers, potentially ...

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Automation Anywhere

October 2026

Download Automation Anywhere product report

Buyer's Guide

IT Service Management (ITSM)

September 2026

Download BMC FootPrints Service Core product report

Buyer's Guide

Spiceworks

September 2026

Download Spiceworks product report

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)

FootPrints Service Core

No data available

Interactive Demo

Automation Anywhere

Demo not available

BMC Helix

Demo not available

Spiceworks

Overview

Automation Anywhere offers ease of use, robust system connectivity, and GenAI-driven document automation through a cloud-native platform, significantly enhancing productivity across multiple industries with advanced AI features.

Delivering a comprehensive suite of tools designed for easy integration and rapid deployment, Automation Anywhere drives efficiency by reducing costs and automating repetitive tasks. Its cloud-native platform supports broad industry adoption, including advanced AI features like process automation and Co-Pilot, streamlining complex workflows with minimal technical skills required. Users benefit from robust integration capabilities, which facilitate seamless interaction with multiple systems. However, there is room for improvement in areas such as user-friendliness for beginners, stability, flexible licensing, and enhanced OCR functionality. Organizations in sectors such as banking, finance, manufacturing, and healthcare gain from the improved operational efficiency and ROI Automation Anywhere offers.

What are the important features of Automation Anywhere?

Ease of Use: Simplifies automation tasks with a user-centric interface.
Robust Connectivity: Provides seamless integration with multiple systems.
GenAI-Driven Document Automation: Leverages AI to automate document management.
Process Automation & Co-Pilot: Enhances workflow automation with advanced AI.
Cloud-Native Platform: Enables rapid deployment and integration.

What benefits should be evaluated in reviews?

Time Savings: Automation drastically reduces manual processing time.
Cost Efficiency: Decreases overall operational costs by automating tasks.
Productivity Enhancement: Streamlines workflows with AI-driven tools.
Improved Integration: Enhances ability to work with multiple systems.
Scalability: Supports growth with a flexible cloud-native architecture.

In the insurance industry, Automation Anywhere is utilized for automating processes such as enrollment management and compliance checks. Its applications extend to supply chain management, financial transactions, and business performance monitoring across sectors like banking, finance, manufacturing, and healthcare, helping organizations to automate routine tasks, improve efficiency, and reduce costs.

Automation Anywhere

BMC FootPrints Service Core is a comprehensive tool that aids in incident, problem, and change management while offering customizable views and integration options.

Valued for its customizable home views and flexible database relations, BMC FootPrints Service Core excels in stability and responsive technical support. With capabilities for email automation, survey integration, and report creation, it enhances IT service management and business process efficiency. The solution supports ticket status updates with minimal downtime and accommodates multiple administrators across workspaces. Pink Elephant certification and smart IT features broaden its appeal for IT departments.

What are the key features of BMC FootPrints Service Core?

Incident Management: Tracks and resolves service desk tickets efficiently.
Problem Management: Identifies and mitigates underlying issues to prevent recurrence.
Change Management: Helps assess and handle changes seamlessly in the environment.
Customizable Views: Offers tailored dashboards for user-specific information.
Email Automation: Facilitates swift communication and response handling.

What benefits or ROI should users look for in reviews?

Stable Performance: Ensures reliable operation for consistent IT services.
Responsive Support: Provides timely technical assistance to resolve issues.
Administrative Flexibility: Allows versatile control across different workspaces.

In industries like IT services and HR, BMC FootPrints Service Core supports managing service desk tickets, tracking assets, and resolving issues in network, infrastructure, and software areas. Its functionalities also extend to HR issue tracking, service requests, and contract management, facilitating both on-premises deployments and ITIL process implementations such as Service Request and Service Catalog Management.

BMC Helix

Spiceworks is a freeware IT management tool offering efficient ticketing systems and inventory management with Active Directory integration, making it user-friendly and effective for network monitoring.

Spiceworks supports IT teams with device management and network visibility through strong community backing, ease of use, and comprehensive features like reporting and asset tracking. Its cost-effectiveness is attractive, though users seek improvements such as more customization, better ticketing, enhanced stability, and improved integration capabilities. Security, performance, and scalability are key focuses for enhancement.

What are the key features of Spiceworks?

Ticketing System: Simplifies incident logging and service requests.
Inventory Management: Tracks IT assets efficiently.
Network Monitoring: Offers reliable network oversight.
Active Directory Integration: Seamless integration for user management.
Community Support: Access to troubleshooting and insights.
Reporting: Facilitates in-depth analysis through reports.

What benefits and ROI should users expect?

Cost-Effectiveness: Lowers expenses for IT management.
Ease of Integration: Fits smoothly into existing systems.
Improved IT Support: Enhances incident response and monitoring.
Global Collaboration: Facilitates network management across locations.
Resource Efficiency: Streamlines operational tasks for IT teams.

In many industries, Spiceworks is utilized for managing infrastructure, facilitating network oversight, and documenting IT services. Teams efficiently manage networks globally, monitor devices like routers and switches, and provide IT support without reliance on managed service vendors, making integration straightforward.

Spiceworks

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics

Cast & Crew

Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Symantec, Webroot, EMC, Pertino

Buyer's Guide

BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Spiceworks

September 2026

Free Report: BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Spiceworks

Find out what your peers are saying about BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Spiceworks and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.

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