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BMC FootPrints Service Core vs Spiceworks comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

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

BMC FootPrints Service Core
Ranking in Help Desk Software
30th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
IT Service Management (ITSM) (28th)
Spiceworks
Ranking in Help Desk Software
15th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (10th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (43rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of BMC FootPrints Service Core is 1.4%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Spiceworks is 1.5%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Help Desk Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Spiceworks1.5%
BMC FootPrints Service Core1.4%
Other97.1%
Help Desk Software
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1765752 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
Rohit Samel - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is stable and its technical support is good and quick."
"I think the most important feature is the ability to receive valuable ticket status support in a timely manner with little to no downtime interruptions."
"Implemented system-wide process for approving and tracking "employee move" requests for over 15,000 employees."
"We use BMC FootPrints Service Core to manage network issues, infrastructure issues, software issues, ERP, and our facility, using it for work orders and as an extra ticketing system."
"I have used Tier II BMC support a few times. They were very responsive and recreated my environment in their lab to support me."
"Technical support is good."
"This is certainly a solution that I recommend for big enterprise."
"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."
"If you need a help desk, just do it."
"This product is definitely a great start for a ticketing system at an organization, particular for small to medium size teams."
"It's a pretty good product, I like it, and it's given me some fairly valuable information that I've needed on a couple of occasions that no other product would present to me."
"The capabilities, ease of use and price point (free) made Spiceworks the obvious choice for us."
"Tracking common issues has been improved."
"It has increased the productivity of our IT department by speeding up service requests and managing and organizing them."
"Considering this is AdWare this is a very good product with all the right tools for a medium sized IT department."
"Considering the fact that this is a free product, all you can get from this software is improvement in the way your organization operates and how your clients perceive you."
 

Cons

"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."
"Reporting could be improved along with the option to create more fine tuned reports and to create specific fields for each type of ticket."
"We need more customizable reporting functionality."
"The mobile version of this product does not support asset management."
"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."
"The mobile version of this product does not support asset management."
"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."
"The workflow should be made to be more user-friendly. It should also have more granular scalability."
"The only issue encountered was setting up the email server information."
"Once a device was recognized on the network, Spiceworks never got rid of it even after you took it off the network. You had to go in and manually remove it."
"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."
"I am unable to provide suggestions for improvement at this moment."
"The SNMP sniffer requires a lot of work to get right."
"I would like the solution to allow for more direct interaction with computers. I can open tickets and I can see their status, but I can't interact directly with the computers themselves."
"Only issue was with scalability. After some time, as the back-end DB grew bigger, the solution started to perform slower."
"It does, however, require help-desk and minor server/firewall config XP experience to set up."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing for FootPrints is a perpetual license with an annual support fee."
"Our costs are well over $250,000."
"This solution has good pricing."
"Cost was on par with other service desk products, and well below Remedy, while still being a BMC product."
"The tool is cheap."
"The product is free! Get it now."
"It might be about $300 annually for a bigger company. If you pay annually, it's better and cheaper."
"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 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
19%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
Performing Arts
8%
Construction Company
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
University
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with Spiceworks?
I am unable to provide suggestions for improvement at this moment, however, I can provide feedback later. Currently, there do not seem to be any issues.
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, we will ensure it is provided.
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 with Channel Partners. Whenever we are posting any query or reply on a ticket, i...
 

Also Known As

FootPrints Service Core
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Cast & Crew
Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Symantec, Webroot, EMC, Pertino
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Spiceworks and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
887,041 professionals have used our research since 2012.