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BMC Helix ITSM vs Cherwell Service Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 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 Helix ITSM
Ranking in Help Desk Software
8th
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
79
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cherwell Service Management
Ranking in Help Desk Software
28th
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
27th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category, the mindshare of BMC Helix ITSM is 5.7%, down from 11.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cherwell Service Management is 1.7%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IT Service Management (ITSM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
BMC Helix ITSM5.7%
Cherwell Service Management1.7%
Other92.6%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

Featured Reviews

AK
Senior Specialist at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Workflow automation has improved incident handling and now reduces manual effort significantly
Although BMC Helix ITSM is a strong enterprise platform, there are areas where it could be improved. One key area is usability and simplification of configuration, especially for new administrators, because the platform is highly flexible and the learning curve can be steep during initial setup. Improving UI responsiveness and simplifying certain configuration screens would enhance the overall user experience. Additionally, more guided templates or best practice configuration recommendations could help organizations implement processes faster and reduce onboarding time. These improvements would make the platform more intuitive while still maintaining its powerful customizable capabilities. Beyond the usability improvements mentioned earlier, another area that can be enhanced is performance optimization in highly customized environments. While the platform is stable, complex configurations with zero downtime requirements and large data volumes may require tuning. More built-in optimization guidance or diagnostics would be helpful. It would also be beneficial to have more out-of-the-box integration templates and clearer API examples, which could speed up onboarding for customers integrating with monitoring or DevOps tools.
Thobile Moeketsi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager at Sasria SOC Ltd.
Having everything in one location has significantly improved our efficiency and reporting
We need to be on VPN in order to set up and access the solution, and that has created some challenges. Even though it uses our Windows login, we still have to be on VPN. The product should be able to log tickets directly from system to system. We haven't got there yet and I'm not sure it's possible but it would determine the product's capability to integrate with other systems.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The ease of use and integration made it a worthwhile investment, since we did some integrations with other tools making our lives easier."
"It has the power to automatize several different tasks in the ITSM world."
"The mobile features are the best part of the new version. It is easy to be notified and update your work from a mobile, which is great."
"We find the incident management module the best. The reporting part is also useful. We use a feature called smart reporting, and it is very beneficial for us."
"With service requests, we have been able to give visibility to the business users."
"Having all the processes, fields, and settings already setup out-of-the-box, thus minimizing implementation time."
"Improved our organization with better customer experience and reporting abilities."
"The solution can scale."
"Its integration features, orchestration features, and discovery tools are the most valuable. It is also pretty stable, and it can be as scalable as you want."
"The dashboard and the reporting functionality are the solution's most valuable features."
"The dashboard is very useful to get a quick overview of current tasks."
"All our activities are carried out in the one place."
"Clear processes with transparent responsibilities led to more efficiencies within the teams."
"The most valuable features are problem management and change management."
 

Cons

"Provide documentation on the content of the REST API interfaces. Right now, it is pretty much non-existent."
"Support could be more skilled. We are wasting too much of our time debugging.​"
"The interface should be more user-friendly, and the customization should be easier."
"The documentation could improve in BMC Helix ITSM."
"In the next release, I would like to see AI used for classification or categorization."
"The user experience could be better."
"Maybe it could be more simplified and easier to change the reporting point of view, like from a different vendor to another."
"The interface is one major complaint about this product."
"Application service mapping, GRC, SecOps, and things like that need improvement."
"The stability, specifically in the on-premises deployment model, could be improved."
"Access is only available if we're on VPN."
"Areas for improvement would be the service catalog and customer catalog, which is not very user-friendly. The shopping cart experience is also terrible - you submit and go straight to the cart, you can't continue shopping or see your overall cost."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the product price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive. The solution is expensive."
"We did not compare the price of BMC Helix ITSM to other vendors. However, it has a mid-range price."
"If you are looking for some kind of professional services form the OEM then you would have to purchase that."
"The price of BMC Helix ITSM is expensive."
"There are licenses to use this solution."
"The cost is relatively high, especially for the BMC Controller application. However, the expense is justified by the standard and reliable features it offers. This product's reputation in the market is strong, providing assurance in terms of data and other considerations."
"While purchasing, try to negotiate on per user licensing costs, associated maintenance, and purchase 20% more then what you think you should have. Bulk is always cheaper."
"It's a yearly subscription but there are a couple of customers who go for the monthly subscription."
"For an ITIL user, the cost is probably about 50 bucks a month."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Energy/Utilities Company
11%
Healthcare Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise55
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BMC Helix ITSM?
If we consider major players like Ford or BMW, their core focus is manufacturing products like cars. To ensure smooth operations, any arising issues, be it security concerns or issues within depart...
What needs improvement with BMC Helix ITSM?
Currently, we are not utilizing the AI functionality in BMC Helix ITSM as we are still in the roadmap and development phase at this point in time. There isn't anything that I would suggest for impr...
What is your primary use case for BMC Helix ITSM?
We use BMC Helix ITSM for the complete end-to-end ITSM suite, mainly for ticketing and service management. BMC Helix ITSM supports our IT service management processes primarily for all incident, pr...
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Also Known As

Remedy ITSM, Remedy, Helix Remedy, BMC Helix IT Service Management
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Brookfield, HealthSouth Corporation, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, Mercator, SAP, Stanford University
Ausenco, Highlights for Children, B/E Aerospace
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC Helix ITSM vs. Cherwell Service Management and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
883,760 professionals have used our research since 2012.