No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

BMC Helix ITSM vs Cherwell Service Management vs PagerDuty Operations Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

IT Service Management (ITSM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
BMC Helix ITSM5.7%
ServiceNow15.8%
JIRA Service Management7.3%
Other71.2%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
IT Service Management (ITSM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cherwell Service Management1.7%
ServiceNow15.8%
JIRA Service Management7.3%
Other75.2%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
IT Alerting and Incident Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
PagerDuty Operations Cloud13.1%
Opsgenie9.1%
Rootly7.1%
Other70.7%
IT Alerting and Incident Management
 

Featured Reviews

KN
Senior Application Developer BMC at Balfour Beatty
Self-service portal significantly reduces resolution time and transforms service process with advanced features
We initially had a lot of tickets generated via the service desk through calls and emails. Now, we have almost moved out of email creations by introducing the DWP features on the Studio pages, with about 90% of the tickets coming in via our self-service portal. Recent upgrades offer different types of views for particular business lines, which was missing earlier. The new landing pages have allowed us to add banners, images, and internal videos, encouraging most customers to use these DWP self-service features. Resolution time has decreased significantly since implementing the self-service portal. Additionally, the availability of knowledge articles, chatbots, and the new Helix GPT feature has improved service processes.
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.
NS
Senior SRE at IBM
Automated incident workflows have transformed on-call operations and improved response times
Since I host our internal services, I want more customization relating to our specific use case. The needed improvements include the configuration process, as new team members face a steep learning curve to understand the platform. With many new members, they need training to set up runbook workflows, event orchestration, and manage complex on-call schedules across 23 services, making it a challenge for new users. Additionally, I feel the web interface requires improvements. I would rate PagerDuty Operations Cloud as eight out of ten because the cons include a complex configuration process and high costs for each add-on that I try to obtain, making subscriptions costly, along with limited customization in certain incident workflows. The primary reasons for rating it an eight include the complex configuration which makes it challenging for new users, as well as their difficulty in setting up advanced runbook workflows and managing complex on-call setups. The web user interface also requires improvement. Although I receive alerts via the mobile app, which is beneficial for handling schedule maintenance, the same features should be added to the web interface. Customization issues persist, such as the inability to clone entire schedules as part of the workflows, and I want to keep incidents open for a specified duration, neither of which I can currently customize. Thus, I raised a ticket with PagerDuty Operations Cloud to address these concerns. Furthermore, the cost is high, making it one of the more expensive incident management solutions.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The service desk (incident management) function is the lion's portion of use and value, and it has been instrumental in aligning our service desk with the ITIL fundamentals and continuously improving the operating metrics of that area."
"From what I've read BMC Helix ITSM has a lot of features and far more than the CA Service Desk."
"The ease of installation and configuration is valuable."
"It has centralized all work orders and help desk ticket tracking."
"The mobile features are the best part of the new version, as it is easy to be notified and update your work from a mobile, which is great."
"The ability to utilise CMDB information is the most valuable feature for us as it helps us to see interlinkages between CIs."
"Improved our organization with better customer experience and reporting abilities."
"It might cost a few more bucks than its competitors like ServiceNow, but it certainly has a better technological edge over ServiceNow."
"Implementing CSM has made us very efficient and we're now able to plan changes and the steps required for implementation."
"The most valuable features are problem management and change management."
"Its integration features, orchestration features, and discovery tools are the most valuable."
"We use the solution every day and quite extensively."
"The most valuable features are problem management and change management."
"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."
"Clear processes with transparent responsibilities led to more efficiencies within the teams."
"My advice to others looking into using PagerDuty Operations Cloud is that it is one of the best tools in the market for production support and SRE engineers."
"It is stable, it is rapidly growing, and all the features are being built in a stable way for the users to work with."
"The most valuable features of PagerDuty are customization, access, policies, and different rules regarding the path of escalation. Additionally, it's easy to use and create overrides. For example, if you all are on a call for one week each, but somebody wants to go on PTO, the team needs to swap shifts in PagerDuty. This is easy to do by creating overrides to switch up the set schedules. It's very user-friendly in that aspect. It works well for monitoring and alerting."
"PagerDuty Operations Cloud changed the process and the flow in our team very smoothly."
"The SMS pages and the mobile application are pretty much the top two features."
"It is a great product for routing tickets and alerts, so it saves invaluable time."
"Obviously, scheduling the calls is a valuable feature."
"The product easily integrates with other solutions."
 

Cons

"In User Group sessions held by BMC in India, I mentioned the challenges with vast documentation, making it difficult to find the right information quickly. However, we lack access to a sandbox for in-house development, which was very helpful for hands-on work with new features."
"SmartIT could include PR. This would help us greatly in bridging the gap between Remedy's views and SmartIT."
"To raise any ticket, there are too many fields to be filled and it makes generating tickets very time-consuming."
"It would also be beneficial if there was a text-based editor for the workflow rules instead of using the developer studio, which adds a lot of time when developing quick solutions to problems."
"Their customer service catalog (where a customer can order some products) could be improved. This product is not the best, but they are working on it."
"I would like to see the BMC add advanced DWP features and customization to the standard package. Furthermore, BMC does not have any leverage for non-IT services, so it would be nice if BMC could integrate something like HR Change Management into ITSM itself."
"Certain features can be improved. We find ourselves having to make a lot of customizations to make things work for us."
"Some parts of the solutions are using the old interface."
"They need to improve their mobile interface, as well as features regarding the extension of the mobile access to the end user."
"The stability, specifically in the on-premises deployment model, could be improved."
"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."
"The solution could be more user-friendly."
"Areas for improvement would be the service catalog and customer catalog, which is not very user-friendly."
"Agile delivery should be supported."
"We need to be on VPN in order to set up and access the solution, and that has created some challenges."
"Access is only available if we're on VPN."
"However, I hear from my manager that the pricing is very high for PagerDuty Operations Cloud, and only a few of us have the main business tier accounts."
"One way PagerDuty Operations Cloud could improve is through the scheduling feature, which can be tricky, especially with complex schedules."
"It would be nice if the app could somehow receive the notification of an incident and allow you to customize the warning method on the device end."
"PagerDuty can improve the integration with Terraform."
"I think the view on the website regarding how we see the chart and graph of who is on-call at what time could be improved."
"Something that needs to be improved, is adding multilingual support."
"Open alerts should properly respond to SMS resolution beyond the initial alert."
"I can only suggest cosmetic improvements to the recorded voice when responding to a page. It should be less angry."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"BMC Helix ITSM is a very cost-effective 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."
"I am not sure the exact price we pay for the solution but I know it is in the high seven-figure amount annually."
"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."
"Please always get the latest quote from a BMC partner or from BMC. Check for the latest offerings."
"If you are looking for some kind of professional services form the OEM then you would have to purchase that."
"It's a yearly subscription but there are a couple of customers who go for the monthly subscription."
"The price of BMC Helix ITSM is expensive."
"For an ITIL user, the cost is probably about 50 bucks a month."
"If we wanted phone calls or additional SMSs, we would have to pitch up for those. They give us so many per month per user, then we have to pay extra if it goes over that."
"They're very good in pricing compared to the competitors in the area. I would rate them a five out of five in terms of pricing."
"If you add more people, then you have to pay more, which is always a thing with the SaaS solutions."
"The pricing may be about $1,000 per user."
"The price is very high."
"PagerDuty has monthly and yearly licenses available, the costs of which can get quite high if you have a large number of users."
"Licensing costs are around $700 a month, and the only additional costs, are phone costs in some instances."
"The solution is paid on a monthly basis and represents about 1% of the platform's budget."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which IT Service Management (ITSM) solutions are best for your needs.
885,728 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
6%
Construction Company
12%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Energy/Utilities Company
9%
Performing Arts
16%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Educational Organization
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise55
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise34
 

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...
What needs improvement with BMC Helix ITSM?
Although BMC Helix ITSM is a strong enterprise platform, there are areas where it could be improved. One key area is ...
What is your primary use case for BMC Helix ITSM?
My main use case for BMC Helix ITSM is validating and automating core ITSM workflows, such as incident, change, and s...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PagerDuty?
Regarding pricing for PagerDuty Operations Cloud, I am currently a software engineer and a senior software engineer, ...
What needs improvement with PagerDuty?
PagerDuty Operations Cloud can be improved by adding more features. Whatever manual work is there could be automated ...
What is your primary use case for PagerDuty?
PagerDuty Operations Cloud is used to understand whether there are false positives or false alerts because it is inte...
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Brookfield, HealthSouth Corporation, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, Mercator, SAP, Stanford University
Ausenco, Highlights for Children, B/E Aerospace
40% of the Fortune 100 TrustPagerDuty. Customers include: Slack, Intuit, Zendesk, Panasonic, Pinterest, Airbnb, eHarmony, McKesson, Comcast
Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, Atlassian, ManageEngine and others in IT Service Management (ITSM). Updated: March 2026.
885,728 professionals have used our research since 2012.