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BMC Helix ITSM vs Freshservice vs ServiceNow 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.9
BMC Helix ITSM offers good value and time savings, with automation praised and high stability, despite costly licensing.
Sentiment score
6.4
Freshservice offers significant ROI benefits with improved efficiency, though costs and user management are concerns for some regions.
Sentiment score
6.8
ServiceNow improves efficiency and project performance, offering notable returns despite initial challenges, with justifiable investment and integration benefits.
They have removed the costs associated with on-prem infrastructure, including data center costs, power costs, and physical server costs.
The return on investment is good when implementing for ourselves and for other clients.
Manually, there are huge numbers that come up because these integrated tools help organizations make the right decisions with all the information in one place, while manual methods lack visibility.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
BMC Helix ITSM customer service varies widely, with premium support praised, but lower tiers face delays and inconsistent quality.
Sentiment score
6.4
Freshservice support is responsive and professional, but users note occasional navigation issues and delays in problem resolution.
Sentiment score
7.0
ServiceNow's customer service is praised for responsiveness and knowledgeable support, though improvement is needed in response times and complexity handling.
There are issues with misrouting and a preference for email rather than direct communication via phone calls.
However, they have improved over the period of two years.
We had a good experience with customer service, receiving a positive response from technical support.
The support is exemplary and deserves a perfect rating.
Obtaining support for maintenance is the current challenge because they don't have a presence in the local market.
I have contacted them four to five times over the past two years, and they have been quite helpful.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
BMC Helix ITSM is scalable and robust, suitable for diverse organizations, though customization can limit larger implementations.
Sentiment score
7.2
Freshservice offers scalable, cloud-based IT solutions with flexible licensing, though customization may be limited for larger enterprises.
Sentiment score
7.4
ServiceNow is scalable and adaptable for large enterprises, yet extensive customization may lead to increased costs and complexity.
The product's scalability is adequate for us, yet its complex customization sometimes restricts extensive adaptability.
Freshservice is easy to use for scalability.
There are no limitations or performance issues with ServiceNow; it is cloud-based, so it is highly scalable and performs well.
It is capable of vertical scaling with no issues.
I rate the scalability of ServiceNow as an eight on a scale of one to ten.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
BMC Helix ITSM is generally stable; initial issues may occur, but proper architecture enhances reliability over time.
Sentiment score
8.1
Freshservice is stable and reliable, with minor glitches addressed efficiently, ensuring robust performance and high user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.7
ServiceNow is praised for its stability, reliability, and support, despite occasional slowness from external factors.
I find BMC Helix ITSM stable, and that is why we have been with the product for the past 15 years.
Over the past five years, we have experienced no major issues or downtime during upgrades.
Freshservice is quite stable as they host it on AWS.
Freshservice provides a stable environment for our needs.
It is cloud-based, so it is highly scalable and performs well.
I haven't faced any issues with stability; I've rarely seen any downtime.
ServiceNow is stable enough.
 

Room For Improvement

BMC Helix ITSM needs a more intuitive, customizable interface, enhanced reporting, better performance, support, documentation, and streamlined customization.
Freshservice faces issues with reporting, project management, customization, integration, asset management, support features, and performance for large users.
ServiceNow needs improvements in pricing, user experience, platform usability, documentation depth, and performance analytics for better efficiency.
BMC Helix ITSM is difficult for us to customize, and most customizations require vendor support, which leads to extra costs.
We lack access to a sandbox for in-house development, which was very helpful for hands-on work with new features.
There's limited experience with the CMDB or asset management features.
Asset management can definitely be improved because it doesn't pick up every single device on the network or every single piece of information.
There is a need for improvement in terms of automatic escalation to the next level if an issue is not resolved.
There is a need for bug or error tracking in ServiceNow.
Their customer support could make it a great solution, not just product support but also their relationship with partners and training initiatives in different regions.
From a functionality perspective, the features in ServiceNow are acceptable as, at the moment, the ITSM modules rank highly, being 13 plus Pink Elephant certified, which is a good aspect to have.
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise users find BMC Helix ITSM costly but cost-effective, requiring careful licensing analysis and negotiations to manage expenses.
Freshservice provides transparent, flexible pricing options praised for competitiveness, though considered expensive by some, ideal for various enterprise solutions.
ServiceNow's licensing is costly and complex, with large organizations finding value, but smaller businesses may struggle with expenses.
The pricing of BMC Helix ITSM and its implementation costs are quite high, including subscription and maintenance costs per year.
The solution offers flat licensing and appears to be cost-effective.
We pay a certain amount annually for the number of users, and as users increase, the cost increases.
ServiceNow's pricing can be justified if more functionality is required.
ServiceNow does come with a price.
ServiceNow is expensive for all regions.
 

Valuable Features

BMC Helix ITSM is scalable, integrates easily, enhances management, and aligns with ITIL, offering advanced features and customization.
Freshservice offers incident management, automation, asset management, customization, scalability, ITIL compliance, with user engagement via Freshchat and APIs.
ServiceNow excels in customizable solutions, integrating ITIL, enhancing automation, and supporting seamless collaboration with continuous updates and community support.
Resolution time has decreased significantly since implementing the self-service portal.
These features are crucial as we complete the implementation and maintain data accuracy in the CMDB.
The most valuable features include ticket routing, automation in triage, data control, and flat licensing.
Incident management is very helpful, and the system is straightforward, making it easy to use for our enterprise-level company.
ServiceNow provides a wide range of functionality, covering all the necessary modules, unlike Jira which is primarily for IT.
Automation capabilities are impressive, bolstered by a vast repository of out-of-the-box connectors and plugins that facilitate integration with various applications worldwide.
The features of ServiceNow that I find most valuable include its ability to easily access ticket details if you know the ticket number, monitor the timeline of when the ticket was created, and see the current status.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category, the mindshare of BMC Helix ITSM is 9.7%, down from 13.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Freshservice is 4.7%, up from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow is 21.8%, down from 27.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

Featured Reviews

Ameet Darole - PeerSpot reviewer
Used for user ticket management, incident management, and event management
We had a manual event management process and a separate monitoring tool called Dynatrace. The alerts generated did not flow to the ITSM tool. With BMC Helix ITSM, the alerts flow and auto-route to respective technical support. If the alerts are resolved, the ticket will be automatically closed. So, the workload and automation are much better now. BMC Helix ITSM is a fast platform, so it is quite manageable. I would recommend BMC Helix ITSM to other users because it is a good solution. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Trilochana Gouda - PeerSpot reviewer
Smooth incident management and easy to use while needing better escalation management
We are using Freshservice for the IT ticketing system for business users We use the ticketing system primarily, which is very easy to use for all users. Freshservice is helpful, especially in incident management. Incident management is very helpful, and the system is straightforward, making it…
Nikhil Gohil - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables effective incident management and seamless workflow automation with valuable mobile accessibility
I haven't thought deeply about improvements for ServiceNow or what might be missing right now. There are so many modules and features in ServiceNow that I haven't explored them all, so it's hard to say what might be missing or should be improved. I suggest making the cost more affordable for smaller companies.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
21%
Educational Organization
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Educational Organization
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
Currently, we are not utilizing the AI functionality in BMC Helix ITSM as we are still in the roadmap and development...
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 ...
What do you like most about Freshservice?
The solution has been very helpful engineering insights into the client's environment. We have been able to manage c...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Freshservice?
The solution offers flat licensing and appears to be cost-effective.
What needs improvement with Freshservice?
There is a need for improvement in terms of automatic escalation to the next level if an issue is not resolved. It sh...
Which solution is better for developing non-ITSM applications: OutSystems or Service Now?
The short answer is that OutSystems is far better for 2 main reasons. Firstly, with Service Now you are locked into t...
Would you choose ServiceNow over Microsoft PowerApps?
Hi Netanya, I will choose ServiceNow because ServiceNow is a very good tool compared to Microsoft PowerApp. Because ...
What do you like most about ServiceNow?
The solution has a user-friendly interface.
 

Also Known As

Remedy ITSM, Remedy, Helix Remedy
Flint
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Brookfield, HealthSouth Corporation, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, Mercator, SAP, Stanford University
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    
Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, Atlassian, BMC and others in IT Service Management (ITSM). Updated: June 2025.
861,803 professionals have used our research since 2012.