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BMC Helix ITSM vs JIRA Service Management vs Zendesk 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
7.0
JIRA Service Management boosts efficiency and productivity, centralizes requests, and delivers significant ROI, benefiting virtual teams and compliance.
Sentiment score
6.7
Zendesk enhances organizational efficiency and productivity, reducing costs despite licensing fees, with varied but significant financial benefits.
 

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
6.5
Atlassian support is generally helpful but faces challenges like time zone delays, and users suggest adding local partner assistance.
Sentiment score
6.3
Zendesk excels in responsiveness and issue resolution, though reliance on documentation may delay human support replies.
There are issues with misrouting and a preference for email rather than direct communication via phone calls.
Their support team from Zendesk is excellent, similar to what you have in Freshdesk.
The technical support provided by Zendesk has been very satisfactory.
 

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
7.5
JIRA Service Management scales well for small to medium organizations, with high adaptability but some limitations in larger settings.
Sentiment score
7.4
Zendesk scales well for various team sizes; praised for customization, integration, though challenges include data backup and departmental customization.
The product's scalability is adequate for us, yet its complex customization sometimes restricts extensive adaptability.
It supports introducing new features or levels efficiently across our global locations, helping everyone stay informed.
Zendesk can scale from very small companies to very large ones.
The scalability of Zendesk is still in the same range as Freshdesk.
 

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
7.8
JIRA Service Management is stable and reliable with infrequent issues, typically receiving stability ratings of eight to nine.
Sentiment score
7.7
Zendesk is stable and reliable, despite occasional outages, making it ideal for small businesses and startups globally.
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.
There should be more governance for permissions and more options for customized access without frequently involving the admin.
The stability has been quite reliable.
 

Room For Improvement

BMC Helix ITSM needs a more intuitive, customizable interface, enhanced reporting, better performance, support, documentation, and streamlined customization.
JIRA Service Management needs better email integration, customization, third-party support, and enhanced project management, UI, and mobile features.
Zendesk users face challenges with interface clumsiness, slow performance, customization, integration, and pricing, affecting overall usability and 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.
It remains one of the main barriers to using JIRA Service Management across our entire company.
JIRA's user interface needs training to understand and utilize.
We need to consider which AI tool would be most suitable for our project.
There could be improvements in integration, which can be achieved with APIs or tools like Zapier.
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise users find BMC Helix ITSM costly but cost-effective, requiring careful licensing analysis and negotiations to manage expenses.
JIRA Service Management's pricing is competitive but can be costly for larger enterprises with additional fees and potential annual increases.
Zendesk pricing varies, perceived as high, but offers value and flexibility; negotiation advised for larger teams to optimize costs.
The pricing of BMC Helix ITSM and its implementation costs are quite high, including subscription and maintenance costs per year.
We used Jira's free version for some time.
It is not the cheapest solution nor the most expensive, but it provides value for money.
 

Valuable Features

BMC Helix ITSM is scalable, integrates easily, enhances management, and aligns with ITIL, offering advanced features and customization.
JIRA Service Management offers customization, integration, and user-friendly features that enhance efficiency and streamline project and service management.
Zendesk offers user-friendly integration, robust features, and valuable tools, enhancing efficiency and streamlining customer support processes effectively.
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.
JIRA itself is valuable for managing tickets, user stories, and pipeline.
For every task we are working on, the project manager can see the status once we update the stories mentioned.
The query language and the ability to create views of the data are very useful.
It allows us to handle more support cases with fewer people due to its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities.
The benefits I have seen from using Zendesk include faster response times.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of BMC Helix ITSM is 7.1%, down from 12.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of JIRA Service Management is 7.5%, down from 11.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 4.5%, up from 4.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Help Desk Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
JIRA Service Management7.5%
BMC Helix ITSM7.1%
Zendesk4.5%
Other80.9%
Help Desk Software
 

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.
Karim Yousef - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficiently track and document projects with seamless tool integration
We are a management warehouse that provides services to different customers in different sectors. Primarily, we serve the banking sector and the military sector. We manage all the software delivery projects through tools such as JIRA Service Management or TFS Confluence is a great tool for…
JohanSkibdahl - PeerSpot reviewer
Automating customer support with advanced AI capabilities and seamless communication
Zendesk has been invaluable in automating communications such as email and phone calls. It allows us to handle more support cases with fewer people due to its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities. This intelligent tool can manage complex queries before users even realize they are interacting with a non-human. Additionally, we have integrated Zendesk with Datto and Klaviyo, enhancing our workflows.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
6%
Computer Software Company
22%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
6%
Performing Arts
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise54
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise33
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise11
 

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 Zendesk Support?
I found the user experience with vendors on Zendesk to be straightforward, especially when it comes to understanding ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zendesk Support?
Zendesk's pricing is reasonable. It is not the cheapest solution nor the most expensive, but it provides value for mo...
What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?
I'm going to piggyback on what I said regarding Freshdesk concerning what could be better in Zendesk: incorporate mor...
 

Also Known As

Remedy ITSM, Remedy, Helix Remedy, BMC Helix IT Service Management
JIRA Service Desk
Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Brookfield, HealthSouth Corporation, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, Mercator, SAP, Stanford University
mgm technology partners, Telestream, Build.com, Zend Technologies, OfficeDrop, PGS Software, American Diabetes Association, NEPTUNE Canada
Mailchimp, Tesco, Vimeo, Instacart, Mediaocean, Slack, Uber
Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, Atlassian, ManageEngine and others in Help Desk Software. Updated: September 2025.
867,676 professionals have used our research since 2012.