Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

BMC Helix ITSM vs ServiceNow 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
6.5
Challenges in assessing ROI exist, but stability, automation, and improved processes offer value despite licensing and integration concerns.
Sentiment score
7.0
ServiceNow enhances efficiency, project management, and resource management, offering quick ROI through automation and optimized system integrations.
Sentiment score
7.3
Zendesk offers cost efficiency and improved productivity, with ROI influenced by alignment with operational needs and process integration.
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
6.3
BMC Helix ITSM support varies by tier, with premium offering quick service, while others face delays and inconsistency.
Sentiment score
7.0
ServiceNow's support is praised for knowledge and community resources but criticized for inconsistent response times and outsourced interactions.
Sentiment score
7.0
Zendesk receives praise for responsiveness and ease of use, but some users desire better chat features and human interaction.
There are issues with misrouting and a preference for email rather than direct communication via phone calls.
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.
The technical support provided by Zendesk has been very satisfactory.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
BMC Helix ITSM efficiently scales for large enterprises, offering flexibility and robust performance with some complexity in customization.
Sentiment score
7.5
ServiceNow offers scalable, cloud-based solutions that support seamless growth and integration for enterprises, with strong user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.5
Zendesk is praised for scalability and customization, although some face initial setup challenges and structural integration issues.
The product's scalability is adequate for us, yet its complex customization sometimes restricts extensive adaptability.
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.
Zendesk can scale from very small companies to very large ones.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
BMC Helix ITSM is generally stable and reliable, with high user ratings despite occasional architecture-dependent issues.
Sentiment score
7.7
ServiceNow offers stable, high-performance IT service management with minimal downtime; customization requires best practices to maintain optimal performance.
Sentiment score
7.9
Zendesk is stable with minimal downtimes, reliable performance, occasional minor issues, and high reliability ratings, especially for smaller businesses.
Over the past five years, we have experienced no major issues or downtime during upgrades.
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.
The stability has been quite reliable.
 

Room For Improvement

BMC Helix ITSM needs enhanced user-friendliness, customization, performance, integration, and support to address complexity and user concerns.
ServiceNow requires enhanced UI, documentation, integration, performance, training, and mobile features to boost user satisfaction and accessibility.
Zendesk faces challenges with data management, flexibility, integration, user-friendliness, and customer communication, while users are dissatisfied with support and pricing.
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 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.
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, yet its robust features provide value, suggesting analysis and negotiation for cost efficiency.
ServiceNow is costly for small companies but flexible for enterprises, with complex pricing needing negotiation for discounts.
Enterprise buyers find Zendesk's pricing high but valuable, with costs varying by agent count and business needs for tailored solutions.
The pricing of BMC Helix ITSM and its implementation costs are quite high, including subscription and maintenance costs per year.
ServiceNow's pricing can be justified if more functionality is required.
ServiceNow does come with a price.
ServiceNow is expensive for all regions.
It is not the cheapest solution nor the most expensive, but it provides value for money.
 

Valuable Features

BMC Helix ITSM excels in flexibility, integration, automation, and reporting, enabling efficient IT service management and reduced resolution times.
ServiceNow's customization and integration capabilities enhance operational efficiency and align IT operations with business needs effectively.
Zendesk offers user-friendly ticket management, seamless integrations, multi-channel support, and robust security for efficient and productive customer service.
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.
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.
It allows us to handle more support cases with fewer people due to its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of BMC Helix ITSM is 9.8%, down from 12.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow is 22.5%, down from 26.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 4.6%, up from 4.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
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.
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.
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 ( /products/klaviyo-reviews ), enhancing our workflows.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Help Desk Software solutions are best for your needs.
857,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
24%
Educational Organization
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

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?
In User Group sessions held by BMC in India, I mentioned the challenges with vast documentation, making it difficult ...
What is your primary use case for BMC Helix ITSM?
I am currently working as a BMC Remedy developer. I have been working for over ten years on the BMC platform. My comp...
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.
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?
There could be improvements in integration, which can be achieved with APIs or tools like Zapier ( /products/zapier-r...
 

Also Known As

Remedy ITSM, Remedy, Helix Remedy
No data available
Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Brookfield, HealthSouth Corporation, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, Mercator, SAP, Stanford University
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    
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: May 2025.
857,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.