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BMC Helix ITSM vs ServiceNow comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

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
6.8
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
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.
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
7.4
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.
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
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
 

Categories and Ranking

BMC Helix ITSM
Ranking in Help Desk Software
6th
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
79
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
ServiceNow
Ranking in Help Desk Software
1st
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
222
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (1st), Rapid Application Development Software (2nd), No-Code Development Platforms (1st)
 

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 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)
 

Q&A Highlights

Miriam Tover - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 02, 2020
 

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.
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Answers from the Community

Miriam Tover - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 2, 2020
Jul 2, 2020
I agree with above analysis, But both tools fit the profile of a big Lego box, a toolbox where you can do almost everything with it but seldom need it. You need for both a lot of technical background to use it properly and the cost are for both on the top of market. you should ask yourself do I need this Best-of-suit approach from both vendors or do I look for better tools for part of the suit...
2 out of 8 answers
it_user917112 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 12, 2019
Team, Please find the attached comparison sheet. Rgds, Pavan Kumar iValue InfoSolutions Pvt. Ltd. m: +91 9008097032 e: pavan.kumar@ivalue.co.in w: www.ivalue.co.in Leaders in optimizing, protecting and transforming “DIGITAL ASSETS" of organizations with leading edge & proven offerings, in collaboration with trusted Partners
JS
Feb 12, 2019
BMC Helix (Remedy) is not a new product release from BMC. This is a relaunched SaaS offering from BMC under a new Package called as Helix previously known as RemedyOnDemand. Having said that, the Helix seems much more than RemedyOnDemand used to offer. With Helix, the customer has the option to choose a cloud - BMC Cloud, AWS and MS Azure. The core products are Remedy ITSM, Digital workplace (MyIT/SmartIT) mobile apps, BMC Discovery, BMC Business workflows (case management solution for LOB). The supported products are Remedy Single-Sign-On, BMC Client Management, and BMC Client Gateway. These are all available today On-Premise as well. The deployment technology is no longer the old method of installations and configurations on a VM. The new technology that BMC Helix brings is Containerisation. The Docker and Kubernetes container technologies help in provisioning the Helix Products within a day and thus you are ready to configure/customized to suit your business needs from day two itself. Further, Helix offers cognitive capabilities for your ITSM with solutions completely built on cloud - Chatbot and AI automation powered by IBM Watson. Innovation suite platform - a microservices based architecture and integrations through REST APIs. The innovation suite offers an integration studio with few in-built connectors as well like Jira, Service Cloud, etc. You can further build your own connectors using the integration controller within the innovation suite platform. So to summarise my view - Helix offers a lot to the customer within one single package and must be given a shot as it brings a choice of cloud, container technology and cognitive capabilities for the products which are already known and popular in the ITSM world.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
12%
Educational Organization
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
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 operations, any arising issues, be it security concerns or issues within depart...
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 to find the right information quickly. The recent move to a new platform is bene...
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 company uses BMC Helix ITSM for IT service management processes.
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 that platform for good. The business model is to lock in and then keep pumping th...
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 ServiceNow has a very strong module (Performance Analysis) reporting which will ...
What do you like most about ServiceNow?
The solution has a user-friendly interface.
 

Also Known As

Remedy ITSM, Remedy, Helix Remedy
No data available
 

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    
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC Helix ITSM vs. ServiceNow and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
861,481 professionals have used our research since 2012.