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Cherwell Service Management vs Freshdesk comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Automation Anywhere
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
663
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (2nd), Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (2nd), Process Mining (1st), Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) (1st), Agentic Automation (1st), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (2nd), AI Legal & Compliance (1st), AI Finance & Accounting (1st), AI Procurement & Supply Chain (1st)
Cherwell Service Management
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (29th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (26th)
Freshdesk
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
Customer Experience Management (3rd), Field Service Management (3rd), Help Desk Software (5th), Knowledge Management Software (4th)
 

Featured Reviews

Venkat Sivaprakash - PeerSpot reviewer
Management Consultant at Accenture
Has significantly improved document-driven workflows and reduced processing time across finance and HR functions
Automation Anywhere has evolved significantly and upgraded itself to provide agentic AI and AI-based automation solutions for document automation. The product has matured considerably over time. We can create workflows that can call an API. We can include prompts in particular workflows for ChatGPT-related functions, connecting to an LLM and RAG to perform tasks. For document automation, modern features are available to train documents, ensuring high accuracy and repeatability over time. The system is very easy to use. I recently completed a course in document automation, typically designed for people involved in coding and technical aspects. Though I understand coding comprehensively, I don't do actual coding. The course was very accessible. Currently, extensive coding isn't necessary due to the hybrid model incorporating GenAI aspects, low-code, no-code capabilities, APIs, and numerous pre-built objects in Automation Anywhere. The features include GenAI-driven prompting methods and workflow creation capabilities. In these workflows, we can create decision boxes and call APIs without coding. We simply pull objects, drop them, connect them, and add minimal coding when needed. The most crucial aspect isn't coding but rather sizing the automation and fleshing out the details. Automation Co-pilot takes notes and performs automated analysis. It can extract details from videos, summarize conversations, and provide detailed information. During calls, it identifies instructions and performs tasks such as preparing reports and reconciliation. Automation Anywhere can also connect with Microsoft Co-pilot. Through Co-pilot, real-time operations can be executed, allowing direct interaction between vendors and automation through this component.
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.
Gauri Thakur - PeerSpot reviewer
Director, Portfolio Projects at Microland Limited
Integrated support workflows have provided a unified view but need broader enterprise flexibility
Freshdesk's scalability could be improved for larger businesses across departments. Its intuitive interface is appealing for small to medium-sized businesses. However, when you look at larger enterprise levels, ServiceNow operates more efficiently. This scalability is an area where Freshdesk could expand its offerings. Additionally, I don't have too much hands-on experience with Freshdesk ticket routing. I need to check with the service desk team if they've used it. Similarly, for analytics capability, I haven't explored much on Freshdesk, but I have done it for ServiceNow. I have seen a lot on ServiceNow and the BMC Remedy, so I can speak better for them. I haven't had the chance to look at it so much that I can do a comparison. I haven't had much experience with Freshdesk's reporting. Within its paradigm of customer service management, Freshdesk is quite scalable. But I've said that inter-department and the interoperability is better off in ServiceNow than in Freshdesk.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"While our Automation Anywhere's implementation is in a premature stage, it has really decreased the workload on our service desk and we definitely see some ROI in the future from this product."
"My company uses AA extensively for internal BPO work as well as we refer and deploy it to the customer as a RPaaS model, helping increase productivity, reduce overall operational costs, and deliver fewer errors while proving to be a reliable workhorse during the COVID situation."
"Since it has capabilities to integrate with third-party applications easily, it makes the life of an automation engineer very easy."
"Just for this use case, we had around 300 tickets coming in every month. We went live last month and the tickets went down to around 80 as of August 20th. While it might touch around 100, over a period of around six months it will become zero because we have not removed all the legacy data. We are just doing it from the go date of when we went live. The target is that it will be zero after three months. So, it's working well."
"On a scale of one to ten, I rate Automation Anywhere a ten."
"The most valuable features of Automation Anywhere are Excel, periods, database, and email action."
"Now they have a nice tool that is mostly stable with most of the features I could want being covered in the functionality of the product."
"One good thing in A2019 is that all products of Automation Anywhere, like IQBOT services, Meta Bot Designer, Discovery Bot, and Control room are all together in one product which is very effective for any business team."
"All our activities are carried out in the one place."
"We use the solution every day and quite extensively."
"Implementing CSM has made us very efficient and we're now able to plan changes and the steps required for implementation."
"The dashboard and the reporting functionality are the solution's most valuable features."
"The best feature is the ability to create functional dashboards, where the IT manager can interact with its data through the dashboard using the drill down feature."
"The most valuable features are problem management and change management."
"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."
"Freshdesk has allowed us to measure and track the response and resolution time of tickets which has been reduced from seven to eight hours down to 30 minutes to one hour."
"Through chats we now connect with a bigger audience and satisfaction surveys have allowed us to know clients' points of view in a better way."
"Some of the best features of Freshdesk include automation, user-friendly interface, and comprehensive support options that enhance our workflow."
"It's easy to use and integrates with other tools. We can embed Jira into it, link Jira tickets with Freshdesk tickets, and use it for our knowledge base."
"Freshdesk is a time saver and reduces the need for fewer employees."
"Freshdesk has positively impacted my organization to an extraordinary extent; I cannot find the words to express how much it helps our workforce."
"The built-in customer satisfaction surveys made it easy for us to see areas that need improvement, and the ticket automations allows us to set priorities on incoming tickets based on who is submitting it."
"It generated reports for us, which helped us identify the status of requests and the aging of requests."
 

Cons

"The main issue I identify is that the cost of the enterprise-scale license and add-ons can be a barrier for small businesses."
"As a developer, I would like to have copy commands available from one bot to another."
"It would be better if they could extend the support for AA version 11 for a few more years, as most of the companies have tasks completed in AA version 11, and A2019 is much slower compared to AA 11."
"Apart from the Chrome issue, which took them maybe a week to fix, we lost a lot of processes during that time, but it just happens unfortunately."
"We have a lot of use cases that depend on certain Java applets, and currently we're not able to leverage the Object Cloning that would speed up our automation designing. So we have to revert to more image recognition-type of designing, and it just takes a long time to get that bot built."
"Sometimes, while recording, the screen hangs and we are not able to perform any actions during that time."
"SMTP mail features should come with migration options. All kind of VB scripts and Java scripts which we built using exiting version should support in this version."
"Automation Anywhere is not as flexible as Process Studio."
"Application service mapping, GRC, SecOps, and things like that need improvement."
"The support from the actual manufacturer is poor."
"We need to be on VPN in order to set up and access the solution, and that has created some challenges."
"They need to improve their mobile interface, as well as features regarding the extension of the mobile access to the end user."
"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."
"Access is only available if we're on VPN."
"Agile delivery should be supported."
"The stability, specifically in the on-premises deployment model, could be improved."
"Freshdesk could improve its capabilities. It's missing the article formatting, and the overall look and feel make it not easy to use. The administration instructions on how to manage the automation, capability, and integration with third parties, such as chat or bots, are very important in these types of solutions."
"I would like on-the-go translation,"
"It would be helpful to pull reports or schedule them based on agents, users, ticket numbers, or responses."
"Having so many tags makes everyday work a lot more complicated, and a lot more time-consuming."
"I face problems with stability sometimes while using Freshdesk. It's a server issue."
"Their support wasn't the best, it took a little bit for the person to understand what I was trying to say."
"Freshdesk can be improved by addressing the lack of a custom dashboard, which would help design it to the client's requirement, and the API rate limit, which would be best if they provided an option to increase or remove the restriction with an additional fee."
"For integrations, we need to write code that communicates with their system in order to enable certain functionality in the system. This is a lot of work for their customers."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would rate the price of Automation Anywhere a six out of ten, with ten being the most expensive."
"The pricing and licensing are definitely moderate to costly but easily recoverable by achieving ROI quickly."
"The cost is anywhere between $10,000 and $100,000."
"The initial setup and licensing fees are high, and although it saves costs in the long run, reaching the break-even point can take at least six months."
"Automation Anywhere is expensive."
"This is a comprehensive automation offering with a scalable architecture and flexible pricing models."
"More than 40 to 50 percent of the IT budget will be for the cost of automation projects in the coming years since these projects enhance operations add value."
"Automation Anywhere is somewhat expensive. The prices are slightly higher, but if you need something, you must pay for it."
"For an ITIL user, the cost is probably about 50 bucks a month."
"Freshdesk was the best solution with the best price. It was cost efficient and included all the features that we needed."
"The price could be better, but it's okay. Compared to ServiceNow and JIRA, Freshworks offers a competitive price. There are also additional licensing costs because you need Microsoft Outlook. Each new email account costs around $15 to $19."
"The pricing is pretty manageable and acceptable."
"We use a combination of Freshdesk, Freshservice, and Freshchat. We use the whole suite. Weirdly enough, we pay more for Freshdesk than we do for Freshservice. I would rate it a three out of five in terms of pricing. You can get different bundles, and you can always move to different plans that are standard. Freshservice can go anywhere from $19 up to $120 per agent, per month. There is such a wide range, and it is very customizable to your needs."
"We use a licensing model only so we pay for the number of agents we have configured in the system only."
"It is costly."
"The best system plan is enterprise. It costs basically 79 Euros per agent per month when it's billed annually and 95 Euros per agent per month when it's billed monthly."
"It was definitely not expensive. It was two grand or maybe three grand total for a year. It has just straight and simple standard licensing fees. There is no additional fee."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Construction Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
Construction Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business159
Midsize Enterprise81
Large Enterprise554
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
It depends on your use case. Is it simply to automate a couple of processes? Is it to augment a human team? AA is ver...
How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
From my experience using AA tool, it depends on the applications that you want to automate, because there some applic...
How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
It is a highly preferred RPA tool. You can check my Automation Anywhere Review to know more.
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What needs improvement with Freshdesk?
I think the main problem with Freshdesk is the deep settings, interface, and analytics. When you need complex cross-f...
What is your primary use case for Freshdesk?
My main use case for Freshdesk is customer support tickets. A specific example of how my team uses Freshdesk for cust...
What advice do you have for others considering Freshdesk?
My advice for others looking into using Freshdesk is to consider that compared to Zendesk or Salesforce, where the se...
 

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)
No data available
No data available
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
Ausenco, Highlights for Children, B/E Aerospace
Honda, 3M, Hugo Boss, Petronas, Sony Pictures, The Atlantic, goodreads, Clear Channel Radio, Penn University of Pennsylvania, unicef, Kuoni, Movember
Find out what your peers are saying about Cherwell Service Management vs. Freshdesk and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
906,781 professionals have used our research since 2012.