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Cherwell Service Management vs Freshservice comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 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

Cherwell Service Management
Ranking in Help Desk Software
28th
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
27th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Freshservice
Ranking in Help Desk Software
5th
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
Project Management Software (10th), Cloud Management (12th), IT Asset Management (4th), Configuration Management Databases (5th), IT Alerting and Incident Management (8th), AI IT Support (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Cherwell Service Management is 1.7%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Freshservice is 3.9%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Help Desk Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Freshservice3.9%
Cherwell Service Management1.7%
Other94.4%
Help Desk Software
 

Featured Reviews

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.
RF
IT Service Delivery Manager at Symposiam
Automation and AI have transformed our service delivery and have made IT support faster and more efficient
I always keep up with Freshservice's roadmaps and new features. Freshservice has been very good at listening to feedback and adding those feature requests into their next iterations. I wish they would offer more granular data export options for utilizing in Power BI, along with predictive analytics for capacity planning and SLA breaches to enable more proactive support management and reduce firefighting. While the dashboards are effective, some users find custom reporting limited compared to ServiceNow or Jira. I would also appreciate deeper integrations, especially for niche apps requiring development coding work to enable advanced orchestration. Native integrations for DevOps pipelines such as GitHub Actions and Jenkins, along with stronger API flexibility for complex workflows, would enhance functionality. Although the CMDB and asset management are solid, they do lack advanced dependency mapping compared to other enterprise tools. My wishlist includes automated impact analysis for changes and improved visualization of asset relationships, enabling quicker resolutions from an agent's perspective when alerts come in. I acknowledge that Device42 may enhance this, but it is an extra cost beyond what we already pay. While Freddy AI is excellent for triage and suggestions, some users desire more proactive automation, such as predictive ticket routing based on historical patterns and AI-driven capacity forecasting. Lastly, the pricing tiers might seem rigid for mid-sized teams, so a more granular add-on option for features such as Device42 or pay-per-use for orchestration workflows could be beneficial.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Clear processes with transparent responsibilities led to more efficiencies within the teams."
"The most valuable features are problem management and change management."
"We use the solution every day and quite extensively."
"Clear processes with transparent responsibilities led to more efficiencies within the teams."
"Its integration features, orchestration features, and discovery tools are the most valuable. It is also pretty stable, and it can be as scalable as you want."
"Implementing CSM has made us very efficient and we're now able to plan changes and the steps required for implementation."
"Its integration features, orchestration features, and discovery tools are the most valuable."
"The dashboard is very useful to get a quick overview of current tasks."
"The product is loaded with all the features you need."
"The most valuable aspect of the solution is the user experience."
"We like the mail tickets on offer; it is something we love, and there are workflows that are working quite well, with multiple queues and resolution groups, and the solution has been stable."
"I do like the workflow automation capabilities, where based upon certain actions, it will automatically go and route tickets to a particular person. It is fairly user-friendly."
"It has greatly improved the process of ticket triaging."
"Freshservice has had a significant positive impact, especially when managing AWS-related IT operations by centralizing incident management and automating repetitive tasks."
"It allowed the development team to concentrate on the client’s requirements instead."
"This solution has provided us with a level of ticket traceability that didn't exist previously, and we now have statistics and data that tell the story of what our support engineers have been doing, improving speed and reliability."
 

Cons

"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."
"Application service mapping, GRC, SecOps, and things like that need improvement."
"Agile delivery should be supported."
"The stability, specifically in the on-premises deployment model, could be improved."
"Areas for improvement would be the service catalog and customer catalog, which is not very user-friendly."
"Access is only available if we're on VPN."
"We'd like to see a CMDB, a Configuration Management Database, in the future."
"I think it would be great if the tool had another version that is more customizable. From what I remember, there were some limitations regarding the number of assets you could track. In a more robust version, the number of assets increases, but I think it would be better to have something more customizable for all versions, especially the most robust version. This would be great for larger customers."
"They're not very good at technical support."
"Freshservice can be improved by enhancing Asset Management or CMDB accuracy."
"We did a review of our project management tool internally within the company, and it was one of the choices, but it didn't match up anywhere close to any of the other tools we were considering."
"I experienced some delay in response time for non-function critical queries."
"There is a need for improvement in terms of automatic escalation to the next level if an issue is not resolved. It should optimize and allow customization. Additionally, asset management needs improvement."
"Freshservice has issues around how assets get picked up, requiring a lot of parameter changes within to network to ensure the system discovers everything."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For an ITIL user, the cost is probably about 50 bucks a month."
"We're basically paying about $100 USD per agent per month."
"Compared to other tools, Freshservice is affordable."
"One of the key benefits of Freshservice is license management. Asset management has the possibility to keep track of licenses and that's very useful. The price of the solution is very good."
"It was a middle tier. It wasn't an expensive one. It was a tier model usage. Licensing costs varied between admin users and regular users."
"Freshservice's licensing costs are pretty good, and it has different categories of pricing based on what modules and features you choose, which gives a lot of flexibility."
"It is $34 per license, per agent. Currently, we don't see any add-ons at extra fees."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"The pricing information is on their website. It's my understanding that their Pro Plan, for example, is around $89/month."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
10%
Energy/Utilities Company
10%
University
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
8%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Freshservice?
I do not have any experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing, as it was assigned to the infrastructure team.
What needs improvement with Freshservice?
Freshservice has an AI agent that needs improvement for finding knowledge base articles. When issues or incidents are received in Freshservice, new users should be able to receive direct help from ...
What is your primary use case for Freshservice?
Freshservice is used to redirect ticket handling and acknowledge tickets and incidents received. Tickets are redirected with their short description and subject line in Freshservice, which allows f...
 

Also Known As

No data available
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Ausenco, Highlights for Children, B/E Aerospace
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Western Carriers, Judson University, Golf Canada, Travix, Proxama, Paymentez, Ready Auto Transport
Find out what your peers are saying about Cherwell Service Management vs. Freshservice and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,264 professionals have used our research since 2012.