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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
29th
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
25th
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
6th
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 (10th), IT Asset Management (4th), Configuration Management Databases (5th), IT Alerting and Incident Management (9th), AI IT Support (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Cherwell Service Management is 1.7%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Freshservice is 3.6%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Help Desk Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Freshservice3.6%
Cherwell Service Management1.7%
Other94.7%
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

"The most valuable features are problem management and change management."
"The dashboard is very useful to get a quick overview of current tasks."
"Its integration features, orchestration features, and discovery tools are the most valuable."
"The dashboard and the reporting functionality are the solution's most valuable features."
"Implementing CSM has made us very efficient and we're now able to plan changes and the steps required for implementation."
"Clear processes with transparent responsibilities led to more efficiencies within the teams."
"The most valuable features are problem management and change management."
"Clear processes with transparent responsibilities led to more efficiencies within the teams."
"We use the ticketing system primarily, which is very easy to use for all users."
"The most valuable features of Freshservice are the notifications, customization, and flexibility."
"I would recommend this solution to others because it is good and the price is reasonable."
"Ultimately, we saw a 77% reduction in average resolution times with a return on investment realized within 6 months."
"Its ease of use is fantastic; it is just above and beyond, especially when you compare it to something like Cherwell, Salesforce, or anything like that, and it is on its own level."
"The most valuable features of Freshservice are the notifications, customization, and flexibility."
"The solution’s timely automated triggers increase our IT team’s productivity."
"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

"Application service mapping, GRC, SecOps, and things like that need improvement."
"Access is only available if we're on VPN."
"Agile delivery should be supported."
"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."
"The stability, specifically in the on-premises deployment model, could be improved."
"We need to be on VPN in order to set up and access the solution, and that has created some challenges."
"Areas for improvement would be the service catalog and customer catalog, which is not very user-friendly."
"We'd like to see a CMDB, a Configuration Management Database, in the future."
"In hindsight, Freshservice isn't the solution we should have chosen, as it's just not customisable enough."
"Freshservice could improve the delegation and workflow management features."
"I'd like to see better reporting on changes and as well as enhancements to the task/time function."
"Freshservice could improve the integration with Microsoft Outlook."
"The only thing I would have against it right now is that the workflow automation is not as granular as we would like it to be, at least for the size of our organization."
"I've had some problems with Freshservice's technical support. They often drag out cases by continually passing them on to other people, and they seem overeager to close tickets and sometimes mark them as resolved without checking first."
"It's still a new product, so there are some areas that are a little frustrating."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For an ITIL user, the cost is probably about 50 bucks a month."
"Freshservice is a fairly cheap solution. Though monthly payments can be made towards the licensing costs of the solution, my company prefers to make annual payments."
"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."
"The price of Freshservice could improve, it is expensive."
"It is good for the price you pay. It has different plans. If you need all features, you need to go for a higher plan. Currently, with the second tier plan, you cannot completely separate the group of agents. So, the agent in each group can see another person's ticket. You also cannot modify the rules based on the viewable, readable stuff and cannot have a custom role in this plan. If you want to do that, you have to go for a higher plan. It works in our case because it doesn't matter if the other group can see our ticket because it doesn't contain anything sensitive. We also didn't need the project or change management features. That's why we didn't go with a higher plan."
"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."
"Freshservice price is competitive, it is not more than other solutions on the market."
"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."
"The pricing is reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Construction Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Energy/Utilities Company
9%
University
10%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
7%
 

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
Flint
 

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: May 2026.
894,807 professionals have used our research since 2012.