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Cherwell Service Management vs JIRA Service Management vs ServiceNow 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category, the mindshare of Cherwell Service Management is 1.8%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of JIRA Service Management is 6.9%, down from 9.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow is 14.2%, down from 23.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IT Service Management (ITSM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ServiceNow14.2%
JIRA Service Management6.9%
Cherwell Service Management1.8%
Other77.1%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

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.
Sohaib Ahmad - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President Service Delivery at quixel
Comprehensive workflows and data views have supported complex teams but still need cost improvements
JIRA Service Management is costly. The pricing structure needs improvement. When I add some plugins, I have to pay the cost for every user whether they are using it or not. For smaller companies, the detailed workflow editing and the kind of details that JIRA Service Management provides would be complex. For startups and smaller companies, JIRA Service Management would be complex. The cloud offering is easier because I don't have to manage the infrastructure. There are two templates of the project: company-managed and team-managed. Team-managed is a newer feature, which is good for startup-kind companies where they don't need control over data from multiple projects displaying in one dashboard. For startups, JIRA Service Management is somewhat complex with its schemes and everything. Capacity management should be improved in terms of additional features in the next release of JIRA Service Management.
Hemanthreddy Vakiti - PeerSpot reviewer
Data engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Structured workflows have improved SLA compliance and now support prioritized incident handling
I think the licensing and pricing of ServiceNow is quite expensive compared to other tools. For large organizations, it is acceptable, but specifically for small and medium organizations to track incidents or change requests, ServiceNow is quite expensive. Sometimes performance can be slow when workflows and integrations are configured for complex tasks. For advanced customizations or advanced features which we rarely use, the documentation is not up to standard. The documentation needs to be improved for advanced customization features. However, the platform is stable overall and the features are quite good. The user experience and performance concerns I mentioned are areas I want to be improved. When many workflows and interactions are configured, performance is slow. For the features it is providing, it is quite expensive. If these performance features are improved, we can easily pay that price and get the return on investment.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"Clear processes with transparent responsibilities led to more efficiencies within the teams."
"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."
"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."
"The initial setup is pretty easy."
"One of the best features is that I can share tickets with team members, at which point any team member is able to pick one up and work on it."
"JSM's pricing is one of the best, starting at around $10 per user, per month, with volume discounts available."
"The most valuable features are the flexibility of defining your own workflows and automation around the workflows, and the integration with the gate or any repository."
"Everything is good on the JIRA Service Management, in terms of what they have provided."
"The links between the help desk and Jira issues and between Confluence and Jira issues are most valuable. I can write requirements in Confluence and link them to user stories in Jira and test cases. I can see my test coverage and all that kind of stuff. The integration between these three is very useful. It is pretty customizable, and it integrates well. There are a lot of add-ins and a lot of connectors to third-party products. In my last company, we used Test Royal for managing all the tests, and it integrated perfectly with that. For any issue or bug, we could see what tests have been run and the complete history of the tests."
"The query language and the ability to create views of the data are very useful."
"The tool is scalable."
"As an end user, I would rate it a seven out of ten."
"I prefer ServiceNow to the competition because of its ease of use, installation and configuration."
"​The workflow capability for easy setup is powerful."
"Straightforward tool."
"Great that it's knowledge-based and you can use the flows in ServiceNow."
"Good stable and scalable solution."
"We're getting a good cost-efficiency."
"ServiceNow is close to perfect, it delivers exactly what is needed in terms of keeping track of information in our records."
 

Cons

"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."
"Access is only available if we're on VPN."
"Application service mapping, GRC, SecOps, and things like that need improvement."
"The solution could be more user-friendly."
"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."
"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."
"JIRA Service Management should make reporting easier. I would like something integrated with DevOps tools."
"It would be useful to be ale to link tickets across different gantt charts in Jira and Confluence."
"Every time there's a problem with JIRA Service Management, you have to have a look at how to solve it, and there's always a feature request or the feature request on the solution is too large and the development cycles are too slow."
"While licensing is costly, setting up JIRA Service Management is overall good because the vendor helped me, and I also received support from JIRA support, making it a positive experience."
"JIRA Service Management could include more AI features."
"Instability happens sometimes - although not frequently."
"The search function could be improved. We have to search a certain way. There is no generic search; it is more object-oriented search."
"They need to work on the speed of Jira."
"There is a need to enhance ticket details visibility on the portal, such as displaying SLA information, which currently requires development effort."
"Just ease of use for people who aren't very technically savvy."
"ServiceNow can be improved primarily in terms of licensing."
"The asset management application could be improved. They have a lot of the infrastructure built, but it does not come with already made compatibility with some of the most popular vendors, such as Cisco and Microsoft."
"Very expensive."
"To me, ServiceNow is a money pit."
"I would say there is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to technical support."
"They need to be providing vendors and implementation partners with materials and guidance on implementation."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For an ITIL user, the cost is probably about 50 bucks a month."
"Costs are about $50 per user per year. JIRA is sold in user tiers of 25, 50, 100, 250, 500, 2000, 10,000, and unlimited users. It is bad when you have 51 users then the price is based on that 100 user tier. Users at 100 will be the most cost effective."
"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, where one is low price, and ten is high price. It's competitively priced."
"We need a license because we have a higher number than the free part."
"The price of JIRA Service Management could be reduced."
"JSM's pricing is one of the best, starting at around $10 per user, per month, with volume discounts available."
"It costs around $150 to $200 per user."
"I price of JIRA Service Management is reasonable."
"The pricing is very competitive and I think that it is okay."
"They could be more competitive with their licensing."
"Isn't pricing always too much? We really do chafe at the ITIL licensing. ITOM is also pretty expensive."
"In Tunisia, the companies find the licensing costs to be expensive."
"Certainly, from a product-platform perspective, the price is not too bad."
"It is very expensive because it is a big organization. You have to pay for additional things."
"There is an annual subscription to use this solution."
"There are licensing fees."
"The pricing is on the high side, but if you look at the stability and option to work, it's kind of justified."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
6%
Educational Organization
6%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise34
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business56
Midsize Enterprise35
Large Enterprise179
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for JIRA Service Management?
While licensing is costly, setting up JIRA Service Management is overall good because the vendor helped me, and I als...
What needs improvement with JIRA Service Management?
I feel JIRA Service Management could be better if the APIs from the sponsoring team provided more support and flexibi...
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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow?
ServiceNow's pricing is fine. We have accounting for each headcount for ServiceNow, and the pricing is actually good.
 

Also Known As

No data available
JIRA Service Desk, Atlassian Jira Service Management
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Ausenco, Highlights for Children, B/E Aerospace
mgm technology partners, Telestream, Build.com, Zend Technologies, OfficeDrop, PGS Software, American Diabetes Association, NEPTUNE Canada
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 ServiceNow, Atlassian, ManageEngine and others in IT Service Management (ITSM). Updated: May 2026.
895,151 professionals have used our research since 2012.