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Cherwell Service Management vs SCSM 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
SCSM
Ranking in Help Desk Software
11th
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
11th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category, the mindshare of Cherwell Service Management is 1.7%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SCSM is 1.9%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IT Service Management (ITSM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SCSM1.9%
Cherwell Service Management1.7%
Other96.4%
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.
LuisSanchez3 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Metropolitano de Gobierno Digital at a government with 10,001+ employees
Current setup enables smooth problem-solving but lacks comprehensive guidance and local support
More information about setup procedures and a more user-friendly front end would be beneficial. We need more information for setup processes. It is difficult to do the work independently, requiring us to hire external companies for maintenance hours to fix small issues that could be resolved faster in-house if we had better information. We have been looking for an upgrade version, but finding local service has been difficult. It has been challenging trying to get things done. Speaking with the Microsoft office, we found there are no local companies with substantial experience with SCSM. What we have now was installed five or six years ago. It has been difficult to change configurations and look for upgrades, even with all the manuals. Our office is considering moving away from SCSM and getting a service desk solution outside of Microsoft. For me, it has been a good tool to get help and solve internal problems in the office. It is a very good tool, but the difficulty in getting local service or more information is pushing us to look for another tool.

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. It is also pretty stable, and it can be as scalable as you want."
"All our activities are carried out in the one place."
"Its integration features, orchestration features, and discovery tools are the most valuable."
"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."
"We use the solution every day and quite extensively."
"Clear processes with transparent responsibilities led to more efficiencies within the teams."
"Microsoft System Center Service Manager is a good product; it seems very easy and is better than most of the other solutions, which often have only a few features and cannot do what Microsoft can do."
"The scalability is a collaborative with SCOM, and SCSM; SCSM is a configuration manager for page and software development, you can see your systems which have been updated and it can easily deploy the new things as well, and you can also see it as a collaborative operations manager and integration manager."
"The solution is quite easy to integrate with other Microsoft products."
"It is an amazing solution but the pricing could be improved to be a little more competitive."
"It is a simple solution that is easy to configure."
"The call logging is the solution's most valuable feature; it's very easy to use and isn't too resource-intensive."
"It is quite scalable."
"We use SCSM to manage all of our IT operations, including incident and service requests and problem management."
 

Cons

"The solution could be more user-friendly."
"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."
"Agile delivery should be supported."
"The support from the actual manufacturer is poor."
"Access is only available if we're on VPN."
"Application service mapping, GRC, SecOps, and things like that need improvement."
"Although some engineers at Microsoft are good, the support often lacks expertise, and response times are slow."
"The patch management aspect of the solution should be improved. It's quite complicated and not user-friendly."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"The price of this solution is high and it needs to be cheaper."
"They might be looking for additional functionalities that SCSM could integrate."
"Although some engineers at Microsoft are good, the support often lacks expertise, and response times are slow."
"It crashes our client's computers. Sometimes they get blue screens. It would be useful if SCSM could check the upgrades or patches before we implemented them to see if they are going to crash a client's system. Or, if it does install, and the client's system crashes, it would be good if the solution could revert back somehow."
"It's not too hard to compile stuff but it is hard to manage the solution. Even the design itself makes it difficult for management."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For an ITIL user, the cost is probably about 50 bucks a month."
"The license for SCSM is cheap."
"I would rate the pricing as two out of five."
"The price should be lower."
"Licensing can be complex and confusing."
"It comes free with the enterprise agreement that we have, but the expense really is in having to buy another product to sit on top of it to make it work properly. You wind up having to buy additional support and additional product with their own support and maintenance costs on top of that."
"It is a lower price vs. other things on the market."
"The price of the solution could be better. My organization has an enterprise annual license with Microsoft which provides us support."
"The platform is competitively priced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Energy/Utilities Company
11%
Healthcare Company
10%
Government
15%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SCSM?
I am not sure about the pricing as I do not have experience with it.
What needs improvement with SCSM?
More information about setup procedures and a more user-friendly front end would be beneficial. We need more information for setup processes. It is difficult to do the work independently, requiring...
What is your primary use case for SCSM?
In my job, I work for the city where we have an enterprise agreement with Microsoft. We have Office, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, server licensing, and Azure. We have Active Directory with Windows Se...
 

Also Known As

No data available
System Center Service Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Ausenco, Highlights for Children, B/E Aerospace
Fibabanka, UMC Health System
Find out what your peers are saying about Cherwell Service Management vs. SCSM and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.