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Cherwell Service Management vs ServiceNow 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
ServiceNow
Ranking in Help Desk Software
1st
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
231
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (1st), Rapid Application Development Software (2nd), No-Code Development Platforms (1st)
 

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 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%
Cherwell Service Management1.8%
Other84.0%
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.
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 most valuable features are problem management and change management."
"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."
"Its integration features, orchestration features, and discovery tools are the most valuable."
"The most valuable features are problem management and change management."
"Clear processes with transparent responsibilities led to more efficiencies within the teams."
"Clear processes with transparent responsibilities led to more efficiencies within the teams."
"Implementing CSM has made us very efficient and we're now able to plan changes and the steps required for implementation."
"The dashboard is very useful to get a quick overview of current tasks."
"​The workflow capability for easy setup is powerful."
"This solution is a single-storage for our user community to submit help desk tickets."
"It's more about the ease of use of ServiceNow, plus everything is there in a single platform, and if you need any additional functionality, you just need to enable the plugins without even installing anything on the servers."
"It gave us professionalized, faster incident turn around times. Improved quality of information shared with our customers. Over time we build an extensive knowledge base that assists in both self-service as in services provided by the servicedesk when handling incidents."
"It's serving our end-user community, making it simple for them to order products, get service from our incident help desk, and perhaps even helping everyone across the globe because we have to stay connected somehow, and ServiceNow does that for us."
"ServiceNow has also enabled our Management Consulting business to provide Digital Transformation services for our clients the world over, as we use the platform as an accelerator for doing IT Target Operating Model transformations."
"I have found that sorting and grouping functions are particularly useful."
"Your time-to-market, or TTM, becomes faster when you use ServiceNow, and even individuals that are not tech-savvy can quickly change processes and workflows in it, which can make the organization as a whole more agile."
 

Cons

"The support from the actual manufacturer is poor."
"Access is only available if we're on VPN."
"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."
"We need to be on VPN in order to set up and access the solution, and that has created some challenges."
"The solution could be more user-friendly."
"The licensing needs to be divided into tiers in order to attract lower-level users."
"When it comes to changing some of the features, I would like a little more leeway."
"The Project Management with Resource Management feature is an area with room for improvement."
"It is pricey, and for good reason."
"Their cloud management is also not that great compared to other products."
"Licensing costs are very high."
"A new user does need training or time to learn the solution before jumping in. It was very hard in the beginning to understand everything. I couldn't find the models I needed at the time."
"We are struggling with the scheduling part, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it is a ServiceNow issue. It could be the way we have configured it. We don't have it configured in a way where you can schedule a support call with our end users. We are looking for more automation in the box and the chat feature."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For an ITIL user, the cost is probably about 50 bucks a month."
"The solution is priced for medium to enterprises sized businesses. However, it is expensive compared to competitors."
"It is fairly expensive."
"I'm not aware of any additional costs. I'm pretty sure that the current client is paying just the licensing fee per user. I do know that they've got some support agreement with ServiceNow, but I don't think that is broken out or specific to Project Management. It is just inclusive."
"The price of this solution is expensive."
"ServiceNow's pricing is comparatively higher than Helix's."
"It has a higher cost compared to local/regional solutions."
"While the option exists to pay for a monthly license, we are dealing with large enterprises and these typically involve multi-year licenses of ten or five years, at a minimum."
"I am from Brazil. For Latin American markets, ServiceNow is very expensive as compared to other vendors, such as VMware."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Construction Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Energy/Utilities Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

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

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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 that platform for good. The business model is to lock in and then keep pumping th...
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 ServiceNow has a very strong module (Performance Analysis) reporting which will ...
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.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Ausenco, Highlights for Children, B/E Aerospace
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 Cherwell Service Management vs. ServiceNow and other solutions. Updated: May 2026.
893,915 professionals have used our research since 2012.