Clarity SM vs SolarWinds Web Help Desk comparison

Broadcom and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Help Desk Software category. Broadcom is ranked #25, while SolarWinds is ranked #15 with an average rating of 9.0. Broadcom holds a 1.4% mindshare in HDS, compared to SolarWinds’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Broadcom users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

Clarity SM

Read 107 Clarity SM reviews

1,652 Views
1,256 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Read 8 SolarWinds Web Help Desk reviews

784 Views
674 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Clarity SM

SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

Clarity SM and SolarWinds Web Help Desk compete in IT service management. Clarity SM has advantages in pricing and support, while SolarWinds Web Help Desk offers superior features.

Features: Clarity SM provides strong ticket management, automated workflows, and a user-friendly interface. SolarWinds Web Help Desk includes comprehensive asset management, detailed reporting capabilities, and advanced customization options.

Room for Improvement: Clarity SM could enhance its reporting features, expand integration capabilities, and improve the depth of customization. SolarWinds Web Help Desk may benefit from simplifying its on-premises installation, enhancing its user interface, and offering more economical scaling options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Clarity SM is known for its simple cloud-based deployment and responsive customer service. In contrast, SolarWinds Web Help Desk has a more complex on-premises installation but provides extensive documentation to support users.

Pricing and ROI: Clarity SM offers lower initial setup costs, resulting in a favorable ROI with its economical scalability. SolarWinds Web Help Desk requires a higher upfront investment but delivers value through a rich toolset for long-term benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Clarity SM vs. SolarWinds Web Help Desk Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Clarity SM vs. SolarWinds Web Help Desk

December 2025

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Helped 881,114 peers since 2012

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

Clarity SM

Ranking in Help Desk Software

25th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

107

Ranking in other categories

IT Service Management (ITSM) (23rd)

SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

15th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Clarity SM is 1.4%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Web Help Desk is 1.2%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Help Desk Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SolarWinds Web Help Desk	1.2%
Clarity SM	1.4%
Other	97.4%

Help Desk Software

Featured Reviews

Türker Kara

Application & Software Architect at Turkiye Finans Participation Bank

Quite good back-end architecture for end users but the API is very, very bad

Our company uses the solution for system, program, service request, change, and knowledge-based management. We perform CMD authorizations and use a lot of integrations for our in-house or third-party applications. We also use Salesforce automations and Microsoft orchestrations. We have about…

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GANESAN K

Senior Technical Engineer at Safezone Secure Solutions Private Limited

Has supported daily operational workflows and improved approval management across departments

We actually do the reselling. We created a self-service portal for the customers, and this particular function does impact reducing IT staff workload overall. From technical standpoints, comparing SolarWinds Web Help Desk with TeamViewer, we need ease of configuration and ease of allocating, creating new fields or creating new layouts for many specific use cases. An organization can have a number of use cases when it comes to a ticketing tool. It's not a security solution; it's more of a service solution where you will be configuring the needed categories and needed fields for each department. On a scale of 1-10, I rate SolarWinds Web Help Desk an 8.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The view it provides into who's doing the work."

"All the interactions and orchestrations of every problem, we can analyze what happens in the organization and which kind of incident we have."

"Solution is scalable. It does work. We can modify it up better to make it the way we want it to work. We have implemented it for larger and smaller companies."

"It also provides the front end for the employees too. It's pretty basic, but it gives them the means to reach out to IT so they don't have to pick up the phones."

"It is easy to tell what needs fixing and the priority of things."

"Ability to write macros, which can in turn trigger some condition or could be conditioned to basically trigger notifications, the workflow desk, or web calls. It is huge benefit to customize it."

"The fact that it aligns very well with ITIL. I think that's probably one of my favorite things about it, because it's following up a general best practice for service management."

"The tool itself is valuable as a result of all its features combined. Therefore, I have found that there is no feature more valuable than another."

More Clarity SM pros

"Once installed, it runs like a charm and doesn't ever crash."

"It has a pretty good search function. If you do the advanced search, you can basically search for anything in any field. If I do a search on the request field and just put in some terms I'm searching for, I can usually find the ticket that I'm looking for."

"The biggest advantage for SolarWinds Web Help Desk is the user interface; we were able to configure a different UI for administrators, employees, and HODs based on their hierarchy level."

"SolarWinds is scalable as far as adding devices and servers."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the assets management module."

"SolarWinds supports case and incident reporting. This includes logging incidents and tracking them efficiently. Additionally, it is compatible and approved by the ITIL foundation and standards, meeting world-class standards."

"It is easy to use."

Cons

"They should enhance the service desk manager's service point function to be more customizable."

"It doesn't yet have the ability to integrate with other products."

"Improvements would include simplification in the user interface, being more expandable, better documentation. The user interface is fairly cluttered, and we can update it the way we need to, but it just seems dated."

"I would like to see the API cleaned up."

"The CA products integrate well together but I would like to see better integration with third-party solutions."

"More user experience in the look and feel of the application. "

"Just little technical tweaks here and there. Like more options. For example "Organization." We wanted that to be available inside the change order, as well as the ticket and the request. And that's not available."

"I would also like to see a simpler reporting tool. They went from one fairly robust, very complex, reporting tool - it was great - and then they went to another one that was also fairly complex and robust. That's a great tool for people who are report writers, but for the average person who just wants to get a quick little report, it's like handing somebody a chainsaw because they have to break some toothpicks in half."

More Clarity SM cons

"The interface feels clunky to me compared to some other systems that I've used. I used ManageEngine Service Desk prior to this at my previous job and that had stuff like categories that we use that I don't see in SolarWinds."

"The working part, the deployment part, and the configuration part was a little bit complex."

"A little outdated compared to newer products that include protection and detection."

"It would be good if there were training and tutorial videos on the Web Help Desk."

"This solution needs to have mobile application support added."

"We would like to see automation included in the next release. We would like to eliminate the L1, and L2 support, by at least 80%. To do this, we need automation with AI (Artificial Intelligence) in combination with ML (Machine Learning)."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a subscripted needed to use Clarity SM. The price of the solution could be less expensive. ServiceNow is less expensive and BMC Helix is priced similar to Clarity SM."

"Pricing is simple, as it’s per concurrent analysts."

"The pricing is based on a subscription model."

"I don't see anyone other than large companies being able to afford this system."

"It is a bit expensive, but you definitely get what you pay for. It is worth it!"

"I think pricing of this model is suitable for growing corporations."

"Clarity offers a perpetual license. Customers purchase the license once and then pay for maintenance. CA provides a subscription model as well. Both models are available for our customers."

"The solution is quite reasonable compared to other solutions in the market."

"When you compare with ManageEngine and ServiceNow, SolarWinds is reasonable."

"They charge by the technician. It costs $117 per technician per year."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Media Company

10%

Performing Arts

10%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

15%

Performing Arts

13%

Government

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	66

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Web Help Desk?

Areas of improvement can be enhanced regarding configuration. We had the deployment metrics and usability, ease of use, and ease of access. These were the three functionalities we were looking for ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Web Help Desk?

For Zoho, we did OP Manager, Audit Security, AD Security and Asset Management, Patch Management. These things we are dealing with Zoho. We are not dealing with solutions such as Zoho Mail or Zoho P...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering SolarWinds Web Help Desk?

See all answers

Comparisons

JIRA Service Management vs Clarity SM

Compared 22% of the time

ServiceNow vs Clarity SM

Compared 12% of the time

Vision Helpdesk vs Clarity SM

Compared 8% of the time

SymphonyAI IT Service Management vs Clarity SM

Compared 6% of the time

SCSM vs Clarity SM

Compared 6% of the time

More Clarity SM Competitors

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Compared 15% of the time

ServiceNow vs SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Compared 15% of the time

Freshservice vs SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Compared 15% of the time

Zendesk vs SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Compared 11% of the time

BMC Helix ITSM vs SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Compared 11% of the time

More SolarWinds Web Help Desk Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Clarity SM

January 2026

Download Clarity SM product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Web Help Desk

January 2026

Download SolarWinds Web Help Desk product report

Also Known As

CA Service Desk Manager, Clarity Service Management, CA Service Management, Unicenter Service Desk, CA SDM, CA Service Catalog, CA Business Service Insight

No data available

Overview

Service desk capabilities, an integral part of the CA Service Management solution, can enable you to deliver efficiencies in IT service management to business consumers, power users and decision makers. Mobility and collaborative self-service capabilities provide a modern user experience for accessing services and performing tasks, which can help drive user adoption, satisfaction and productivity.

Learn More: https://www.ca.com/us/products...

Broadcom

SolarWinds Web Help Desk simplifies service management with unified ticketing, asset, knowledge, and change management. Key features include:

Maintain asset inventory by managing the use, availability, and health of IT assets, and tracking this over time.
Control change management, It regulates and manages change requests through automated approval workflows and panel voting options.
Employs robust reporting and monitoring using a built-in reports and dashboards to track ticket status, technician performance, and customer support needs.
Automate ticketing management that Automate service request management through ticket creation, assignment, routing, and escalation.
Centralize your knowledge management, Leverage a built-in help desk knowledge base to create and maintain KB articles and promote end-user self-service for common issues.
Meet your SLAs, it has "SLA breach approaching" notifications and date-specific SLA reminder alerts that help customize escalation and de-escalation workflows.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Banco G&T Continental City of Perth, FEMSA, Fujitsu, Manpower, Muslim Commercial Bank - MCB, Punjab National Bank, Santa Clara County Social Services, Stefanini

Instacart

Buyer's Guide

Clarity SM vs. SolarWinds Web Help Desk

December 2025

Free Report: Clarity SM vs. SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Find out what your peers are saying about Clarity SM vs. SolarWinds Web Help Desk and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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