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Clarity SM vs Spiceworks vs SysAid 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 September 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Clarity SM is 1.2%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Spiceworks is 1.6%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SysAid is 1.1%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Help Desk Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Spiceworks1.6%
SysAid1.1%
Clarity SM1.2%
Other96.1%
Help Desk Software
 

Featured Reviews

Türker Kara - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
Rohit Samel - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud storage with no hardware needed and great comprehensive reports
The software is cloud-based, so I do not need to store any data locally. It is a fully software-based solution, eliminating the need for investment in hardware. We have the capability to create reports as needed. It is good software to use, as there were no incidents where I needed to contact technical support. Additionally, it is free software.
Todd Blake - PeerSpot reviewer
A solution that streamlines ticket creation for the staff members of a business and enables efficient issue resolution by the IT team
SysAid is similar to Nintex AssureSign. Some of the back-end configurations of the solution are very difficult. So, we always need SysAid's help. Also, there are almost too many features that we are not taking advantage of in our company since we don't even know about them. A little bit of a streamlining or simplification of the main features would be a good improvement. I would like to see SysAid present its solution more easily. There is a lot in the solution, and it is more than what we need in our company.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Scalability is very good. We have scaled to more users and more functionality."
"It improves our service delivery process. We're more efficient. We're leveraging the ticketing system, which is always more efficient, so we can measure and improve."
"The integration between the ticketing and knowledge is huge, because that is a best practice. The knowledge is great. It is simple but efficient, and it works.​"
"We have decreased training and talk time, and all those good stats, just by reusing information, not reinventing it, every time we get a call."
"The in-service catalog is quite useful."
"It is easy to tell what needs fixing and the priority of things."
"Clarity is flexible to implement and integrate. It gives the developer or consultant a broad space to work and customize based on what the customers want."
"It has all our configurations. All our infrastructure configurations are on a single pane of glass to view, allowing for one single point of information."
"Tickets by e-mail, with actions by hastag."
"Spiceworks' dashboard allows you to drill down to the notes, where I can take an inventory of the network and see the devices I need to monitor."
"If you're in the market for a low-cost service desk system, Spiceworks is a good software solution to start out with, especially when it comes to startups and those organizations that don't currently have any existing service desk software in place."
"Spiceworks is generic and free."
"The software is cloud-based, so I do not need to store any data locally."
"The nice thing about Spiceworks is always it's free. Monitoring of printers for low toner. Finding machines that have low memory or low hard disk space."
"It shows the users that are currently logged in, which is not something that Active Directory by default will ever let you know up front."
"It lets us know whether devices are getting out of date and tracked warranties. Spiceworks also gave me visibility in terms of what software was installed on each device and its status."
"The service desk automation and orchestration are very good. We are implementing it at the moment. We implemented it for two of our applications already for our CRM. Whenever there's a change in the CRM, it will automate them into SysAid as well. We have two workflows from our CRM into SysAid, which is very helpful. Overall, we're very happy with the workflow."
"I would say the overall flexibility of the product is its most valuable feature."
"The simplicity of the solution is excellent."
"The solution can scale."
"It tracks everything that the technicians are doing. We can account for time and manage resources."
"It's really customizable. It's very user-friendly to change very quickly. We've developed lots of custom forms and things, without any need for thousands of accounting consultants which was one of our main aims of it."
"SysAid is more user-friendly, and its configuration is easier than other tools."
"The solution provides us with multi-layered service management along with all our support pieces integrated in one system. Our entire system is run on SysAid, from Tier 1 to Tier 3. All the other IT department functionality is captured in SysAid, like development, warehousing, and application. So, it has vertical and horizontal coverage."
 

Cons

"When I am reviewing an incident, sometimes there is too much information on the same screen and it is difficult to discern what is of value."
"Clarity tech support has gotten worse since Broadcom acquired CA Technologies. We're not getting the support we've come to expect as a large enterprise. Clarity's support needs to improve, or it's going to lose market share."
"I am not able to see tickets on a bigger scale. I can't see the overall bigger picture."
"We would like more information about all the configurations that we have on our infrastructure side."
"More user experience in the look and feel of the application. ​"
"Report solutions are a little short."
"I would like to see the API cleaned up."
"The interface is pretty straightforward, but I think for some end-users a little more simplified user interface would help."
"Once a device was recognized on the network, Spiceworks never got rid of it even after you took it off the network. You had to go in and manually remove it."
"Since Spiceworks is a free tool, it's not very scriptable or customizable."
"I am unable to provide suggestions for improvement at this moment."
"Sometimes, it can be difficult to integrate what you need."
"I would like to see more information when drilling down into access permissions, assignments management, or tagging. When I click a note or a device, I should be able to see more details about the router and modem. For example, I want to see the version, downtime, availability, latency, etc. I should have easy access to everything about our assets at a glance."
"The SNMP sniffer requires a lot of work to get right."
"They've also tried to integrate it with social logins, like Twitter and LinkedIn, and that type of login authentication has no place in a corporate application."
"The GUI must be improved."
"One of the features that I'm hoping comes at some point is that currently you can only have one Knowledge Base instance within it. For me, it would be beneficial to have multiple instances for different purposes. I'd like to have a completely separate one for customers and the only way I can achieve that right now, where I can tag articles to only be viewed by customers, would be if I use its portal function."
"Currently, SysAid does not have a mobile application."
"There is a learning curve for the users."
"We would like them to approve the security functionalities, e.g., management security features."
"So far, we're very happy with the new integration. The only thing that I would like to see is for them to improve asset management so that it's more usable. We looked at it once and we didn't find it quite usable for us. That's why we didn't use it. We haven't looked into the new one yet but the asset management is something that can be improved even more and patch management is not as good as it could be."
"SysAid has fewer AI features compared to other tools."
"The automation needs improvement. The workflow has some improvements to do. There's some stuff that they are working on like having cascaded fields. For example, we're categorizing tickets by location, by site and by building and then by data room within a data center. At the moment they're all separate fields."
"The administrative side of the user interface could be a little more user-friendly. It is easier for me to export our reports into Excel, then do a server retrieval and get the information. Whereas, to do a report, you have to go through a configuration type of process, which is kind of difficult and complicated. I have been using this solution for two years now and I still haven't gotten the hang of the reports."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is a bit expensive, but you definitely get what you pay for. It is worth it!"
"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."
"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."
"I don't see anyone other than large companies being able to afford this system."
"I think pricing of this model is suitable for growing corporations."
"The pricing is based on a subscription model."
"The solution is quite reasonable compared to other solutions in the market."
"Pricing is simple, as it’s per concurrent analysts."
"The product is free! Get it now."
"It's free."
"Seeing that it is a low-cost solution, I would advise you to go ahead with Spiceworks and experiment with it to see if you can get things working properly, especially if you currently don't have any existing service desk software in place."
"It might be about $300 annually for a bigger company. If you pay annually, it's better and cheaper."
"The tool is cheap."
"We saw our investment back at the end of year one."
"Overall, the price is good. It's all about what you get for the base amount. From my perspective, you want to look at what you're getting out-of-the-box. SysAid does a good job of putting key stuff in the box for you."
"The pricing of SysAid is less than its competitors."
"Once you're interested, talk with SysAid. You can have them come in and look at your company and advise you on the best solution. They will tell you what comes with each separate package and also advise you what application to activate. If you want something that they don't have, they have a department that can design something based on your unique requests."
"Though I am not really sure about SysAid's prices, I know that it is competitive compared to some of the other products that our company looked at, like ConnectWise and ServiceNow."
"SysAid is a good solution, especially from a pricing perspective."
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Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 31, 2015
Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor
I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Performing Arts
13%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Performing Arts
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise66
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about Spiceworks?
The solution is easy to use and easy to manage.
What needs improvement with Spiceworks?
I am unable to provide suggestions for improvement at this moment, however, I can provide feedback later. Currently, ...
What do you like most about SysAid?
SysAid is more user-friendly, and its configuration is easier than other tools.
What needs improvement with SysAid?
With SysAid, most of the customers are requesting a native mobile application. SysAid has fewer AI features compared ...
What advice do you have for others considering SysAid?
Our customers use the enterprise edition and the standard edition of SysAid. We provide local support, but there are ...
 

Comparisons

 

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
No data available
 

Overview

 

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
Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Symantec, Webroot, EMC, Pertino
Disney, Sears Holdings Corporation, LAN Airlines, Schneider Electric, On Semiconductors, Toyota, Sky, KPMG, Georgetown University Law Center, Motorola, North York General Hospital, Volksbank, Xerox, Bacardi, Del Monte Fresh Produce, Manpower, Nucor, Ecobank
Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, Atlassian, ManageEngine and others in Help Desk Software. Updated: September 2025.
868,570 professionals have used our research since 2012.