Clarity SM vs TOPdesk comparison

Broadcom and TOPdesk are both solutions in the Help Desk Software category. Broadcom is ranked #27, while TOPdesk is ranked #19 with an average rating of 7.5. Broadcom holds a 1.3% mindshare in HDS, compared to TOPdesk’s 2.1% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Broadcom users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 84% of TOPdesk users who would recommend it.

Clarity SM

Read 107 Clarity SM reviews

1,408 Views
1,056 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

TOPdesk

Read 10 TOPdesk reviews

1,279 Views
1,010 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

Clarity SM

TOPdesk

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Clarity SM and TOPdesk both compete in the service management category, with Clarity SM having the upper hand in advanced data integration and customization capabilities.

Features: Clarity SM is known for its advanced data integration capabilities, allowing extensive customization beyond standard use cases. It offers dynamic data integration and facilitates detailed SLA calculations. TOPdesk is appreciated for its intuitive design, ease of use, and user-friendly dashboard, providing quick accessibility.

Room for Improvement: Clarity SM has challenges with scalability, requiring substantial investment for integration, and outdated user interface design. Its stability and reporting processes are also concerns. TOPdesk needs improvements in real-time reporting and interface updates, along with enhanced AI-driven automation and integration options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Clarity SM supports on-premises and public cloud deployments, catering to diverse organizational needs, but faces criticism for inconsistent support and technical assistance. TOPdesk offers smoother on-premises deployment but struggles with long implementation times and slow customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Clarity SM incurs higher costs due to its extensive capabilities and complex licensing structure, making it ideal for large enterprises. TOPdesk offers a more affordable pricing model, recognized as cost-effective without compromising essential features.

To learn more, read our detailed Clarity SM vs. TOPdesk Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Clarity SM vs. TOPdesk

December 2025

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Helped 879,259 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

27th

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

26th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

107

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

TOPdesk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

19th

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

16th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Clarity SM is 1.3%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TOPdesk is 2.1%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Help Desk Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
TOPdesk	2.1%
Clarity SM	1.3%
Other	96.6%

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…

Read full review

Martina Peneva

People Technology Lead at Scandinavian Tobacco Group

Implement service management changes while addressing UI improvements

Topdesk's user interface makes it easy to handle requests and escalate them to other groups or reassign them when working on a single ticket. Additionally, the service management tool in HR allows for a change in delivering services, replacing email communication with ticket raising. The knowledge library enables the local HR to store and share relevant information and frequently asked cases, enhancing collaboration. The ticket system also facilitates escalating cases to other involved departments. IT, HR, and some other teams primarily use this system.

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 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."

"We are benefiting by being able to put time to what our technicians are doing."

"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."

"It allows IT to handle users on a personal basis. It allows IT to have a name and a face, and we interact with the end-users."

"As of late, I really like the BI functions."

"We can search open and closed cases to find what we have done in other incidents."

"There is a lot of flexibility in the system. There has not yet been a case where we've had people come to us and say, "Hey, can you guys do this?" and we can't. Some of it is obviously a little bit more complicated at times, but the flexibility in the system provides a lot."

More Clarity SM pros

"The most valuable feature of TOPdesk is its ease of use if you have implemented it in the right way. If you're not implementing it in the right way, then it's very difficult."

"It is an easy-to-use solution."

"When it comes to implementing new features, they listen to what their customers want via a suggestion forum that they have."

"Its ITSM approach is quite useful."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the ticketing feature."

"The most valuable feature of TOPdesk is the reports."

"Change management is the most critical feature."

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

More TOPdesk pros

Cons

"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."

"The interface is pretty straightforward, but I think for some end-users a little more simplified user interface would help."

"They really want user names in the document owner and subject expert fields, and that is just not practical."

"We went from 12.1 to 14, so there was a lot involved in it. The issues we had were migration issues, getting our information from one place to the next and making sure everything was as everyone needed."

"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."

"We just upgraded about a year and half ago and it was painful. We had the testing of the dev environment, and then testing of the production environment, so it was two weekends out of my life. And stuff broke."

"On permissions, there are options to do groups and options to do roles. What is practical, you have to pick one or the other, for both read and write permissions."

"Nowadays every person is used to an interface that is more user-friendly and this one is not so user-friendly maybe due to the fact that, if you need to let people customize everything, sometimes you lose out on a clean user experience."

More Clarity SM cons

"If I open a ticket on the infrastructure team, I can't move it to the financial team for them to manage the ticket."

"Change management implementation, facility management, and making reservations on assets can be improved."

"The solution's change management could be better."

"This solution is modular so you only buy what you need, but I prefer what some companies are doing where they include everything in the package."

"It is time-consuming to add new users."

"All companies have processes that need to be adjusted. When you have a change, you need to name it, and many companies have a set of changes you can use. It would be helpful if there were more space in TOPdesk to name the change or use metadata to record the kinds of changes."

"From a UI perspective, there is room for improvement. It sometimes takes many steps to do something simple, like creating or moving a knowledge item."

"One of the disadvantages of TOPdesk is the reporting tool. It is very poor and not in real-time. You do not always receive the correct information."

More TOPdesk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

"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."

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

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

"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."

"The pricing is based on a subscription model."

"Compared to other products in this segment, I think that they are priced well and not too expensive."

"TOPdesk's pricing is cheaper than Jira's."

"The cost of the solution on a yearly basis is $20,000. Technical support is not extra. It's included in the yearly cost. Updates are also included. The solution is good at keeping its product up to date."

"There are three fee options to choose from for a company and these options compared to market prices are very high. For example, if I use one of the first options for 10 assets, then it costs 20,000 Euros. If you went to competitors, then you pay less."

"The solution is inexpensive compared to competitors."

"The solution's pricing is reasonable and not expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Performing Arts

10%

Media Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Educational Organization

11%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

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	2
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for TOPdesk?

The solution's pricing is reasonable and not expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with TOPdesk?

From a UI perspective, there is room for improvement, as some tasks like creating or moving a knowledge item within the library require many steps instead of simple actions like drag and drop. This...

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What is your primary use case for TOPdesk?

I use Topdesk to change the way we deliver our services in HR to the business. Instead of writing an email to a particular person or visiting their desk, I ask employees to raise a ticket for servi...

See all answers

Comparisons

JIRA Service Management vs Clarity SM

Compared 29% of the time

ServiceNow vs Clarity SM

Compared 16% of the time

Vision Helpdesk vs Clarity SM

Compared 12% of the time

SymphonyAI IT Service Management vs Clarity SM

Compared 9% of the time

Serviceaide ChangeGear vs Clarity SM

Compared 6% of the time

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ServiceNow vs TOPdesk

Compared 30% of the time

JIRA Service Management vs TOPdesk

Compared 17% of the time

Freshdesk vs TOPdesk

Compared 11% of the time

Zendesk vs TOPdesk

Compared 7% of the time

OpenText Service Management (SMAX) vs TOPdesk

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Clarity SM

December 2025

Download Clarity SM product report

Buyer's Guide

Help Desk Software

December 2025

Download TOPdesk 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

Excellent service management made easy : Happy customers are the goal of every supporting department. We understand. That’s why we’ve created a solution that helps you improve customer communication, manage workflows and keep track of assets. But above all: our software is simple and attractive. This not only makes it pleasant to use, but also quick to adopt. You’re looking to deliver excellent service from day one – and TOPdesk is here to help. TOPdesk delivers one integrated service platform for IT, FM, HR and other Service departments with a build Self Service Portal, asset management, reporting and integration platform( see also our TOPdesk Marketplace for selection of connectors). Some key features include : Call Management, Incident and Service Request Management, Service Catalogue, Asset & Configuration Management, Problem Management, Change Management, Project Management, Operations Management, Reservations Management, Stock & Order Management, Contract Management and SLA's, Survey Management, Self Service Portal, Form designer, Portal designer, Event & Action Management, Knowlegde Base, Report wizards, Resource Management, Barcode, CAD and Exchange integration TOPdesk helps you streamline your ITIL, Agile, Sox, KCS, ASL/BISL, GDPR compliance Result at our global customer base : 98% customer retention rate 99% of our implementations within budget and timeframe 90% up and running within 3 month NPS score of 35 (4500 cusotmers) 98% customer recommondation score 4,7 score at Gartner Peer Insights Our ecosystem consist of : 4500 customers across 45 countries > 300.000 daily users > 15.000.000 supported end-users 40+ partners What makes TOPdesk unique? • ITIL-based modules for all your service needs: from Ticket and Asset Management to Reservations Management • License based on end users or service agents, whateveris best for you • Unlimited number of assets or self service users • Easy to implement: get up and running quickly • Choose between on-premises or SaaS

TOPdesk

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

City of Amsterdam, University of Edinbroughm, IKEA, KLM Catering Services, FloraHolland, BOVAG, PostNL, Total, Hilton, Oce, Canon, Agip, Compass Group, Serco, Danone, BMW, Eneco, And many more.

Buyer's Guide

Clarity SM vs. TOPdesk

December 2025

Free Report: Clarity SM vs. TOPdesk

Find out what your peers are saying about Clarity SM vs. TOPdesk and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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