Clarity SM vs TOPdesk comparison

Broadcom and TOPdesk are both solutions in the Help Desk Software category. Broadcom is ranked #22, while TOPdesk is ranked #17 with an average rating of 7.5. Broadcom holds a 1.6% mindshare in HDS, compared to TOPdesk’s 2.0% 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

2,446 Views
1,932 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

TOPdesk

Read 10 TOPdesk reviews

1,844 Views
1,475 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

Clarity SM

TOPdesk

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

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Room for Improvement: Clarity SM has challenges with scalability, requiring substantial investment for integration, and outdated user interface design.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: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Clarity SM vs. TOPdesk

March 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 884,933 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

22nd

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

21st

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

17th

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

15th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Clarity SM is 1.6%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TOPdesk is 2.0%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Help Desk Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
TOPdesk	2.0%
Clarity SM	1.6%
Other	96.4%

Help Desk Software

Featured Reviews

Sandip Kheni

Lead Developer at STL - Sterlite Technologies Limited

Allows for customization of the service desk manager

They should enhance the service desk manager's service point function to be more customizable. Presently, there are so many limitations in this particular UI. Thus, similar to the existing UI, they should provide a customization source for this new UI. It could turn out to be very good for the end-user experience.

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

"Great flexibility for every environment and many features are available."

"Customizability. You can easily make your own tables and add fields."

"With CA SDM, my entire service management business is ITIL aligned with better productivity across all IT processes."

"Scalability is very good. We have scaled to more users and more functionality."

"As we have other solutions from CA, I would recommend this for others, absolutely, because if you are using this in the right way you have big possibilities."

"Service Desk Manager price is not very high and the benefits are considerable."

"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."

"The most valuable feature is the usability of the search when you want to find other tickets that relate to the incident you're working on."

More Clarity SM pros

"Technical support is great and we have not had any issues with them."

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

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

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

"TOPdesk is overall very stable."

"Its ITSM approach is quite useful."

"Change management is the most critical feature."

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

More TOPdesk pros

Cons

"Clarity is also quite an expensive solution and it would be helpful if the cost was reduced."

"Technical support is sketchy at best. I have an open ticket right now that has been open for a few weeks."

"If I had to choose, it would be more around the user interface than the mobile experience."

"Dashboards. Custom dashboards are really important because without that it takes too long to view some information."

"Although I wasn't involved in the initial setup I have been involved with upgrades. They have been fairly complex. We've had some issues with upgrades where we had to roll back and get some things fixed. Some things that we ended up tracking back to not following directions right, but then other things we've run into issues."

"Support is the biggest thing dragging it down, and the fact that it's not all one integrated package."

"We need a mobile solution. We are not using any mobile functionality for the product, but we think that this necessary."

"The monitoring tool is in need of improvement."

More Clarity SM cons

"In some fields, it's just not good enough."

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

"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."

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

"An operator is also a user but requires creating two different records."

"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."

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

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

More TOPdesk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is based on a subscription model."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

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

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

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

"The solution is inexpensive compared to competitors."

"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."

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

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Help Desk Software solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Marketing Services Firm

12%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Media Company

Performing Arts

Educational Organization

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

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

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

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...

See all answers

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 17% of the time

ServiceNow vs Clarity SM

Compared 9% of the time

Serviceaide ChangeGear vs Clarity SM

Compared 7% of the time

BMC Helix ITSM vs Clarity SM

Compared 7% of the time

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs Clarity SM

Compared 4% of the time

More Clarity SM Competitors

ServiceNow vs TOPdesk

Compared 20% of the time

JIRA Service Management vs TOPdesk

Compared 10% of the time

Zendesk vs TOPdesk

Compared 7% of the time

GLPI by Teclib vs TOPdesk

Compared 6% of the time

IFS Cloud Platform vs TOPdesk

Compared 3% of the time

More TOPdesk Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Clarity SM

March 2026

Download Clarity SM product report

Buyer's Guide

Help Desk Software

March 2026

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

March 2026

Free Report: Clarity SM vs. TOPdesk

Find out what your peers are saying about Clarity SM vs. TOPdesk and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Clarity SM vs. TOPdesk report.

See our list of best Help Desk Software vendors and best IT Service Management (ITSM) vendors.

We monitor all Help Desk Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.