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Espressive Barista vs ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus 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

Espressive Barista
Ranking in Help Desk Software
20th
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
17th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
AI-Powered Chatbots (4th)
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Ranking in Help Desk Software
3rd
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Espressive Barista is 0.8%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is 5.1%, down from 7.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Help Desk Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus5.1%
Espressive Barista0.8%
Other94.1%
Help Desk Software
 

Featured Reviews

Jim Lobao - PeerSpot reviewer
Has helped enhance our support ability, reduced our resolution time, and reduced our service desk costs
Espressive Barista's natural language processing and conventional AI still have room for improvement. We haven't yet found anything that resembles true AI that can learn autonomously without human intervention. However, Barista does help us identify and address some of these areas, allowing my team to step in and create intents and responses to questions. When a user asks a question that Barista doesn't immediately understand, we can recognize the pattern, capture it, and link it to a common intent. This is highly beneficial for acquiring such data, but it's a reactive approach and still requires curation. Natural language processing still has some way to go. One of our challenges is that our internal employees haven't yet adopted a natural way of interacting with Barista. Getting people to be concise and to the point, rather than being verbose as if they were interacting with a human, has been an ongoing challenge. While they may feel comfortable being conversational in Slack, expecting a human-like response, Barista is a different entity. Barista isn't interested in their recent vacation; it just wants to know they're locked out of their account. So, some users may assume Barista understands their intent when they say, "I'm back from vacation and locked out of my account." Barista, however, may interpret this as a request for the holiday schedule. Therefore, we're gradually educating our users to adapt their communication style for better success with Barista. Conversely, we desire Barista to adapt its behavior based on the interaction, the language used, and the way people communicate. I wholeheartedly desire an AI that can continuously learn and adapt to our organization's evolving needs. This is the most challenging aspect, as it involves understanding our organization's terminology, procedures, and toolsets. We've made significant progress in this area. However, from an NLP standpoint, we still face challenges with our nearly 3,000 Slack channel users, each with their unique communication styles. People ask questions in various ways, and sometimes there are misunderstandings. They want to interact with us naturally. However, we still struggle with natural language processing. People don't always realize that the bot is a virtual agent designed to be concise and efficient. Sometimes, less is more. It's been a difficult transition for people to grasp that they're conversing with a virtual agent, not a human. They still expect human-like interactions, such as discussing their weekend or holidays or simply pasting screenshots of errors. However, the bot can't interpret screenshots. If they provide the error code and some context about the application, the bot can better understand the issue. So, the key challenge is bridging the gap between human expectations and the bot's capabilities in terms of natural interaction.
Prashanth Magadi - PeerSpot reviewer
Has reduced complications and supports smooth workflows through customizable features
From a user perspective, I am very satisfied with the current functionality. I don't see any improvements that are required. They might be working on integrating AI functionality. Additionally, they have multiple different tools for each service. They might consider creating a bundled ERP solution for all these tools where purchasing one license would enable access to all functionalities. I'm not certain if such an option exists currently.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"With respect to its natural language processing capabilities, it recognizes things that you wouldn't think it would recognize. Even in cases where it doesn't, it's pretty easy to go in and make the adjustments that are needed."
"Its ability to recognize phrases has gotten smarter over time."
"I like Expressive Barista's integration with Microsoft Teams."
"The solution is available to support us instantly as required."
"When it comes to neutral language processing and conversational AI, it's very good, very solid... We all have different ways of speaking or writing in English and the application does a very solid job of recognizing what's being asked regardless of how it's being asked."
"Our developers have used the Barista Control Center to extend the platform by adding content, and they've found it fairly easy to do and manage"
"The most valuable feature is its scalability."
"We have the ability to alter phrases, create new phrases, or enhance phrases, or change paths. From the dashboard, we are able to get a lot of information we need about what people are asking, where they are dropping off from conversations, and where they do not get the information they need."
"This solution has provided a way to manage request tracking and resolution."
"It is excellent from the service management perspective."
"The solution overall has been quite stable."
"I can't think of any single feature that stands out, but it's an excellent product for a fair price. Nothing is missing. ServiceDesk has a lot of features, and we aren't using all of them. We have to implement the ones we already have before we move on to the others."
"Referring to its on-premises deployment, it is easy to use and easy to deploy. Cloud deployment is done on its own. It is very easy to navigate, and the GUI is quite friendly. In terms of product functionality, we really like the ESL version. We can host multiple instances of services on a single server, such as one help desk and multiple instances."
"The product scales up effortlessly and you can easily add users."
"The solution is user-friendly and has all the features we need; it is very effective in its operation."
"It's a very user-friendly tool with good performance."
 

Cons

"Espressive Barista's natural language processing and conventional AI still have room for improvement."
"Expressive Barista could improve by adding native integration with WhatsApp, one of the top communication channels in South Africa. When we're trying to sell Barista to customers, we have to tell them that the solution doesn't have out-of-the-box support for WhatsApp. We can develop it, but then we need to have a conversation about how much that will cost."
"What would make things easier is more detail, out of the box, about what is helping out of the box. We're struggling a little bit to get that data. We want more information about what Barista has brought in that the employees are using, out of the box. We want more visibility into the things that we ourselves haven't done the interaction for."
"My only comment would be if they wanted to use this as an IT service management tool, maybe they could think about Barista making tickets and having change management and problem management capabilities."
"The reports provided by the solution are not customizable."
"Although they've done some work on their metrics dashboard, there is some fine-tuning to do for people that just want to go in there at a glance and see their metrics."
"The knowledge management could definitely be improved."
"I would like to see the continued expansion of all of the automation capabilities."
"ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus moves changes to the production directly. We need a local touch in support."
"The self-service feature for end users and the knowledge base need to be improved."
"The licensing model should be more flexible."
"The service delivery could be improved."
"Currently, I cannot configure more than one point of contact. I have the MSP version, and we have around 80 or 90 customers. I don't see the features where I can configure multiple contact points for a customer so that they're notified when we are having an outreach or when we want to send them a planned maintenance notification. Other things that are lacking are mapping SLAs with vendors and mapping back on the tickets."
"Its reporting could be improved. The current list of predefined reports seems to be fine for most of the customers, but there should be some tools to allow us to create highly customized reports for measuring different KPIs. We should also be able to connect some kind of BI to it. We haven't yet implemented it, and we are currently evaluating it. We are looking for advanced integration options where we could integrate it with our SCCM and Azure environments as well as with other Office solutions. For direct communication with customers, we are looking for a chatbot or a similar feature."
"I think asset management took a hit recently."
"ManageEngine needs to improve its handling of large volumes, as it cannot manage transaction volumes as effectively as ServiceNow."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"User-based licensing has been working well for us, and we believe we are deriving significant value from it."
"The solution is affordable."
"It is expensive. It's not a cheap thing."
"The pricing isn't overly burdensome. It's going to be interesting to see how new models come in with new capabilities but, as it is, as a base system, it's pretty good."
"The price for the licensing is fair."
"ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus' price is very reasonable."
"The only issue for us is the pricing, which is quite high in comparison with the competition."
"It is above average. But it is neither cheap nor expensive."
"ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus has reasonable pricing because my colleagues mentioned that the solution is more cost-effective than the previous one the company used."
"Pricing can always be improved and made more affordable."
"The tool's price is okay and in line with other products, maybe even cheaper than some products."
"The platform has good pricing."
"When I compared it with a similar product, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus was $2,000 cheaper."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
48%
Retailer
7%
Healthcare Company
5%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Computer Software Company
19%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise19
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Espressive?
The most valuable feature is its scalability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Espressive?
Espressive has been very accommodating in trying to meet our needs and adapt to our current situation. User-based licensing has been working well for us, and we believe we are deriving significant ...
What needs improvement with Espressive?
Espressive Barista's natural language processing and conventional AI still have room for improvement. We haven't yet found anything that resembles true AI that can learn autonomously without human ...
What do you like most about ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?
The platform's most beneficial features are incident management, change management, request management, and asset management.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?
The costing for ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus ( /products/manageengine-servicedesk-plus-reviews ) is very flexible and is considered low-priced. Automox ( /products/automox-reviews ), a competitor,...
What needs improvement with ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?
From a user perspective, I am very satisfied with the current functionality. I don't see any improvements that are required. They might be working on integrating AI functionality. Additionally, the...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Tranter IT Infrastructure Services Limited, Sterlite Technologies, averda, Radiology Associates
Find out what your peers are saying about Espressive Barista vs. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,760 professionals have used our research since 2012.