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Freshdesk vs ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs ServiceNow 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.5
Freshdesk boosts ROI by automating ticket analysis, improving productivity, and integrating with tools like Salesforce for efficient support management.
Sentiment score
6.9
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus boosts ROI with cost-effective solutions, improving asset management and efficiency for SMEs, while some await benefits.
Sentiment score
6.5
ServiceNow users experience varied ROI, with benefits in efficiency, process improvements, and scalability, despite high initial costs.
People who initially find ServiceNow to be on the higher side, but when you do the value gain comparison in the next few years, you see that it does give you the returns, with the AI capabilities and everything it brings.
Director, Portfolio Projects at Microland Limited
Automation of assigning tickets helps in reducing overall operational costs for the company, which frees up agents to do other complex and much-needed tasks.
Project Manager at Yohanna
For example, previously incidents had to be resolved manually, requiring communication to respective teams via email, but now automatically generated tickets streamline this process while adhering to SLA times, ultimately saving resources.
Sr. Presales & Technical Lead at Elitbuzz Technologies Ltd
ManageEngine has been particularly beneficial for small and medium-sized businesses in terms of value for money since they receive similar service at a lower cost compared to ServiceNow.
Vice President Delivery & Operations at Rezilyens
They have removed the costs associated with on-prem infrastructure, including data center costs, power costs, and physical server costs.
General Manager at sPerception IT
The return on investment is good when implementing for ourselves and for other clients.
Service Now Developer at Bangmetric services pvt ltd
Manually, there are huge numbers that come up because these integrated tools help organizations make the right decisions with all the information in one place, while manual methods lack visibility.
Associate Vice President at Wissen infotech
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.3
Freshdesk offers prompt support with helpful documentation, though complex issues face delays and integration setup can be challenging.
Sentiment score
7.2
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus support is praised for responsiveness but criticized for slow resolutions, needing faster, efficient service improvements.
Sentiment score
7.0
ServiceNow's customer service is praised for responsiveness but faces criticism for inconsistency, with mixed reviews on support speed.
We have not needed to contact technical support, as Freshdesk has met our needs efficiently.
VP - Technology and Solutions at Ninth Dimension IT Solutions (P) Ltd
From my experience, once it is set up, we have never had problems.
Customer Success Manager at Mimshackworks Endeavors
The first-time response should be within 30 seconds.
NOC SOC ANALYST at SAVIC Inc.
Their response time could be quicker.
Information Security Specialist at Arab Open University
The ManageEngine technical support team deserves a rating of ten out of ten because we receive up-to-date support.
Software Engineer at Galaxy Office Automation Pvt. Ltd.
They respond to emails based on time zone considerations.
Principal Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The support is exemplary and deserves a perfect rating.
Team Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Obtaining support for maintenance is the current challenge because they don't have a presence in the local market.
General Manager at sPerception IT
Whenever we have had issues, they have provided good support, and those issues have never recurred.
Vice President Delivery & Operations at Rezilyens
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Freshdesk's scalability and adaptability make it ideal for small to mid-sized organizations, though larger enterprises may face integration challenges.
Sentiment score
7.9
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus excels in scalability, supporting various organization sizes with simple expansion and high user growth management.
Sentiment score
7.4
ServiceNow scales efficiently for diverse organizations, accommodating extensive users and operational needs, with cloud deployment enhancing flexibility.
Additional features like email, WhatsApp, and SMS ticketing, along with Slack integration, can be enabled as required.
VP - Technology and Solutions at Ninth Dimension IT Solutions (P) Ltd
For small to medium-sized businesses, you can look at Freshdesk, but for larger enterprise levels, you look at ServiceNow.
Director, Portfolio Projects at Microland Limited
They can easily send an email to support, and a ticket gets generated for the IT person.
Project Engineer at IT Solution
It is trickier to expand across endpoints with Help Desk.
Information Security Specialist at Arab Open University
Scaling ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is easy, and I would rate its scalability as nine out of ten.
Vice President Delivery & Operations at Rezilyens
The tool is suitable for medium to large-scale operations and can be used effectively by mid-size companies.
Sr. Service Architect at NTT Security
There are no limitations or performance issues with ServiceNow; it is cloud-based, so it is highly scalable and performs well.
General Manager at sPerception IT
It is capable of vertical scaling with no issues.
Team Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
ServiceNow's scalability is very good as it can be deployed in each environment.
Consultant at National Australian Bank
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Freshdesk is reliable with minimal downtime, though occasional lags and integration challenges may occur during high traffic.
Sentiment score
7.8
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is highly rated for stability, despite minor bugs, with outages usually caused by external factors.
Sentiment score
7.7
ServiceNow is praised for its stability, reliability, and scalability, with performance issues mostly due to user-side factors.
The goal is always to respond to customer tickets in a timely fashion, ensuring that customers feel seen and heard while also providing solutions.
Customer Success Manager at Mimshackworks Endeavors
After installation and continuous operation, I have encountered no problems.
Head Advisor Infrastructure Cloud Architect at Adrienutech
Freshdesk has been quite stable in the market.
Director, Portfolio Projects at Microland Limited
We have not experienced any significant issues.
Vice President Delivery & Operations at Rezilyens
We have not faced any stability issues or challenges with this tool.
IT Director at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus has shown stability with no downtime and no major issues identified thus far.
Sr. Presales & Technical Lead at Elitbuzz Technologies Ltd
It is cloud-based, so it is highly scalable and performs well.
General Manager at sPerception IT
I haven't faced any issues with stability; I've rarely seen any downtime.
Solution Engineer - Digital Platform | Mobile at British American Tobacco
ServiceNow is stable enough.
Service Now Developer at Bangmetric services pvt ltd
 

Room For Improvement

Freshdesk needs improvements in customization, integration, support, scalability, and transparency to enhance user experience and cater to enterprises.
Users criticize ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus for its complex interface, limited customization, and inadequate integration, support, and pricing options.
ServiceNow needs to improve pricing, user interface, reporting, customization, support, mobile app, third-party integration, and automation features.
Currently, some features like SMS or WhatsApp integration are only available to larger user groups, but even smaller teams should have access based on their specific needs.
VP - Technology and Solutions at Ninth Dimension IT Solutions (P) Ltd
The current integration is more complicated and doesn’t work as well.
Development Manager at Horizon Software
More automation would be beneficial, as it could greatly improve our efficiency and reduce manual tasks.
Call Centre Manager at a retailer with 51-200 employees
It would be beneficial to have an option to assign approvals to a user group or a variable.
IT Director at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
There could be improvements in licensing flexibility, like the ability to use a single license for multiple users simultaneously.
Sr. Service Architect at NTT Security
They might consider creating a bundled ERP solution for all these tools where purchasing one license would enable access to all functionalities.
Principal Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
It makes no sense in my opinion, and they should offer the team at the front to help customize the product to fit each company's needs, as every company has different demands and forms of submitting a request that need adjustment over time.
Manager of Security Engineering & Architecture at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
My priority points for improvement are the UI glitches and modern AI technology integrations for faster incident management.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
There is a need for bug or error tracking in ServiceNow.
Team Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Freshdesk offers competitive pricing with scalable costs, benefiting from a per-agent model, but advanced features may increase expenses.
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus offers flexible, cost-effective pricing with various licensing options, providing enterprise features affordably compared to competitors.
ServiceNow pricing is high and complex, but many justify it due to comprehensive features and negotiation flexibility.
Our organization pays about 200,000 Indian rupees per year for the license.
VP - Technology and Solutions at Ninth Dimension IT Solutions (P) Ltd
The pricing experience is relatively competitive, so it is cost-effective.
Project Manager at Yohanna
The setup cost and licensing are very good.
Project Engineer at IT Solution
The cost of ManageEngine is more affordable, making it viable for small to medium-sized businesses.
Vice President Delivery & Operations at Rezilyens
The licensing is based on the number of technicians or analysts providing support as well as the number of IT assets, with no limitation on adding IT assets in ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus.
Sr. Presales & Technical Lead at Elitbuzz Technologies Ltd
It is not as expensive as ServiceNow, which has a very high cost.
Sr. Service Architect at NTT Security
ServiceNow's pricing can be justified if more functionality is required.
Service Now Developer at Bangmetric services pvt ltd
ServiceNow does come with a price.
Associate Vice President at Wissen infotech
ServiceNow is expensive for all regions.
Security Architect at وزارة الثقافة Ministry of Culture
 

Valuable Features

Freshdesk streamlines communication and boosts efficiency with automation, analytics, integration, and user-friendly features for improved collaboration.
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus enhances efficiency and satisfaction with ITIL integration, automation, customization, reporting, and seamless application integration.
ServiceNow offers adaptable, customizable cloud-based ITSM solutions with seamless integration, intuitive interface, and robust analytics enhancing productivity.
These features drastically impact my day-to-day work and my team's efficiency by reducing the resolution time significantly, as issues that once took days to resolve are now handled in hours and even minutes.
Works at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
Freshdesk has positively impacted my organization as it has saved a considerable amount of time and has enabled us to focus better on customers, which resulted in lesser churn.
Project Manager at Yohanna
Now, with Freshdesk, tickets can be easily assigned to any engineer, who will provide the cause, explain why it happened, and give us the answer on how they resolved the issue.
Project Engineer at IT Solution
The best features ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus offers for my team include automating manual tasks, which allows whatever tasks we previously did manually to be converted into automatic tasks.
Sr. Presales & Technical Lead at Elitbuzz Technologies Ltd
It provides a simpler and more intuitive interface for creating semi-automated use cases and managing problem solutions.
Vice President Delivery & Operations at Rezilyens
The automation capabilities are good, with the workflow being an integral part of it.
IT Director at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
ServiceNow provides a wide range of functionality, covering all the necessary modules, unlike Jira which is primarily for IT.
Service Now Developer at Bangmetric services pvt ltd
Automation capabilities are impressive, bolstered by a vast repository of out-of-the-box connectors and plugins that facilitate integration with various applications worldwide.
Security Architect at وزارة الثقافة Ministry of Culture
The features of ServiceNow that I find most valuable include its ability to easily access ticket details if you know the ticket number, monitor the timeline of when the ticket was created, and see the current status.
IT infra Admin at synu
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Freshdesk is 3.1%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is 3.7%, down from 7.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow is 12.6%, down from 23.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Help Desk Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ServiceNow12.6%
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus3.7%
Freshdesk3.1%
Other80.6%
Help Desk Software
 

Featured Reviews

Gauri Thakur - PeerSpot reviewer
Director, Portfolio Projects at Microland Limited
Integrated support workflows have provided a unified view but need broader enterprise flexibility
Freshdesk's scalability could be improved for larger businesses across departments. Its intuitive interface is appealing for small to medium-sized businesses. However, when you look at larger enterprise levels, ServiceNow operates more efficiently. This scalability is an area where Freshdesk could expand its offerings. Additionally, I don't have too much hands-on experience with Freshdesk ticket routing. I need to check with the service desk team if they've used it. Similarly, for analytics capability, I haven't explored much on Freshdesk, but I have done it for ServiceNow. I have seen a lot on ServiceNow and the BMC Remedy, so I can speak better for them. I haven't had the chance to look at it so much that I can do a comparison. I haven't had much experience with Freshdesk's reporting. Within its paradigm of customer service management, Freshdesk is quite scalable. But I've said that inter-department and the interoperability is better off in ServiceNow than in Freshdesk.
Mostafiz Miah - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Presales & Technical Lead at Elitbuzz Technologies Ltd
Automation has transformed daily request handling and now tracks every customer interaction
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus helps my team manage and resolve requests compared to previous methods as we previously managed things through paperwork and diaries. After deploying ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, whenever any customer request comes, we provide the customer a product demo if they ask about the products. We then convert that request to a lead, which is converted to a demo, and then to the product POC, allowing us to follow up every stage of the requests. Everything can be tracked from ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, whether at the closing stage or the initial stage. I use ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus daily in a unique way because previously everyone managed their own tracking system through their diary, but now everyone inputs data into this solution so that at the end of the day, we can get reports on how many leads we have taken care of and when they need to be taken care of. This information is visible from the ServiceDesk tool, and using the dashboard, we can easily identify it, providing an at-a-glance view. The best features ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus offers for my team include automating manual tasks, which allows whatever tasks we previously did manually to be converted into automatic tasks. Currently, they have also introduced Zia, a very helpful solution for us. Using Zia, we can search for anything, not only inside the tool but also outside, integrating it with ChatGPT and Teams, and it can integrate with other ManageEngine solutions as well as solutions such as Jira and ServiceNow. When we integrate our network monitoring solutions with ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, it automatically raises an incident ticket and assigns it to the right team whenever any incident has occurred, which saves us time and reduces manual tasks. Previously, we had to communicate to the right people through mail or phone calls after an incident, but now the incidents are automatically converted and assigned to the relevant support groups along with the SLA. The integration with Teams allows us to raise tickets without logging into the portal, and we can see the ticket status and add comments through Teams, which is very helpful. Additionally, mail integration can automatically convert emails into tickets, adding further efficiency. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus has positively impacted our organization, particularly in customer satisfaction. Previously, customers managed service requests, incidents, changes, and problems manually, but after integration, most of these processes are automated. This includes change requests that now follow a workflow based on organizational needs and ITIL best practices, making tracking incidents and requests much easier for end customers through scheduled reports.
MT
Manager of Security Engineering & Architecture at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Seamless data integration and advanced automation improve service delivery efficiency
I think that nothing needs to be improved with the product; you just need the user to commit and spend appropriate time to overcome that learning curve. Once that is done, the product itself is pretty wonderful. I've seen a very nicely built interface with ServiceNow, and I've also seen the ugliest version that feels outdated. ServiceNow does allow that team to exist. They should modernize their fonts and their layout, the UI friendliness. They did introduce AI, chatbots, and AI on the back end, so that's wonderful and extremely useful if you train it. If you don't train it, it's pretty useless. Assessing the impact of ServiceNow's automation on service delivery times is complicated. The engineers who operate on ServiceNow find it isn't straightforward because the data set is accessible by everybody. The problem is that understanding how to manage that data set requires an enormous amount of engineering skill set to run the product. I would not hand the key to the customer; I would highly recommend that ServiceNow take control of that. Instead of offering support for the software, they should offer administrative support for the software. They should provide professional service or some kind of support system that allows us to use their product at a faster pace. I'm sure they offer something, but it's often outrageously expensive, or they rely on another company to resell their product and offer professional service. It makes no sense in my opinion, and they should offer the team at the front to help customize the product to fit each company's needs, as every company has different demands and forms of submitting a request that need adjustment over time.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Construction Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business55
Midsize Enterprise35
Large Enterprise168
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Freshdesk?
Freshdesk can be improved by addressing the lack of a custom dashboard, which would help design it to the client's re...
What is your primary use case for Freshdesk?
Our main use case of Freshdesk includes using it as a ticketing platform with live chat and support email for custome...
What advice do you have for others considering Freshdesk?
My advice to others looking into using Freshdesk is that when customers themselves want to contact a company for an i...
What do you like most about ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?
The platform's most beneficial features are incident management, change management, request management, and asset man...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?
Regarding pricing, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus offers three editions: Standard edition, Professional, and Enterpris...
What needs improvement with ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?
Currently, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is a mature solution, and I do not think major improvements are needed, as i...
Which solution is better for developing non-ITSM applications: OutSystems or Service Now?
The short answer is that OutSystems is far better for 2 main reasons. Firstly, with Service Now you are locked into t...
Would you choose ServiceNow over Microsoft PowerApps?
Hi Netanya, I will choose ServiceNow because ServiceNow is a very good tool compared to Microsoft PowerApp. Because ...
What do you like most about ServiceNow?
The solution has a user-friendly interface.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Honda, 3M, Hugo Boss, Petronas, Sony Pictures, The Atlantic, goodreads, Clear Channel Radio, Penn University of Pennsylvania, unicef, Kuoni, Movember
Tranter IT Infrastructure Services Limited, Sterlite Technologies, averda, Radiology Associates
AAA, AstraZeneca, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Broadcom, Christus Health, Epicor, Equinix, GE Capital, Intuit, KPMG, Loyola Marymount University, OshKosh, Quantas, RedHat, Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss Re, U.S. Department of Energy, Safeway, Yale University, and Zillow    
Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, Atlassian, ManageEngine and others in Help Desk Software. Updated: March 2026.
885,376 professionals have used our research since 2012.