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Freshdesk vs ServiceNow Customer Service Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 4, 2025

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
6.1
Freshdesk enhances customer service efficiency, offering ROI through streamlined operations and Salesforce integration, despite initial setup challenges.
Sentiment score
6.7
Organizations achieve ROI with ServiceNow CSM by streamlining processes, reducing costs, and aligning with business goals for improved efficiency.
Without such tools, the business would be affected by five to ten percent in annual revenue.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.3
Freshdesk support is generally competent with a mix of responsiveness and challenges in complex issues and initial integrations.
Sentiment score
6.5
ServiceNow's customer service is praised for responsiveness and multilingual support, with some delays in lower packages.
We have not needed to contact technical support, as Freshdesk has met our needs efficiently.
From my experience, once it is set up, we have never had problems.
The first-time response should be within 30 seconds.
It is better because partners have a deep understanding of the code and configuration challenges.
The technical support is good, but there are very few people who understand the technicalities and background configurations.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.8
Freshdesk excels in scalability and integration, with user ratings of 7-9, despite some noted integration limitations.
Sentiment score
8.5
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is praised for scalability, customization, and efficient self-service, enhancing business operations without extra costs.
Additional features like email, WhatsApp, and SMS ticketing, along with Slack integration, can be enabled as required.
In our environment, which is a fairly small company in one country, Freshdesk is easy to scale.
If challenges are resolved efficiently with tools like ServiceNow Customer Service Management, it significantly impacts business operations.
The solution is scalable and offers high scalability as new features are added regularly.
Scalability can lead to performance issues.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Freshdesk is stable with high user ratings, quickly resolving minor issues like data loss and occasional service glitches.
Sentiment score
8.3
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is stable, efficiently handles high traffic, yet customization limitations and portal issues can occasionally arise.
The goal is always to respond to customer tickets in a timely fashion, ensuring that customers feel seen and heard while also providing solutions.
After installation and continuous operation, I have encountered no problems.
Overall, it is very stable aside from these issues.
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is highly stable, which is critical because it operates as a live system 24/7.
 

Room For Improvement

Freshdesk users seek better customization, integration, automation, and functionality, while expressing concerns over support and limited features for small teams.
ServiceNow Customer Service needs improved customization, integration, AI features, pricing flexibility, and easier report downloading and upgrades.
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.
The current integration is more complicated and doesn’t work as well.
More automation would be beneficial, as it could greatly improve our efficiency and reduce manual tasks.
It is important to follow practical rules and best practices to avoid misconfigurations caused by different developers doing things their own way.
Managing this platform requires sophisticated handling.
Sometimes ServiceNow Customer Service Management lags, meaning the speed is low or there is a delay in operations.
 

Setup Cost

Freshdesk offers competitive and scalable pricing for enterprises, with costs primarily based on agent licensing and custom plans.
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is costly but valued for efficiency, with premium pricing potentially unsuitable for smaller businesses.
Our organization pays about 200,000 Indian rupees per year for the license.
Pricing has always been handled by the company I work with, and even when I get in-house feedback, I have never had issues with pricing or complaints when compared to what others have outside.
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is expensive, with costs around half a million US dollars per year.
The pricing is around a seven, making it rather expensive.
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is expensive, although there is value for money considering the time and administrative efficiencies it brings.
 

Valuable Features

Freshdesk offers customizable solutions, omnichannel integration, robust automation, and insightful reporting, making it adaptable for diverse customer support needs.
ServiceNow CSM offers powerful workflow and integration, enhancing service delivery with automation and AI on a flexible platform.
The auto-assignment feature is particularly valuable as it alleviates the administrative task of manually checking for available engineers to assign tickets.
These features are easy to use, and the filtering is really good, providing a good overview of active tickets and who's working on them.
Some of the best features of Freshdesk include automation, user-friendly interface, and comprehensive support options that enhance our workflow.
The most valuable features are incident management and change management.
ServiceNow Customer Service Management offers valuable features such as workflow management, an approval cycle, and integration with a payment gateway, which allows for payments to be made using the system.
The best aspect of ServiceNow Customer Service Management is its out-of-the-box features that support all customer service processes.
 

Categories and Ranking

Freshdesk
Ranking in Customer Experience Management
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
Field Service Management (3rd), Help Desk Software (6th), Knowledge Management Software (5th)
ServiceNow Customer Service...
Ranking in Customer Experience Management
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Customer Experience Management category, the mindshare of Freshdesk is 5.0%, up from 4.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Customer Service Management is 4.9%, down from 5.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Customer Experience Management
 

Featured Reviews

Bharanidharan K - PeerSpot reviewer
User-friendly interface but needs enhancement in ticket tracking and response times
There is no room for improvement in Freshdesk. We can set a time period for particular employees as something that could be better. For example, if some new employees are unfamiliar with Freshdesk, it should be more user-friendly. They need to give shortcut keys to use the ticketing portal. If some users don't know how to generate a ticket, providing them with a help desk or tutorial portal would be useful for the end-user.
Arvind  Mehrotra - PeerSpot reviewer
Integrating departments for unified service while managing complexity and learning curve
ServiceNow Customer Service Management integrates the admin, finance, HR, and service departments, enabling an employee of an organization to get service from a single window. It integrates all different queues into one dashboard and consolidates various departments, ensuring visibility across the organization is transparent. It helps to create a shared services organization, reducing the operational complexity and facilitating a more unified service delivery. It consolidates all service desks under one umbrella, enhancing efficiency.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
23%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Healthcare Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Freshdesk?
Freshdesk significantly improved our customer issue resolution process. We can now easily record and track all customer requests, ensuring that no tickets are lost.
What needs improvement with Freshdesk?
With the advancements in AI now, I will say Freshdesk should consider integrating more AI, but so far, I am satisfied with every single feature.
What is your primary use case for Freshdesk?
As a customer success manager for over six years, I can sum up the benefits I've seen from using Freshdesk: it has played a huge role in ensuring that my customers stay happy, and happiness means d...
What do you like most about ServiceNow Customer Service Management?
We can integrate different technologies in ServiceNow Customer Service Management. An organization would like to offer a digital transformative experience to its employees and customers, which the ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Customer Service Management?
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is expensive, although there is value for money considering the time and administrative efficiencies it brings.
What needs improvement with ServiceNow Customer Service Management?
The integration cost and learning curve are very high, and managing this platform requires sophisticated handling, which is more complex compared to other solutions.
 

Also Known As

No data available
ServiceNow CSM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Honda, 3M, Hugo Boss, Petronas, Sony Pictures, The Atlantic, goodreads, Clear Channel Radio, Penn University of Pennsylvania, unicef, Kuoni, Movember
Siemens Healthineers, SAP SuccessFactors, Asurion
Find out what your peers are saying about Freshdesk vs. ServiceNow Customer Service Management and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,576 professionals have used our research since 2012.