Freshdesk vs ServiceNow vs SysAid comparison

Read 223 ServiceNow reviews

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7,479 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Read 10 SysAid reviews

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479 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Freshdesk

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Freshdesk, ServiceNow, and SysAid based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, Atlassian, ManageEngine and others in Help Desk Software.

To learn more, read our detailed Help Desk Software Report (Updated: September 2025).

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Help Desk Software

September 2025

Helped 867,676 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:

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Freshdesk is 3.0%, down from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow is 17.6%, down from 26.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SysAid is 1.1%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Help Desk Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
ServiceNow	17.6%
Freshdesk	3.0%
SysAid	1.1%
Other	78.3%

Help Desk Software

Featured Reviews

Bharanidharan K

NOC SOC ANALYST at SAVIC Inc.

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.

Read full review

Nikhil Gohil

Solution Engineer - Digital Platform | Mobile at British American Tobacco

Enables effective incident management and seamless workflow automation with valuable mobile accessibility

I haven't thought deeply about improvements for ServiceNow or what might be missing right now. There are so many modules and features in ServiceNow that I haven't explored them all, so it's hard to say what might be missing or should be improved. I suggest making the cost more affordable for smaller companies.

Read full review

Todd Blake

Senior IT Specialist at COMMUNITY HEALTH CONNECTIONS INC

A solution that streamlines ticket creation for the staff members of a business and enables efficient issue resolution by the IT team

SysAid is similar to Nintex AssureSign. Some of the back-end configurations of the solution are very difficult. So, we always need SysAid's help. Also, there are almost too many features that we are not taking advantage of in our company since we don't even know about them. A little bit of a streamlining or simplification of the main features would be a good improvement. I would like to see SysAid present its solution more easily. There is a lot in the solution, and it is more than what we need in our company.

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

"There is the option to create different roles for specific users. We make use of groups for each customer service team which has been very effective. We are able to apply different sets of rules for each group which determines how they interact with customers and escalate issues."

"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."

"Freshdesk provides a plain vanilla solution, making it user-friendly and less complex."

"We have made use of the training academy and the technical support team from Freshdesk. Both have been very good resources."

"The user experience on the platform itself is fantastic. The UI is clean and uncluttered, so it's easy to find any information about your customer or the issue at hand. You can find out the person responsible for that particular issue, what the problem is, who the stakeholders are, and how to resolve it. There are lots of tools that will help you do that as well."

"The feature that I have found most valuable is the way that it connects to various folders especially because we use it as a CRM tool. We can connect it with our phones and our chat, and also with the API and have it as an email service. Freshdesk just makes our life easier."

"The organization that is possible with other departments is the solution's most valuable aspect."

"I like that it's very user-friendly. The way they designed this application, any layperson can just do some drag and drop actions and use it. It's not that difficult. It's also easy to implement. The most important thing is, you don't need to go to this application to create a ticket. You just send out an email, and the ticket is created automatically. I have never seen a feature like this before."

More Freshdesk pros

"For change management, I find the CAB workbench very useful. I haven't seen any other solution that has a CAB workbench or advanced automated solutions for a change advisory board. ServiceNow also has the Workflow Engine which works very well and is very intuitive."

"The Idea Portal and the PPM platform are most valuable. Their out-of-the-box dashboards and reporting are fantastic. I use them almost on a weekly basis. I have developed a couple of PMO dashboards for reporting. It is user-friendly. Everything is done through a navigation bar, and it makes things a lot easier that way."

"Flexibility is the most valuable feature of ServiceNow, that is, being able to modify it to do what we need it to do."

"I recommend ServiceNow due to its stability and good security."

"I find almost all the features valuable. It can do nearly everything except make your coffee, as my colleagues always say. It's got pros and cons, like every software, but the good thing about it is that it has a very structured approach."

"You can put information in or export it out quickly, which is very useful when you have weekly or monthly reports."

"The flow designer feature of ServiceNow has had the biggest impact on our productivity because it has helped me reduce manual efforts by creating automation and robotics."

"I have found the workflows and integration the most valuable in this solution."

More ServiceNow pros

"The simplicity of the solution is excellent."

"It tracks everything that the technicians are doing. We can account for time and manage resources."

"The service desk orchestration, overall, is good. It allows an organization to build that service desk concept into its organizational and support strategy. And it allows an organization to digest that and create a support model very quickly around the tools. The fact that the tools are integrated within the system itself gives the organization a really robust way to integrate everything and have a complete support model."

"I would say the overall flexibility of the product is its most valuable feature."

"The solution can scale."

"SysAid is more user-friendly, and its configuration is easier than other tools."

"The service desk automation and orchestration are very good. We are implementing it at the moment. We implemented it for two of our applications already for our CRM. Whenever there's a change in the CRM, it will automate them into SysAid as well. We have two workflows from our CRM into SysAid, which is very helpful. Overall, we're very happy with the workflow."

"All our service management is integrated into one system. Our response time is much faster because we have a visual into what is going on."

More SysAid pros

Cons

"Asset management and branding are two areas in the solution that have scope for improvement."

"There aren't any features that we want to enhance, but we need to mature in our usage of some of them. I can't say any feature is missing or needs improvement, but a tool's built-in features need to evolve customer feedback. We have a dialogue set up for that kind of feedback."

"It should enhance its service and its reporting capabilities."

"There are some restrictions where you need automation and sometimes there is just no way to achieve what you need."

"Freshdesk could improve its capabilities. It's missing the article formatting, and the overall look and feel make it not easy to use. The administration instructions on how to manage the automation, capability, and integration with third parties, such as chat or bots, are very important in these types of solutions."

"I would like on-the-go translation,"

"It would be helpful to pull reports or schedule them based on agents, users, ticket numbers, or responses."

"An area for improvement in Freshdesk would be enabling all features regardless of company or user size."

More Freshdesk cons

"When it comes to changing some of the features, I would like a little more leeway."

"The capital expenditure neeed to get the tool up and running is extensive."

"Once a change request has been created once it's been approved and been submitted, there is no way to go in on that particular change request and submit an additional task."

"Its stability and pricing need improvement."

"The discovery of assets could be improved; right now they only allow for one domain."

"Licensing costs are very high."

"The standard UI is very restricted. It doesn't look as good, compared to Remedy. Building your own UI requires some additional coding..."

"The installation and deployment of ServiceNow can be a bit challenging. One major issue I've encountered is that ServiceNow doesn't provide the same mobile responsiveness or features that we used to enjoy with other tools. For example, with Splunk, our response times were about five minutes, and we could manage alerts and incidents directly from our mobile devices."

More ServiceNow cons

"Currently, SysAid does not have a mobile application."

"We would like them to approve the security functionalities, e.g., management security features."

"One of the features that I'm hoping comes at some point is that currently you can only have one Knowledge Base instance within it. For me, it would be beneficial to have multiple instances for different purposes. I'd like to have a completely separate one for customers and the only way I can achieve that right now, where I can tag articles to only be viewed by customers, would be if I use its portal function."

"Some of the back-end configurations of the solution are very difficult. So, we always need SysAid's help."

"SysAid has fewer AI features compared to other tools."

"Monitoring needs improvement. At the moment we are looking for some advanced monitoring tools, which are using AI and machine learning as well. This product currently does not offer that."

"There is a learning curve for the users."

"The automation needs improvement. The workflow has some improvements to do. There's some stuff that they are working on like having cascaded fields. For example, we're categorizing tickets by location, by site and by building and then by data room within a data center. At the moment they're all separate fields."

More SysAid cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is costly."

"We use a licensing model only so we pay for the number of agents we have configured in the system only."

"The pricing is pretty manageable and acceptable."

"The best system plan is enterprise. It costs basically 79 Euros per agent per month when it's billed annually and 95 Euros per agent per month when it's billed monthly."

"It was definitely not expensive. It was two grand or maybe three grand total for a year. It has just straight and simple standard licensing fees. There is no additional fee."

"We use a combination of Freshdesk, Freshservice, and Freshchat. We use the whole suite. Weirdly enough, we pay more for Freshdesk than we do for Freshservice. I would rate it a three out of five in terms of pricing. You can get different bundles, and you can always move to different plans that are standard. Freshservice can go anywhere from $19 up to $120 per agent, per month. There is such a wide range, and it is very customizable to your needs."

"The price could be better, but it's okay. Compared to ServiceNow and JIRA, Freshworks offers a competitive price. There are also additional licensing costs because you need Microsoft Outlook. Each new email account costs around $15 to $19."

"Freshdesk was the best solution with the best price. It was cost efficient and included all the features that we needed."

More Freshdesk pricing and cost advice

"ServiceNow is a leader and its pricing is quite good, quite competitive... Sometimes some plugins are not priced reasonably but, generally, the platform itself, its modules, are priced reasonably."

"For large-scale companies, the cost of ServiceNow is not expensive, but for small and mid-scale companies, it is higher."

"I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten. The pricing for ServiceNow is based on a SaaS platform with annual contracts. However, it may not offer much flexibility for adjusting usage in the short term."

"The license model is based on a number of fulfillers (active users who play some role within the ServiceNow functionality). Therefore, you can serve as many end-users as you want, without additional costs."

"The solution is expensive."

"ServiceNow tends to be a little bit more expensive as compared to BMC Helix ITSM."

"I have found the solution very expensive."

"The price could be a little lower for the solution. Many of my customers have issues with the licensing process, they have to make it easier and straightforward."

More ServiceNow pricing and cost advice

"Once you're interested, talk with SysAid. You can have them come in and look at your company and advise you on the best solution. They will tell you what comes with each separate package and also advise you what application to activate. If you want something that they don't have, they have a department that can design something based on your unique requests."

"Though I am not really sure about SysAid's prices, I know that it is competitive compared to some of the other products that our company looked at, like ConnectWise and ServiceNow."

"Overall, the price is good. It's all about what you get for the base amount. From my perspective, you want to look at what you're getting out-of-the-box. SysAid does a good job of putting key stuff in the box for you."

"SysAid is a good solution, especially from a pricing perspective."

"The pricing of SysAid is less than its competitors."

"We saw our investment back at the end of year one."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

22%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Performing Arts

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	21
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	54
Midsize Enterprise	36
Large Enterprise	163

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

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 custom...

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...

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 pl...

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.

What do you like most about SysAid?

SysAid is more user-friendly, and its configuration is easier than other tools.

What needs improvement with SysAid?

With SysAid, most of the customers are requesting a native mobile application. SysAid has fewer AI features compared ...

What advice do you have for others considering SysAid?

Our customers use the enterprise edition and the standard edition of SysAid. We provide local support, but there are ...

JIRA Service Management vs Freshdesk

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HaloITSM vs SysAid

Compared 24% of the time

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs SysAid

Compared 21% of the time

Teamwork vs SysAid

Compared 10% of the time

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Product Reports

Download Freshdesk product report

Freshdesk

September 2025

Download ServiceNow product report

August 2025

Download SysAid product report

August 2025

Overview

Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer support solution that provides organizations with the features necessary to effectively streamline their support processes. This includes powerful multichannel capability, integrated game mechanics, smart automations, and more.

The solution is designed to automate agent workflows and resolve routine questions using AI and bots. Freshdesk allows managers to prioritize, categorize, and assign tickets to their agents, making it easy for them to collaborate and quickly respond to customers.

Freshdesk Features and Benefits

Some of the solution's top features and benefits include:

Simplified ticketing: With Freshdesk, you can easily prioritize, manage, and assign trackable tickets. The management system ensures that multiple agents don’t work on the same ticket by accident. You can easily set deadlines for ticket resolution based on specific categories and create custom statuses that suit your workflow to identify what stage a ticket is in.

Automation: Automatically assign tickets to agents and groups based on keywords and requests and set up automated repeated actions and provide quick, consistent responses to common questions using pre-formatted replies. In addition, you can choose to prevent the reopening of tickets when customers reply with a thank you.

Improved collaboration: Share tickets with other teams while retaining full visibility into the progress being made on the issue. Related tickets can be linked together to better keep track of the big picture. Tickets can also be split into smaller child tickets and assigned to multiple agents to help resolve complex, multi-stage issues.

Build up your knowledge base: Create effective support documentation by enabling agents to convert their ticket replies into knowledge base articles, while they reply.

Metrics and reporting: See how different agents and groups are performing by viewing various help desk metrics and improve performance by identifying problems based on insights.

With Freshdesk’s reporting tools, you can schedule the periodic delivery of out-of-the-box and custom reports to your inbox. The solution’s customer satisfaction reports provide you with feedback on how your customers rate your support.

Forum moderation: Set up moderation workflows to ensure that forum posts that violate your guidelines are not immediately published. Critical issues raised in the community are automatically converted into tickets to ensure they get the required response.
Integration: Freshdesk’s open API can be used to integrate the solution with multiple third-party systems.

Comprehensive security: Freshdesk’s security features allow you to:
- Set custom access permissions for agents.
- Perform comprehensive audits of networks and systems.
- Secure your own support domain or vanity URL with custom SSL certificates.
- Whitelist IP ranges and restrict login access outside of work, or link IP whitelisting to a VPN.
- Set up SSO scripts for credential authentication.

Reviews from Real Users

Freshdesk stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its effective ticketing system and its intuitive interface.

Deepak B., an application manager, writes, “Freshdesk has allowed us to measure and track the response and resolution time of tickets which has been reduced from seven to eight hours down to 30 minutes to one hour. This information is valuable for board meetings.”

Freshworks

ServiceNow is a cloud-based task-management platform that specializes in IT operations management (ITOM), IT services management (ITSM), and IT business management (ITBM). ServiceNow allows users to manage their teams, projects, and customer interactions using a variety of different plugins and apps with which it easily integrates.

ServiceNow offers prebuilt applications to support any process, as well as a framework and tools that allow you to build your own.

ServiceNow’s service management solutions include change, request, incident, problem, and cost management, as well as HR, IT, field service, and facilities management solutions. They also cover business management solutions such as vendor performance management, financial management, performance analytics and project portfolio suite, as well as governance, risk, and compliance.

“The Smarter Way to Workflow”

ServiceNow’s activities, processes, and tasks are overseen as part of a comprehensive managed workflow that supports such features as real-time collaboration, communication, and resource sharing. ServiceNow’s suite of products allow for operation using serverless computing, and include the categories of Business Apps, Customer Service, HR, IT, and Security.

ServiceNow can be used to support most workflows because of the wide range of tools it offers. These include on-suite ticketing tools, predictive modeling to manage workflows, and benchmarking for the tracking of progress. ServiceNow can assist with artificial intelligence and machine learning processes and can be used to organize the cases of a help/service desk as well as for instance management and problem management. It also smoothly integrates with many legacy systems.

ServiceNow offers service management software for industries including:

Cloud services
Education
Financial services
Government
Healthcare
Manufacturing
Telecommunications

Reviews from Real Users

PeerSpot users prefer ServiceNow to its competitors because of its scalability, stability, and ease of use. It helps everyone in the company to be on the same page by creating a single source of record across all departments. One user stated that “I’ve definitely used over 20 project management solutions, but they can't be compared with ServiceNow.” Another said that “ServiceNow is an industry leader in multiple areas and provides an excellent ROI.”

Offered in both cloud and on-premise versions, SysAid is a globally-adopted IT Service Management (ITSM) solution that combines all the essential capabilities in one, feature-rich tool. From traditional ticket management to asset management, SysAid allows administrators to monitor and manage tasks in one platform, so they can deliver fast and comprehensive support from a single view. Available in 42 languages, SysAid serves over 10,000 customers across 140 countries, spanning all industries and sizes.