Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Freshservice vs IBM Maximo 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

Help Desk Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Freshservice4.2%
ServiceNow17.6%
JIRA Service Management7.5%
Other70.7%
Help Desk Software
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Maximo23.5%
Oracle Enterprise Asset Management9.3%
IFS Cloud Platform8.9%
Other58.300000000000004%
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
IT Service Management (ITSM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
ServiceNow21.5%
JIRA Service Management8.8%
BMC Helix ITSM8.1%
Other61.6%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

Featured Reviews

Trilochana Gouda - PeerSpot reviewer
Smooth incident management and easy to use while needing better escalation management
We are using Freshservice for the IT ticketing system for business users We use the ticketing system primarily, which is very easy to use for all users. Freshservice is helpful, especially in incident management. Incident management is very helpful, and the system is straightforward, making it…
Omar Samy - PeerSpot reviewer
Improved resource management and streamlined operations enhance organizational efficiency
IBM Maximo could be improved if they added a comprehensive finance module, as that would make it a more complete standalone application. Currently, if you need specific finance software, you need to purchase something such as SAP and integrate it with IBM Maximo. Coverage in this area would help reduce dependency on additional software. Regarding finance features, I would want to see payment capabilities added to IBM Maximo, particularly for factories making payments with providers and collections. This feature isn't adequately covered in IBM Maximo. Additionally, enhanced finance reporting and managing GL would be beneficial. IBM Maximo covers GL but only at a surface level. It doesn't provide deep account analysis.
Nikhil Gohil - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution has been stable."
"The most valuable features of Freshservice are the notifications, customization, and flexibility."
"Freshservice is very user-friendly and easy to customize."
"Its ease of use is fantastic. It is just above and beyond, especially when you compare it to something like Cherwell, Salesforce, or anything like that. It is on its own level. It is so easy to administer. The way everything is organized and the way it builds its own documentation is very good."
"What I have seen in Freshservice is there's no room for customization. Which works as an advantage in some cases and it works as a disadvantage in others. If you are someone that starts managing your IT services, it is a great solution, because there's no way to go out away from the direction of the system. You have to follow the process as it was intended for the designers of a solution because there's no room for customization or configuration."
"It is a stable solution. My company hasn't faced any problems with the solution."
"It allowed the development team to concentrate on the client’s requirements instead."
"It has a very easy, flexible model. You can open up a particular module and work on the next. That's what we did. Overall, it provides a simple way of getting your support teams up and running. That was one thing that I thought was quite easy to do."
"Preventive maintenance management."
"The ability to configure and integrate it with other solutions for ERP."
"The most valuable features of IBM Maximo are the overall power and interface, and there are a lot of different modules that we use that are helpful. Additionally, it's an integrated solution and it has a lot of capabilities."
"The incident management feature is good because it allows you to keep track of and classify issues."
"The most valuable feature is asset management maintenance as well as asset management overall."
"The Preventive Maintenance feature, especially in its inspection routines and KPI abilities, is valuable."
"The most powerful features are the database and integration with CMDB."
"Work order management and scalability enables the businesses' needs to be met."
"ServiceNow was the first true enterprise to service management platform."
"ServiceNow is easy to use."
"The Workflow feature is the most valuable."
"ServiceNow is one of the few easiest platforms you can integrate with products like Ansible to automate your workflows."
"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."
"I have found the workflows and integration the most valuable in this solution."
"I recommend ServiceNow due to its stability and good security."
"The product's integration functionality in the change management module has significantly improved efficiency in our organization."
 

Cons

"They can improve the search. While searching the inventory, when I cancel a selected category, the search box disappears, and I have to reload the page. It is a small glitch. Currently, we can have only one plan per subscription. All users have to be on the same plan. We can't have two users for plan A and five users for plan B. It might be good if there was an option to have different plans within one subscription so that you can assign each agent to the corresponding plan."
"I think it would be great if the tool had another version that is more customizable. From what I remember, there were some limitations regarding the number of assets you could track. In a more robust version, the number of assets increases, but I think it would be better to have something more customizable for all versions, especially the most robust version. This would be great for larger customers."
"The most significant area for improvement is consistency across the different modules, as they are inconsistent. It makes me think the modules have different development teams with no consistent approach. From an end-user perspective, I can do certain operations in one module, such as instant management, but not in problem management, for example, and I don't see why that should be the case. It would be good to see more consistency in the development process."
"There is a need for improvement in terms of automatic escalation to the next level if an issue is not resolved."
"Freshservice could improve the delegation and workflow management features."
"Freshservice's technical support has issues with delays and translations."
"The product should look at BCM or ServiceNow and see if there are features that would make nice additions. It would help them stay competitive."
"The round robin ticketing feature that they have is not ideal."
"Although you can create notifications with Maximo, the configuration and options could be improved."
"Coding can be complex when customization is required."
"Areas for improvement would be the user interface and support for Arabic. They could also be more customer-oriented."
"The mobile solution has a lot of room for improvement, especially in geopositioning capabilities, tracking capabilities, and configuration capabilities, in order to let the tech operate online and offline.​"
"There are always ways to improve and make things better."
"The initial setup was complex, because it is a complex product."
"You can get lost using the application"
"It's not user-friendly. It could use shortcuts for frequently requested services."
"There is inherent complexity with this tool because of the number of things that it can do."
"The solution should offer better security when it comes to storing data."
"The setup was time-consuming and required a lot of internal resources."
"Licensing costs are very high."
"If you have advanced questions, technical support often doesn't know the answer."
"I suggest making the cost more affordable for smaller companies."
"While ServiceNow has many options, the number of options can sometimes be confusing regarding where to click or how things work, as it is based on configuration provided by the administrator."
"It's moving at a very fast pace. It is difficult for developers or engineers to keep up with it. That's the only issue."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Freshservice price is competitive, it is not more than other solutions on the market."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"Freshservice is a fairly cheap solution. Though monthly payments can be made towards the licensing costs of the solution, my company prefers to make annual payments."
"The price of Freshservice could improve, it is expensive."
"It is good for the price you pay. It has different plans. If you need all features, you need to go for a higher plan. Currently, with the second tier plan, you cannot completely separate the group of agents. So, the agent in each group can see another person's ticket. You also cannot modify the rules based on the viewable, readable stuff and cannot have a custom role in this plan. If you want to do that, you have to go for a higher plan. It works in our case because it doesn't matter if the other group can see our ticket because it doesn't contain anything sensitive. We also didn't need the project or change management features. That's why we didn't go with a higher plan."
"I don't think it's expensive for the US or some European markets. Still, when I used Freshservice in Mexico, some customers found it a bit pricey, especially considering the platform's features. I think the pricing is fair for use in the European market, but it might be perceived differently in Latin America."
"The solution may be around 20,000 euros a year."
"The solution has an annual licensing model."
"You pay for what you get. There are lots of options depending on how you would like to implement Maximo."
"$USD700 per agent user."
"IBM has changed the licensing policy. As I understand now, they are going from a complex way of licensing to a more simple way of licensing."
"IBM Maximo offers a licensing application, and you have to comply with the license."
"The concurrent user license is much more effective in management and cost-wise, as it is more suitable for maintenance management."
"​Explore internal processes in order to evaluate the correct number of users in each Maximo module, then evaluate the different offers of pricing and licensing.​"
"Explore the possibility of using DB2. You will avoid the cost of SQL Server or Oracle licenses."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is low and ten is high, I rate the pricing a nine. The price is very high."
"Certainly, from a product-platform perspective, the price is not too bad."
"It's sold as a less expensive solution, but it has to be highly modified. That's where you get into the cost."
"We know that ServiceNow is not cheap, it's more expensive than other solutions. But we are trying to increase our ability to handle tickets so that the cost per ticket is less."
"The solution is expensive."
"There is an annual subscription to use this solution."
"Isn't pricing always too much? We really do chafe at the ITIL licensing. ITOM is also pretty expensive."
"$230 per user."
"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."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Help Desk Software solutions are best for your needs.
867,445 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Educational Organization
9%
University
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
12%
Energy/Utilities Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business54
Midsize Enterprise36
Large Enterprise163
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Freshservice?
The solution has been very helpful engineering insights into the client's environment. We have been able to manage c...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Freshservice?
The solution offers flat licensing and appears to be cost-effective.
What needs improvement with Freshservice?
There is a need for improvement in terms of automatic escalation to the next level if an issue is not resolved. It sh...
What needs improvement with IBM Maximo?
IBM Maximo could be improved if they added a comprehensive finance module, as that would make it a more complete stan...
What is your primary use case for IBM Maximo?
My main use case for IBM Maximo is managing maintenance. I used it first as an end user, and later joined the impleme...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Maximo?
There are many good implemented functions in IBM Maximo, but I see these two functions as the most valuable ones from...
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.
 

Also Known As

Flint
Maximo
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Western Carriers, Judson University, Golf Canada, Travix, Proxama, Paymentez, Ready Auto Transport
Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., DTE Energy, Swedish Match, Projetech, Fingrid, East Coast
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: September 2025.
867,445 professionals have used our research since 2012.