IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs Vtiger CRM comparison

IBM and Vtiger are both solutions in the Help Desk Software category. IBM is ranked #28, while Vtiger is ranked #49. IBM holds a 1.3% mindshare in HDS, compared to Vtiger’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Vtiger users who would recommend it.

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

Read 9 IBM SmartCloud Control Desk reviews

659 Views
652 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Vtiger CRM

Read 3 Vtiger CRM reviews

1,547 Views
217 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

Vtiger CRM

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 8, 2025

Vtiger CRM and IBM SmartCloud Control Desk are both prominent players in the CRM and IT service management category. Vtiger CRM might hold an advantage in pricing and customer support, whereas IBM SmartCloud Control Desk distinguishes itself with advanced features suitable for complex IT management.

Features: Vtiger CRM offers robust contact management, sales automation tools, and integrated email marketing, which are valuable for small to medium businesses. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk provides comprehensive IT service management, asset management, and complex incident handling capabilities suited for large enterprises.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Vtiger CRM is known for its straightforward deployment and responsive customer service. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk, with its extensive feature set, has a more complex deployment process requiring specialized IT knowledge, and while it offers proficient technical support, the complexity might delay immediate benefits.

Pricing and ROI: Vtiger CRM is appealing with lower setup costs and good ROI for smaller businesses, offering affordable scalability. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk, with a higher upfront cost, reflects premium service capabilities for larger enterprises, and despite this, its long-term ROI may be favorable for organizations needing comprehensive IT solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. Vtiger CRM Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. Vtiger CRM

January 2026

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Helped 881,114 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:

Categories and Ranking

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

28th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Vtiger CRM

Ranking in Help Desk Software

49th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM (29th), Sales Force Automation (14th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is 1.3%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Vtiger CRM is 0.6%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Help Desk Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM SmartCloud Control Desk	1.3%
Vtiger CRM	0.6%
Other	98.1%

Help Desk Software

Featured Reviews

Klemen Muhvič

Computer System Engineer at Informatika d.d.

Has centralization and asset management features, and a helpful and knowledgeable technical support team

What needs improvement in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is its graphical interface because it needs to be more user-friendly. IBM is a big company, but this solution is a little bit outdated. The most common comment I get from customers is that IBM SmartCloud Control Desk looks old and needs a refresh. Its frontend needs a little bit of work. The solution needs to be more modern. In the programming world, you see a lot of new technologies, but this particular solution is still on Java. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk isn't like web-based service request tools, and that's an area for improvement. What I'd like to see in the next version of the solution is a more upscale technology. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk has small issues with document links and attachments, and those could bother you when you're using it for a long time. A more user-friendly GUI is also another improvement I'd like to see in the next version of the solution, plus a better user experience, and it would be great if IBM could resolve the current issues I've noticed in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk.

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Valdi Venter

Owner | Director of Operations at Expert Technology Solutions

A modular, easy-to-use solution that needs to improve support and include automation

There are one or two annoying things. For example, if you make a drop-down list of something, it doesn't automatically alphabetize the drop-down list. You have to manually go and drag items up and down and alphabetize them yourself. That's annoying. If you have five items in the drop-down list or if you have a hundred, it's just pathetic. It makes no sense that you have to do that because I've never seen it not work before in any other system that I've ever worked with. If you make a list of things, most solutions automatically put it in an alphabetized order. Or it'll put it in date order, but there is some order. It doesn't just go randomly in the order you create them. For example, I might load about 20 neighborhoods into a drop-down list, starting at "a" and ending at "z." But I might miss one of the "b's" and two of the "c's," so I add them, but they are added after the "z." Then I have to go to the bottom of the list, click on the one that starts with "b," and drag it all the way up to the "b's." That's just a pain in the butt.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"A feature I found most valuable in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is the service request. Another feature I like most about the solution is IT asset management, which tells you who owns a specific asset in the company and from which date."

"In the early stages of our company, all requests were done in notebooks, and none of it was centrally managed. But now we have a central tool which is an entry point for all requests that come in."

"The solution has been stable."

"What I like about the Control Desk is that everything is centralized. You have all the requests in one place, you know which ones are for whom and who is working on them."

"SLA integrations, reports, and integration with other applications are the most valuable."

"The most valuable are its flexibility and agility. It's quick to change it, to adapt it to your needs. That's the most important for us."

"The workflow capability is useful. It's not a manual helpdesk operation. It's fully automated, even when an alarm has occurred. It covers the complete cycle of initiation to resolving the events. This is its most strong feature that is easily integrable with a monitoring solution. It creates tickets, and the workflow feature is the most important one."

"The solution is very easy to work with."

More IBM SmartCloud Control Desk pros

"The most valuable feature of Vtiger CRM is automation."

"The fact that we can build our own modules on the solution is really quite attractive, and it's not overly complex."

Cons

"The reporting in relation to updating could be improved upon."

"It could use more facility or flexibility for reporting, and business intelligence in the tool."

"The time calculations can be improved. While working on reports, it was taking the time only in seconds, which was hard for me to work out. While creating some dialogs in the service portal, you have to use certain data types in some fields. It was very tricky to make them work. I was testing a certain type of input, and it didn't work. It didn't show me the domain that the fields have to show. I had to make the change to the database, and only then it worked. It was a tricky thing to make them work with the dialogs. Their technical support can also be improved in terms of response time."

"The solution lacks a graphical user interface."

"The user interface is not very interesting. If you look at other products like JIRA and ServiceNow, they have made it much easier for the end-users. Maybe not ServiceNow, but JIRA is quite flexible. From a presentation point of view, IBM should make more user-friendly interfaces."

"The main issue that we hear from our customers is that the self-service user interface is a little bit old, possibly due to the fact that IBM is such a large enterprise company. People say that they think they're in the year 2004, because you can very clearly see that the technology is lagging behind modern trends."

"What needs improvement in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is its graphical interface because it needs to be more user-friendly. IBM is a big company, but this solution is a little bit outdated. The most common comment I get from customers is that IBM SmartCloud Control Desk looks old and needs a refresh. Its frontend needs a little bit of work. The solution needs to be more modern. In the programming world, you see a lot of new technologies, but this particular solution is still on Java. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk isn't like web-based service request tools, and that's an area for improvement. What I'd like to see in the next version of the solution is a more upscale technology. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk has small issues with document links and attachments, and those could bother you when you're using it for a long time. A more user-friendly GUI is also another improvement I'd like to see in the next version of the solution, plus a better user experience, and it would be great if IBM could resolve the current issues I've noticed in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk."

"Overall the user experience, as opposed to the system and databases, could be improved. It does work as it should and it's good, but they should invest more in the user interfaces to be less data oriented and more appealing for the user."

More IBM SmartCloud Control Desk cons

"If you make a drop-down list of something, it doesn't automatically alphabetize the drop-down list. You have to manually go and drag items up and down and alphabetize them yourself."

"The mobile design could improve in Vtiger CRM. It could be more user-friendly."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's basically for a big company because of the costs. A small company can't afford the licensing cost. For medium and large companies, it's the best product. The price of the license is on the higher side compared to others."

"The license for IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is paid yearly and is on a per-user basis. You buy the product and pay for its license yearly. IBM is changing the licensing structure, but for now, it's a yearly license. There's no additional cost. It's just the license that you need to pay for to use IBM SmartCloud Control Desk."

"The licensing we have for IBM Control Desk is on a yearly basis. They have a concurrent license and an administrative license. And with these, you get all the products. There aren't any additional fees for extra add-ons or anything like that."

"We are using the free open-source version of Vtiger CRM."

"The price doesn't change when you add users. It's a flat fee, and that's attractive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Retailer

26%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	3

No data available

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

January 2026

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Buyer's Guide

CRM

January 2026

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Also Known As

SmartCloud Control Desk

Vtiger Sales CRM, Vtiger All-In-One CRM, Vtiger Help Desk

Overview

IBM Control Desk on Cloud offer an access to a user friendly self-service, automated service management, and seamlessly-integrated, best-practice based service desk capabilities. IBM Control Desk provides the IT service management (ITSM) needed to simplify support of users and infrastructure. It also offers a unified IT asset and service management software provides a common control center for managing business processes for both digital and physical assets and enables control, governance and compliance to applications, endpoints and assets to protect critical data and prevent outages. Control Desk is IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)-compliant, accessible through mobile devices and integrates with social media and development tools.

IBM

Vtiger CRM is a comprehensive tool that caters to businesses seeking to enhance customer engagement and streamline operations. It offers essential tools for effective contact management, sales automation, and collaboration.

Recognized for its ability to integrate all business processes on one platform, Vtiger CRM efficiently supports sales, marketing, and customer service teams by providing a robust set of features. Designed with scalability in mind, it caters to businesses of any size. Vtiger CRM focuses on increasing productivity while enhancing the customer journey, offering personalized communication and insights into customer interactions.

What are Vtiger CRM's key features?

Contact Management: Enables efficient tracking of customer information and interactions in a centralized location.
Sales Automation: Streamlines sales processes with tools for managing deals and leads automatically.
Email Marketing: Facilitates the creation and management of targeted email campaigns.
Customer Support: Provides ticketing tools to improve customer service delivery and response time.
Analytics: Offers deep insights through detailed reports and dashboards for data-driven decisions.

What benefits or ROI should users expect?

Increased Productivity: Automates routine tasks, allowing teams to focus on strategic goals.
Enhanced Customer Insights: Provides greater visibility into customer preferences and behaviors.
Improved Decision Making: Empowers users with data-driven insights for strategic planning.
Scalability: Adapts to business growth without requiring significant changes or investments.

Vtiger CRM is effectively implemented across industries like healthcare, where it streamlines patient interaction management. In retail, it enhances personalized shopping experiences, while in finance, it ensures compliance and improves customer relations. Vtiger CRM's versatility allows it to be molded to fit industry-specific requirements.

Vtiger

Sample Customers

St Vincent's Health Australia, Kalibrate Pty. Ltd., Cognizant Technology

Contus, eLobe, Breezway, Milky Way Ventures, GB Advisors

Buyer's Guide

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. Vtiger CRM

January 2026

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