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ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs Samanage 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

As of August 2025, in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category, the mindshare of ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is 5.8%, down from 7.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Samanage is 1.4%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow is 22.1%, down from 26.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

Featured Reviews

Anil  Rao - PeerSpot reviewer
Improved problem-solving and has a user-friendly knowledge base
The primary benefit of ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is its ease of use. It provides a simpler and more intuitive interface for creating semi-automated use cases and managing problem solutions. This simplicity makes it particularly suitable for less technical staff to use effectively. Additionally, its ability to interpret issues and offer solutions based on its knowledge base makes problem-solving faster. The deployment and use of all policies and user cases are seamless.
Moldir Shynggys - PeerSpot reviewer
Great filtering feature and a good analytics dashboard
Samanage is our ticketing system and users email us with their issues which we're then able to prioritize. We are customers of Samanage The best feature of Samanage is filtering. It also allows us to create a solution for recurring issues. It's like having a stack overflow in the company. I like…
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 GUI is very good."
"The software deployment we find quite valuable - being able to deploy software to multiple endpoints without having to worry about getting in touch with the end users."
"The workflow automation is the most valuable feature of this solution."
"ManageEngine provides additional modules that we can integrate in the future."
"The product scales up effortlessly and you can easily add users."
"The primary benefit of ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is its ease of use."
"The management of this application is good."
"It's a very user-friendly tool with good performance."
"The best part is the ability to keep records, especially incident records. It's easy to use the tool to store data and monitor it."
"The solution has a great filtering feature."
"We always get good support."
"I like ServiceNow's Workspace feature. With Jira, we had to edit a ticket by going into it. We couldn't perform edits from within the project plan. ServiceNow allows you to edit everything from one screen. It's like an Excel spreadsheet, but Jira requires you to drill down into the ticket. ServiceNow is more convenient if you are working on multiple projects and workflows."
"I would rate ServiceNow nine out of ten."
"ServiceNow is very easy to set up."
"The feature that I have found most valuable from ServiceNow is the ability to assign sub-tasks to different teams, including problem tickets and the regular and chain tasks."
"The impact of ServiceNow's self-service portal on IT staff dependency levels has shown a dramatic improvement."
"Within our organization, we're not finding really any major issues with scalability and things of that nature."
"This solution is a single-storage for our user community to submit help desk tickets."
 

Cons

"The licensing model should be more flexible. The current approach requires individual licenses, which become costly."
"The product needs to allow for implementation for other departments besides the IT help desk."
"A 360-degree view of the asset life cycle should be integrated with the service desk to provide better understanding and asset management."
"The product's asset management tool needs improvement."
"There's no native integrations between the systems."
"We'd like to have more integration into other platforms."
"The only challenge we are having is integrating with Jira."
"There is a limitation when assigning an approval; it has to be a single user."
"The system shuts down about once a month which is frustrating."
"The setting up process is not quite easy. It's quite difficult."
"I find ServiceNow to be a little bit clunky. If I need to report an issue they have a number of different options. I can report an issue, I can ask a question, I can make a request and it has varying levels of importance or levels of attention required. I find that what's required to submit is not always clear."
"A new user does need training or time to learn the solution before jumping in. It was very hard in the beginning to understand everything. I couldn't find the models I needed at the time."
"The RPA needs improvement. That's a new area for them that they're just entering into now."
"The standard UI is very restricted. It doesn't look as good, compared to Remedy. Building your own UI requires some additional coding..."
"The pricing structure could be more budget-friendly."
"Complexities in the organization made the initial deployment complex."
"It should enhance its offerings by providing the chance to obtain course certifications at an affordable fee."
"The solution’s pricing is expensive and could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price is very lucrative. It would be great if the price can come down, but overall, its price is great. It is half or maybe one-third of the price of other market leaders."
"The price is much better than other products so pricing is rated an eight out of ten."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"The only issue for us is the pricing, which is quite high in comparison with the competition."
"As compared to a lot of systems out there, it is more affordable."
"The cost of licensing is approximately ten dollars per suite, per month. When scaling up, there are a lot of other expenses such as infrastructure, the telecommunication companies, etc."
"ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus' price is very reasonable."
"The price of the solution is low. However, it still could be less expensive."
"It is 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."
"It's sold as a less expensive solution, but it has to be highly modified. That's where you get into the cost."
"The platform offers a free trial, by providing a free developer instance once you sign up."
"I am from Brazil. For Latin American markets, ServiceNow is very expensive as compared to other vendors, such as VMware."
"ServiceNow is an expensive solution."
"ServiceNow pricing is an art, not a science. The deal depends on how commercially savvy you are, which does make it something that is quite difficult to get right. It is most definitely an opportunity area for ServiceNow to improve and have more visibility around pricing of the different products within the platform."
"There are licensing fees."
"Isn't pricing always too much? We really do chafe at the ITIL licensing. ITOM is also pretty expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Construction Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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?
The costing for ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus ( /products/manageengine-servicedesk-plus-reviews ) is very flexible an...
What needs improvement with ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?
The solution needs to integrate with the telecom system in more depth. Currently, the feature is limited to the SMS l...
What do you like most about Samanage?
The best part is the ability to keep records, especially incident records. It's easy to use the tool to store data an...
What needs improvement with Samanage?
We mainly use it for incident logging. We'd like to add service request functionality, but we don't have the knowledg...
What is your primary use case for Samanage?
I use it for incident recording based on your inventory.
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

Tranter IT Infrastructure Services Limited, Sterlite Technologies, averda, Radiology Associates
SXSW, PRA Group, Fandango, Inteva Products, Amherst College, Tensator
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, BMC and others in IT Service Management (ITSM). Updated: August 2025.
865,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.