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Salesforce Service Cloud vs ServiceNow Customer Service Management 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.5
Salesforce Service Cloud offers high ROI with improved service efficiency, though success varies by company size and careful planning is needed.
Sentiment score
6.7
Organizations achieve ROI with ServiceNow CSM by streamlining processes, reducing costs, and aligning with business goals for improved efficiency.
Salesforce Service Cloud requires significant maintenance effort to see ROI.
Without such tools, the business would be affected by five to ten percent in annual revenue.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.2
Salesforce Service Cloud offers responsive support, though some recommend premium options due to occasional delays and level one frustrations.
Sentiment score
7.1
ServiceNow's customer service is praised for responsiveness and multilingual support, with some delays in lower packages.
Unless you have premium support, assistance is restricted.
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
8.2
Salesforce Service Cloud excels in scalability, integration, and customization, appealing to businesses of various sizes despite governor limits.
Sentiment score
8.5
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is praised for scalability, customization, and efficient self-service, enhancing business operations without extra costs.
Nobody can compete with Salesforce Service Cloud's scalability.
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
8.2
Salesforce Service Cloud is highly stable and reliable, with swift issue resolution and minimal integration challenges, supporting customizations effectively.
Sentiment score
8.3
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is stable, efficiently handles high traffic, yet customization limitations and portal issues can occasionally arise.
We rarely encounter stability issues with Salesforce Service Cloud, although when they occur, they cause significant disruption.
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is highly stable, which is critical because it operates as a live system 24/7.
Overall, it is very stable aside from these issues.
 

Room For Improvement

Salesforce Service Cloud users seek enhancements in email integration, UI speed, AI features, pricing, and system integration.
ServiceNow Customer Service needs improved customization, integration, AI features, pricing flexibility, and easier report downloading and upgrades.
Salesforce Service Cloud should focus on simplification.
The pricing of Salesforce Service Cloud is expensive compared to other solutions like our current SAP CRM, which is much cheaper.
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

Salesforce Service Cloud offers flexible pricing that can be expensive; negotiation can help optimize costs for enterprises.
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is costly but valued for efficiency, with premium pricing potentially unsuitable for smaller businesses.
Salesforce Service Cloud is expensive.
The approximate licensing costs for Salesforce Service Cloud are around three hundred dollars a year per user.
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

Salesforce Service Cloud excels in integration, automation, and customization, enhancing efficiency and user experience with robust features.
ServiceNow CSM offers powerful workflow and integration, enhancing service delivery with automation and AI on a flexible platform.
Salesforce Service Cloud offers pre-built packages that are best in class.
Salesforce Service Cloud improved our organization with its mobile capabilities.
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.
It integrates all different queues into one dashboard and consolidates various departments, ensuring visibility across the organization is transparent.
Change requests are vital if there is a business requirement change; they are used for tracking and reporting purposes, showcasing how change requests have been used to keep businesses running smoothly.
 

Categories and Ranking

Salesforce Service Cloud
Ranking in CRM Customer Engagement Centers
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
53
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (5th), Knowledge Management Software (2nd), IT Alerting and Incident Management (6th)
ServiceNow Customer Service...
Ranking in CRM Customer Engagement Centers
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Customer Experience Management (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the CRM Customer Engagement Centers category, the mindshare of Salesforce Service Cloud is 18.7%, up from 16.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Customer Service Management is 10.4%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM Customer Engagement Centers
 

Featured Reviews

ChanchalSaxena - PeerSpot reviewer
High scalability with good plugins and excellent customer visibility
The solution should improve: 1. Reports & dashboard - The product should be capable of delivering complex reports as per company requirements without the need for a Tableau license. 2. Einstein has limited capabilities, and it suggests the analysis by predefined algorithms - but in a practical scenario, businesses need to ask real-time questions, and AI products should be capable of delivering the exact answers. Generic answers may not be effective.
Arvind  Mehrotra - PeerSpot reviewer
Integrating departments for unified service while managing complexity and learning curve
ServiceNow Customer Service Management ( /products/servicenow-customer-service-management-reviews ) 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.
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
13%
Educational Organization
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Educational Organization
21%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Salesforce Service Cloud?
The approximate licensing costs for Salesforce Service Cloud are around three hundred dollars a year per user.
What needs improvement with Salesforce Service Cloud?
The pricing of Salesforce Service Cloud is expensive compared to other solutions like our current SAP CRM ( /products/sap-crm-reviews ), which is much cheaper.
What is your primary use case for Salesforce Service Cloud?
I used Salesforce Service Cloud ( /products/salesforce-service-cloud-reviews ) for our sales agents to track visits, gather feedback from customers, and capture orders.
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?
The pricing is around a seven, making it rather expensive. However, even with the cost, it is justified because it significantly aids business operations.
What needs improvement with ServiceNow Customer Service Management?
Sometimes ServiceNow Customer Service Management ( /products/servicenow-customer-service-management-reviews ) lags, meaning the speed is low or there is a delay in operations. These are the areas n...
 

Also Known As

Service Cloud
ServiceNow CSM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Stanley Black & Decker, Coca-Cola, Activision, Wells Fargo, Spotify, Aldo, Philips, The Red Cross, Blue Shield of California, Sprouts Farmers Market, Direct Energy Solar, Inspirato, Kiva
Siemens Healthineers, SAP SuccessFactors, Asurion
Find out what your peers are saying about Salesforce Service Cloud vs. ServiceNow Customer Service Management and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.