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Salesforce Service Cloud vs ServiceNow Customer Service Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

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
6.5
Salesforce Service Cloud improves ROI through efficiency, visibility, and integration, yielding up to 50% ROI amidst varying challenges.
Sentiment score
6.5
ServiceNow CSM delivers positive ROI by enhancing efficiency, optimizing communication, reducing costs, and boosting revenue through effective deployment.
Salesforce Service Cloud requires significant maintenance effort to see ROI.
Lead Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Without such tools, the business would be affected by five to ten percent in annual revenue.
In our organization, downtime and criticality have been addressed in a very short time, and the revenue and outcomes from this have increased.
System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
ServiceNow Customer Service Management saves time because of the CSM module and it saves money as well.
Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.6
Salesforce Service Cloud is praised for responsiveness and community support, though premium support is recommended for complex issues.
Sentiment score
6.5
ServiceNow Customer Service Management offers responsive support, available in multiple languages, with effectiveness enhanced through strong partnerships.
Unless you have premium support, assistance is restricted.
Lead Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Salesforce directly does not give you the support, and it is through the partner that you have to go, leading to some time delays.
Head Of Information Technology at SAISOFT
It is better because partners have a deep understanding of the code and configuration challenges.
managing partner at AmPmilify Associates LLP
Customer support provides a lot of help and responds immediately, offering very good service.
System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Whenever we raise high cases, we do get a response in minimum TAT.
Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Salesforce Service Cloud is scalable, customizable, and cloud-based, enabling seamless growth and integration for enterprise-level adaptability.
Sentiment score
8.0
ServiceNow Customer Service Management offers scalable, customizable solutions, efficiently handling diverse business needs and integrating with other applications.
Salesforce Service Cloud is the most advanced in scalability, rating around nine to ten.
Head Of Information Technology at SAISOFT
Nobody can compete with Salesforce Service Cloud's scalability.
Lead Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
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.
Head of Business Agility and Development at Aqarat Real Estate Development Company
ServiceNow Customer Service Management's scalability is such that it is scalable to a large extent as it can be integrated with other applications as well.
Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Salesforce Service Cloud is stable and reliable, with rare disruptions, excellent support, and scalability when following best practices.
Sentiment score
7.9
ServiceNow Customer Service Management offers stable, high-performance service for large enterprises, with rare issues and reliable updates.
We rarely encounter stability issues with Salesforce Service Cloud, although when they occur, they cause significant disruption.
Lead Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Overall, it is very stable aside from these issues.
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is highly stable, which is critical because it operates as a live system 24/7.
Head of Business Agility and Development at Aqarat Real Estate Development Company
 

Room For Improvement

Salesforce Service Cloud needs UI/UX improvements, pricing adjustments, stability, better integrations, and enhanced reporting, email, and AI capabilities.
ServiceNow requires improved customization, integration, and user interface, with enhanced AI, automation, and reporting to address setup complexity and learning curve.
Salesforce Service Cloud should focus on simplification.
Lead Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Configuring Flows in Salesforce Service Cloud is very difficult.
Assosiate Partner at Autana Business Partners
It could be better in areas such as media; it does not handle media effectively, particularly with pictures and uploads.
CTO at Glenavoo Digital
It is important to follow practical rules and best practices to avoid misconfigurations caused by different developers doing things their own way.
Head of Business Agility and Development at Aqarat Real Estate Development Company
Quick case resolutions through AI is one of the most valuable use cases.
Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Managing this platform requires sophisticated handling.
managing partner at AmPmilify Associates LLP
 

Setup Cost

Salesforce Service Cloud's high costs can be offset by negotiating contracts, offering flexible licensing and significant functionality for large teams.
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is costly, ideal for enterprises, but potentially too expensive for small businesses despite its value.
The approximate licensing costs for Salesforce Service Cloud are around three hundred dollars a year per user.
Application Owner at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Salesforce Service Cloud is expensive.
Lead Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is expensive, with costs around half a million US dollars per year.
Head of Business Agility and Development at Aqarat Real Estate Development Company
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.
Lead Business Analyst at Orange
 

Valuable Features

Salesforce Service Cloud excels in customization, integration, automation, and scalability, offering real-time data, email management, and extensive API support.
ServiceNow CSM offers efficient workflow management, cloud flexibility, AI features, and ITSM integration to enhance productivity and service delivery.
Salesforce Service Cloud improved our organization with its mobile capabilities.
Application Owner at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Salesforce Service Cloud offers pre-built packages that are best in class.
Lead Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Usability is one of the strongest characteristics of Salesforce Service Cloud.
Assosiate Partner at Autana Business Partners
ServiceNow Customer Service Management has impacted our organization positively; we have formed a very good process with this tool that has helped increase the productivity of the team.
System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
The most valuable features are incident management and change management.
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.
Head of Business Agility and Development at Aqarat Real Estate Development Company
 

Categories and Ranking

Salesforce Service Cloud
Ranking in CRM Customer Engagement Centers
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (6th), Knowledge Management Software (4th), IT Alerting and Incident Management (6th)
ServiceNow Customer Service...
Ranking in CRM Customer Engagement Centers
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Customer Experience Management (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the CRM Customer Engagement Centers category, the mindshare of Salesforce Service Cloud is 11.1%, down from 18.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Customer Service Management is 6.6%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM Customer Engagement Centers Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Salesforce Service Cloud11.1%
ServiceNow Customer Service Management6.6%
Other82.3%
CRM Customer Engagement Centers
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2688993 - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Leverage top-tier automation capabilities while streamlining complex naming conventions
Salesforce Service Cloud offers pre-built packages that are best in class. The automation capabilities have evolved over time, consolidating previous features into Salesforce flows. However, these work best when everything is within Salesforce Service Cloud and everyone has a license. Without an enterprise MuleSoft license, external interactions complicate automation significantly.
BasilJiji - PeerSpot reviewer
System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Structured ticket workflows have improved resolution speed and have supported SLA-driven support
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is offering very good things, but I felt improvements to our process would allow us to depend on this tool in many other ways. Regarding the interface, currently the user who creates the ticket has a very limited interface with only the options for creating a ticket and providing details, while the support team has a much larger interface with many options, including SLA details and report generation. While this classification is great, I felt that some modifications could be brought to the interface. I felt that further modifications can be made so that it could be a perfect tool.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Performing Arts
9%
University
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Retailer
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise9
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Salesforce Service Cloud?
I do not have any knowledge of the cost regarding Salesforce Service Cloud.
What needs improvement with Salesforce Service Cloud?
I face challenges with Salesforce Service Cloud because it requires and is difficult to customize. It could be better in areas such as media; it does not handle media effectively, particularly with...
What is your primary use case for Salesforce Service Cloud?
I am not a user, partner, reseller, or implementer as we implemented it ourselves. We do SLA management through Salesforce Service Cloud, which is the role of Service Analytics.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Customer Service Management?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that these were done by the VP of our company, thus I have no idea about the same.
What needs improvement with ServiceNow Customer Service Management?
ServiceNow Customer Service Management could be improved by incorporating Gen AI into ServiceNow. Though ServiceNow has a Now Assist feature for their CSM module, it still needs a lot of work to do...
What is your primary use case for ServiceNow Customer Service Management?
My main use case for ServiceNow Customer Service Management is that I use it as an end user to provide customer support to our clients. For a specific example of how I use it to provide customer su...
 

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: December 2025.
880,511 professionals have used our research since 2012.