SCSM vs SysAid comparison

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SCSM

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Microsoft System Center Service Manager and SysAid both cater to the IT service management category. SysAid appears to have an edge due to its simplicity, user-friendly features, and cost-effectiveness, which may appeal to a broader range of businesses.

Features: SCSM integrates seamlessly with the Microsoft ecosystem, utilizing automated orchestration and offering a robust incident management system. Its integration with other Microsoft products and services provides enterprises with a cohesive experience. SysAid is known for its intuitive self-service portal, integrated asset management, and efficient ticketing and asset tracking capabilities. It offers valuable reporting and remote access features, facilitating clear visibility and resource management.

Room for Improvement: SCSM has a limited self-service portal out-of-the-box, requires third-party enhancements, and faces challenges with customization, mobile integration, and patch management, which can be costly and complex. SysAid's back-end configurations can be difficult, and the lack of a mobile application is often highlighted by users. There is a call for more advanced features and seamless integration with additional IT systems.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SCSM mainly offers on-premises deployment with some hybrid cloud capabilities and provides thorough technical support, which can be slow with complex issues. SysAid supports both public and private cloud deployments, offering more flexibility and is praised for its responsive technical support, providing timely assistance in diverse IT environments.

Pricing and ROI: SCSM's pricing is considered expensive due to the Microsoft licensing model, potentially deterring smaller businesses despite the potential high ROI when fully utilized. SysAid's competitive pricing and straightforward licensing offer attractive initial packages and affordable expansions, presenting a favorable ROI for budget-conscious organizations.

To learn more, read our detailed SCSM vs. SysAid Report (Updated: September 2025).

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SCSM vs. SysAid

September 2025

Helped 867,497 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

SCSM

Ranking in Help Desk Software

11th

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

10th

Average Rating

7.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SysAid

Ranking in Help Desk Software

21st

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

19th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of SCSM is 1.8%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SysAid is 1.1%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Help Desk Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SCSM	1.8%
SysAid	1.1%
Other	97.1%

Help Desk Software

Featured Reviews

LuisSanchez3

Director Metropolitano de Gobierno Digital at a government with 10,001+ employees

Current setup enables smooth problem-solving but lacks comprehensive guidance and local support

More information about setup procedures and a more user-friendly front end would be beneficial. We need more information for setup processes. It is difficult to do the work independently, requiring us to hire external companies for maintenance hours to fix small issues that could be resolved faster in-house if we had better information. We have been looking for an upgrade version, but finding local service has been difficult. It has been challenging trying to get things done. Speaking with the Microsoft office, we found there are no local companies with substantial experience with SCSM. What we have now was installed five or six years ago. It has been difficult to change configurations and look for upgrades, even with all the manuals. Our office is considering moving away from SCSM and getting a service desk solution outside of Microsoft. For me, it has been a good tool to get help and solve internal problems in the office. It is a very good tool, but the difficulty in getting local service or more information is pushing us to look for another tool.

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Todd Blake

Senior IT Specialist at COMMUNITY HEALTH CONNECTIONS INC

A solution that streamlines ticket creation for the staff members of a business and enables efficient issue resolution by the IT team

SysAid is similar to Nintex AssureSign. Some of the back-end configurations of the solution are very difficult. So, we always need SysAid's help. Also, there are almost too many features that we are not taking advantage of in our company since we don't even know about them. A little bit of a streamlining or simplification of the main features would be a good improvement. I would like to see SysAid present its solution more easily. There is a lot in the solution, and it is more than what we need in our company.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is a simple solution that is easy to configure."

"The solution is quite easy to integrate with other Microsoft products."

"The remote access is one of the features I really enjoy. The pushing of email updates and things like that are very good."

"The solution's setup process is relatively straightforward due to the familiar deployment steps similar to other Microsoft solutions."

"It is quite scalable."

"We use SCSM to manage all of our IT operations, including incident and service requests and problem management."

"SCSM helps us keep organized by tracking all user demands and change requests. However, the reporting is not sufficient to provide a clear view of ongoing projects. It helps with daily operations and change request management."

"We've been in contact with Microsoft technical support mainly. After doing the research ourselves and troubleshooting, etc., if we can't find a permanent solution, we contact Microsoft to help us fix the issue. Sometimes the issue never gets fixed even by Microsoft. It can sometimes require us to reinstall the solution. However, these are very rare instances."

More SCSM pros

"I would say the overall flexibility of the product is its most valuable feature."

"The service desk orchestration, overall, is good. It allows an organization to build that service desk concept into its organizational and support strategy. And it allows an organization to digest that and create a support model very quickly around the tools. The fact that the tools are integrated within the system itself gives the organization a really robust way to integrate everything and have a complete support model."

"It's really customizable. It's very user-friendly to change very quickly. We've developed lots of custom forms and things, without any need for thousands of accounting consultants which was one of our main aims of it."

"The solution can scale."

"The service desk automation and orchestration are very good. We are implementing it at the moment. We implemented it for two of our applications already for our CRM. Whenever there's a change in the CRM, it will automate them into SysAid as well. We have two workflows from our CRM into SysAid, which is very helpful. Overall, we're very happy with the workflow."

"The solution provides us with multi-layered service management along with all our support pieces integrated in one system. Our entire system is run on SysAid, from Tier 1 to Tier 3. All the other IT department functionality is captured in SysAid, like development, warehousing, and application. So, it has vertical and horizontal coverage."

"All our service management is integrated into one system. Our response time is much faster because we have a visual into what is going on."

"The SysAid team provided excellent service to implement the solution for us. From the very first day, we received a comp manager, and a project manager, to implement the product. They continued to inquire about our business needs and then finalized the best path for us."

More SysAid pros

Cons

"We have had some issues with the SCSM on-premise deployment version in the imaging aspects."

"Our office is looking for maybe getting out of SCSM and getting a service desk solution outside of Microsoft."

"There is no development with this product, and we had to go and buy additional ITSM solutions to sit on top of it. We had to buy products from companies like Cireson and Cased Dimensions in order to get the functionality that we need out of it. So, we're using Service Manager as an engine, rather than as a full-blown product. It is the engine, but we have other products sitting on top of it to make it work properly."

"One of the disadvantages in this product is that the reporting module is not very easy. It requires SQL development skills, which not all customers or IT professionals have."

"They might be looking for additional functionalities that SCSM could integrate."

"The solution could be more simple. For example, it takes a lot of work to create reports. It runs on Microsoft SQL queries. Creating custom reports on ManageEngine takes less work from the administrator."

"We would like to see a web-based interface that works on mobile devices."

"I have found SCSM not adequate enough to carry out some functions."

More SCSM cons

"So far, we're very happy with the new integration. The only thing that I would like to see is for them to improve asset management so that it's more usable. We looked at it once and we didn't find it quite usable for us. That's why we didn't use it. We haven't looked into the new one yet but the asset management is something that can be improved even more and patch management is not as good as it could be."

"Monitoring needs improvement. At the moment we are looking for some advanced monitoring tools, which are using AI and machine learning as well. This product currently does not offer that."

"We would like them to approve the security functionalities, e.g., management security features."

"Currently, SysAid does not have a mobile application."

"Some of the back-end configurations of the solution are very difficult. So, we always need SysAid's help."

"There is a learning curve for the users."

"The automation needs improvement. The workflow has some improvements to do. There's some stuff that they are working on like having cascaded fields. For example, we're categorizing tickets by location, by site and by building and then by data room within a data center. At the moment they're all separate fields."

"SysAid has fewer AI features compared to other tools."

More SysAid cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The license for SCSM is cheap."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"The platform is competitively priced."

"It is an expensive solution."

"I would rate the pricing as two out of five."

"The price of the solution could be better. My organization has an enterprise annual license with Microsoft which provides us support."

"Licensing can be complex and confusing."

"It is a lower price vs. other things on the market."

More SCSM pricing and cost advice

"Once you're interested, talk with SysAid. You can have them come in and look at your company and advise you on the best solution. They will tell you what comes with each separate package and also advise you what application to activate. If you want something that they don't have, they have a department that can design something based on your unique requests."

"Overall, the price is good. It's all about what you get for the base amount. From my perspective, you want to look at what you're getting out-of-the-box. SysAid does a good job of putting key stuff in the box for you."

"We saw our investment back at the end of year one."

"SysAid is a good solution, especially from a pricing perspective."

"Though I am not really sure about SysAid's prices, I know that it is competitive compared to some of the other products that our company looked at, like ConnectWise and ServiceNow."

"The pricing of SysAid is less than its competitors."

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867,497 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Government

26%

Computer Software Company

University

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Performing Arts

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	14

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SCSM?

The solution offers good productivity at a low price point.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SCSM?

I am not sure about the pricing as I do not have experience with it.

What needs improvement with SCSM?

What do you like most about SysAid?

SysAid is more user-friendly, and its configuration is easier than other tools.

What needs improvement with SysAid?

With SysAid, most of the customers are requesting a native mobile application. SysAid has fewer AI features compared to other tools.

What advice do you have for others considering SysAid?

Our customers use the enterprise edition and the standard edition of SysAid. We provide local support, but there are some things we have to escalate to SysAid. When we need support, we use their su...

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs SCSM

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 35% of the time

HaloITSM vs SysAid

Compared 24% of the time

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs SysAid

Compared 21% of the time

Teamwork vs SysAid

Compared 10% of the time

JIRA Service Management vs SysAid

Compared 10% of the time

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Product Reports

Download SCSM product report

SCSM

August 2025

Download SysAid product report

August 2025

Also Known As

System Center Service Manager

No data available

Overview

System Center Service Manager is a software product by Microsoft to allow organizations to manage incidents and problems. Microsoft states that the product is compliant with industry best practices such as the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) and in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). SCSM has integrated ITIL compliant fulfillment of service requests. Service requests are submitted by the end user in order to obtain information, access to a new application or the most common of all, password reset.

Microsoft

Offered in both cloud and on-premise versions, SysAid is a globally-adopted IT Service Management (ITSM) solution that combines all the essential capabilities in one, feature-rich tool. From traditional ticket management to asset management, SysAid allows administrators to monitor and manage tasks in one platform, so they can deliver fast and comprehensive support from a single view. Available in 42 languages, SysAid serves over 10,000 customers across 140 countries, spanning all industries and sizes.

Sample Customers

Fibabanka, UMC Health System

Disney, Sears Holdings Corporation, LAN Airlines, Schneider Electric, On Semiconductors, Toyota, Sky, KPMG, Georgetown University Law Center, Motorola, North York General Hospital, Volksbank, Xerox, Bacardi, Del Monte Fresh Produce, Manpower, Nucor, Ecobank