SCSM vs Zendesk comparison

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Read 23 SCSM reviews
1,579 views|877 comparisons
Zendesk Logo
3,419 views|2,193 comparisons
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between SCSM and Zendesk based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Help Desk Software solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed SCSM vs. Zendesk Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"This solution is easy to use.""SCSM is easy to learn because all of the material, including training videos, can be found online.""It is quite scalable.""It is one of the most stable solutions in the market.""A very convenient package like an all-in-one tool but it is actually five or six products acting well together.""We use SCSM to manage all of our IT operations, including incident and service requests and problem management.""The remote access is one of the features I really enjoy. The pushing of email updates and things like that are very good.""The most requested feature from our customers is the helpdesk ticketing system."

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"The stability has been very good.""It is a scalable solution.""Its agility and simplicity are the most valuable features. This tool is very user-friendly.""It is very easy to connect back and forth between the requester and the person fulfilling the ticket.""One of the most valuable features is the ease of use. If you take the standalone product, it is so easy to use, but if you want a tailor-made Zendesk Guide, you can't do it yourself. However, you can use a template that already exists—they have a lot, and they're very cheap, around 300-400 euros—and use it on all your brands. It's a very easy product to use.""The feature to move over my customer experience team tickets for different specialists is very valuable for my team.""It's very convenient to use.""The product offers very good management. It has a great ability to assign tickets based on content."

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Cons
"Once we had an issue with a desktop download that would not open.""We have had some issues with the SCSM on-premise deployment version in the imaging aspects.""The logs and reporting-related features of the product have certain shortcomings where improvements are required.""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.""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.""Better integration with other services in Azure is needed because everything is moving from on-premises to the cloud, and as an integrator, we have to help our clients with the migration.""The configuration could be easier."

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"They have something called Zendesk Explore, which isn't as good as what they had in place previously.""It wasn't easy to set up so we're only using a third of all of the features,""Sometimes if there was a way to just flag the actual issue out of those email chains - that would be really helpful.""There is always a network issue with Zendesk. But we don’t know whether it is managed. The network issue is that when I call, it does not let us.""The solution itself wasn't easy to set up.""The dashboard could be better.""The data you get when logged in to Zendesk Support differs from the data you get when you programmatically query Zendesk Support through its API because of a sync time delay.""The support team is time-consuming, and they don't find the answer to our problem."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It is a lower price vs. other things on the market."
  • "It is an expensive solution."
  • "Licensing can be complex and confusing."
  • "The price should be lower."
  • "The price of the solution could be better. My organization has an enterprise annual license with Microsoft which provides us support."
  • "It comes free with the enterprise agreement that we have, but the expense really is in having to buy another product to sit on top of it to make it work properly. You wind up having to buy additional support and additional product with their own support and maintenance costs on top of that."
  • "The license for SCSM is cheap."
  • "I would rate the pricing as two out of five."
  • More SCSM Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "We pay for the solution on a yearly basis and my understanding is that the cost is about $30,000. That's the cost for 24 to 25 agents."
  • "The price is very competitive."
  • "Zendesk's licensing is not cheap. For Enterprise, we are paying $200 per agent. It's a per-month cost, so it's pretty steep. There are some services you need to pay extra for. For example, with Zendesk Guide, we had to buy the most expensive offering in order to get Multibrand and everything. We also had to pay a lot of money for themes."
  • "There are different plans that are offered. We are using the entry-level plan. The overall price of the solution should be reduced. The price is too high."
  • "You have to pay extra for better support. So it's not only the license that you pay for, but you have to pay extra for the support as well."
  • More Zendesk Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The solution offers good productivity at a low price point.
    Top Answer:The solution offers good productivity at a low price point.
    Top Answer:For any weaknesses in the product, our company's security team maintains the application for our environment. The logs and reporting-related features of the product have certain shortcomings where… more »
    Top Answer:It's a very stable tool, very powerful.
    Top Answer:You have to pay extra for better support. So it's not only the license that you pay for, but you have to pay extra for the support as well. The pricing is expensive. Back then, we were paying $51 per… more »
    Top Answer:It has a huge problem regarding the price. The price increases every year. Every year, they raise the price of the licenses, which makes a lot of limitations, and you have to pay more. So that's some… more »
    Ranking
    14th
    out of 59 in Help Desk Software
    Views
    1,579
    Comparisons
    877
    Reviews
    8
    Average Words per Review
    511
    Rating
    7.6
    10th
    out of 59 in Help Desk Software
    Views
    3,419
    Comparisons
    2,193
    Reviews
    5
    Average Words per Review
    560
    Rating
    8.2
    Comparisons
    ServiceNow logo
    Compared 52% of the time.
    JIRA Service Management logo
    Compared 12% of the time.
    BMC Helix ITSM logo
    Compared 6% of the time.
    ServiceNow logo
    Compared 27% of the time.
    JIRA Service Management logo
    Compared 17% of the time.
    Atlassian Confluence logo
    Compared 11% of the time.
    Freshservice logo
    Compared 9% of the time.
    Microsoft Dynamics CRM logo
    Compared 4% of the time.
    Also Known As
    System Center Service Manager
    Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell
    Learn More
    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.

    Zendesk Support is intuitive, and it's built with support agents in mind. Everything they need lives in a single, dynamic help desk interface so it's easy to be productive and manage customer interactions.

    Sample Customers
    Fibabanka, UMC Health System
    Mailchimp, Tesco, Vimeo, Instacart, Mediaocean, Slack, Uber
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm20%
    Hospitality Company10%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    Government10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Government25%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company24%
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Construction Company10%
    Non Profit7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company21%
    Educational Organization10%
    Financial Services Firm6%
    University6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business38%
    Midsize Enterprise21%
    Large Enterprise42%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise66%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business46%
    Midsize Enterprise35%
    Large Enterprise19%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise56%
    Buyer's Guide
    SCSM vs. Zendesk
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about SCSM vs. Zendesk and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    SCSM is ranked 14th in Help Desk Software with 23 reviews while Zendesk is ranked 10th in Help Desk Software with 57 reviews. SCSM is rated 7.2, while Zendesk is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of SCSM writes "Helps us manage IT operations, including incident and service requests, but could be easier to create reports". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Zendesk writes "Straightforward, very transparent, and very well organized". SCSM is most compared with ServiceNow, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, JIRA Service Management and BMC Helix ITSM, whereas Zendesk is most compared with ServiceNow, JIRA Service Management, Atlassian Confluence, Freshservice and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. See our SCSM vs. Zendesk report.

    See our list of best Help Desk Software vendors and best IT Service Management (ITSM) vendors.

    We monitor all Help Desk Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.