The license for IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is paid yearly and is on a per-user basis. You buy the product and pay for its license yearly. IBM is changing the licensing structure, but for now, it's a yearly license. There's no additional cost. It's just the license that you need to pay for to use IBM SmartCloud Control Desk.
The licensing we have for IBM Control Desk is on a yearly basis. They have a concurrent license and an administrative license. And with these, you get all the products. There aren't any additional fees for extra add-ons or anything like that. When you have the concurrent license, it just means that if you have 10 concurrent licenses, then 10 people can work on the product at the same time. If you are an end user and you only want to report an issue, you have an unlimited license (i.e. no fee). The license only applies for the support team, as in the people who are using the application and resolving issues, and who have the power to delete or insert security permissions and configurations. The end user who only reports issues is not part of the licensing. Price-wise, I have heard from some customers who want to buy Control Desk that they are a little disappointed in the price for licensing. It's not as cheap as some of the other products out there.
It's basically for a big company because of the costs. A small company can't afford the licensing cost. For medium and large companies, it's the best product. The price of the license is on the higher side compared to others.
IT Service Desk Manager at a government with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Feb 19, 2021
I don't have any insights on licensing. It's not part of the solution that I handle. I can't comment on the costs or how often we need to pay a licensing fee.
When using SmartCloud Control Desk I think you buy a license. We have the concurrent licensing fee in the Control Desk and then you have to renew every year or every four years when you extend the subscription and support. So the expenses are for the platforms, the memory, and all the storage. But from the IBM perspective, there is only concurrent licensing for the Control Desk. There are no additional costs for features.
For our country, I think it's expensive but we don't have another way to buy this license. We need to pay once and then pay only for support every year. We pay for support on a yearly basis.
Learn what your peers think about IBM SmartCloud Control Desk. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
IBM Control Desk on Cloud offer an access to a user friendly self-service, automated service management, and seamlessly-integrated, best-practice based service desk capabilities. IBM Control Desk provides the IT service management (ITSM) needed to simplify support of users and infrastructure. It also offers a unified IT asset and service management software provides a common control center for managing business processes for both digital and physical assets and enables control, governance and...
The license for IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is paid yearly and is on a per-user basis. You buy the product and pay for its license yearly. IBM is changing the licensing structure, but for now, it's a yearly license. There's no additional cost. It's just the license that you need to pay for to use IBM SmartCloud Control Desk.
The licensing we have for IBM Control Desk is on a yearly basis. They have a concurrent license and an administrative license. And with these, you get all the products. There aren't any additional fees for extra add-ons or anything like that. When you have the concurrent license, it just means that if you have 10 concurrent licenses, then 10 people can work on the product at the same time. If you are an end user and you only want to report an issue, you have an unlimited license (i.e. no fee). The license only applies for the support team, as in the people who are using the application and resolving issues, and who have the power to delete or insert security permissions and configurations. The end user who only reports issues is not part of the licensing. Price-wise, I have heard from some customers who want to buy Control Desk that they are a little disappointed in the price for licensing. It's not as cheap as some of the other products out there.
It's basically for a big company because of the costs. A small company can't afford the licensing cost. For medium and large companies, it's the best product. The price of the license is on the higher side compared to others.
I don't have any insights on licensing. It's not part of the solution that I handle. I can't comment on the costs or how often we need to pay a licensing fee.
When using SmartCloud Control Desk I think you buy a license. We have the concurrent licensing fee in the Control Desk and then you have to renew every year or every four years when you extend the subscription and support. So the expenses are for the platforms, the memory, and all the storage. But from the IBM perspective, there is only concurrent licensing for the Control Desk. There are no additional costs for features.
For our country, I think it's expensive but we don't have another way to buy this license. We need to pay once and then pay only for support every year. We pay for support on a yearly basis.