Top ServiceNow Competitors You Should Know

ServiceNow is an American software development company that provides clients with a cloud computing platform to help them manage digital workflows for enterprise operations. Founded in 2003 by Fred Luddy, former CTO of Peregrine Systems, ServiceNow has become one of the most sought-after in its niche. However, for various reasons, this service may not be suitable for some companies. For them, we have created a list of ServiceNow competitors.

ServiceNow: Top Competitors

Before we answer the question of who are ServiceNow competitors, let’s take a look at ServiceNow’s history.

The main concept of ServiceNow is to organize a fundamentally new way of providing service to customers. ServiceNow refactored all the program code that Peregrine created back in the 80s and hosted it on its own servers. Customer access to the service was carried out directly via the internet, without the need for costly implementation of software on local equipment. At the time ServiceNow appeared, this approach became a real innovation, since the Software-as-a-Service cooperation model was just in its infancy.

Since 2005, ServiceNow has been delivering its services to entrepreneurs around the world. The company currently employs more than 3,000 people, has an international client base of more than 2,400 companies of various sizes, and the company’s turnover exceeds $1 billion. ServiceNow’s service profile remains the same: development, implementation, and support of applications accessed via the internet by subscription.

In recent years, ServiceNow has moved beyond managing only IT services (like many of ServiceNow competitors), providing management services for most business processes. This allows entrepreneurs to apply the ITSM model for finance, HR, human resources, and marketing, as well as manage analytics, development, resources, projects, and other business areas within a single platform. Typical ITSM practices such as user requests, asset control, and knowledge base can be easily used by other departments.

ServiceNow provides a lot of benefits: a single-service automation platform with a single architecture and data model, a common resource base, and a broad portfolio of core services, like business process editor, configuration management, reporting, problem management, analytics, financial management, document flow, supplier and contractor management, contract management, software development life cycle, infrastructure resource management, a self-service portal, human resource management, event management, CMS, task and assignment management, information security, incident management, SLA, user-request management, and much more.

Why Do People Choose ServiceNow?

Given the extensive functionality and long history, ServiceNow is loved by thousands of companies around the world. Here are the main benefits:

It is highly customizable
It provides affordable customer support
It has real-time analytics and a reporting tool
It is secure and reliable
It offers on-demand IT management

Why Isn’t ServiceNow a Panacea?

However, if ServiceNow was perfect, company owners wouldn’t look for ServiceNow competitors. Here are the cons noted by users of this solution:

For beginners, this product is quite difficult to set up (this is especially true for the risk management module)
Created sub-tasks may be too deep in the task tree, and therefore customers may lose sight of them
It isn’t flexible enough in setting up the visual part
The mobile application is even more difficult to set up than the web version (which, by the way, is incompatible with some browsers)
Customer support specialists aren’t always in touch (contrary to the agreement)

That’s why we have decided to make a ServiceNow comparison with ten alternatives.

10 Best ServiceNow Alternatives

Below we have compiled a list of ten ServiceNow competitors that you might like more than ServiceNow.

HubSpot

Let’s start our list of ServiceNow competitors from HubSpot. This is first and foremost a CRM. However, this company also offers the HubSpot Service Hub, a premium customer service and support software. It has both standard functionality and unique features, such as reporting tools, automation, customer satisfaction assessment, etc. You can also create videos and your own knowledge base here. Note that this module is available to all HubSpot Sales and HubSpot Marketing users (although you can certainly use it separately).

In the basic version, you get two ticket pipelines. The professional version adds automation capabilities, advanced customer communications, a knowledge base, and customer surveys. As for the Enterprise version, in addition to the above features, here you can also create custom objects, transcribe conversation recordings, build playbooks, and also distribute rights between teams with hierarchical structures.

As for the cons, the free plan may lack technical support, and the paid plans may be too expensive compared to competitive solutions.

As for the pricing policy, you can choose both a free plan and a paid plan (of course, there will be more features), which cost $45 per month and up.

Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is a flexible support system that is well integrated with other Zoho offerings. It offers both basic features for small and medium-sized companies and a full range of services for large ones.

There are no surveys like in HubSpot—however, there are many other pros, such as ticket management, contracts and SLA, reports with field settings and dashboards, knowledge base, customer self-service portal, customer support portal, problem analysis, WYSIWYG editor, queue management, ticket filtering, telephony and IV, community forums, language support, rebranding, and more. However, most of them are only available in the most expensive plan.

Zoho Desk integrates well with all sorts of third-party solutions. Also, this product can boast the use of artificial intelligence in some functions (for example, in chatbots).

The prices for this service vary: from a free plan to a paid one that starts at $14 per agent per month.

Help Scout

Help Scout is a cloud-based help desk solution that helps small businesses and small teams manage customer relationships.

As for the main pros, Help Scout reduces the time spent on user training due to its simplicity. This service also allows users to create multiple mailboxes for each shared email address, build and host extensive knowledge bases and self-service portals that integrate with the company’s help desk, implement chat support using Beacon devices, monitor the process of working with emails in real-time, estimate team performance, identify trends, and track customer satisfaction. Also, Help Scout supports a large number of integrations and allows the possibility of automating manual tasks.

Among the cons, users note difficulties in editing the knowledge base and integrating with some services.

In terms of pricing, the Starter Plan starts at $20/month per user. Also, Help Scout gives generous discounts to new customers.

HelpJuice

Helpjuice, one of the competitors to ServiceNow, is a knowledge base software that includes rich analytics, smart and instant search, multi-language support, and fully-customized branding. Helpjuice is easy to use and boasts smart search. It also features advanced analytics for knowledge base optimization, single sign-on, APIs, collaboration and content management tools, customizable templates, user forums, a self-service portal, and more.

Among the shortcomings, users note the insufficiently extensive functionality of the admin panel and problems with storing images.

About pricing: Helpjuice plans start at $120 per month for 4 users.

BMC

What about BMC vs ServiceNow? Being one of the main competitors to ServiceNow, BMC complements our list.

BMC Remedy Service Desk is responsible for automating incident and problem management processes, allowing IT professionals to quickly and efficiently respond to situations that affect the provision of key services.

The BMC Remedy Service Desk handles requests and incident information from users, as well as incident data from infrastructure elements. With its extensive, flexible features and capabilities, it reduces the time it takes to restore normal operations, helps prevent future events from negatively impacting business operations, and improves IT staff productivity.

The workflows implemented in the BMC Remedy Service Desk capture and track relationships, from the occurrence of an incident to correlation with a problem, finding the root cause, known errors, and change requests. When used in conjunction with the BMC Remedy Knowledge Management module, Help Desk provides advanced authoring, natural language search, and self-service capabilities that reduce call volume from users for a given event and reduce troubleshooting time.

Key features of this solution include a persona-based UX, cognitive automation capabilities, comprehensive and intuitive change management capabilities, Helix Multi-Cloud Broker for multi-cloud environments, advanced reporting and visualization tools, as well as container deployment.

As for drawbacks, some users of BMC Remedy Service Desk say that some features in this solution are difficult to set up.

The pricing for this service is fixed: $114.75 per user per month.

ConnectWise Control

ConnectWise Control is a system for supporting an organization’s clients. The service, being one of the top ServiceNow competitors, allows businesses to quickly and efficiently serve customers through remote management and with the ability to work with several specialists on one project in a single window. The platform provides a lot of benefits such as a flexible and customizable web solution, where you can change the logo, localize the language, and integrate it into the website.

Among the key pros of this service are remote control, file sharing, a customizable user interface for branding alignment, and role-based access. It also has disadvantages: for example, file transfer cannot be done without starting a remote session.

ConnectWise Control offers a free trial period of 14 days. Paid plans start at $24 per user per month.

Cherwell

Now let’s talk about Cherwell vs ServiceNow. Cherwell Service Desk is a flexible and scalable ITSM with a high level of automation. This solution is equipped with a change management module, an incident and request management system (for both clients and business owners), as well as a panel for setting up workflows. Among the secondary features, we can highlight the self-service portal, advanced reporting tools, codeless architecture, service integration (multiple sources can be connected at once), CMDB, as well as a drag-and-drop designer for dashboards and forms.

As for the shortcomings, unlike ServiceNow users, some Cherwell users note insufficiently designed responsive forms and styling for web portals, as well as problems using the reporting engine.

A few words about the pricing in our ServiceNow vs Cherwell comparison. For Cherwell, it starts at $19/month per agent, while the annual license for ServiceNow starts from $30,000.

Ivanti

Let’s find out the main features of the Ivanti Service Desk in an Ivanti vs ServiceNow comparison. In a nutshell, it’s a unified helpdesk application that allows businesses to provide users with high-level support and service. This solution incorporates the very best from two international companies, LANDESK and HEAT Software. It integrates incident, problem, change, and configuration management, including monitoring, diagnostics, and required remediation. The application allows users to set up and follow a variety of support and maintenance procedures covering all possible incidents.

The efficiency of service provision, quality, and interconnection with other systems can be monitored through special dashboards that transmit information to the process owner in real-time.

Key features include a customizable knowledge base, self-service portal, dashboards and reporting, and tools for policy and process enforcement. The disadvantages of the Ivanti Service Desk include insufficient intuitiveness in the customization and configuration of some functions.

Note that the solution can be provided both in the cloud version and hosted within the client’s infrastructure.

Plans for Ivanti Service Desk are formed on an individual basis, upon request.

Jira Service Desk (Atlassian)

Let’s take a look at the Atlassian vs ServiceNow comparison. Meet Jira (Atlassian), one of the most advanced ServiceNow competitors, which is best known to the public for its versatile reporting tool. However, it also offers a Service Desk module, an advanced help desk software solution where all the tools are available out of the box. In essence, this is an online service for ticket management, support, and service desk automation with clear self-service.

In Jira, the vast majority of functionality is accompanied by the ability to monitor the work of employees in real-time. There are also additional benefits such as the creation of your own knowledge base with a large number of settings and abilities to scale.

Among the main pros of the JIRA Service Desk are the installation of modern SLAs and results reports, a clear self-service portal for clients without the need for training, customizable queues, analytics, advanced search and filtering, automated sorting, custom fields, email notifications, data import, integration with Slack and Microsoft Teams, etc.

For beginners, JIRA Service Desk offers a free plan. Paid plans start at $20 per user per month.

ServiceDesk Plus

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, being one of the ServiceNow competitors, is a cloud-based system for enhancing Help Desk and IT asset management. It offers a comprehensive package with incident management, tickets, asset tracking, procurement, contract management, a self-service portal, and a knowledge base at an affordable price. The service provides all the tools for full-fledged IT automation and the productive work of support staff.

ServiceDesk Plus allows end-users to submit tickets through various channels. It also automates important workflow tasks such as routing, notifications, and processing SLA rules.

The main features of ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus include Active Directory integration, a procurement system, business rules for managing requests, grouping similar requests, queuing, custom reports, HTML editors for decisions and notifications, ITIL, mobile integration (for example, with Zoho Reports), knowledge base, self-service portal, as well as management tools for incidents, problems, changes, and CMDB.

This service also has cons: for example, the report features are a little limited, as well as the setup is a bit confusing.

The price for this product starts at $495 per year.

Conclusion

We hope that our list of ServiceNow competitors has helped you choose a worthy replacement for ServiceNow. Also, if you want to learn more about service integration and customization, visit our Cloud Integration Services page.

If you have already made your choice, and now you want seamless integration of client services into your existing system, please contact us. We will do it quickly, cheaply, and without downtime for your company.