ServiceNow is a massive platform with a ton of power, but its complexity and cost can sometimes be an enterprise software sledgehammer to crack a modest service management nut. Luckily, the market for IT and enterprise service management (ITSM and ESM) is full of incredible tools designed to tackle every scope of work and scale of challenge. Our goal with this guide is to walk you through the top 15 alternatives available today. We'll cover the highlights, features, and available pricing to help you make an informed decision that's right for your team.
| Product Name | Highlights | Starting Annual Price | G2 Rating | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SolarWinds Service Desk | Best for unified ITSM, IT asset management (ITAM), and ESM | Starts at $468/agent Free trial available | 4.3/5 |
|
| Jira Service Management | Best for Dev/IT alignment | Standard from $700 (1–3 agents) Free trial and plan available | 4.3/5 |
|
| Freshservice | Best for intuitive ITSM | From $588 (growth plan) Free trial available | 4.6/5 |
|
| BMC Helix ITSM | Best for large enterprises | Quote-based pricing No free trial | 3.7/5 |
|
| Ivanti Neurons for ITSM | Best for hyper-automation and unified endpoint management (UEM) | Quote-based pricing No free trial | 3.9/5 |
|
| ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus | Best for broad IT management | Quote-based pricing Free trial available | 4.2/5 |
|
| HaloITSM | Best for all-inclusive ITSM | Quote-based pricing Free trial available | 4.8/5 |
|
| Zendesk Suite | Best for unified support | Starts at $660/agent (Suite Team plan) Free trial available | 4.3/5 |
|
| Salesforce Service Cloud | Best for organizations committed to the Salesforce ecosystem | Starts at $300/user (Starter Suite plan) Free trial available | 4.4/5 |
|
| SysAid | Best for automated orchestration | Quote-based pricing Free trial available | 4.5/5 |
|
| OpenText SMAX | Best for codeless ITSM | From $984/user No free trial | 4.2/5 |
|
| EasyVista Service Manager | Best for mobile-first delivery | Quote-based pricing No free trial | 3.9/5 |
|
| TOPdesk | Best for simplified ESM | From $912/user No free trial | 4.2/5 |
|
| InvGate Service Desk | Best for user-friendly ITSM | Quote-based pricing Free trial available | 4.6/5 |
|
| TeamDynamix | Best for combined ITSM and project and portfolio management (PPM) | Quote-based pricing No free trial | 4.3/5 |
|
1. SolarWinds Service Desk
Overview
SolarWinds® Service Desk provides a powerful, all-in-one platform for service and asset management that doesn't require a team of consultants to get running. It’s built to help you modernize your service delivery, streamline operations from ticket request to resolution, and manage your entire technology asset lifecycle in one place.
The whole idea is to give you a single pane of glass to see and manage everything. This helps you eliminate friction for co-workers with a clean service portal, automate repetitive tasks to free up your technicians, and make data-driven decisions with powerful analytics. Whether you're a mid-sized company feeling growing pains or a large enterprise looking for a smarter, more cost-effective solution, Service Desk is built to scale with you and empower your IT team to be a strategic partner to the business. It’s about giving you the tools to fix problems and proactively improve the entire employee and/or customer experience.
Core Features
Relational Ticket Management
The SolarWinds approach to ticketing links incidents, problems, changes, and releases in a fully relational way. This helps your team see the entire picture, identify root causes much faster, and better understand the business impact of any IT issue. It effectively moves you from closing tickets to strategically solving underlying problems for good.
Full ITAM Suite
SolarWinds Service Desk includes a complete IT asset management (ITAM) suite right out of the box. You can discover, track, and manage all hardware, software, and other configuration items (CIs) from a single place, with a configuration management database (CMDB) visual map showing relationships between CIs. This is designed to help you run audits, optimize software spend, and give your technicians valuable context when resolving tickets.
Employee Service Portal
Your employees get a modern, user-friendly portal easily assembled with a drag-and-drop builder, providing the feel of a consumer app store. Your co-workers can find answers in the knowledge base, submit requests through a custom service catalog, and track their ticket status without needing to call the help desk. Request spaces from multiple departments can be featured on a centralized employee portal, empowering staff to self-service and reducing your team's workload.
AI-Powered Automation
SolarWinds Service Desk uses artificial intelligence (AI and GenAI) to make your life easier. The platform can automatically categorize and assign tickets based on keywords and historical user data. The AI-powered smart suggestions in the service portal also help employees solve their issues by surfacing relevant knowledge base articles before a ticket is submitted.
Advanced Capabilities
Robust Workflow Engine
The visual drag-and-drop workflow builder is designed for complex, multi-step processes. You can automate everything from new hire onboarding that spans multiple departments to complex change management approvals. It’s a powerful tool for turning manual, error-prone tasks into streamlined, repeatable, and fully reportable workflows without writing a single line of code.
Use Cases
- ITSM and IT Ops Convergence: If you’re seeking efficiencies by bringing together your ITSM and IT Ops teams, Service Desk helps with built-in integration with SolarWinds Observability. Unified service management and operational workflows can enable a more agile and responsive IT environment that helps break down silos and improve your overall service delivery.
- Modernizing the Help Desk: If your team is buried under a mountain of emails and spreadsheets, Service Desk can centralize all your requests. It provides a structured and efficient system for managing incidents and service requests. This helps ensure nothing falls through the cracks and you can easily meet your Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
- Expanding Beyond IT: Many customers successfully use the platform for enterprise service management. You can easily create distinct service catalogs and portals for other departments, such as human resources, facilities, or legal.
- Optimizing Asset Lifecycles: Manage the entire lifecycle from initial procurement and deployment to ongoing maintenance and eventual retirement to cut costs, reduce security risks, and get more value from your technology investments.
Support
Support is critical when your service desk is on the line. A global team of SolarWinds experts is here for you. Several support tiers are available, including ProSupport and Enterprise Premier options, giving you access to 24/7 technical assistance, a dedicated customer success manager, and proactive health checks. You also get access to the THWACK® user community, a massive forum with over 200,000 IT pros you can connect with.
Pricing
SolarWinds Service Desk offers straightforward pricing without a lot of hidden fees. It’s priced primarily per agent, with flexible bundle-based pricing for asset management. You can choose from three tiers to help you tailor your subscription to your budget:
- Essentials: Perfect for teams just starting with core ticketing and incident management
- Advanced: The most popular plan, with full ITSM, ITAM, and advanced automation capabilities
- Premier: For organizations needing top-tier features like virtual agent chatbots and advanced governance
- Sign up for a free 30-day trial
- View full pricing plans
- Book a personalized demo
What Next?
2. Jira Service Management (Atlassian)
Overview
Jira Service Management is the ITSM layer built on the powerful Jira platform. Its greatest strength is the seamless integration with Jira Software, making it the default choice for organizations where development and IT operations teams must work in lockstep. It fosters a collaborative approach to incident resolution, change management, and request fulfillment. While incredibly powerful for technical teams, it can be complex for non-IT users in an ESM context, and there’s potential for data residency issues for some third-party marketplace apps. Nonetheless, it’s built from the ground up to connect your Dev, IT, and business teams on a single, unified platform for high-velocity work, which is ideal for modern tech stacks.
Key Features and Strengths
- Native integration with Jira for unparalleled Dev and Ops collaboration
- Strong capabilities for incident management and postmortem reports
- Flexible request management with highly customizable forms and workflows
- Change management features are designed to reduce risk for deployments
- A comprehensive marketplace with hundreds of apps for extending functionality
- Includes asset and configuration management through the Insight module
Pricing Offers a free tier for up to three agents; paid plans are priced per agent.
3. Freshservice (Freshworks)
Overview
Freshservice is a cloud-based ITSM solution celebrated for its intuitive and user-friendly interface. It’s designed for easy setup and management, offering rapid time-to-value for teams that want to modernize their service desk without a massive implementation project. Freshservice uses its "Freddy AI" across the platform to power chatbot functionality, suggest knowledge base articles, and automate ticket categorization. It offers a strong balance of powerful ITSM features, a clean user experience, and a competitive price point. However, it’s noted that live support is only 24/5, which can deter some users.
Key Features and Strengths
- AI-powered features for significant automation and enhanced self-service
- Modern, intuitive user interface requires minimal agent training
- Integrated ITAM for tracking both software and hardware assets
- Powerful workflow automation
- SaaS management capabilities to discover and manage cloud apps
- Available as a unified platform with other Freshworks products
Pricing Multiple pricing tiers are available, billed per agent, with a 21-day free trial.
4. BMC Helix ITSM
Overview
BMC has been a giant in IT management for decades, and Helix ITSM is its flagship solution. It’s built for large, complex organizations, particularly those in highly regulated industries that require deep adherence to ITIL processes. BMC Helix is known for its cognitive automation, using AI and machine learning to identify issues, predict trends, and optimize services proactively. It’s a powerful, comprehensive platform for complex multi-cloud environments, but its complexity and cost generally make it out of reach for smaller organizations.
Key Features and Strengths
- Deeply embedded AI for predictive and proactive service management
- Comprehensive, ITIL 4-compliant processes for change and release
- Designed for complex, multi-cloud enterprise IT environments
- Robust reporting and advanced analytics capabilities
- Strong focus on governance, risk, and compliance frameworks
- Includes container deployment for flexibility in public or private clouds
Pricing Pricing is quote-based and tailored to specific enterprise needs and scale.
5. Ivanti Neurons for ITSM
Overview
Ivanti's platform is focused on what they call "hyper-automation." The big differentiator is the integration of ITSM with Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) and security. The "Neurons" platform is designed to self-heal, self-secure, and self-service devices and users proactively. This makes it a strong choice for large organizations looking to consolidate vendors and create a highly automated IT environment, from the service desk to the endpoint.
Key Features and Strengths
- Combines ITSM, ITAM, and UEM in one unified platform
- "Neurons" for automation and proactive issue resolution
- Strong capabilities for endpoint discovery, security, and management
- Advanced workflow automation for complex enterprise processes
- Voice automation and chatbot capabilities for enhanced self-service
- Caters to ITIL-aligned service delivery for mature IT organizations
Pricing Pricing is quote-based and typically bundled with other Ivanti solutions.
6. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Overview
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is known as a "Swiss Army knife" for IT management, popular in the mid-market and with enterprises seeking cost reduction. It offers a surprisingly broad set of features beyond core ITSM, including endpoint management, Active Directory integration, and robust reporting, often in one package. Available in cloud and on-premises versions, it gives teams deployment flexibility.
Key Features and Strengths
- Cloud and on-premises deployment options
- Built-in IT asset management and remote support tools
- Tight integration with other ManageEngine products
- Strong customization for forms, templates, and workflows
- Project management features in higher-tier plans
- Very competitive pricing for its extensive feature set
Pricing Offers a free version for up to five technicians; paid plans are competitively priced.
7. HaloITSM
Overview
HaloITSM positions itself as a modern alternative to legacy enterprise players, offering a comprehensive, all-inclusive ITSM solution without complex licensing or a high price tag. It's known for its intuitive interface, high customization, and strong customer support.
Key Features and Strengths
- All-inclusive pricing model with no hidden module costs
- Highly configurable platform without dedicated developers
- Modern and intuitive UI for agents and end users
- Strong ITIL alignment across core processes
- Powerful reporting with many custom dashboards
- Responsive, well-rated customer support
Pricing Pricing is straightforward, based on concurrent agents, with all features included.
8. Zendesk Suite
Overview
While Zendesk made its name in external customer support, many businesses have adapted its suite for internal employee support and ITSM. Its primary strength is simplicity and user experience, plus excellent omnichannel support.
Key Features and Strengths
- Excellent omnichannel ticketing
- Easy-to-build help centers and community forums
- Powerful automation and smart routing
- Extensive marketplace with 1,000+ integrations
- Simple interface that’s easy to learn
- Strong analytics for performance and CSAT
Pricing Range of plans priced per agent, with ITSM features in higher tiers.
9. Salesforce Service Cloud
Overview
Service Cloud is a natural alternative for organizations built on Salesforce. Its biggest advantage is seamless integration with CRM data for a 360-degree view. Though focused on external customers, it can be configured for internal ITSM use cases.
Key Features & Strengths
- Native integration with Salesforce Customer 360
- AI-powered bots and case routing (Einstein)
- Powerful workflow and approval automation
- Extensive customization for business processes
- Thousands of apps on the AppExchange
- Strong field service management capabilities
Pricing Per user, per month, with editions and add-ons available.
10. SysAid
Overview
SysAid focuses on automation and making service management simple and efficient. It bundles essential ITIL-aligned features into one cohesive platform and applies AI to automate common tasks.
Key Features and Strengths
- Workflow automation and AI-powered orchestration
- Comprehensive suite: ticketing, assets, remote control
- Business Intelligence and analytics
- Cloud or on-premises deployment
- User-friendly self-service portal
- Straightforward setup and ease of use
Pricing Quote-based, tailored to admins, users, and assets.
11. OpenText SMAX
Overview
Service Management Automation X (SMAX) is an enterprise-grade ITSM/ESM solution with a machine learning and analytics foundation. A key differentiator is its codeless configuration for building complex apps and workflows.
Key Features and Strengths
- Built-in ML and analytics for proactive insights
- Codeless configuration for workflows and applications
- Deploy on public cloud, private cloud, or on-premises
- "Hot topic" analytics to identify trending issues
- Broad ESM support across the business
- Universal discovery and CMDB
Pricing Quote-based for large and complex deployments.
12. EasyVista EV Service Manager
Overview
EasyVista combines a mobile-first design with codeless/low-code approaches to empower IT teams to quickly build and deploy service apps for various business needs. Strong in user-friendly service catalog and self-service.
Key Features and Strengths
- Mobile-first design for great UX on any device
- Codeless app builder for rapid customization
- AI-powered knowledge management and virtual agents
- Supports both ITSM and ESM use cases
- Micro-app technology for easy integrations
- Focus on lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Pricing Quote-based and tailored to organizational needs.
13. TOPdesk
Overview
TOPdesk is popular for its simplicity and user-friendly approach. While it supports ITIL processes, it emphasizes accessibility for all departments and excels at Enterprise Service Management.
Key Features and Strengths
- Simple, clean, user-friendly interface
- Strong focus on shared services and ESM
- Dependable SaaS or flexible on-premises options
- Transparent pricing and licensing
- Asset and reservation management capabilities
- Excellent, highly rated customer support
Pricing Quote-based with scalable plans.
14. InvGate Service Desk
Overview
InvGate Service Desk provides an ITIL-ready platform for incident, problem, change, and request management. Tight integration with InvGate Insight delivers a unified ITAM experience, and gamification features help engage agents.
Key Features and Strengths
- User-friendly interface for tickets and workflows
- Powerful, codeless workflow automation
- Seamless ITAM integration for lifecycle visibility
- Gamification to motivate and engage agents
- Advanced analytics and customizable dashboards
- PinkVERIFY certifications for multiple ITIL 4 practices
Pricing Quote-based, with a free trial available.
15. TeamDynamix
Overview
TeamDynamix combines ITSM and Project Portfolio Management (PPM) into a single, no-code cloud platform—ideal for IT departments balancing daily support with strategic projects. It’s particularly strong in higher education and the public sector.
Key Features and Strengths
- A single platform for ITSM and PPM
- No-code customization and integrations
- Strong resource management across tickets and projects
- User-friendly client portal for service requests
- iPaaS platform for robust integrations
- Deep domain expertise in higher ed and government
Pricing Quote-based and determined by deployment scope.
What is IT Service Management and Enterprise Service Management software?
At its core, ITSM and ESM software provide a platform to help organizations manage the delivery of services to their end-users. For ITSM, that end-user is typically an employee needing help from the IT department. For ESM, the concept has been expanded to other business departments, such as HR and facilities. The software provides a structured system for handling requests, managing incidents, solving problems, and tracking assets to improve efficiency and service quality.
Benefits of using IT Service Management and Enterprise Service Management software
- Improved Efficiency: Centralizes requests and automates workflows to reduce manual effort and resolve issues faster.
- Enhanced Employee Productivity: Empowers employees with self-service portals and knowledge bases.
- Better Visibility and Decision-Making: Dashboards and reports offer insights into performance and trends.
- Standardized Service Delivery: Predefined workflows and SLAs ensure consistent handling of requests.
- Reduced IT Risk: Manages changes, tracks assets, and maintains a CMDB to minimize disruptions and bolster security.
- Increased ROI on Technology: Tracks licenses and hardware to eliminate waste and optimize spend.
Features to look for in ITSM/ESM software
Must-Have Features
- Incident and Request Management: Robust ticketing to track and manage issues and requests.
- Service Catalog: A user-friendly portal for approved services.
- Knowledge Base: Centralized how-to guides and articles to promote self-service.
- Asset Management: Discover and track all IT assets for context on service requests.
Important Considerations
- Integration Capabilities: Ensure easy connections with observability, identity, endpoint, and collaboration tools.
- Automation Engine: Flexible workflow builder to automate processes like approvals and onboarding.
- Scalability: Ability to grow across tickets, agents, and departments.
- Reporting and Analytics: Custom reports and dashboards to measure performance and value.
Choosing the right Service Management software
Feeling a little overwhelmed? That’s normal. Here’s how you can break it down.
- List your absolute must-have features with your team.
- Form a small evaluation group with stakeholders from IT and another department (e.g., Facilities).
- Leverage free trials and demos—hands-on experience is invaluable.
How to set up your new ITSM/ESM software
Here is a quick checklist to guide your implementation:
- Define clear, measurable goals for what you want to achieve.
- Plan the implementation in phases to minimize disruption and get early wins.
- Import existing data (users, assets, knowledge articles) to hit the ground running.
- Configure core settings, service catalog, and key integrations before go-live.
Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them
- Scope Creep: Avoid the “boil the ocean” approach. How to Overcome It: Use a phased approach—target the biggest pain point first, secure an early win, then build on success.
- Poor Data Migration: Messy data hinders value from day one. How to Overcome It: Clean data before migration. Focus on essentials: active users, key assets, open tickets.
- Resistance to Change: People prefer the familiar. How to Overcome It: Include resistors in solutioning and show personal benefits to win advocates.
User Experience and Adoption
The most powerful ITSM/ESM tool is useless if your team won't use it. For employees, prioritize a clean portal that’s more intuitive than email. For technicians, ensure the interface accelerates troubleshooting.
- Communicate the "Why": Tie benefits to each group’s pain points.
- Offer Bite-Sized Training: Short videos and quick guides beat long sessions.
- Find Your Champions: Enlist enthusiastic users across departments.
- Create a Feedback Loop: Make it easy to share feedback—and act on it.
Product specifications and other information set forth herein have either been made accessible by suppliers, manufacturers, publications, or gathered from publicly available sources as of the date of this document. Although measures are taken to ensure the accuracy of the information, SolarWinds makes no representations or warranties as to the completeness or accuracy of the information and shall incur no liability for any errors or omissions. As of 09/10/2025.
