SCSM vs Zendesk comparison

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SCSM

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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: June 2024).

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SCSM vs. Zendesk

June 2024

Helped 787,061 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

SCSM

Ranking in Help Desk Software

14th

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

11th

Average Rating

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zendesk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

11th

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

8th

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM Customer Engagement Centers (4th), CRM (19th), Sales Force Automation (7th), Reporting (14th), Knowledge Management Software (2nd), Community Platforms (2nd)

Market share comparison

As of June 2024, in the Help Desk Software category, the market share of SCSM is 2.0% and it increased by 38.2% compared to the previous year. The market share of Zendesk is 3.3% and it decreased by 30.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Help Desk Software

Unique Categories:

IT Service Management (ITSM)

2.1%

CRM Customer Engagement Centers

5.0%

CRM

1.2%

Featured Reviews

Hossam Hussein

Senior backend systems engineer at a mining and metals company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Nov 24, 2022

Helps us manage IT operations, including incident and service requests, but could be easier to create reports

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. Microsoft System Center Service Manager has a large infrastructure and a large number of servers. For production and creation, it needs about five servers. For comparison, ManageEngine just requires one server, and it includes everything out of the box. The setup process could be improved. In the next release, I would like to see a mobile application for users to open tickets. I would also like the ability to deploy the solution on the cloud.

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BharatR

Product Marketing Manager at a educational organization with 201-500 employees

Mar 15, 2024

An cloud-based customer service platforms sold on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model

My use case for Salesforce Essentials is focused on gathering market insights for new feature releases and product launches. I utilize Zendesk to collect information from customer tickets regarding changes in features, new feature requests, and customer feedback helping me understand customer…

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

"This product has helped our organization by allowing people to connect with each other."

"The call logging is the solution's most valuable feature. It's very easy to use."

"This solution is easy to use."

"The reporting is very good."

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

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

"I've used SCSM a lot, and its features are valuable."

"A very convenient package like an all-in-one tool but it is actually five or six products acting well together."

More SCSM pros

"It is a scalable solution."

"Its agility and simplicity are the most valuable features. This tool is very user-friendly."

"The stability has been very good."

"It has good management, the ability to sign tickets based on content, the multi-channel support, the self service portal, the integration with Salesforce, the setup process, and the product features as we are currently using them."

"It's very convenient to use."

"It's a very stable tool, very powerful."

"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."

"It is very easy to connect back and forth between the requester and the person fulfilling the ticket."

More Zendesk pros

Cons

"It would be good if Microsoft added custom attributes or tagging like in Jamf."

"The user interface needs to be improved."

"It's not too hard to compile stuff but it is hard to manage the solution. Even the design itself makes it difficult for management."

"They need more integration with open-source products."

"Once we had an issue with a desktop download that would not open."

"It would be better if they had a portal for administrators. It would help me use it from anywhere and connect to any device from anywhere. I can administer the solution without a VPN."

"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."

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

More SCSM cons

"The dashboard could be better."

"You couldn't give administrative access to new hires."

"They have something called Zendesk Explore, which isn't as good as what they had in place previously."

"The support team is time-consuming, and they don't find the answer to our problem."

"The price of the solution should be reduced."

"Zendesk Guide's customization could be improved. I would like it to be easier and maybe open-sourced, so that if you have a developer in your company, you can do it yourself. Right now, that isn't allowed, so you need to have it done via the integrator. Another improvement—this is nit-picking—is that it could be less easy to make changes. Some things are so easy that they sometimes look a little amateur-ish. Most of the templates are built-in so they can be used directly, so they are very simple."

"Sometimes if there was a way to just flag the actual issue out of those email chains - that would be really helpful."

"The solution itself wasn't easy to set up."

More Zendesk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"Licensing can be complex and confusing."

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

"The pricing is reasonable."

"It is an expensive solution."

"The license for SCSM is cheap."

"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."

More SCSM pricing and cost advice

"The price is very competitive."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Government

26%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

22%

Educational Organization

10%

Financial Services Firm

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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?

The solution offers good productivity at a low price point.

What needs improvement with SCSM?

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 ...

What do you like most about Zendesk Support?

I found the user experience with vendors on Zendesk to be straightforward, especially when it comes to understanding and searching for specific tickets. The search and navigation tools are easy to ...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zendesk Support?

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 p...

What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?

As per me, there arent much significant issues or areas for improvement with Zendesk, as my usage of it is limited. I appreciate its ability to organize tickets effectively based on tags, allowing ...

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs SCSM

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Product Reports

Download SCSM product report

SCSM

May 2024

Download Zendesk product report

May 2024

Also Known As

System Center Service Manager

Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell

Learn More

Microsoft

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