Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

BMC Helix Discovery vs ServiceNow comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

BMC Helix Discovery
Ranking in IT Asset Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
ServiceNow
Ranking in IT Asset Management
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
216
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (1st), IT Service Management (ITSM) (1st), Rapid Application Development Software (2nd), No-Code Development Platforms (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the IT Asset Management category, the mindshare of BMC Helix Discovery is 8.9%, up from 8.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow is 23.7%, down from 27.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IT Asset Management
 

Featured Reviews

Shirish Kamalapurkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Very stable, fast, and powerful with valuable inventory management features
Our company uses the solution as an inventory tool for customers. The solution discovers your infrastructure and lets you know what servers and network devices are on it. It gives you details about applications, hardware, and software such as how they are connected and the dependencies between…
Somnath Kand - PeerSpot reviewer
Custom integration and reporting lead to efficient ticket management
There is a need for bug or error tracking in ServiceNow. Although there are child incidents or tickets, tracking primary issues or bugs within enhancements is not present. The reporting features in the new portal could be more user-friendly. While it provides options to minimize chart and image sizes, actual implementation doesn't always reflect these changes.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Start anywhere application modelling brings a fantastic opportunity for users to see what is where."
"Weekly reports to management really make our life simple."
"The speed at which it's able to collect a wide-range of information, then make it useful for you, like asset management, knowledge management, and incident management."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is its application dependency mapping."
"I like the artificial intelligence and machine learning that it uses in the solution. Because once the solution discovers all the assets, all the infrastructure, and all the dependencies between services, it learns how it works. So, it learns to predict when a problem is going to happen. It becomes predictive in an autonomous way."
"BMC provides great support. As managed service support, they are gold."
"It is a stable solution. The stability is okay."
"The data models are the most useful aspect of the solution."
"Very easy to implement and to respond to my clients' needs."
"ServiceNow is one of the few easiest platforms you can integrate with products like Ansible to automate your workflows."
"There are features included in the new release for intelligent software, like the chatbot. For HR services, the HR agent which is in that chatbot has been fantastic."
"SPM and ITSM features are the most helpful."
"ServiceNow is easy to use."
"Easy to implement and consolidate different platforms and users with useful functionalities."
"It is user-friendly and simple to use."
"It gave us professionalized, faster incident turn around times. Improved quality of information shared with our customers. Over time we build an extensive knowledge base that assists in both self-service as in services provided by the servicedesk when handling incidents."
 

Cons

"I would like to see the ability to scan some of the newer cloud platforms. I know that BMC has them on the roadmap, and they are coming soon, but they can't come fast enough. Being able to scan more of GCloud, Alibaba Cloud, or whatever the public clouds that our customers are buying, we need to make sure that Discovery can find them as well."
"BMC is agentless discovery, followed by hybrid discovery, which performs discovery across clouds, on-premises, and then dynamic service modeling."
"BMC Helix Discovery is a bit tough to use and administer."
"There is still room for improvement in terms of stability."
"A review of end of life data would be nice."
"The solution's scalability is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are needed."
"If the dependency maps can go live and we can work through the process with a click, we're reaching the stage where issues are identified and mitigated. It would be ideal if we could utilize it to reduce vulnerabilities or address any other feedback."
"The monitoring tools could be more stable."
"if I consider from the IT operations management side, ServiceNow is pretty premature on some things, especially the discovery, while the other tools like Micro Focus and BMC Remedy, those that have been in the market for quite some time. ServiceNow is evolving itself in the discovery piece of the future."
"It's missing monitoring capabilities."
"Complexities in the organization made the initial deployment complex."
"The installation and deployment of ServiceNow can be a bit challenging. One major issue I've encountered is that ServiceNow doesn't provide the same mobile responsiveness or features that we used to enjoy with other tools. For example, with Splunk, our response times were about five minutes, and we could manage alerts and incidents directly from our mobile devices."
"There is a need for bug or error tracking in ServiceNow."
"The Software Asset Management feature can be improved. We would like to see more features for the Software Asset Management functionality. Its price can also be better. It is currently more expensive than other solutions."
"When it comes to changing some of the features, I would like a little more leeway."
"Creating service catalog forms could be made easier."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution offers yearly licenses."
"You need a license to use BMC Helix Discovery. The license is paid yearly, though I have no idea how much it costs."
"BMC is available for a reasonable price compared to ServiceNow — it's half the price."
"The price was fair compared to competitors. BMC is very affordable. There are optional consulting services to assist with implementation."
"The licenses are very complex and quite costly."
"The licensing fee is very low."
"I rate the pricing an eight out of ten. All BMC products are expensive."
"We are on a three-year agreement with BMC Helix Discovery to use the solution. There are not any additional fees other than the standard license."
"ServiceNow tends to be a little bit more expensive as compared to BMC Helix ITSM."
"The solution is priced for medium to enterprises sized businesses. However, it is expensive compared to competitors."
"In Tunisia, the companies find the licensing costs to be expensive."
"It has a higher cost compared to local/regional solutions."
"It is an expensive platform."
"This is a pretty expensive product, so the licensing could be better."
"I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten. The pricing for ServiceNow is based on a SaaS platform with annual contracts. However, it may not offer much flexibility for adjusting usage in the short term."
"I know that it's not too bad because people continue to use it and they are happy to renew up their contract."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which IT Asset Management solutions are best for your needs.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
Educational Organization
28%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BMC Helix Discovery?
I like the artificial intelligence and machine learning that it uses in the solution. Because once the solution discovers all the assets, all the infrastructure, and all the dependencies between se...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BMC Helix Discovery?
I would rate the pricing around four out of ten. It is quite expensive.
What needs improvement with BMC Helix Discovery?
The improvement I want to see is a reduction in duplicate records. In comparison with SCCM, SCCM does not have any duplicate records, which is a significant advantage. Discovery should adopt a simi...
Which solution is better for developing non-ITSM applications: OutSystems or Service Now?
The short answer is that OutSystems is far better for 2 main reasons. Firstly, with Service Now you are locked into that platform for good. The business model is to lock in and then keep pumping th...
Would you choose ServiceNow over Microsoft PowerApps?
Hi Netanya, I will choose ServiceNow because ServiceNow is a very good tool compared to Microsoft PowerApp. Because ServiceNow has a very strong module (Performance Analysis) reporting which will ...
What do you like most about ServiceNow?
The solution has a user-friendly interface.
 

Also Known As

Discovery, ADDM, Atrium Discovery & Dependency Mapping
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Windstream Communications, News UK, Mercator Group, Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR)
AAA, AstraZeneca, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Broadcom, Christus Health, Epicor, Equinix, GE Capital, Intuit, KPMG, Loyola Marymount University, OshKosh, Quantas, RedHat, Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss Re, U.S. Department of Energy, Safeway, Yale University, and Zillow    
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC Helix Discovery vs. ServiceNow and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.