BMC Helix Discovery vs ServiceNow Discovery comparison

BMC and ServiceNow are both solutions in the IT Asset Management category. BMC is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.5, while ServiceNow is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.4. BMC holds a 8.9% mindshare in IAM, compared to ServiceNow’s 5.4% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of BMC users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of ServiceNow users who would recommend it.

BMC Helix Discovery

Read 25 BMC Helix Discovery reviews

2,623 Views
1,350 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

ServiceNow Discovery

Read 41 ServiceNow Discovery reviews

1,286 Views
633 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

BMC Helix Discovery

ServiceNow Discovery

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

BMC Helix Discovery and ServiceNow Discovery compete in the IT asset management category. Based on user reviews, BMC Helix Discovery has an edge in user-friendliness and cost-effectiveness, while ServiceNow Discovery offers superior integration capabilities.

Features: BMC Helix Discovery is recognized for its application modeling capabilities, agentless operations, and flexible deployment solutions. Users highlight its seamless integration with ITSM solutions and robust security features. ServiceNow Discovery stands out for its integration within the ServiceNow suite, automated service mapping, and comprehensive IT asset visibility, providing valuable insights into application dependencies and relationships.

Room for Improvement: Users suggest BMC Helix Discovery could enhance integration with newer cloud platforms and improve asset management educational resources. Attention to client-side features such as printer and desktop discovery is also recommended. For ServiceNow Discovery, users suggest better integration with legacy systems, greater automation flexibility, and improved user-friendliness in reporting features and managing licensing costs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both BMC Helix Discovery and ServiceNow Discovery offer flexible deployment across cloud and on-premises environments. BMC Helix is noted for its intuitive deployment process, though its customer service receives mixed reviews regarding response times. ServiceNow Discovery also supports robust deployment options, with its technical support viewed as responsive and helpful by users.

Pricing and ROI: BMC Helix Discovery is considered competitively priced, often cited as being half the cost of ServiceNow Discovery, offering good value for investment through operational efficiency. Despite the higher cost, ServiceNow Discovery's extensive features and automation are seen as justifying its price. However, its complex licensing model and cost are concerns for users, with suggestions for more flexible pricing to enhance ROI. Both solutions are recognized for delivering value, with BMC’s lower price offering an attractive choice.

To learn more, read our detailed BMC Helix Discovery vs. ServiceNow Discovery Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

BMC Helix Discovery vs. ServiceNow Discovery

January 2025

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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

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

ServiceNow Discovery

Ranking in IT Asset Management

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (2nd), Cloud Resource Discovery Services (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 Discovery is 5.4%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Asset Management

Q&A Highlights

MOHSIN SHAWL

Configuration Management at a agriculture with 10,001+ employees

Jan 06, 2023

Which product do you prefer: BMC Helix Discovery or ServiceNow Discovery?

I have implemented both, and BMC Helix Discovery including its earlier versions is a far easier solution to implement than the ServiceNow Discovery offering. The BMC discovery solution integrates with Remedy and ServiceNow CMDBs and is also a technically superior product if you also want application service mapping. Contact me directly if you need a more detailed explanation.

See all answers

Featured Reviews

Shirish Kamalapurkar

Solutions Architect at Kinsfolk Technology Private Limited

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…

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Kaustubh Partha

Technical Support Analyst at CLSA

Scans servers and network devices through SNMP and reduces manual maintenance for our infrastructure team

I like how ServiceNow Discovery scans servers and network devices through SNMP. Most fields on our forms are auto-filled, reducing manual maintenance for our infrastructure team. Post Discovery implementation there is hardly any maintenance. There are three to four fields that are customized. Otherwise, 90% of the data is auto-filled. Discovery can also run in bulk, which is helpful for organizations that cannot run it during weekdays. With identification rules, if a configuration item (CI) isn't in the CMDB, you can simply add the IP address, and it will be automatically added based on criteria like name or serial number, making CMDB maintenance easier.

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

"The solution is very stable and powerful."

"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."

"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."

"It is agentless, which means you don't have to install anything on all the different pieces of hardware that you are looking to discover."

"It immediately understands which component it is, and it provides the exact API details with all the components."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its application dependency mapping."

"It is a scalable solution."

"BMC Helix Discovery is very intuitive."

More BMC Helix Discovery pros

"The most valuable feature of ServiceNow Discovery is its performance."

"We can find servers or services we were unaware of and stumble on vulnerabilities from those devices."

"The workflows are beneficial as they allow tasks to be assigned to respective teams without the need for coding."

"One highly valuable aspect is the use of service accounts, which automates the process of identifying underlying nodes and associated assets."

"The service management and operations management modules are valuable."

"We can scale the solution."

"I am impressed with the tool's incident problem change management."

"ServiceNow Discovery has played a vital role in improving service visibility through automated IT service management processes, including change and problem management."

More ServiceNow Discovery pros

Cons

"The solution's scalability is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are needed."

"We would like updates more often."

"There is still room for improvement in terms of stability."

"The monitoring tools could be more stable."

"It would be nice to see more updates to the solution."

"The product is not fully automated."

"BMC Helix Discovery needs more customization options."

"What would make BMC Helix Discovery better is if it had more client-side discovery features, for example, printers and desktops. Right now, it's focused more on data center discovery, so if it had additional features focused on the client-side discovery, that would be great. In the next release of BMC Helix Discovery, I'd like more client-side discovery features such as desktop discovery, printer discovery, and other IP-based client-side discovery features. The solution can discover desktops and printers, but there's still room for improvement on the client side."

More BMC Helix Discovery cons

"In terms of improvement, I would like for it to be possible to use without coding. I would like a dropdown so that every customer can do it easily for himself and can understand it."

"Technical support has not been helpful when we have come across problems."

"They can expand on the plugins for some of the other tools."

"What needs improvement in ServiceNow Discovery is the reporting UI because I didn't find it as friendly compared to other tools. Other tools have better reporting UI than what's currently in ServiceNow Discovery. What I'd like to see in the next release of ServiceNow Discovery is more user-friendly out-of-the-box reporting that would be helpful for non-technical users. Some users such as managers would want to just do a few clicks to access the reports and shouldn't be required to do search queries, but right now, reporting in the tool isn't very user-friendly."

"Its integration with legacy apps is one area for improvement. ServiceNow Discovery offers out-of-the-box reports, and though that's okay, allowing easier report customization would improve the solution."

"The service mapping component is less developed than it is in other solutions, and is in need of improvement."

"The product could improve some of the visualization and architecture setups."

"Improvements could include implementing chatbots to simplify ticket creation."

More ServiceNow Discovery cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"I've heard that the solution was expensive earlier but is now much cheaper than its competitors."

"You need a license to use BMC Helix Discovery. The license is paid yearly, though I have no idea how much it costs."

"I rate the pricing an eight out of ten. All BMC products are expensive."

"The price was fair compared to competitors. BMC is very affordable. There are optional consulting services to assist with implementation."

"The licensing fee is very low."

"BMC is available for a reasonable price compared to ServiceNow — it's half the price."

"The solution offers yearly licenses."

More BMC Helix Discovery pricing and cost advice

"The solution is very expensive."

"It is an expensive product with a price that depends on the models that you wish to purchase."

"The solution is not inexpensive so pricing is rated a three out of ten."

"There is a subscription for ServiceNow Discovery. It's expensive, but I think it's one of the best solutions on the market, so it's worth it."

"There is a need to make payments every quarter of a year towards the licensing costs of the solution. ServiceNow Discovery is an expensive tool."

"It costs a lot. It is probably close to over a hundred thousand. It's an expensive platform, but you can't compare ServiceNow's Discovery functionality to other discovery tools. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison of ServiceNow to a configuration management tool to an asset management tool because it does those things, but it's not those things."

"It's a bit expensive compared to other products in the market, but it's worth the money you pay because it's far advanced in terms of features, automation, and capabilities compared to other products."

"This is expensive, but it meets our needs."

More ServiceNow Discovery pricing and cost advice

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Answers from the Community

MOHSIN SHAWL

Configuration Management at a agriculture with 10,001+ employees

Jan 6, 2023

Which product do you prefer: BMC Helix Discovery or ServiceNow Discovery?

Hello Mohsin, Unfortunately, I don't have experience with ServiceNow Discovery. But I have been using BMC Helix Discovery for more than five years. It is a really fast and user-friendly system. There is no need for an agent when installing the solution. I recommend this solution.

2 out of 3 answers

Chris Georgiou

Project Manager & Managing Director at Geo Consulting (Aust) Pty Ltd

Dec 23, 2022

Read full answer

Madhurima Singh

Lead Consultant | Service Assurance & Automation at Column Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd

Dec 26, 2022

Hi Mohsin, Not only BMC Helix or ServiceNow Discovery, but a few other Discovery tools are also available in the market and every discovery tool has a unique feature, hence as per me, choosing a discovery tool for your organization should be based on the organization's needs and infrastructure. I suggest you go for proper requirement assessment sessions, i.e. infrastructure architecture, existing implemented tools, their features, use, possibilities & integrations, kind of devices in scope to discover, focused data center discovery, focused client-side discovery, or both. What I mean to say is do not choose any tool for its features but choose the one best suitable for your organization that can provide the best output with less investment after a proper assessment of the organization's requirements and expectations from a tool. I know my reply to your query is not the exact answer you looked for but yes, this is what I would suggest to you on the basis of my experience. As far as tool comparison is concerned, you can find it in many places with the help of search engines but I think once you know what you want then reading tool features on the tool's official website will help you more to choose the best suitable Discovery tool for your organization. Thanks, Madhurima

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

Energy/Utilities Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Healthcare Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about ServiceNow Discovery?

The solution can prioritize the discovery of IP ranges. The product automatically places all Discovery CIs into the correct class within the CMDB.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Discovery?

The product pricing is fair and reasonable for the value it provides. However, it is important to factor in the ongoing maintenance costs, as the system requires professional upkeep to ensure optim...

See all answers

What needs improvement with ServiceNow Discovery?

The continuous improvement in the quality and customization of the product features would be beneficial, particularly as more customers rely heavily on its capabilities.

See all answers

Comparisons

ServiceNow vs BMC Helix Discovery

Compared 62% of the time

Device42 vs BMC Helix Discovery

Compared 7% of the time

BMC Remedy vs BMC Helix Discovery

Compared 5% of the time

Lansweeper vs BMC Helix Discovery

Compared 5% of the time

IBM Maximo vs BMC Helix Discovery

Compared 3% of the time

More BMC Helix Discovery Competitors

Tanium vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 28% of the time

Lansweeper vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 21% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 10% of the time

Zabbix vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 5% of the time

Qualys VMDR vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 4% of the time

More ServiceNow Discovery Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

BMC Helix Discovery

February 2025

Download BMC Helix Discovery product report

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Discovery

January 2025

Download ServiceNow Discovery product report

Also Known As

Discovery, ADDM, Atrium Discovery & Dependency Mapping

No data available

Overview

BMC Discovery, formerly ADDM, is a digital enterprise management solution that automates asset discovery and application dependency mapping to build a holistic view of all your data center assets and the relationships between them.

BMC

ServiceNow Discovery finds applications and devices on your network, and then updates the CMDB with the information it finds. Discovery is available as a separate subscription from the rest of the Now Platform.

ServiceNow

Sample Customers

Windstream Communications, News UK, Mercator Group, Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR)

York, National Grid, DXC Technology, experian, BEACHBODY

Buyer's Guide

BMC Helix Discovery vs. ServiceNow Discovery

January 2025

Free Report: BMC Helix Discovery vs. ServiceNow Discovery

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