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ConnectWise Automate vs Freshservice comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

ConnectWise Automate
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (10th)
Freshservice
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (6th), Project Management Software (9th), Cloud Management (10th), IT Asset Management (4th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (4th), Configuration Management Databases (5th), IT Alerting and Incident Management (8th), AI IT Support (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Systems Management solutions, they serve different purposes. ConnectWise Automate is designed for Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) and holds a mindshare of 6.2%, down 7.4% compared to last year.
Freshservice, on the other hand, focuses on Help Desk Software, holds 3.6% mindshare, down 4.4% since last year.
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ConnectWise Automate6.2%
Kaseya VSA12.8%
NinjaOne10.2%
Other70.8%
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)
Help Desk Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Freshservice3.6%
ServiceNow10.6%
JIRA Service Management5.9%
Other79.9%
Help Desk Software
 

Featured Reviews

MikeChacker - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager Global Service Delivery at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Facilitates valuable patch cycles, but the web client is not very intuitive and needs updating, and the scripting has room for improvement
The fixed client for Automate is slow. The web client is not very intuitive. It could use some updating and some thought around the UX. Also, with the scripting, I would like to see something where it could have third-party scripts already pre-built, and all you have to do is say, "Hey, I need this," and go load it. It's not as automated as I'd like it to be.
Raja Farrar - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Service Delivery Manager at Symposiam
Automation and AI have transformed our service delivery and have made IT support faster and more efficient
I always keep up with Freshservice's roadmaps and new features. Freshservice has been very good at listening to feedback and adding those feature requests into their next iterations. I wish they would offer more granular data export options for utilizing in Power BI, along with predictive analytics for capacity planning and SLA breaches to enable more proactive support management and reduce firefighting. While the dashboards are effective, some users find custom reporting limited compared to ServiceNow or Jira. I would also appreciate deeper integrations, especially for niche apps requiring development coding work to enable advanced orchestration. Native integrations for DevOps pipelines such as GitHub Actions and Jenkins, along with stronger API flexibility for complex workflows, would enhance functionality. Although the CMDB and asset management are solid, they do lack advanced dependency mapping compared to other enterprise tools. My wishlist includes automated impact analysis for changes and improved visualization of asset relationships, enabling quicker resolutions from an agent's perspective when alerts come in. I acknowledge that Device42 may enhance this, but it is an extra cost beyond what we already pay. While Freddy AI is excellent for triage and suggestions, some users desire more proactive automation, such as predictive ticket routing based on historical patterns and AI-driven capacity forecasting. Lastly, the pricing tiers might seem rigid for mid-sized teams, so a more granular add-on option for features such as Device42 or pay-per-use for orchestration workflows could be beneficial.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Maybe they could improve the capability to be multi-tenant."
"It's definitely improved the help-desk servicing, et cetera."
"It is very scalable."
"The implementation is nice and easy."
"Technical support has been good. Everyone we have been in contact with has responded to our queries in a reasonable amount of time."
"I was very happy with how they handled me as a client and am quite satisfied with the level of support we get."
"The automated scripts feature means that we can set up for a lot of different things and they have reduced tech input drastically, in the sense that a task only needs to be done once instead of 100 times."
"It allows us to manage all client requests, jobs and invoicing."
"The solution is very responsive with a 97% success rate in funneling customer tickets."
"It has reduced the time to look up who is responsible for a service, and it has reduced the time to finalize a service request because it now goes directly to the person who is responsible for the service in that location. So, a service request is handled quickly and directly by the person responsible for it."
"It allows for customization and offers a broad feature set."
"The overall functionality of the product is excellent."
"Ultimately, we saw a 77% reduction in average resolution times with a return on investment realized within 6 months."
"The stability is pretty solid; we've never had major outages or any workflow issues that weren't caused by an administrative error, and it's been pretty stable as far as a ticketing platform is concerned."
"We find its ability to track what's going on with each request very valuable."
"Freshservice was up and running without any expensive project planning, and all that without sacrificing features."
 

Cons

"The project management needs improvement and there's a section of the product called configuration that also needs to be improved."
"I have a problem with the reports available on the solution. I don't understand how to work with the reporting functionality. For example, when I want to give a report for a specific machine, ConnectWise doesn't seem to have this as an option. I'm not sure if I'm missing something, or if the reporting functionality is just poorly conceived."
"The wait time for a support ticket to be addressed needs to be reduced. They take a couple of days to get back."
"There could be better linkages between ConnectWise Automate and Manage from a ticketing perspective. Automate and Manage each has its own ticketing system. We use the one in Manage, but it'd be nice if they were linked directly to the one in Automate."
"I have found the solution to be not very scalable."
"They always change the GUI to some dumb-down version of tiles which are more "user-friendly", but slows my team down in the end."
"This is a raw system. Of course, it has some flaws that could be improved. But, it's something that we will have to work with to get to the point where we need this, we request it and they do their best to make it happen."
"Their support needs to be better."
"I am not too happy with the page layout or screen layout since it always looks messy."
"It is 80% stable. Some users face issues in Chrome and Firefox."
"There is room for improvement in reporting for project management."
"The chat portal is not that great."
"We'd like to see a CMDB, a Configuration Management Database, in the future."
"There is a need for improvement in terms of automatic escalation to the next level if an issue is not resolved. It should optimize and allow customization. Additionally, asset management needs improvement."
"Currently, we can have only one plan per subscription. All users have to be on the same plan."
"We did a review of our project management tool internally within the company, and it was one of the choices, but it didn't match up anywhere close to any of the other tools we were considering."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I believe Automate is available for around $2."
"From what I've overheard, it is pretty comparable to other solutions in terms of price."
"I pay $85 a month per user for a ConnectWise package that contains multiple solutions."
"Pricing and licensing are reasonable."
"The cost at the current timing is very reasonable but as the product gains popularity, I anticipate it might become expensive. Fortunately my customers have been offered a generous discount making it more affordable for me and satisfying both my needs and customers requirement."
"It is good for the price you pay. It has different plans. If you need all features, you need to go for a higher plan. Currently, with the second tier plan, you cannot completely separate the group of agents. So, the agent in each group can see another person's ticket. You also cannot modify the rules based on the viewable, readable stuff and cannot have a custom role in this plan. If you want to do that, you have to go for a higher plan. It works in our case because it doesn't matter if the other group can see our ticket because it doesn't contain anything sensitive. We also didn't need the project or change management features. That's why we didn't go with a higher plan."
"Freshservice's licensing costs are pretty good, and it has different categories of pricing based on what modules and features you choose, which gives a lot of flexibility."
"The pricing information is on their website. It's my understanding that their Pro Plan, for example, is around $89/month."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"Freshservice is a fairly cheap solution. Though monthly payments can be made towards the licensing costs of the solution, my company prefers to make annual payments."
"Our licensing fee for Freshservice is $2,500 a year."
"There are some additional costs but not that many. For example, we have unlimited assets, which is something for which we pay extra. We also paid for additional orchestration. I would rate it a three out of five in terms of pricing. They are right in the middle."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
10%
Performing Arts
9%
Construction Company
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
10%
University
9%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise16
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Freshservice?
I cannot comment much on the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Freshservice as it was already preset up in my company.
What needs improvement with Freshservice?
I believe Freshservice can be improved by offering more advanced features and customizability. In terms of improvements, I suggest enhancing performance for larger networks and addressing workflow ...
What is your primary use case for Freshservice?
In Freshservice, I typically use it for day-to-day tasks. A quick, specific example of how I use Freshservice in my daily work includes getting some incidents, working on service requests, and hand...
 

Also Known As

LabTech for IT Service Providers, ConnectWise Automate for Corporate IT Departments, ConnectWise Automate for IT Service Providers
Flint
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

I-M Technology, Mainstay Technologies, PC Works Plus, Integrity IT, Kerkhoff Technologies Inc., Marathon Consulting, Christenberry Sales Company, EDTS, Secom Technology, Ready to View, ARRC Technology, DaVinci Digital, JNR Networks, Quinn Technology Solutions, PCIT, Liberty Technology, Capital Computers & Networks, Atlanta Technology Force, Doberman Technologies, First Column Enterprises, CisCom Solutions
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Western Carriers, Judson University, Golf Canada, Travix, Proxama, Paymentez, Ready Auto Transport
Find out what your peers are saying about NinjaOne, Kaseya, TeamViewer and others in Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM). Updated: July 2026.
906,887 professionals have used our research since 2012.