Control-M vs ServiceNow Orchestration comparison

BMC and ServiceNow are both solutions in the Process Automation category. BMC is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.7, while ServiceNow is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.3. BMC holds a 4.5% mindshare in PA, compared to ServiceNow’s 4.1% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of BMC users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of ServiceNow users who would recommend it.

Control-M

Read 121 Control-M reviews

3,737 Views
1,531 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

ServiceNow Orchestration

Read 16 ServiceNow Orchestration reviews

2,130 Views
1,563 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Control-M

ServiceNow Orchestration

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

Control-M and ServiceNow Orchestration are competitors in the workflow automation and enterprise service management space. Control-M appears to have the upper hand in environments with a need for extensive integration capabilities, particularly for AS400 platforms, while ServiceNow Orchestration stands out in IT service management integration.

Features: Control-M offers virtual terminal automation, high availability, and robust error-handling capabilities, making it ideal for complex batch processing and scheduling. It also provides integration modules, facilitating the seamless connection of diverse platforms and applications. Meanwhile, ServiceNow Orchestration is recognized for its automation in IT operations management and comprehensive integration within widespread IT service management infrastructures, providing a comprehensive enterprise service approach.

Room for Improvement: Control-M users have identified areas for improvement such as output analysis, reporting tools, and more intuitive integration with apps. Challenges include newer version compatibility and simplified integration processes. Users of ServiceNow Orchestration point out integration limitations and the high cost of its modules. Enhancements could include making features more developer-friendly and expanding integration support for third-party tools.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Control-M supports deployment in on-premises, private cloud, and hybrid environments, which is beneficial for diverse business infrastructures. Its customer support is generally well-regarded, although improvements in integration support and community resources are suggested. ServiceNow Orchestration, commonly deployed in public and private clouds, is well-received for effective customer service, although satisfaction is affected by costs and integration challenges.

Pricing and ROI: Control-M is known for high licensing costs based on job or endpoint counts, which poses challenges for smaller businesses yet offers good value through its capabilities and integration features for larger enterprises. ServiceNow Orchestration also entails high costs, with segment-based pricing and additional module expenses leading to varied contract terms. Users justify the expense due to its broad service management capabilities and significant potential ROI through operational efficiencies.

To learn more, read our detailed Control-M vs. ServiceNow Orchestration Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Control-M vs. ServiceNow Orchestration

April 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 848,716 peers since 2012

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

Control-M

Ranking in Process Automation

3rd

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

121

Ranking in other categories

Managed File Transfer (MFT) (4th), Workload Automation (1st)

ServiceNow Orchestration

Ranking in Process Automation

11th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Process Automation category, the mindshare of Control-M is 4.5%, up from 3.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Orchestration is 4.1%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Process Automation

Featured Reviews

Pedro Fuentes

System Engineer at Community Loans of America, Inc.

Cost-effective, excellent support, and centralized access and control

They have a department that handles requests for enhancements. I talked to Control-M guys back in October or November when they had a gathering here in Atlanta. We talked about not being able to go back in history in Helix Control-M for more than two weeks. We submitted a request for enhancement. They told us that they are working on it, and they are thinking of expanding that to 30 days. We would like to see it expand to 90 days, but they are working on it. In Control-M, we were able to go back 180 days, but that was on-prem. The storage of that data was on our own servers. We know that storage is money, and we do not expect them to store that much of the data, but at least 30 to 60 days seem proper.

Read full review

ShaheenKapery

Solutions Architect at Altron

Easy to integrate, stable solution and incredibly good customer service

It is a long setup. It was customized to our company's requirements. Bearing in mind that there is not just an IT team. You've got an IT team consisting of end-users, consulting, and user support sides. Install support, ServiceNow support, application support, and so on. What ServiceNow does is it's really good at getting the tickets to the right person. That's the power of it. There's no issue with it. But you need to set that up in advance. You need to know the structure and who is responsible for each task. The initial setup does take a long time, and the organization might face some issues. But once you've got that resolved, it's amazing.

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

"My organization has been able to script scheduled jobs in Control-M to potentially replace legacy products that are at end of life or end of service. The previous backup applications that were being used for specific files, folders, or applications were no longer being supported, therefore being able to use Control-M to replace that has been very valuable."

"The Automation API has opened up a world of possibilities for us, including the ability to create workflows on-demand using traditional DevOps tools."

"We use Control-M for maintenance on our Oracle and SQL Server databases. It automates maintenance on packages, including standard procedures on the databases themselves, snapshots, checking integrity, verifying the RDBMS of the databases, etc. It ensures they aren't clogged and that they are running smoothly and that there aren't any jobs stuck, eating up the performance of the server or any of the CPU cores."

"It is simple to create, integrate, and automate data pipelines and to ingest data from different platforms. It integrates well between platforms."

"The feature we use most in Control-M is related to the file transfer module. It is quite advanced compared to the other tools like Automate, etc. The new version which has come of same MFT has a lot of advanced features which makes it very easy to work with. There is less need for written programs and more GUI-based stuff."

"Control-M has enabled true enterprise batch automation, which combined with the other BMC Control products on our mainframe platform, allows us to run a 24/7 site with the lights out."

"The product has improved dramatically over the years; it offers a lot in terms of features and capabilities and integration with third-party tools. A wide range of models available with the product is critical in reducing manual and mundane work such as custom script writing. This saves significant amounts of time and, by association, money for the organization."

"The most valuable feature is the reporting function. It allows us to pull up reports for specific information that the end-users are looking for."

More Control-M pros

"The interface of the solution is very user friendly and it is easily accessible via a simple URL. This makes it easier to complete the UI based tasks but using other features require expertise in languages like Java. But along with that, there are limitation in terms of network connectivity testing and administrator faces regular challenges in conducting connectivity tests due to these limitations."

"It is a very stable product, highly affordable."

"The iTerm suite is also crucial for visibility and optimization."

"Employee onboarding, de-boarding, and other service-provision features make the process easier and it saves us a lot of time."

"Provisioning of new systems is among the most impactful features for automating complex workflows with ServiceNow Orchestration."

"Great with IT processes and business processes."

"It's scalable."

"The data visualization is good."

More ServiceNow Orchestration pros

Cons

"They can improve their interface."

"It has a slight issue with daylight savings time while advancing the clock in the Spring."

"The report form and display function are weak; they are not very powerful."

"I'm currently working on the SaaS version, but I've also worked on the on-prem versions before. There is a handful of features that haven't been added to the SaaS version, and the BMC knows that. It's a matter of time before they prioritize the missing pieces and bring them into the SaaS version."

"It is a very strong product, but the reporting could be better."

"While they have a very good reporting facility, the reports that I'm asked to produce, a lot of times aren't necessarily what we need."

"I am unsure if Control-M is compliant with Microsoft Azure environment integrations. We have some clients in Azure environments. Specifically, in Canada, government agencies and nonprofits mostly use Microsoft Azure."

"Its operations and infrastructure can be improved."

More Control-M cons

"The flow rate for releases and updates is very, very slow and does not meet customers' objectives for scalability."

"The third-party integrations are challenging when the tools are not from ServiceNow partners. This presents issues when integrating solutions from other vendors."

"There should be connectors to cover at least the top industry applications, and they should be easier to configure in a plug-and-play fashion."

"There can be gaps in integration."

"It is a highly complex platform to work on."

"The automatic remediation needs enhancement, particularly integrating ServiceNow with tools like SolarWinds and Logic Monitor. It is functional, but it needs improvement."

"We cannot perform GUI automation using the tool."

"The deployment requires awareness among the project staff."

More ServiceNow Orchestration cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing varies depending on which components and modules you are using."

"It is a little bit expensive."

"The pricing is reasonable. It's not an exorbitant amount. The licensing is pretty reasonable for the number of jobs that we run."

"They are expensive. If we were a small company, it would be complicated because we have to have strong sales and operations to be able to afford a tool of this level. Being a large company, the cost-benefit is covered, but it is not within the level of cheap solutions."

"we are more looking for a better cost/license/performance model because BMC, while we could say it's the best, is also the most expensive. That is what we are probably most annoyed with. We are paying something like €1,000,000 over three years for having 4,000 jobs running. That's expensive."

"The price is right because of the licensing schema, which is based on nodes and processes. You purchase what you use, no more and no less, and you can grow with time."

"Licensing costs are around $3000 a year."

"You must accept that BMC licensing can be very confusing. No one can easily understand how they calculate things, whether it is user-based, job-based, or server-based. The calculation is quite tough. How BMC calculates licensing is not easily available anywhere."

More Control-M pricing and cost advice

"It is quite expensive because we've had some customers come back and say it's quite pricey because in order for them to go ahead with Orchestration, they must have already been paying for Discovery, service mapping, and a few other things."

"This is an expensive product, but it is the best in the market considering the features and lack of competitors."

"Pricing is custom to every customer."

"It is not very expensive."

"The cost of the solution is based on the number of plugins, conductors and integrations used and is charged annually. The licensing cause has been increasing gradually which makes it difficult to access. Initially offer free features but over the time the charges rise which make it an expensive solution with limited features. Along with that, the integration issues persist and require additional middle where and internet connectivity for effective usage."

"ServiceNow doesn't give a clear cost indication. They have different contracts with different organizations and it's all about negotiation, so you don't know how they are doing at the cost level."

"The solution is costly and orchestrations are very expensive."

"In terms of price, this solution is at the higher end of what you'll find."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Process Automation solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

28%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

How does Control-M compare with AutoSys Workload Automation?

Control-M acts as a single, centralized interface for monitoring and managing all batch processes, which is helpful because nothing gets left unattended since it is all visible in one place, and th...

See all answers

What do you like most about Control-M?

First of all, the shift from manual to automation has been valuable. We have a tool that can automate.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Control-M?

It is a little bit expensive.

See all answers

What do you like most about ServiceNow Orchestration?

The interface of the solution is very user friendly and it is easily accessible via a simple URL. This makes it easier to complete the UI based tasks but using other features require expertise in l...

See all answers

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

The cost of ServiceNow Orchestration is considered medium; it is expensive but powerful. I would rate the pricing experience as a six out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ServiceNow Orchestration?

The third-party integrations are challenging when the tools are not from ServiceNow ( /products/servicenow-reviews ) partners. This presents issues when integrating solutions from other vendors.

See all answers

Comparisons

AutoSys Workload Automation vs Control-M

Compared 16% of the time

Automic Automation vs Control-M

Compared 9% of the time

IBM Workload Automation vs Control-M

Compared 7% of the time

Redwood RunMyJobs vs Control-M

Compared 6% of the time

HCL Workload Automation vs Control-M

Compared 2% of the time

More Control-M Competitors

Camunda vs ServiceNow Orchestration

Compared 54% of the time

IBM BPM vs ServiceNow Orchestration

Compared 7% of the time

Temporal vs ServiceNow Orchestration

Compared 6% of the time

BIC Process Execution vs ServiceNow Orchestration

Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft System Center Orchestrator vs ServiceNow Orchestration

Compared 4% of the time

More ServiceNow Orchestration Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Control-M

April 2025

Download Control-M product report

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Orchestration

March 2025

Download ServiceNow Orchestration product report

Also Known As

Control M

No data available

Overview

Control-M is used for enterprise workload automation, orchestrating finance, retail, healthcare, and supply chain processes. It handles batch job scheduling, managed file transfers, cloud integrations, and compliance auditing across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.

Organizations leverage Control-M to efficiently monitor and manage business-critical processes like payroll, HR, SAP, Informatica, and database tasks. It enhances visibility, security, and error resolution. Automating and optimizing workflows in data centers, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, Control-M supports diverse technological environments. The platform's robust capabilities make it suitable for effective centralized management of applications and data pipelines, ensuring enhanced collaboration and scalability.

What are Control-M's most important features?

Integration capabilities: Seamlessly integrates with various systems
Automation API: Facilitates automation through APIs
Managed File Transfer: Simplifies secure file transfers
GUI console: Intuitive graphical user interface
Role-based administration: Provides access control
Single-pane view: Centralized monitoring dashboard
Scheduling options: Flexible job scheduling
Workflow orchestration: Coordinates complex workflows
Reporting: Generates insightful reports
Monitoring: Tracks and manages tasks
Forecasting: Predicts future workloads
Self-service portal: Empowers users with self-service tools
Plugins: Extends functionality through additional plugins

What are the benefits or ROI of using Control-M?

Enhanced visibility: Centralized view of all processes
Ease of use: User-friendly interface
Error reduction: Minimizes manual errors
Improved collaboration: Facilitates teamwork
Scalability: Supports growth and scale
Support: Comprehensive customer support

Control-M is implemented in industries like finance to handle payroll and HR tasks, in retail for inventory management and supply chain processes, and in healthcare for compliance auditing and patient data processing. Organizations benefit from streamlined workflows and automated processes across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, ensuring efficient and secure operations.

BMC

ServiceNow is the fastest-growing enterprise cloud software company in the world above $1 billion (2018 revenue was $2.6 billion, up 36% year over year). We deliver digital workflows that create great experiences and unlock productivity to approximately 5,400 enterprise customers worldwide, including almost 75% of the Fortune 500.

ServiceNow

Sample Customers

CARFAX, Tampa General Hospital, Navistar, Amadeus, Raymond James, Railinc

experian, BEACHBODY, HealthPartners, Banosoft

Buyer's Guide

Control-M vs. ServiceNow Orchestration

April 2025

Free Report: Control-M vs. ServiceNow Orchestration

Find out what your peers are saying about Control-M vs. ServiceNow Orchestration and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Control-M vs. ServiceNow Orchestration report.

See our list of best Process Automation vendors.

We monitor all Process Automation reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.