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Freshdesk vs ServiceNow Customer Service Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 4, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
8.2
Freshdesk offers efficient customer service and time management, providing significant financial benefits and excellent return on investment.
Sentiment score
6.7
Organizations achieve ROI with ServiceNow CSM by streamlining processes, reducing costs, and aligning with business goals for improved efficiency.
Without such tools, the business would be affected by five to ten percent in annual revenue.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.2
Freshdesk's efficient support resolves issues quickly, though setup challenges and process delays occasionally occur; technical capabilities are highly rated.
Sentiment score
7.1
ServiceNow's customer service is praised for responsiveness and multilingual support, with some delays in lower packages.
We have not needed to contact technical support, as Freshdesk has met our needs efficiently.
It is better because partners have a deep understanding of the code and configuration challenges.
The technical support is good, but there are very few people who understand the technicalities and background configurations.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Freshdesk is highly scalable, handling increased users and ticket volumes efficiently while facilitating easy growth for organizations.
Sentiment score
8.5
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is praised for scalability, customization, and efficient self-service, enhancing business operations without extra costs.
Additional features like email, WhatsApp, and SMS ticketing, along with Slack integration, can be enabled as required.
In our environment, which is a fairly small company in one country, Freshdesk is easy to scale.
If challenges are resolved efficiently with tools like ServiceNow Customer Service Management, it significantly impacts business operations.
The solution is scalable and offers high scalability as new features are added regularly.
Scalability can lead to performance issues.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Freshdesk is praised for its reliability with minimal downtime, efficient service recovery, despite occasional support concerns and related service issues.
Sentiment score
8.3
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is stable, efficiently handles high traffic, yet customization limitations and portal issues can occasionally arise.
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is highly stable, which is critical because it operates as a live system 24/7.
Overall, it is very stable aside from these issues.
 

Room For Improvement

Freshdesk requires enhancements in interface, customization, support, integration, and pricing, with opportunities in translation and asset management.
ServiceNow Customer Service needs improved customization, integration, AI features, pricing flexibility, and easier report downloading and upgrades.
Currently, some features like SMS or WhatsApp integration are only available to larger user groups, but even smaller teams should have access based on their specific needs.
The current integration is more complicated and doesn’t work as well.
It is important to follow practical rules and best practices to avoid misconfigurations caused by different developers doing things their own way.
Managing this platform requires sophisticated handling.
Sometimes ServiceNow Customer Service Management lags, meaning the speed is low or there is a delay in operations.
 

Setup Cost

Freshdesk's pricing is flexible and affordable compared to Zendesk, with customization options and potential additional costs.
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is costly but valued for efficiency, with premium pricing potentially unsuitable for smaller businesses.
Our organization pays about 200,000 Indian rupees per year for the license.
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is expensive, with costs around half a million US dollars per year.
The pricing is around a seven, making it rather expensive.
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is expensive, although there is value for money considering the time and administrative efficiencies it brings.
 

Valuable Features

Freshdesk enhances customer service efficiency with features like automation, scalable APIs, and seamless integration, supporting team collaboration and performance tracking.
ServiceNow CSM offers powerful workflow and integration, enhancing service delivery with automation and AI on a flexible platform.
These features are easy to use, and the filtering is really good, providing a good overview of active tickets and who's working on them.
The auto-assignment feature is particularly valuable as it alleviates the administrative task of manually checking for available engineers to assign tickets.
ServiceNow Customer Service Management offers valuable features such as workflow management, an approval cycle, and integration with a payment gateway, which allows for payments to be made using the system.
It integrates all different queues into one dashboard and consolidates various departments, ensuring visibility across the organization is transparent.
Change requests are vital if there is a business requirement change; they are used for tracking and reporting purposes, showcasing how change requests have been used to keep businesses running smoothly.
 

Categories and Ranking

Freshdesk
Ranking in Customer Experience Management
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
Field Service Management (3rd), Help Desk Software (6th), Knowledge Management Software (5th)
ServiceNow Customer Service...
Ranking in Customer Experience Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Customer Experience Management category, the mindshare of Freshdesk is 5.0%, up from 5.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Customer Service Management is 6.3%, up from 4.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Customer Experience Management
 

Featured Reviews

Alexey Timchenko - PeerSpot reviewer
Incredibly user-friendly, flexible, and affordable
Automation and ticket routing rules in Freshdesk save us daily by streamlining routine tasks. We use reports to identify issues, allocate resources, and continuously improve our processes. It is a vital part of our daily operations, helping us stay proactive and efficient in handling various types of tickets. The reporting and analytics tools in Freshdesk are effective for measuring customer service performance. While our current subscription level has some limitations in terms of reporting, the next level provides more options. Budget constraints currently prevent us from upgrading, but the available reporting features still meet our basic needs. I highly recommend Freshdesk, especially for companies in their early stages. It is user-friendly, easy to configure, and great for those with a moderate volume of customer requests. The cost is reasonable, making it a quick and efficient solution to implement. Overall, I would rate Freshdesk as an eight out of ten.
Arvind  Mehrotra - PeerSpot reviewer
Integrating departments for unified service while managing complexity and learning curve
ServiceNow Customer Service Management ( /products/servicenow-customer-service-management-reviews ) integrates the admin, finance, HR, and service departments, enabling an employee of an organization to get service from a single window. It integrates all different queues into one dashboard and consolidates various departments, ensuring visibility across the organization is transparent. It helps to create a shared services organization, reducing the operational complexity and facilitating a more unified service delivery. It consolidates all service desks under one umbrella, enhancing efficiency.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
25%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Real Estate/Law Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
21%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Freshdesk?
Freshdesk significantly improved our customer issue resolution process. We can now easily record and track all customer requests, ensuring that no tickets are lost.
What needs improvement with Freshdesk?
I would like a better integration towards Azure DevOps. The current integration is more complicated and doesn’t work as well. There's not a really good one for Jira, which we are also using.
What is your primary use case for Freshdesk?
I mainly use Freshdesk as a support system for our customers.
What do you like most about ServiceNow Customer Service Management?
We can integrate different technologies in ServiceNow Customer Service Management. An organization would like to offer a digital transformative experience to its employees and customers, which the ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Customer Service Management?
The pricing is around a seven, making it rather expensive. However, even with the cost, it is justified because it significantly aids business operations.
What needs improvement with ServiceNow Customer Service Management?
Sometimes ServiceNow Customer Service Management ( /products/servicenow-customer-service-management-reviews ) lags, meaning the speed is low or there is a delay in operations. These are the areas n...
 

Also Known As

No data available
ServiceNow CSM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Honda, 3M, Hugo Boss, Petronas, Sony Pictures, The Atlantic, goodreads, Clear Channel Radio, Penn University of Pennsylvania, unicef, Kuoni, Movember
Siemens Healthineers, SAP SuccessFactors, Asurion
Find out what your peers are saying about Freshdesk vs. ServiceNow Customer Service Management and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,600 professionals have used our research since 2012.