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Freshdesk vs ServiceNow vs TOPdesk 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Freshdesk is 3.5%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow is 24.1%, down from 26.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TOPdesk is 1.9%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Help Desk Software
 

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.
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.
Martina Peneva - PeerSpot reviewer
Implement service management changes while addressing UI improvements
Topdesk's user interface makes it easy to handle requests and escalate them to other groups or reassign them when working on a single ticket. Additionally, the service management tool in HR allows for a change in delivering services, replacing email communication with ticket raising. The knowledge library enables the local HR to store and share relevant information and frequently asked cases, enhancing collaboration. The ticket system also facilitates escalating cases to other involved departments. IT, HR, and some other teams primarily use this system.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is very easy to make reports."
"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 ticketing system is smooth, but since we use a free version, we do not have many facilities available."
"Freshdesk provides a plain vanilla solution, making it user-friendly and less complex."
"The user experience on the platform itself is fantastic. The UI is clean and uncluttered, so it's easy to find any information about your customer or the issue at hand. You can find out the person responsible for that particular issue, what the problem is, who the stakeholders are, and how to resolve it. There are lots of tools that will help you do that as well."
"I like that it's very user-friendly. The way they designed this application, any layperson can just do some drag and drop actions and use it. It's not that difficult. It's also easy to implement. The most important thing is, you don't need to go to this application to create a ticket. You just send out an email, and the ticket is created automatically. I have never seen a feature like this before."
"It's easy to use and integrates with other tools. We can embed Jira into it, link Jira tickets with Freshdesk tickets, and use it for our knowledge base."
"It generated reports for us, which helped us identify the status of requests and the aging of requests."
"I have found many features that are important and that are easier when compared to Remedy; for example, the Scripted REST APIs and the Flow Designer... The Client scripts are simpler when you compare with Remedy."
"It enables us to meet SLAs, track issues across the environment, and report those issues."
"Some of the valuable features I have found the solution to have are it can serve many different types of businesses, it has strong platform capabilities, provides application development, built-in predictive intelligence, and performance analytics reports."
"The most valuable features of the solution are the ease of use and the sensor for ticketing systems."
"You can have it installed and up and running within hours if you know what you're doing. Time to market would be one of the main things to consider."
"The most valuable aspect of the solution is the possibility of the application development cap so that we can digitize workflows."
"Will give us better control over asset management and technical debt once we can centralize all contract information."
"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."
"It is an easy-to-use solution."
"TOPdesk is overall very stable."
"The most valuable feature of TOPdesk is its ease of use if you have implemented it in the right way. If you're not implementing it in the right way, then it's very difficult."
"When it comes to implementing new features, they listen to what their customers want via a suggestion forum that they have."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the incident management module."
"Change management is the most critical feature."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is the ticketing feature."
"This solution has provided me with a well-defined process and interaction, compared to my previous tool, GLPI."
 

Cons

"I would like to be able to change the subject in emails for ourselves. If we could have the option to do that, it would improve our speed and the overall cleanliness of the CRM."
"There aren't any features that we want to enhance, but we need to mature in our usage of some of them. I can't say any feature is missing or needs improvement, but a tool's built-in features need to evolve customer feedback. We have a dialogue set up for that kind of feedback."
"The dashboards are useful but could be so much better. As a product manager, and data scientist, we couldn't use the dashboard for analytics and had to move the data in Power BI."
"Technical support is not the best. It could be much, much better and offer better support to users."
"Having so many tags makes everyday work a lot more complicated, and a lot more time-consuming."
"Freshdesk could improve its capabilities. It's missing the article formatting, and the overall look and feel make it not easy to use. The administration instructions on how to manage the automation, capability, and integration with third parties, such as chat or bots, are very important in these types of solutions."
"While it's good for a small number of tickets, definitely in the future, we will require something more powerful."
"There are some restrictions where you need automation and sometimes there is just no way to achieve what you need."
"The scalability needs improvement."
"There should be greater integration with other enterprise applications. We're using Microsoft, Oracle, and other applications, and it would be good to have a greater integration on some of the immediate hiccups that you have with these services. It doesn't mean that when we have a problem with using another application, ServiceNow should be able to fix it, but ServiceNow should be able to alert us to things. There should be a bit more automation or integration."
"We are struggling with the scheduling part, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it is a ServiceNow issue. It could be the way we have configured it. We don't have it configured in a way where you can schedule a support call with our end users. We are looking for more automation in the box and the chat feature."
"Needs additional software titles and easier normalization."
"There is a need for bug or error tracking in ServiceNow."
"The interface requires an upgrade."
"Its stability and pricing need improvement."
"We would like to have an Asset Management and/or Project Management feature enabled in this version and in the IT Service Management edition."
"One of the disadvantages of TOPdesk is the reporting tool. It is very poor and not in real-time. You do not always receive the correct information."
"It is time-consuming to add new users."
"From a UI perspective, there is room for improvement. It sometimes takes many steps to do something simple, like creating or moving a knowledge item."
"If I open a ticket on the infrastructure team, I can't move it to the financial team for them to manage the ticket."
"This solution is modular so you only buy what you need, but I prefer what some companies are doing where they include everything in the package."
"All companies have processes that need to be adjusted. When you have a change, you need to name it, and many companies have a set of changes you can use. It would be helpful if there were more space in TOPdesk to name the change or use metadata to record the kinds of changes."
"The solution should be made more user-friendly."
"The solution's change management could be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Freshdesk was the best solution with the best price. It was cost efficient and included all the features that we needed."
"We use a licensing model only so we pay for the number of agents we have configured in the system only."
"We use a combination of Freshdesk, Freshservice, and Freshchat. We use the whole suite. Weirdly enough, we pay more for Freshdesk than we do for Freshservice. I would rate it a three out of five in terms of pricing. You can get different bundles, and you can always move to different plans that are standard. Freshservice can go anywhere from $19 up to $120 per agent, per month. There is such a wide range, and it is very customizable to your needs."
"We pay approximately $70 per agent to use Freshdesk. We have 10 agents, which is approximately $700 or $800 per month. It is a fixed license, there are not any additional fees."
"The price could be better, but it's okay. Compared to ServiceNow and JIRA, Freshworks offers a competitive price. There are also additional licensing costs because you need Microsoft Outlook. Each new email account costs around $15 to $19."
"The pricing is pretty manageable and acceptable."
"It is costly."
"The best system plan is enterprise. It costs basically 79 Euros per agent per month when it's billed annually and 95 Euros per agent per month when it's billed monthly."
"The licensing cost is based on your partnership with ServiceNow and what you have selected for implementation. There is an annual license cost which is calculated based on your number of devices."
"ServiceNow's pricing is comparatively higher than Helix's."
"For large-scale companies, the cost of ServiceNow is not expensive, but for small and mid-scale companies, it is higher."
"In Tunisia, the companies find the licensing costs to be expensive."
"ServiceNow is a leader and its pricing is quite good, quite competitive... Sometimes some plugins are not priced reasonably but, generally, the platform itself, its modules, are priced reasonably."
"The CapEx version is great."
"I am from Brazil. For Latin American markets, ServiceNow is very expensive as compared to other vendors, such as VMware."
"The setup cost is high compared to others, especially when the scope is not fixed."
"The cost of the solution on a yearly basis is $20,000. Technical support is not extra. It's included in the yearly cost. Updates are also included. The solution is good at keeping its product up to date."
"Compared to other products in this segment, I think that they are priced well and not too expensive."
"The solution is inexpensive compared to competitors."
"The solution's pricing is reasonable and not expensive."
"There are three fee options to choose from for a company and these options compared to market prices are very high. For example, if I use one of the first options for 10 assets, then it costs 20,000 Euros. If you went to competitors, then you pay less."
"TOPdesk's pricing is cheaper than Jira's."
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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
27%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
49%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Retailer
4%
 

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 custom...
What needs improvement with Freshdesk?
I would like a better integration towards Azure DevOps. The current integration is more complicated and doesn’t work ...
What is your primary use case for Freshdesk?
I mainly use Freshdesk as a support system for our customers.
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 t...
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 ...
What do you like most about ServiceNow?
The solution has a user-friendly interface.
What do you like most about TOPdesk?
The most valuable feature of TOPdesk is the reports.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for TOPdesk?
The solution's pricing is reasonable and not expensive.
What needs improvement with TOPdesk?
From a UI perspective, there is room for improvement, as some tasks like creating or moving a knowledge item within t...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Honda, 3M, Hugo Boss, Petronas, Sony Pictures, The Atlantic, goodreads, Clear Channel Radio, Penn University of Pennsylvania, unicef, Kuoni, Movember
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    
City of Amsterdam, University of Edinbroughm, IKEA, KLM Catering Services, FloraHolland, BOVAG, PostNL, Total, Hilton, Oce, Canon, Agip, Compass Group, Serco, Danone, BMW, Eneco, And many more.
Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, Atlassian, ManageEngine and others in Help Desk Software. Updated: April 2025.
849,600 professionals have used our research since 2012.