Freshservice vs SCSM comparison

Freshworks and Microsoft are both solutions in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category. Freshworks is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.6, while Microsoft is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.3. Freshworks holds a 4.0% mindshare in ISM, compared to Microsoft’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Freshworks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 65% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Freshservice

Read 32 Freshservice reviews

1,843 Views
1,361 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

SCSM

Read 25 SCSM reviews

1,138 Views
639 Comparison Views

65% willing to recommend

Freshservice

SCSM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

SCSM and Freshservice compete in the IT management software category, with each offering distinctive features. Freshservice holds an advantage due to its cloud-based nature, ease of use, and integration with third-party applications.

Features: SCSM boasts robust CMDB capabilities, integration with the Microsoft ecosystem, and versatile ticketing features. Users appreciate its comprehensive IT management and ease of learning through available online materials. Freshservice stands out for its user-friendly interface, cloud-based approach, and strong integration capabilities with third-party applications. These features combine with excellent asset management and workflow automation to provide a flexible and effective solution.

Room for Improvement: SCSM requires improvements in customization and integration, particularly within CMDB and patch management, along with simpler reporting and better technical support. Freshservice users express a need for enhanced asset discovery, reporting, and user interface customization, as well as improved integration with Microsoft services and consistent functionality across modules. Enhanced granular workflow automation is also desired.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SCSM is deployed primarily on-premises, which involves a complex setup process demanding technical expertise. Microsoft support experiences vary, with some users satisfied and others noting delays. Freshservice, as a cloud-based solution, offers rapid and straightforward deployment. Customers commend its responsive support, though improvements in communication and support practices are still sought after.

Pricing and ROI: SCSM employs a Microsoft licensing model tied to the System Center suite, which can be complex but competitively priced under enterprise agreements. Although some find value in its features, Freshservice's flexible pricing based on features appeals to many users for its perceived value for money. It provides tiered plans suitable for diverse business needs, allowing effective license management despite some concerns about expense for larger deployments.

To learn more, read our detailed Freshservice vs. SCSM Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Freshservice vs. SCSM

October 2024

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Helped 814,649 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

Freshservice

Ranking in Help Desk Software

9th

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Project Management Software (14th), Cloud Management (17th), IT Asset Management (9th)

SCSM

Ranking in Help Desk Software

15th

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

13th

Average Rating

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category, the mindshare of Freshservice is 4.0%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SCSM is 2.0%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Service Management (ITSM)

Featured Reviews

Tim Guilder

Head of Production Technology at ITV

Sep 20, 2022

Provides excellent traceability along with improved efficiency and reliability

It would be good to have the product integrated with Google because that's our corporate tool of choice. I'd also like to see a notice board where you can list a summary of the top 10 items being dealt with each day. It's something that would be very helpful. I believe they're working on a chatbot but we haven't seen that as yet. I'd like it to include a space where questions asked to a chatbot can be self-triaged in terms of support or with the ability to point you towards a knowledge-based article. We've been doing some of that ourselves but it would be good to have it through a chatbot.

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Hossam Hussein

Senior backend systems engineer at a mining and metals company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Nov 24, 2022

Helps us manage IT operations, including incident and service requests, but could be easier to create reports

The solution could be more simple. For example, it takes a lot of work to create reports. It runs on Microsoft SQL queries. Creating custom reports on ManageEngine takes less work from the administrator. Microsoft System Center Service Manager has a large infrastructure and a large number of servers. For production and creation, it needs about five servers. For comparison, ManageEngine just requires one server, and it includes everything out of the box. The setup process could be improved. In the next release, I would like to see a mobile application for users to open tickets. I would also like the ability to deploy the solution on the cloud.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution has been stable."

"It's very handy and very easy to use."

"The most valuable feature is the sandbox, which allows me to test new configurations, automations, and workflows before taking them live on the production system."

"The most valuable features of Freshservice are the notifications, customization, and flexibility."

"What I have seen in Freshservice is there's no room for customization. Which works as an advantage in some cases and it works as a disadvantage in others. If you are someone that starts managing your IT services, it is a great solution, because there's no way to go out away from the direction of the system. You have to follow the process as it was intended for the designers of a solution because there's no room for customization or configuration."

"We found the initial setup to be very simple."

"You can just register and within five to minute minutes, you are ready to go."

"Depending on the size of your organization, is pretty standard and useful."

More Freshservice pros

"SCSM is easy to learn because all of the material, including training videos, can be found online."

"We've been in contact with Microsoft technical support mainly. After doing the research ourselves and troubleshooting, etc., if we can't find a permanent solution, we contact Microsoft to help us fix the issue. Sometimes the issue never gets fixed even by Microsoft. It can sometimes require us to reinstall the solution. However, these are very rare instances."

"The reporting is very good."

"The call logging is the solution's most valuable feature. It's very easy to use."

"It is quite scalable."

"The remote access is one of the features I really enjoy. The pushing of email updates and things like that are very good."

"I like the reporting service. SCSM has a good reporting service and analysis service for analysis requests."

"Many more features than other comparable products."

More SCSM pros

Cons

"There is room for improvement in reporting for project management."

"Freshservice could improve the delegation and workflow management features."

"The product should look at BCM or ServiceNow and see if there are features that would make nice additions. It would help them stay competitive."

"The round robin ticketing feature that they have is not ideal."

"Their analytics need improvement."

"On the reporting side, when we were doing reporting, one thing that was a bit of a limitation was when you had a data list containing a list of changes that have occurred for the whole time and you had to fit the list onto a page. If the list went over the page, it would just truncate it at the page. You wouldn't get all your data. So, it didn't work. That was one big stand-out for me. What we tended to do was convert things into a more readable format, and then we had more targeted exception reporting, but it would be nice to have a full list of things that could be automatically generated and that can flow over pages."

"The ability to customize the user interface is a bit lacking, and the reporting is a bit lacking because they're very stringent upon what you can pull reporting-wise within Freshservice. They have a lot of built-in reports that are very nice, but when it comes to customizing these, they just provide you with certain data. When you try to build your own report wizard, you aren't able to go and select some of the data that is shown in some of the reports that come with Freshservice. This is something that we have brought up with our account representative, and we have suggested these as feature updates in the future. We're still waiting on them to go and implement something like that."

"Freshservice automation capabilities are improving the way we respond to a few customers. There is a bit of delay when we must respond to the customer."

More Freshservice cons

"Resources for understanding compliance and relative compliance need to be made available."

"Mobile application integration would be an improvement."

"Once we had an issue with a desktop download that would not open."

"The major issues with SCSM include its severe slowness, especially on the client side, and the lack of comprehensive reporting tools."

"The configuration could be easier."

"My company had planned a few months ago to apply SCSM over the cloud in order to provide updates, like regular updates, but it had to be put through a few tools from Microsoft on the cloud, which was not easy."

"The solution could be more simple. For example, it takes a lot of work to create reports. It runs on Microsoft SQL queries. Creating custom reports on ManageEngine takes less work from the administrator."

"The logs and reporting-related features of the product have certain shortcomings where improvements are required."

More SCSM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't think it's expensive for the US or some European markets. Still, when I used Freshservice in Mexico, some customers found it a bit pricey, especially considering the platform's features. I think the pricing is fair for use in the European market, but it might be perceived differently in Latin America."

"I can't recall exactly how much we pay, but it is somewhere in the middle compared to the rest of the market. The more we purchase, the cheaper it becomes, and I think the solution offers good value for money."

"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."

"One of the key benefits of Freshservice is license management. Asset management has the possibility to keep track of licenses and that's very useful. The price of the solution is very good."

"The solution may be around 20,000 euros a year."

"It is $34 per license, per agent. Currently, we don't see any add-ons at extra fees."

"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."

"Compared to other tools, Freshservice is affordable."

More Freshservice pricing and cost advice

"The price should be lower."

"The license for SCSM is cheap."

"The platform is competitively priced."

"It is a lower price vs. other things on the market."

"It is an expensive solution."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"It comes free with the enterprise agreement that we have, but the expense really is in having to buy another product to sit on top of it to make it work properly. You wind up having to buy additional support and additional product with their own support and maintenance costs on top of that."

"Licensing can be complex and confusing."

More SCSM pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

26%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

Government

28%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Freshservice?

The solution has been very helpful engineering insights into the client's environment. We have been able to manage calls and incidence very efficiently which provides us with a clear understanding...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Freshservice?

We're on the pro model and the pro license. It is kinda expensive. There are several licensing options. We don't use the higher license model, which is very, very expensive. So, there are three opt...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Freshservice?

There are requirements, not only from our side but from different users worldwide. I work with some community groups worldwide, and we have been placing several requests. So, there are a few areas ...

See all answers

What do you like most about SCSM?

The solution offers good productivity at a low price point.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SCSM?

The platform is competitively priced.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SCSM?

One customer uses another management tool, SiteScope, alongside SCSM. They might be looking for additional functionalities that SCSM could integrate. Thus, the product could include more features s...

See all answers

Comparisons

ServiceNow vs Freshservice

Compared 27% of the time

Microsoft Project vs Freshservice

Compared 12% of the time

monday.com vs Freshservice

Compared 11% of the time

Zendesk vs Freshservice

Compared 11% of the time

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs Freshservice

Compared 10% of the time

More Freshservice Competitors

ServiceNow vs SCSM

Compared 53% of the time

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs SCSM

Compared 22% of the time

BMC Helix ITSM vs SCSM

Compared 15% of the time

JIRA Service Management vs SCSM

Compared 10% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Freshservice

November 2024

Download Freshservice product report

Buyer's Guide

SCSM

October 2024

Download SCSM product report

Also Known As

Flint

System Center Service Manager

Learn More

Freshworks

Microsoft

Overview

Freshservice is an intelligent, cloud-native service management solution. It provides efficiency and agility through AI to create a contextual and intelligent experience. The solution also empowers employees to work whenever and wherever they need to work. Freshservice powers integrations and workflows at the enterprise scale, building upon an open platform and marketplace with connectors and APIs that you can extend and customize.

Freshservice Features

Freshservice has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

ITIL-aligned processes
Intelligent AI/ML capabilities
Advanced CSAT
Extensible platform
Self-service portal
Smart automations
Service catalog
Effective monitoring and alerting
Out-of-box analytics
Mobile app
Marketplace apps

Freshservice Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Freshservice. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Intelligent service management and customized workflows: Freshservice offers powered bots, automation, and orchestration to help you make management more efficient and gives you the ability to customize all workflows.

Fast time-to-value: Freshservice’s out-of-the-box features help you quickly deploy it and enable easier adoption, at scale.

Minimizes downtime: Freshservice prevents critical issues by identifying the right alerts, collaborating with context, and delivering an enhanced end-user experience.

Extensible: The solution is extensible and allows organizations to access enterprise-scale tools to customize, integrate, and automate business workflows.

Support: Freshservice has 24/7 support so your issues can be addressed around-the-clock.

Boosts productivity: The Freshservice solution helps improve employee productivity. It helps you prioritize work better with real-time custom dashboards.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the Freshservice solution.

A Senior Helpdesk at a non-profit says, “I like the workflow automation capabilities, where based upon certain actions, it will automatically go and route tickets to a particular person. It is fairly user-friendly.”

PeerSpot user Cesar Q., CIO at Grupo Kasto, mentions, “The analytics are very good. The solution offers very nice incident management. The overall functionality of the product is excellent. The change management is helpful. They have an agent that we installed in every single asset. We have the inventory for all assets automatically. Contract management is very valuable for us as an IT department, as we have the information for every single computer across the company. We are starting to use the project management aspects right now. We have different projects and we have all the information in the same solution, in the same place. It makes everything more centralized and easier to access. The user interface is very nice and the solution is easy to use. You don't need to be an expert in order to navigate around and use the product. You don't need to read a lot of manuals in order to figure everything out. It's pretty intuitive.”

A Network Analyst at a real estate/law firm shares, "We find its ability to track what's going on with each request very valuable. We are also able to merge ticket requests and assign them to different groups in the company. We have another department that uses the same system."

System Center Service Manager is a software product by Microsoft to allow organizations to manage incidents and problems. Microsoft states that the product is compliant with industry best practices such as the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) and in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). SCSM has integrated ITIL compliant fulfillment of service requests. Service requests are submitted by the end user in order to obtain information, access to a new application or the most common of all, password reset.

Sample Customers

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Western Carriers, Judson University, Golf Canada, Travix, Proxama, Paymentez, Ready Auto Transport

Fibabanka, UMC Health System

Buyer's Guide

Freshservice vs. SCSM

October 2024

Free Report: Freshservice vs. SCSM

Find out what your peers are saying about Freshservice vs. SCSM and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.

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