We use this solution to populate the CMDB and to track changes in our environment.
Sr. Servicenow Developer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Reliable, helps improve efficiencies, and uses AI to help build events
Pros and Cons
- "It does a good job of collecting the data that's necessary for data centers, and IT's operations."
- "The data is really good, it's reliable and they keep adding to it."
- "When you switch versions, for example, when you go from Paris to Quebec they will introduce many new things and occasionally things break when they do that."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
It improves process efficiencies.
When people need to query for information, they don't have to go to seven different people. They can go to a single source.
What is most valuable?
It does a good job of collecting the data that's necessary for data centers, and IT's operations.
When it comes to the internal data centers and the on-premise data centers, they are pretty good.
What needs improvement?
When you switch versions, for example, when you go from Paris to Quebec they will introduce many new things and occasionally things break when they do that. You usually find out after the fact when you stumble into it.
I currently have an issue that we just stumbled into, where our bucket wasn't populating correctly from my own Google cloud. They're trying to figure out how to fix that.
They should include support for Google Cloud.
Buyer's Guide
ServiceNow Discovery
May 2026
Learn what your peers think about ServiceNow Discovery. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
900,196 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with ServiceNow Discovery for ten years.
The version we are using is Paris.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a reliable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is pretty good, but they are lacking a bit in the Google Cloud realm.
They are really good in others such as Azure, AWS, and IBM. It seemed to have matured those a little better. Maybe the problem is with Google Cloud being a partner and keeping up with them. I am not sure where it's lacking. Is it ServiceNow or just Google Cloud?
Our users vary from technical people to managers to business people. We do it that way to assign costs so things could be lower.
With the first couple of reports, managers were surprised at the cost, but when you do it in increments throughout the year, you don't realize what the total is coming to until you get to the end of the year.
How are customer service and support?
For the most part, ServiceNow has gone through a few growing pains. They have grown rapidly.
The first line of support is sometimes lacking. Once you get to the second and third-level people, they are good.
I would rate technical support an eight out of ten. After the first line, you can tell the person is pretty new.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used Maximo Tatem and it was really cumbersome.
The data was excellent but you had two different vehicles.
You had your Discovery pool, and you had another server that took the data from Discovery. That had to be mapped into the Maximo database. You then had a Discovery server, with an in-between server that did the translation and put it into Maximo.
It was convoluted.
The Discovery engine was wonderful, but getting the data from Discovery back into the Maximo database was difficult.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was pretty straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price could be better. It's a bit on the pricey side.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
As a product, they are probably right at the top. Their only competition I would say right now would be Dynatrace.
Dynatrace is missing a few things, but so is ServiceNow. You can take your pick, as they are both good.
What other advice do I have?
The data is really good, it's reliable and they keep adding to it.
They are using AI with a lot of cases to help build the events, which is good.
I would rate ServiceNow a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Support Engineering Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Good service mapping, an easy initial setup, and very mature as a product
Pros and Cons
- "The process involving the original setup of the solution is excellent."
- "Service Now has a great drag and drop functionality, which makes it easier to use than, say, EMC, and it is dedicated to designing an easy-to-use tool for IT defense, giving users better leverage."
- "The solution needs to improve the cost of the solution. There are a few different solutions and they do act the same and have the same types of capabilities, however, the cost is quite high."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for consolidating all the CIs and to make sure we've discovered all the network devices, servers, etc. It helps us maintain what we have and actually pulls all the information together horizontally and vertically in order to create a data model. We throw it into the CMDB where we can import the information and assign CIs for optimal IT operations. We use that probably twice a year, depending upon how much the changes are happening on the data center.
How has it helped my organization?
From the ideal perspective, IT operations actually enhance your operational functionality and give you insights into the health and visibility of your IT platforms on a daily basis. You can pull reports in 24-hour increments to take a look at physical instances and capacity issues.
What is most valuable?
In ServiceNow this is ITSM and there's ITIL. So far, we've found that ITSM is the most popular.
The ability to pull reports to check the health of the IT platforms is quite useful. You can pull reports daily to look at everything from capacity issues to physical instances.
The service mapping is excellent.
The maturity of the solution is very good. We're driving our customers to obtain that level of maturity in their own IT space.
The process involving the original setup of the solution is excellent.
What needs improvement?
The solution needs to improve the cost of the solution. There are a few different solutions and they do act the same and have the same types of capabilities, however, the cost is quite high.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for three and a half years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution has very good stability. I don't recall witnessing many bugs or glitches on the product. It doesn't crash. It's reliable overall.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is very scalable. A company wouldn't have any problems expanding if it needed to.
We have about 96,000 people in our organization.
How are customer service and technical support?
I am a solutions consultant and a Discovery certified professional, so I could troubleshoot any issues myself if I needed to. With that being the case, I don't really need to reach out to technical support, so I can't speak to the quality of service.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've worked on EMC extensively as well. We have used other tools. However, we use Discovery extensively.
Service Now has a great drag and drop functionality, which makes it easier to use, than, say EMC. It's dedicated itself to designing an easy to use tool for IT defense. I understand EMC is coming out with a new tool that rivals Service Now, however, in general, Service Now's tool gives users better leverage.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is pretty good. It's what differentiates it from the competition.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is quite expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We have evaluated other services in the past, including EMC.
What other advice do I have?
We're partners with the solution.
I would recommend the solution to other organizations. If you are already using Service Now products, Discover makes for a good complimenting solution.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
Buyer's Guide
ServiceNow Discovery
May 2026
Learn what your peers think about ServiceNow Discovery. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
900,196 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Specialist (US IT Recruiter) at MOURI Tech
A stable and scalable tool to discover multiple CIs, servers, network devices, and computers
Pros and Cons
- "It is a stable solution...The initial setup of the product is straightforward."
- "Whenever you try to discover something with the solution, you get errors that are not descriptive enough."
What is our primary use case?
My company uses ServiceNow Discovery to discover multiple CIs, servers, network devices, computers, etc.
What is most valuable?
In our company, importing and scanning IP addresses with ServiceNow Discovery is a straightforward and easy process.
What needs improvement?
Whenever you try to discover something with the solution, you get errors that are not descriptive enough. The aforementioned area can be considered for improvement in the solution.
The licensing cost of the solution is an area where ServiceNow can improve.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using ServiceNow Discovery for more than three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution.
My company deals with multiple clients who prefer ServiceNow Discovery. I was involved with the implementation phase of the product for my company's clients.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of the product is straightforward.
It doesn't take more than a week to implement the product.
As a part of the deployment process, you first need to understand the infrastructure of ServiceNow Discovery. Once you understand ServiceNow Discovery, you will be in a better position to use your data with the existing data in ServiceNow.
What about the implementation team?
My company has a six-member team to take care of the product's implementation process.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is a need to make payments every quarter of a year towards the licensing costs of the solution. ServiceNow Discovery is an expensive tool.
What other advice do I have?
I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Digital Solutions Architect at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees
Data comes in without the need for creating new interfaces or dashboards
Pros and Cons
- "I like ServiceNow Discovery's overall structure and the way data comes in without creating a different dashboard or interface."
- "ServiceNow has a constant development environment. Hence they get constant bugs which result in incorrect performance. It should also improve customer service."
What is most valuable?
I like ServiceNow Discovery's overall structure and the way data comes in without creating a different dashboard or interface.
What needs improvement?
ServiceNow has a constant development environment. Hence they get constant bugs which result in incorrect performance. It should also improve customer service.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for quite some time.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the solution's stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate ServiceNow Discovery's scalability a ten out of ten. One of my current customers has over 10,000 users for the product.
How was the initial setup?
The product's setup is straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product is not cheap.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate ServiceNow Discovery a ten out of ten. You would need to go on training before using the solution.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Sr. Developer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Performs well, scalable, and simple deployment
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of ServiceNow Discovery is its performance."
- "ServiceNow Discovery could improve the interface. The navigation bar could improve. It would be helpful to have a landing page to go to find all the elements in one place."
What is our primary use case?
We are using ServiceNow Discovery for integration and we are populating the CMDB to use it for our ITSM.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of ServiceNow Discovery is its performance.
What needs improvement?
ServiceNow Discovery could improve the interface. The navigation bar could improve. It would be helpful to have a landing page to go to find all the elements in one place.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using ServiceNow Discovery for approximately three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
ServiceNow Discovery is a stable solution.
I rate the scalability of ServiceNow Discovery an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of ServiceNow Discovery is good.
We have approximately 5,000. We use the solution continuously in our enterprise-sized organization.
I rate the scalability of ServiceNow Discovery an eight out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The support from the vendor could improve. When we have an issue we speak to the agent in circles causing delays. There are a lot of unnecessary questions being asked.
I rate the support of ServiceNow Discovery a six out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use another solution prior to ServiceNow Discovery. We were doing everything manually.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of ServiceNow Discovery is easy.
I rate the initial setup of ServiceNow Discovery an eight out of ten.
What was our ROI?
We have seen an ROI using this solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
ServiceNow Discovery is expensive, but the company has a monopoly and we need to use the solution. We use it because we do not have a choice.
What other advice do I have?
The solution does not require a lot of maintenance. Once the setup is done with schedules it operates well.
I would advise others to test the solution.
I rate ServiceNow Discovery an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Manager - Retail Sales at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Stable product that offers strong insights but does not have enough features to function independently
Pros and Cons
- "This solution provides excellent insights."
- "When my team starting any project or learning a new environment, we always implement ServiceNow Discovery which can be used along with other products."
- "Application discovery could be improved. And, right now, ServiceNow needs to be coupled with another solution in order to verify information."
What is our primary use case?
When my team starting any project or learning a new environment, we always implement ServiceNow Discovery which can be used along with other products. We are able to extract details on the environment to help transition services.
What is most valuable?
This solution provides excellent insights.
What needs improvement?
Application discovery could be improved. Right now, ServiceNow needs to be coupled with another solution in order to verify the information.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a scalable product, especially since it is within a public cloud.
How are customer service and support?
We have not needed to use support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy but expect to have to take some time to learn the product.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is an expensive product with a price that depends on the models that you wish to purchase.
What other advice do I have?
This is something that I would recommend for medium or large companies.
I would rate this a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
Specialist (US IT Recruiter) at MOURI Tech
Stable with good encryption but technical support isn't helpful
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup is pretty easy."
- "This is one of the best tools for organizations looking for a tool with agentless applications."
- "Technical support has not been helpful when we have come across problems. They take too long to respond and then don't provide helpful information."
What is our primary use case?
We are trying to discover the laptops, machines, network devices, and cloud inventory in our organization by using ServiceNow Discovery. We wanted to have a cross-check between the SCCM and Discovery, and are trying to decide which could be a better choice.
How has it helped my organization?
Basically, when we're talking about ServiceNow Discovery, we have our own instances, and we would be giving IP subnets into it. These IP subnets would contain the range of all the CI's, which are available in the network. Then, once we start the Discovery schedules, it can scan the network and fill in the data, whichever is available on the network.
What is most valuable?
The initial setup is pretty easy.
The solution is fairly stable.
The security is very good. We have encryption supported from ServiceNow and therefore I haven't found any issues surrounding safety concerns.
What needs improvement?
The solution lacks the capability of discovering the devices which are not in the network. That is an area where they could improve upon. In the next release, we are actually looking for a solution for the devices which don't come into the network. Nowadays, because of this pandemic, most of the users are logging in from home, and we don't have any way to discover those assets. We are looking for a solution that can help us to discover those kinds of user devices.
During the initial setup, we get some errors and the solution doesn't exactly understand what they mean or how to fix them. They need to have more of an explanation so that we can accurately go about fixing the errors as they arise.
Technical support has not been helpful when we have come across problems. They take too long to respond and then don't provide helpful information.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for more than three years at this point.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability overall has been very good. It doesn't crash or freeze. There are no bugs and glitches. It's good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have been increasing pretty extensively. The users are running on a daily basis, and it is becoming one of the major sources for updating all the CI's that exist in the network.
We have an IT team of about 30 or more individuals that are on the solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
We've had to reach out to technical support in relation to the errors we get during setup. They have not been very helpful overall. In most cases, when you raise a ticket, even when it is critical, they take two to three days to respond. Even then, the response really doesn't help us address the issue. We're not very satisfied with their level of support at this time.
How was the initial setup?
It is not complex when setting up Discovery. It's pretty straightforward. That said, what happens is that after you set up the Discovery, there are different errors that you might get when you actually run the product, and that is something that needs to be improved. We get some errors and the solution doesn't give us the full information about what is causing the issue.
In terms of deployment times, it has taken four months for the implementation of ServiceNow Discovery. The strategy was very straightforward. We just we activated the ServiceNow Discovery plugin and then we analyzed the data and started filling in the Discovery details.
What about the implementation team?
We are implementing ServiceNow Discovery for our clients.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I do not know the exact cost, however, I do know that there is one particular subscription charge for the number of the CI spots we use.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We're also looking at SCCM and comparing the two solutions to see which would fit our organization better. The difference between the two, for the most part, is that ServiceNow is agentless, whereas, with SCCM, you need an agent.
What other advice do I have?
We are an implementor. We implement this product for our clients.
We are using the latest version of the solution.
We use different deployment models - both on-premises and on the cloud.
This is one of the best tools for organizations looking for a tool with agentless applications. You do not need to install an agent in any of the CI's. However, if you go for the other solution like SCCM, that is an agent-based solution, where you need to install the agent on all your end-user computers. Therefore, if an organization is looking for an agentless solution, then probably ServiceNow Discovery is a great good option.
Users should have a thorough understanding of how CMDB data tables are structured, and they should also know how Discovery works. You should also have an idea whether you would be integrating asset management along with ServiceNow Discovery or not. If you are going with a flat ServiceNow Discovery, then later on, if you want to implement asset management, then it could be quite difficult.
Overall, I would rate the solution at a seven out of ten. I would rate it higher, however, they aren't transparent when it comes to the meanings of errors we sometimes get during setup.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
CEO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Great scripting features but some additional features for asset management are needed
Pros and Cons
- "I find that the Discovery and scripting features are the most useful."
- "I would absolutely recommend ServiceNow Discovery to others."
- "On the Software Asset Management part of it, I expect additional reconciliation and Discovery features there."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use this solution for three things: hardware asset management, software asset management, and IT service management.
Within our organization, there are 500 employees using this solution. We definitely plan to continue using this solution.
What is most valuable?
I find that the Discovery and scripting features are the most useful.
What needs improvement?
On the Software Asset Management part of it, I expect additional reconciliation and Discovery features there.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for a year and a half.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
ServiceNow Discovery is definitely stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
ServiceNow Discovery is easy to scale. It's got different bolt-ons, so you can scale up or scale down, as you require.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have raised tickets with them. I've not had to deal with them that much, but I've raised a few tickets when dealing with them, and they're quite good.
How was the initial setup?
The is no installation process. There are plugins, but most of the product is in the cloud. That's the attraction. It's a SaaS product, so a lot of it's in the cloud.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is a subscription for ServiceNow Discovery. It's expensive, but I think it's one of the best solutions on the market, so it's worth it.
What other advice do I have?
I would absolutely recommend ServiceNow Discovery to others. Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of seven.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free ServiceNow Discovery Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2026
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