ITSM is a process-driven approach to IT service management. It helps organizations establish common goals and objectives, align IT services with business needs, measure and manage performance, and identify and implement improvements to achieve better results.
Here is our list of the best Freshservice alternatives:
- NinjaOne – EDITOR’S CHOICE Protects your infrastructure from internal and external threats. It supports scanning options and allows users to can set-and-forget document backup for important files. Get a 14-day free trial.
- SolarWinds Service Desk A cloud-based tool that will ensure that your service request pipeline runs smoothly. AT&T, NASA, and Procter & Gamble are a few top companies that use SolarWinds Service Desk.
- Atera ITSM A real-time alerting tool that can track all issues arising at your client’s endpoints in real-time and maintain the order of the system.
- ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus Provides excellent features and functionalities that allow users to troubleshoot IT service requests and minimize repetitive incidents and outages faster.
- HaloITSM A cloud-based IT service management software that’s available for small and medium-sized businesses. It makes it easy to manage your IT infrastructure, devices, and applications. Also, you don’t have to worry about the installation or configuration of the product because HaloITSM takes care of everything for you.
- Spiceworks Help Desk helps organizations track progress and performance in real-time. With insightful reports, companies can improve their infrastructure and streamline their workflows.
- RescueAssist A cloud-based remote support system with team management functions. It helps agents become more efficient by starting remote support sessions directly from a ticket.
You can find N number of ITSM tools online, but we have shortlisted the best ones for you. Freshservice is a trusted cloud-based system management tool used by several organizations to simplify IT operations and eliminate repetitive tasks. But for some users, it is expensive, which is why they look for its alternatives.
Here we have listed some of the best Freshservice alternatives with their features, pros, and cons. Compare and decide which one suits your business and meets its requirements.
What is ITSM Software and Why Do We Need It?
IT service management (ITSM) is a management approach that focuses on the effective delivery of IT services to meet business needs. It is a systematic process that helps to identify, plan for, and control changes in an organization’s IT infrastructure.
IT service management is typically a cross-functional team effort involving people from the business side and the IT department. Also, it can be applied at different levels of an organization: enterprise, departmental or project level.
ITSM is not only restricted to basic IT support, but covers other areas, including managing IT services, information technologies within an organization, and business-critical software applications.
It makes it easier to visualize workflows and improves efficiency and cost savings. Also, with ITSM, you can identify potential issues in real time, reduce IT problems and respond to incidents faster.
Additionally, with ITSM, you can look at all aspects of the operations of the business, including hardware, software, network infrastructure, and applications as well as reduce outages.
What is Freshservice?
Freshservice is a popular and trusted cloud-based system management tool that helps eliminate repetitive tasks, offers better visibility, and requires less maintenance. It is a self-service portal that runs on autopilot and enables organizations to simplify their IT operations.
Key Features:
- SLA Management
- Asset Discovery
- Service Request Management
- Incident Management
- Contract Management
- Change Management
- Problem Management
- Quick Deployments
- IP Whitelisting
- No-code workflows
- Powerful automation
- Integrated Service Channels
- Supports SDKs and API configurations
- Advanced Reporting
- 24/7 Support Access
- Multiple Language support
- Context-Driven Analytics
It offers a variety of features, including a customizable ticketing system, knowledge base, asset discovery, integrated service channels, service request management, and more, listed below in detail. Using Freshservice’s excellent features, you can create a delightful employee experience that brings in more value.
Further, you can use filters and generate pre-defined reports for incidents using Freshservice Software.
Pricing
Freshservice software is available in four packages – Starter, Growth, Pro, and Enterprise.
The starter package costs around $15 per agent per month. It offers a self-service portal with a knowledge base to guide end users. Also, it includes features like incident management, Workflow Automator, SLA Management, Access controls, 1000 Orchestration transactions per month per account, and more.
Further, under this plan, you can avail of an SSL certificate by default for your domain. The starter package also allows users to run analytics, integrate with popular apps, and access localized versions of the support portal.
The Growth package will cost around $49 per agent per month and supports Multiple SLAs, purchase order management, service catalog, on-call management, employee onboarding, 2000 Orchestration transactions per month per account, portal customization, asset management, and many more features. This package is best suitable for growing businesses.
The Pro package is one of the most popular ones and most used for ITSM, ITOM, and Project management by large corporations. This package may cost you around $89 per agent per month. It includes problem management, change management, project management, release management, Software License Management, alert options, analytics pro, contract management, IP Range Restrictions, 5000 Orchestration transactions per month per account, and SaaS Management as an add-on.
The Enterprise is one of the most expensive packages used by enterprises for service management solutions. It may cost you around $109 per agent per month and offers 20,000 Orchestration transactions per month per account. The package supports Sandbox, audit logs, Freddy agent assistance, and Freddy virtual agent on MS Teams and slack.
For more details, contact the sales team.
Why do we need Freshservice Alternatives?
Freshservice is a cloud-based ITSM tool suitable for businesses of all sizes, but a few users find it expensive. Not every organization can afford the Enterprise package that offers advanced features. Also, the project management feature supported by the tool is limited and does not perform up to the mark for collaborations.
Further, some users find it difficult to email product orders to their suppliers. There are many more reasons which are why organizations look for its alternatives. Below, we have compiled a list of alternative solutions one can choose from for their organization. Have a look at top ITSM Alternatives that serve the same purpose, but are better at service and support.
The Best ITSM Alternatives
Check out the list of the best ITSM tools and Freshservice Alternatives you can rely on to improve customer service.
1. NinjaOne – FREE TRIAL
NinjaOne ITSM is an IT service management solution that helps companies manage their IT service desk, IT assets, and IT projects. It is a cloud-based solution for small and medium-sized businesses that can be accessed from any location using the standard Web browser.
Key Features:
- Customized alerts
- Offers Slack or Teams notifications
- Automated workflows
- IT Operations Management
- Self-Service IT Portal
- Security and insightful reporting options
- Network Management
- IT Asset Management
- User and Event log tracking
- Email monitoring
- Tracks Drive encryption status
- Patch Management
- Application Management
- Automated antivirus deployments
- Automated ticket creation
NinjaOne ITSM provides comprehensive support for IT service desk, asset management, and project management. It also integrates with other third-party products like Office 365 and Slack to provide additional features.
Formerly known as NinjaRMM, the tool is known to offer great visibility and control over IT infrastructure. It allows users to check on the health and performance of all assets, and maintain performance and productivity.
Pros:
- Allows users to create context-rich alerts by checking on the health and performance data in real-time
- Instantly alerts on detecting an unauthorized application or repetitive failed authentication
- Identifies and resolves issues in real-time
- Full access to automatically start or stop, install or uninstall applications at scale
- Helps generate in-depth critical insights into performance and running processes
- Users can monitor thousands of network devices remotely via NinjaOne
- Keeps track of sent and received emails as well as the health of email servers
- Helps users monitor DNS resolution with response times
Cons:
- Requires 2FA to make policy changes or configuration
With NinjaOne, you can keep track of all your servers, networks, virtual machines, workstations, cloud infrastructure, and operating system endpoints.
At present, more than 9,000 companies use NinjaOne for its excellent services. Get started with a 14-day free trial.
2. SolarWinds Service Desk
SolarWinds Service Desk is a cloud-based IT service management (ITSM) solution designed to ease employee support services and improve IT operations. It provides an easy way to manage customer requests and issues. Further, the tool supports a ticketing system, workflow automation, and more advanced features.
Key Features:
- Self-service portal
- Ticketing system
- Incident management
- Performance Analytics
- Asset management
- Analytics and Reporting
- Change management
- Service Catalog
- Service Level Agreement (SLA)
- Contract management
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- Onboarding services
Over time, with its excellent services and features, SolarWinds Service Desk has made it to the top spot in the ITSM category. Today, many medium-to-large businesses prefer SolarWinds Service Desk over other ITSM tools as it offers features like incident management, service catalog, asset management, change management, and more.
The software has been designed to make it easy for users to manage their customers and their requests by giving them tools, such as email templates, knowledge base articles, reports, and more.
You can also integrate SolarWinds Service Desk with over 200 apps quickly.
Pros:
- Offers onboarding support and is easily accessible to departments beyond IT
- SolarWinds Service Desk is easy to use and integrate
- Offers a self-service portal with a knowledge base to resolve end-user queries
- Helps track performance and make a better decision
- Reporting feature aids organizations in monitoring system utilization
- The Risk Detection module supported by the tool helps identify illegal software
- Allows organizations to run continuous scans of endpoints
Cons:
- The report customization feature is complex
- To complete service requests, agents need to manually enter the time
It has a user-friendly interface that keeps all the incoming tickets well-organized and agents more productive. You can also get an overview of your asset configurations easily via SolarWinds Service Desk.
3. Atera
Atera is another popular cloud-based IT management software solution used by MSPs to track, support, and assess the IT system of clients. It is an all-in-one Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) software with features like patch management, network discovery, custom scripting, IT automation, SLA management, and more.
Key Features:
- Network Discovery
- Ticketing
- Patch Management
- Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)
- IT automation
- Remote Access
- SLA Management
- Real-Time Alerts
- Billing and Reporting
- Custom Scripting
Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, the software company has offices all around the world. Atera’s customers include some of the world’s largest companies that rely on its products to manage their IT services and assets.
The ITSM solutions help organizations to automate, optimize and simplify the entire IT service lifecycle.
Pros:
- Offers real-time alerts for performance and faulty hardware
- Helps users track and record the frequency of incidences
- Keeps endpoint in the client’s system up to date via software license management and patch management functions
- Built-in PSA works great with an integrated ticketing system
- Allows users to program time-consuming tasks with ease via custom scripting
- Supports integration with Accounting Software
Cons:
- Reporting customization is not available
- Difficult to discover devices based on serial numbers
Using Atera, you can monitor unlimited devices and get complete visibility of customer networks. It also supports the ticketing feature that may help simplify your tasks and communications.
Further, it enables employees to perform root-cause analysis and record the frequency of incidences. The tool also supports software license management and patch management functions that help keep endpoints up to date.
4. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus offers a quick resolution of tickets, better visibility, and manages client contracts and maintenance requests. It can be a great alternative and is one of the best tools for your ITSM needs. The tool offers more than just regular help desk features.
Key Features:
- Workflow Automation
- SLA Management
- Service Level Agreements
- Configuration management
- Availability management
- IT project management
- Change management
- Ticketing system
- Incident management
- Asset management and discovery
- Service Catalog
- Project Management
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is a complete ITSM solution for IT service desks. It provides a centralized view of all IT services and incidents, enabling IT organizations to deliver faster service to their customers. ServiceDesk Plus automates the entire incident management process from ticket creation to escalation, to resolution.
It covers service-level management, configuration management, and availability management, minimizes repeat incidents, and meets SLA management requirements.
Pros:
- Allows users to access multiple channels
- The self-service portal also has a password security option
- Offers support to multiple languages
- Helps boost IT help desk’s productivity
- The easy and effective tool can be used for streamlined onboarding
- Easy to install on Linux or Windows Server
Cons:
- Few inaccurate documents are available
You can choose its services from three different packages – Standard, Professional, and Enterprise. The standard package covers basic functions and SLA management, the professional package offers asset discovery and contract management as an add-on. However, the Enterprise package offers Standard + Professional + configuration management, IT project management, and change management features as an add-on.
5. HaloITSM
HaloITSM is an intuitive ITSM Software used by experts for managing incidents and meeting SLAs. It is a fast and fully configurable system designed to automate workflows and meet business requirements.
Key Features:
- Incident Management
- Knowledge base
- SLA Management support
- Change management
- Problem management
- Configuration Management
- Release management
- Service Catalog
- Artificial Intelligence
- Task Management
- Supports collaboration tools
- Better visibility and track features
- Contract management
- Auto asset discovery options
- Inventory management
HaloITSM has a self-service portal that helps users find and request the services they are looking for without any errors. It also supports a good list of integrations.
Pros:
- Highly customizable
- Support teams are quick and responsive
- Supports a self-service portal for customer queries
- Allow users to monitor the ongoing activities and track staffing requirements
- Automates the identification and maintenance of assets
Cons:
- Complicated customization options
- The live chat feature may cost you extra
- Requires users to have knowledge of SQL for custom reports
Get access to better visibility and track, plan, and implement organizational changes at any scale with HaloITSM. It is a powerful tool that helps visualize dependencies between CIs and offers Problem Management, change management, and an ITIL service catalog.
The package also allows users to track staffing requirements for projects and communicate during support sessions via Live Chat.
6. Spiceworks Help Desk
Spiceworks is a software company that provides IT professionals with a suite of tools to help them manage their IT infrastructure. Founded in 2006 by brothers Ben and David Ivey. The company headquarters are in Austin, Texas.
Key Features
- Knowledge Base
- Self-service portal
- Active Directory
- IT Asset management
- Team Management
- Ticket Collaboration
- Access Controls
- Bandwidth monitoring
- Automated Routing
- Activity monitoring
- Configuration Management
- Change management
- Email management
- Customer support
- Real-Time Chat
- Web Traffic reporting
- Network Analysis
- Patch management
- Omnichannel customer support
The company has two products: Spiceworks IT Desktop and Spiceworks Help Desk. The former is used for monitoring, managing, and repairing an organization’s computer network infrastructure. The latter is an online help desk system that helps organizations provide customer service to end users through email, phone, or chat.
Using the tool and its excellent features, organizations can now detect troublesome software quickly on any server. Also, it helps in inventory management. The help desk services make it easier for IT professionals to address their customers’ work-related issues in real-time.
Pros:
- Get access to unlimited tickets and admin limit
- Spiceworks is a free platform with a large online community
- The tool can be used without a desktop as well, i.e. via an app for iOS and Android devices
- Mobile support services allow users to manage tickets anytime and anywhere
- Support technical forums to discuss customer queries and provide guidance
- Good for inventory management
- Generates market insights that can be used to improve performance
- Helps in generating custom reports
- Supports integration with Active Directory
- Enables businesses to track IT tasks, progress, and incidents
Cons:
- Lacks flexibility
- A little underdeveloped help desk solution
- Sometimes difficult to integrate with other tools
The cloud-based help desk solution is highly compatible with Android and iOS devices and offers seamless integration with Active Directory.
7. GoTo Resolve (formerly RescueAssist and GoToAssist)
GoTo Resolve (formerly RescueAssist and GoToAssist) is a software that is designed to help people in need. The software was developed by a team of engineers who wanted to take the burden off of first responders and emergency personnel.
Key Features:
- Session Transfer
- SaaS/Web/Cloud Deployments
- Device Management
- Reporting
- Session Recording
- Remote Control
- File Transfer
- Feedback Collection
- Diagnostic Tools
- Screen Sharing
- Live Chat
- Integrations
- Patch management
- Real-time monitoring
- IT ticketing integrations
- Single Sign-On (SSO) support
- Multi-factor authentication
- Attended and Unattended support
- Endpoint security
- Quick Troubleshoots
The RescueAssist app can be downloaded on any mobile device, and it has three main functions:
- Tracking the location of an individual or a group of people
- Sending text messages to people who are in need
- Sending notifications about any upcoming alerts or warnings
Pros:
- Scalable IT Service Management solution
- Easy to use and friendly for non-tech-savvy users
- Easy to start a remote session over messaging with Rescue Assist
- Users can become a part of remote sessions via SMS, link, or email
- Users can exercise web browser or app to chat or communicate with end users
- Offers better security options, including multi-factor authentication and SSO access
Cons:
- Difficult to display a command line
- Dual-screen remote sessions require improvement
Conclusion
IT Service Management (ITSM) is a management approach that helps to identify, plan for, and control changes in an organization’s IT infrastructure. Freshservice is a popular ITSM tool used by organizations to simplify IT operations and eliminate repetitive tasks.
Freshservice is easy to install and enables employees to examine the root cause as well as track progress on problem resolution. Another good part is that Freshservice is compatible with iOS and Android platforms, and one can integrate the tool with other third-party apps to manage the service desk.
Yet many companies look for alternatives for some find it expensive. In this post, we have listed a few alternatives to Freshservice. So, have a look at some of the top ITSM tools that can work great as a Freshservice alternative and comprise similar features and functionalities. Compare and decide which one meets your business requirements and budget.