Best 10 ServiceNow Alternatives for Service Management

Finding a service management platform that actually fits the budget is a real challenge heading into 2023. ServiceNow has led the space for years, but a handful of competitors now offer comparable IT service management capability at a fraction of the cost, without forcing teams into a long, expensive implementation just to get started.

This article covers ten ServiceNow competitors worth a look if the goal is solid service management without ServiceNow’s price tag, along with what to weigh before settling on one.

Key Takeaways

• ServiceNow remains a leader in service management, but there are credible alternatives worth weighing in 2023.

• When evaluating a ServiceNow competitor, weigh affordability, feature set, ease of use, and customer support.

• Strong options include ClickUp, Zendesk, SAP, ProProfs Help Desk, Jira, Help Scout, Freshdesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, Zoho Desk, and SupportBee.

• Each brings a cost-effective, customizable path to running service management well.

What to Look for in a ServiceNow Competitor

Picking a ServiceNow alternative comes down to four things: what it costs, what it does, how easy it is to use, and how good the support is when something breaks and someone needs help fast.

Affordability

Cost differences between ServiceNow rivals can be significant, and some come loaded with more room in the budget than others for smaller teams that don’t need enterprise-scale infrastructure. SysAid, for one, handles incident management well without straining finances — which means less overhead and more savings for the team running it, and more budget left over for the rest of the IT stack.

Features

The right feature set is what makes a tool actually useful day to day, not just impressive on a sales page. Email automation speeds up replies, and an IT service desk suite is worth prioritizing as well, since it usually bundles together the day-to-day functions an IT team relies on most.

Industry fit is another thing to check before committing. Some ServiceNow alternatives are built with a specific type of business in mind, whether that’s small teams or large enterprises, while others lean into knowledge management and structured incident processes as their core strength.

Tools like Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Zoho Desk each bring specialized functions to the table that ServiceNow doesn’t necessarily match, particularly around ticketing workflows and automation rules built for smaller teams. SAP, meanwhile, is a strong pick if the goal is consolidating many capabilities under one roof rather than stitching together several point solutions.

The right choice ultimately depends on what the team actually needs day to day, not on which vendor has the biggest name.

User-friendliness

Ease of use matters more than most feature lists let on. A ServiceNow competitor should have a clean interface that lets people navigate quickly and finish tasks without friction.

The software shouldn’t feel needlessly complicated for the people using it every day. Freshservice, Jira Service Management, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 all stand out here, largely thanks to interfaces built around actual usability instead of feature bloat.

Customer support

Support quality is a factor worth weighing carefully when picking a ServiceNow alternative, especially for teams without a large internal IT staff to fall back on. Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Zoho Desk — three of the top options on this list — all put real weight behind their support offerings.

Each gives users several ways to get help, from email to live chat, backed by support teams that know the product well enough to actually solve problems rather than just escalate a ticket.

They also tend to offer thorough documentation and resource libraries, so users can troubleshoot on their own before ever opening a ticket. If reliable, responsive support is a priority, these platforms are worth putting near the top of the list — and worth testing directly rather than taking on faith.

The Top 10 ServiceNow Alternatives in 2023

Here’s a closer look at the strongest ServiceNow alternatives on the market, starting with ClickUp, Zendesk, SAP, ProProfs Help Desk, and Jira.

ClickUp

ClickUp ranks among the top ServiceNow alternatives for service management. Its platform is easy to pick up and covers a wide enough feature range to streamline most service management workflows without a steep onboarding curve.

With ClickUp, incident tracking, automated email notifications, and knowledge management all live in one place, so teams aren’t jumping between separate tools to get a full picture of what’s happening. Pricing tends to run lower than competitors, which makes it a solid fit for small businesses watching costs closely while still needing real service management functionality.

Whether the need is IT service desk functionality or support tooling for a different industry entirely, ClickUp covers the basics well.

Zendesk

Zendesk is another leading ServiceNow alternative, built around a full suite for customer support and IT service management. It automates incident management and email responses, and layers in knowledge management on top.

The platform is easy to navigate and backed by strong customer support, and it scales from small businesses up through larger enterprises hunting for cost-effective service management.

User reviews on community platforms have rated it consistently well.

SAP

SAP stands out among ServiceNow alternatives for the sheer breadth of what it covers — IT service management, structured incident processes, and email automation among them, all built to handle the scale that larger organizations tend to need.

The interface is approachable and the options customizable enough to work for small businesses too, not just the large enterprises SAP is traditionally associated with. SAP helps streamline service management and lift efficiency across a wide range of industries, from manufacturing to financial services.

Whether the need is knowledge management or a full IT service desk suite, SAP’s toolset is built to handle it.

ProProfs Help Desk

ProProfs Help Desk earns its spot on this list with an affordable, user-friendly package backed by strong customer support.

It’s a good fit for small businesses, covering IT service management, incident management, and email automation, with a knowledge management system and ticketing built in to keep customer support running smoothly.

Community ratings have been consistently positive, and the cost-effective pricing makes it a reasonable pick for automating service management across different industries.

Jira

Jira, built by Atlassian, is a well-established ServiceNow alternative designed to help teams track and manage projects effectively.

Teams can create tasks, assign them out, and follow progress in real time. Agile boards, workflow automation, and customizable dashboards all help keep collaboration organized.

Jira also connects with tools like Confluence and Bitbucket, which makes it a natural fit for development teams specifically, since work can move between planning, documentation, and code without much manual handoff. That said, its usefulness extends well past IT service management into project management more broadly, across a wide range of industries beyond software development.

Help Scout

Help Scout rounds out the list with a clean interface and support that consistently gets high marks. Its feature set covers email automation, knowledge management, and a help desk suite built with small business IT service management needs in mind.

Customizable solutions and industry-specific features make it flexible enough for businesses of different sizes. Help Scout lets teams manage service processes efficiently while keeping costs in check, which is a big part of what makes it an attractive ServiceNow alternative.

Freshdesk

Freshdesk is another strong ServiceNow alternative, with a clean interface and dependable customer support. Its feature list includes email automation, an IT service desk suite, and knowledge management.

It’s a good fit for small businesses looking for a cost-effective way to manage services efficiently, and it’s picked up consistently positive reviews from the wider user community — a solid signal for anyone weighing service management options.

Salesforce Service Cloud

Salesforce Service Cloud brings a wide range of features and capabilities that have made it a popular pick among businesses evaluating ServiceNow alternatives.

It handles customer interactions, case and ticket tracking, and support delivery, with knowledge management, email automation, and service analytics layered in on top — enough depth to cover most of what a growing support team would otherwise need several separate tools for.

It’s highly customizable to fit different industries, and its interface and support options have both earned strong marks from users.

Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk pairs an approachable interface with affordable pricing that works across business sizes. It automates incident management while keeping customer support quality high.

Email automation, knowledge management, and customizable ticketing workflows round out the feature set, and the platform adapts well across different industries to streamline service management, without requiring a dedicated administrator to keep it running.

It has also picked up strong reviews and ratings from the wider user community, which builds a reasonable case for trusting it as a ServiceNow alternative.

For teams after a cost-effective, feature-rich service management tool, Zoho Desk is worth serious consideration.

SupportBee

SupportBee closes out the list with an email automation solution built to streamline incident management and strengthen customer support.

Small businesses in particular get value from its cost-effective IT service desk suite, which brings knowledge management and customizable features without a heavy price tag — a dependable option for teams that need effective, user-friendly service management tooling but don’t want to pay enterprise rates for it.

SupportBee has earned consistently positive reviews and ratings, which has made it a trusted name among ServiceNow competitors.

Why Choose an Alternative to ServiceNow?

Switching away from ServiceNow can mean lower costs, more customization, and tools built with specific industries in mind — all without giving up effective service management or the reporting teams rely on day to day.

Cost-effective

Looking for something cheaper than ServiceNow? There’s no shortage of options that deliver solid service management without the steep price tag.

Well-rated, budget-friendly picks include Zluri, Freshservice, HaloITSM, Ivanti, BMC Helix, SolarWinds Service Desk, Jira Service Management, and SysAid. Between them, these platforms cover incident management automation, IT service management, customer service management, and IT asset management.

They fit small businesses and large enterprises alike, and each one helps streamline service management operations while keeping spend under control.

Customizable

Every alternative covered here can be shaped to fit a specific business, which matters because no two organizations run service management the same way.

A customizable platform gives teams room to adjust the software around their own processes and workflows — custom fields, personalized dashboards, specific automation rules, whatever the business objectives call for.

That flexibility is what makes it possible to optimize service management operations and deliver better service without sacrificing functionality.

ClickUp, Zendesk, and Jira in particular offer customization options that let teams tailor features to their own preferences.

With options like these, building a service management system that actually suits the organization doesn’t require trading off functionality or user experience.

Specific features for different industries

Different ServiceNow alternatives lean into different industries. In IT specifically, Jira Service Management and Freshservice come up as top picks.

Both offer incident management automation and knowledge management built with small businesses in mind. Zendesk Suite, Zoho Desk, and Salesforce Service Cloud, on the other hand, work well for customer service management across a wider range of industries.

Each brings email automation and interfaces designed to make ticket management straightforward for support teams. In short, the right alternative depends heavily on what the industry actually demands.

Comparison of the Best ServiceNow Alternatives

A closer look at what separates these ServiceNow alternatives should make the decision easier heading into 2023.

Price

Cost is a major factor in choosing a ServiceNow alternative, and there are enough affordable options here to fit most budgets.

Zluri, Freshservice, HaloITSM, Ivanti, BMC Helix, SolarWinds Service Desk, Jira Service Management, and SysAid all offer competitive, flexible pricing built to work for small businesses and larger enterprises alike.

Whether the priority is cutting costs or simply having more pricing flexibility than ServiceNow offers, these platforms deliver.

Industries served

The ten alternatives covered here serve a wide range of industries, each customizable enough to meet the needs of a specific sector.

Zendesk works well for customer service in retail, e-commerce, and hospitality. SAP delivers industry-specific solutions for manufacturing, healthcare, and financial services.

Freshdesk fits small businesses across various sectors with its user-friendly design. IT, healthcare, finance, or otherwise — there’s a ServiceNow alternative here built to streamline service management and lift efficiency in that specific space.

Conclusion

Anyone weighing alternatives to ServiceNow for service management in 2023 has plenty of solid, well-tested options to choose from. ClickUp, Zendesk, SAP, and ProProfs Help Desk are just a few of the strongest contenders on this list.

Each brings affordability, ease of use, and dependable customer support to the table, with industry-specific features that make service management genuinely cost-effective and customizable for teams of very different sizes and budgets.

Worth exploring these options directly, hands-on, to find the one that actually fits the business rather than relying on a spec sheet alone.

Frequently Asked Questions