FreeITSM vs Freshservice
FreeITSM
freeitsm.co.uk
Freshservice
freshworks.comSide by side
| Figure | FreeITSM | Freshservice |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $19/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 2 | 7 |
| Spec score · IT Change Management Software | 9.0 (#6) | 9.1 (#3) |
| Spec score · IT Knowledge Base Software | 8.9 (#9) | 9.0 (#6) |
| Spec score · AI IT Service Desk Software | 8.9 (#4) | 9.0 (#2) |
| Spec score · IT Problem Management Software | 9.0 (#7) | 9.1 (#3) |
| Spec score · IT SLA Management Software | 8.9 (#11) | 9.0 (#8) |
| API | An external API endpoint allows automated agents to submit software inventory data. | Freshservice exposes REST API operations for reading, adding, modifying and deleting service-desk data; pricing lists plan limits of 100, 200, 400 or 500 calls per minute. |
| Asset management | Assets tracks custody, locations, warranties and QR labels and can synchronize VMware vCenter, Proxmox, VMware Cloud Director and Intune data. | Asset lifecycle, hardware, software and SaaS management track inventory, usage, compliance and retirement. |
| Change management | Change Management includes CAB voting, risk assessment, calendars, activity timelines and post-implementation review. | Change management assesses service impact and risks using contextual data before rollout. |
| Integrations | Official pages document Microsoft 365, Google Workspace/Gmail, VMware vCenter, Microsoft Intune, WhatsApp through Twilio or Meta, and optional chat channels. | Freshworks says its marketplace has thousands of apps and its broader ecosystem exceeds 1,200 enterprise apps. |
| Licence | The project is released under the MIT License. | Freshservice is proprietary commercial software; its Android app separately discloses third-party open-source components and their licences. |
| Problem management | Problem Management records root causes and known errors and can use AI to draft root-cause analyses and detect recurring incident patterns. | Problem management links incidents and uses timeline-based root-cause analysis with AI insights. |
| Security | The System module lists OpenID Connect SSO, AES-256-GCM encryption key management, TOTP multi-factor authentication, account lockout, IP-based brute-force protection, and trusted device management. | Freshworks states that data is encrypted at rest with AES 256-bit encryption and in transit with HTTPS and TLS 1.2. |
| Security controls | System security features include OIDC SSO, TOTP MFA, password expiry, account lockout, IP brute-force bans, trusted devices and encrypted settings. | The trust center documents audit logging, multi-factor authentication, role-based access control, encryption at rest and encryption in transit. |
| System requirements | Manual installation requires PHP 7.4–8.4, MySQL 8.0 or newer, PDO MySQL, cURL, OpenSSL and mbstring; MariaDB 10.5+ is also listed on the getting-started page. | The web app supports the latest two versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge; mobile support is iOS 10+ and Android 7.1.1+. |
| What it does | FreeITSM is a self-hosted web IT service-management platform for running a service desk and related IT operations. | Freshservice is Freshworks' cloud-based AI service-operations and IT service-management platform covering IT service, operations, asset management and enterprise service delivery. |
| Workflow automation | Workflows use a visual canvas with more than 138 triggers, outbound webhooks and an AI co-author. | No-code workflows, orchestration and machine learning automate approvals, requests and incident resolution. |
Plans
Freshservice
- Starter$19 a month
- Growth$49 a month
- Pro$99 a month
- Starter$19 a month
- Growth$49 a month
- Pro$99 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
FreeITSM
FreeITSM is an open-source IT service management platform with 23 integrated modules for running a service desk. Its Tickets module connects Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace mailboxes for email ticketing, assignment, prioritisation, replies, attachments and audit trails. Assets tracks physical and virtual equipment and can discover VMware virtual machines through vCenter. Listed service-management tools include risk assessment, approval workflows, change calendars and change audit trails. Optional AI features provide knowledge answers, ticket-reply cleanup, form assistance, workflow authoring and problem detection. They use a customer-provided Anthropic, OpenAI or OpenRouter key, and provider usage may cost extra. FreeITSM runs with Docker on Linux or Windows, or through IIS with PHP or WAMP and MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.5+. Security options include OpenID Connect SSO, AES-256-GCM key management, TOTP multi-factor authentication, account lockout, brute-force protection and trusted devices. The project has no formal support.
Freshservice
Freshservice is an IT management service for employee service and IT operations. Its service desk covers incident, change and problem management, service catalogs, knowledge management and SLA policies. IT asset management includes asset lifecycle management, discovery across on-premises, cloud and hybrid environments, and a continuously updated CMDB. Operations features include alert and on-call management, major incident management, service health monitoring and a status page. Freddy AI includes an agent studio, a copilot for drafting responses and summarizing tickets, and insights for identifying trends. Freshworks Marketplace lists more than 1,000 integrations, including Microsoft Teams, Slack, TeamViewer, Jira and Azure AD. Freshservice offers web access, iOS and Android apps, and RESTful API access; API rate limits vary by plan from 100 to 500 calls per minute. Freshworks states that data is encrypted at rest with AES 256-bit encryption and in transit with HTTPS and TLS 1.2. GDPR and SOC 2 are listed across the four plans. Annual billing starts at $19 a month, and a 14-day trial is offered without a credit card.