Freshservice vs SolarWinds Service Desk
Freshservice
freshworks.comSolarWinds Service Desk
solarwinds.comSide by side
| Figure | Freshservice | SolarWinds Service Desk |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $19/mo | $39/mo |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 7 | 3 |
| Spec score · IT Change Management Software | 9.1 (#3) | 8.0 (#19) |
| Spec score · IT Vendor Management Software | 9.0 (#3) | 8.1 (#10) |
| Spec score · IT Problem Management Software | 9.1 (#3) | 8.0 (#21) |
| Spec score · Self Service Software | 9.1 (#2) | 8.0 (#16) |
| Spec score · IT Help Desk Software | 9.1 (#4) | 8.0 (#32) |
| Spec score · AI IT Service Desk Software | 9.0 (#2) | 8.0 (#14) |
| Spec score · IT Service Catalog Software | 9.1 (#2) | 8.0 (#14) |
| Spec score · Configuration Management Database | 9.0 (#3) | 8.0 (#19) |
| Spec score · IT Knowledge Base Software | 9.0 (#6) | 8.0 (#37) |
| Spec score · IT Ticketing Systems | 9.2 (#3) | 8.0 (#18) |
| Spec score · CMDB Software | 8.9 (#6) | 7.9 (#22) |
| Spec score · IT SLA Management Software | 9.0 (#8) | 8.0 (#27) |
| Spec score · IT Service Management - Midmarket Software | 9.1 (#5) | 8.1 (#14) |
| Spec score · ITSM Software | 9.1 (#6) | 8.0 (#14) |
| API | 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. | The product page lists an Open REST API, and API access is included in the Advanced plan. |
| Asset management | Asset lifecycle, hardware, software and SaaS management track inventory, usage, compliance and retirement. | Asset management can scan a network, report on connected devices, track on-premises and cloud assets, and help manage licenses. |
| Change management | Change management assesses service impact and risks using contextual data before rollout. | Change management includes centralized documentation and approvals, change history, and visibility into dependencies. |
| Incident management | The product can auto-route incidents, provide AI assistance and generate incident reports. | Incident management includes assisted responses, live collaboration, and engagement through web, email, Teams, Slack, or the mobile app. |
| Integrations | Freshworks says its marketplace has thousands of apps and its broader ecosystem exceeds 1,200 enterprise apps. | The integration directory lists more than 200 cloud applications and names Microsoft Teams, Slack, Jira, Okta, AWS, and Zapier among its integrations. |
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
SolarWinds Service Desk
- Essentials$39 a month
- Advanced$99 a month
- Premier$124 a month
In their own words
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.
SolarWinds Service Desk
SolarWinds Service Desk is a cloud-based, AI-powered IT service management platform for incidents, assets, configuration data, and change processes. Incident handling includes assisted responses and live collaboration, with engagement through web, email, Teams, Slack, or the mobile app. Asset tools can scan a network, report connected devices, track on-premises and cloud assets, and help manage licenses. The CMDB supports dependency mapping, asset-to-incident correlation, and change impact analysis; change management includes documentation, approvals, history, and dependency visibility. Listed AI capabilities include a generative AI sidekick, virtual agent, smart suggestions, sentiment analysis, and automatic categorization. Its integration directory lists more than 200 cloud applications, including Microsoft Teams, Slack, Jira, Okta, AWS, and Zapier. Plans are billed annually per technician: Essentials costs $39 a month, Advanced 99.00 USD, and Premier 124.00 USD; all list unlimited users. There is no free plan, but a 30-day trial is offered. IT asset management is an additional purchase with pricing available upon request.