Freshservice vs ServiceNow vs Jitbit

Freshservice

Freshservice is the tool IT teams most often move to when they leave ServiceNow. It covers the same ITIL ground - incidents, requests, problems, changes, releases, a CMDB with discovery - in an interface that new technicians can learn in a day. The Workflow Automator is a visual builder that admins can use without a developer, and many teams go live in weeks with help from a Freshworks partner, at a fraction of what a ServiceNow project costs.

Freshservice Pro, where problem, change and release management begin, is $99 per agent per month - about $17,800 over 3 years for 5 agents. Asset packs beyond the included 100 units and the Freddy AI Copilot ($29 per agent) are extra. Software asset management is weaker than the rest of the product.

ServiceNow

ServiceNow is an enterprise workflow platform where IT service management is one module among many. HR service delivery, security operations, facilities and custom low-code apps all run on the same platform and the same CMDB. For large organizations that need ITIL processes across thousands of employees and want one system for everything, nothing else is as complete.

That breadth costs money and staff. A 5-agent setup comes to roughly $18,000 over 3 years at entry level, every new process is another licence, and most customers need a dedicated admin or partner to run it well. At small team sizes the two cost about the same, but Freshservice is far easier to run. ServiceNow earns its price when the service desk is part of a much larger IT and operations program.

Detailed feature comparison

	Freshservice	ServiceNow	Jitbit
	Modern ITSM service desk from Freshworks	Enterprise-class ITSM solution	Help Desk Software built for email. Trusted by thousands of companies across 50+ countries.
Pricing: 3 years / 5 agents	$17820	$18000	$3897
Pricing: 3 years / 10 agents	$35640	$36000	$8367
Active Directory	✅ SAML SSO with Entra ID / ADFS, plus user sync from AD and Entra ID	✅ LDAP, SAML authentication	✅ Integration via a script for your server or ADFS and SAML
Activity Dashboard	✅ Customizable dashboards with real-time widgets	✅ Live activity dashboard	✅ Live overview dashboard
Asset Management	✅ CMDB with agent-based and cloud discovery; 100 asset units included, more sold in packs	✅ Full fledged asset management with automated discovery	✅ A complete asset management module tightly integrated into the rest of the app
Canned Responses	✅ Canned responses and scenario automations that update several fields at once	✅ Response templates	✅ You can also assign canned responses to specific ticket categories if you need to
Community Forums	❌	✅ Yes	✅ Ideas Forum comes out of the box
Custom Fields	✅ Custom and dependent fields for tickets, assets and the service catalog	✅ Custom fields via additional database columns	✅ Many custom field types, including dependant fields. Various privacy options.
Custom Statuses	✅ Custom ticket statuses with SLA timer control	✅ Custom statuses for tickets and incidents	✅ Add custom statuses, customize how your customers see them and assign different colors to them
Customer satisfaction survey	✅ Built-in CSAT surveys with reports	✅ Separate satisfaction surveys, not tied to tickets	✅ Optional CSATs in email notifications and a report
Design Customization	✅ Self-service portal branding and theming; the agent interface is fixed	✅ Custom forms layouts only	✅ Unlimited customization options. Change colors with a live preview, add custom CSS and JS
Email Notification Templates	✅ Editable templates for every notification	✅ WYSIWYG/HTML templates	✅ You are able to completely change a template for any notification type
Escalation	✅ SLA-based escalations and multi-level reminders	✅ Manual or via triggers	✅ Possible to set up various escalation scenarios via automation
Exchange Integration	✅ Microsoft 365 mailboxes connected via OAuth	✅ Native integration via a plugin	✅ Native EWS support instead of IMAP. oAuth support for Office 365
Import and Export	✅ CSV import for assets and users, ticket export to CSV or Excel	✅ Import/export from Excel, export to PDF	✅ Import and Export tickets via CSV files
Internationalization	✅ Multilingual UI, portal and knowledge base	✅ Extra languages via a plugin	✅ Available in 16 different languages
ITIL Compliance	✅ PinkVERIFY-certified ITIL processes; problem, change and release management start at Pro	✅ Full ITIL/ITSM	✅ Support for most ITIL processes
Knowledge Base	✅ Solution articles in the self-service portal, with approval workflows	✅ Knowledge base and the self-service portal	✅ Customizable Knowledge Base optimized for search engines
Live Chat	❌	✅ Yes	✅ A free live chat component in the web widget
Mobile Apps	✅ iOS and Android apps for agents and requesters	✅ Only via 'Now' mobile app	✅ iOS and Android
Multi-channel support	✅ Email, portal, phone, Slack and Microsoft Teams	❌	✅ Possible to add unlimited channels via integrations and API
On-premise Version	❌	✅ Yes, but only the highest pricing tier	✅ A full on-premises version that runs on Windows Server
Reports and Analytics	✅ Curated reports and a custom report builder; advanced analytics on higher plans	✅ Yes	✅ 13 reports with an ability to build your own and to export everything to Excel
REST API	✅ REST API v2 covering tickets, assets, changes and more	✅ Included	✅ API covers all the app features
Single-Sign-On	✅ SAML 2.0 via the Freshworks organization account, plus Google and Microsoft login	✅ SAML, LDAP	✅ SAML, Google login, Windows-integrated etc.
SLA Management	✅ Multiple SLA policies with business hours per group	✅ SLA policies available	✅ Full SLA automation via actions/triggers
Support Widget	✅ Embeddable help widget for raising tickets and searching solutions	❌	✅ Two different versions of a web widget
Third-party Integrations	✅ Freshworks Marketplace with hundreds of apps	❌	✅ 30 native integrations and 500 more via Zapier
Ticket Collaboration	✅ Agent collision detection, private notes, child tickets and @mentions	✅ Transfer and CC, but no live updates and collision detection	✅ See when other techs are viewing tickets in real-time, assign multiple people to a ticket
Workflow Automation	✅ Visual Workflow Automator with approvals, conditions and web requests	✅ Automation Designer in the 'Now' platform	✅ Automation Rules are very powerful and can go beyond simple if-this-then-that logic

Looking for help desk software? Check out Jitbit. We offer a fully-featured app at a very affordable price. It comes with all the must have features like knowledge base, two-way email integration (including native Exchange and Office 365 support), automation, hundreds of integrations with third-party apps and much more. Available both as a hosted "SaaS" version and an on-premises version you can install on your own server.