BMC FootPrints Service Core vs Zendesk comparison

BMC FootPrints Service Core

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93% willing to recommend

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

BMC FootPrints Service Core and Zendesk are service management solutions. BMC FootPrints is preferred for flexibility and customizability, while Zendesk has an advantage in features and overall satisfaction, justifying its pricing.

Features: BMC FootPrints Service Core offers extensive customization for workflows, automation, and a relational database for linking items. It provides detailed audit trails and history creation, benefiting organizations needing personalized setups. Zendesk provides advanced reporting tools, integration with third-party applications, and seamless chat and social media support. Its ticket management and multi-channel integrations deliver a comprehensive service experience.

Room for Improvement: BMC FootPrints could enhance its deployment process to reduce complexity and time consumption. Its user interface might require simplification for easier navigation. Additionally, technical support response times could be improved. Zendesk costs can be prohibitive for smaller organizations. Customization options might be limited without additional expenses, and some users find its reporting features complex to utilize fully.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: BMC FootPrints Service Core involves a complex deployment needing considerable time for setup but allows thorough customization afterward. Zendesk ensures a streamlined deployment process with faster installation and ongoing support. Its setup is simplified, making the system easier to get up and running quickly.

Pricing and ROI: BMC FootPrints Service Core demands a significant initial investment, promising strong ROI through tailored solutions for complex needs. Zendesk has a higher ongoing cost but provides robust ROI by enhancing productivity and delivering efficient customer support. Both platforms have pricing models reflecting their strengths in adaptability and comprehensive features.

To learn more, read our detailed BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Zendesk Report (Updated: September 2025).

BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Zendesk

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

BMC FootPrints Service Core

Ranking in Help Desk Software

30th

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

31st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zendesk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

8th

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

7th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM Customer Engagement Centers (6th), CRM (18th), Sales Force Automation (8th), Reporting (14th), Knowledge Management Software (4th), Community Platforms (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of BMC FootPrints Service Core is 1.2%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 4.6%, up from 4.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Help Desk Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Zendesk	4.6%
BMC FootPrints Service Core	1.2%
Other	94.2%

Help Desk Software

Featured Reviews

reviewer1765752

System Engineer at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees

A flexible, comprehensive, integrated IT service and asset management platform with good technical support

We use BMC FootPrints Service Core to manage network issues, infrastructure issues, software issues, and ERP. We also use it to manage our facility. So, we do some work orders and also use it as an extra ticketing system Technical support is good. It would be better if it were more…

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JohanSkibdahl

CEO at Etcetera Networks

Automating customer support with advanced AI capabilities and seamless communication

Zendesk has been invaluable in automating communications such as email and phone calls. It allows us to handle more support cases with fewer people due to its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities. This intelligent tool can manage complex queries before users even realize they are interacting with a non-human. Additionally, we have integrated Zendesk with Datto and Klaviyo, enhancing our workflows.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Having a one stop shop for linked assets and tickets has improved end user adoption and led to a reduction in phone/email tickets."

"I think the most important feature is the ability to receive valuable ticket status support in a timely manner with little to no downtime interruptions."

"We can track issues easier and run reports on issues to see if there are patterns."

"It has helped the help desk team. We get our tickets in and are able to support our customers, the end-users, with this solution."

"I like the fact that FootPrints is a relational database, so every item in the database can be linked to another. This helps create history and audit trails for each CI."

"The discovery feature is very flexible."

"Ability to auto-generate email messages, process email messages, and approvals."

"Technical support is good."

More BMC FootPrints Service Core pros

"What is cool about Zendesk Guide is how it works together with others Zendesk products. Especially with support and with the analytics. Put those together for a small or medium-sized company and it's a really powerful tool."

"The product offers very good management. It has a great ability to assign tickets based on content."

"The benefits I have seen from using Zendesk include faster response times; as a CSM, faster response is the goal, which solves the customer's challenge in a timely manner, and Zendesk offers that capability, which is beneficial."

"It is very easy to connect back and forth between the requester and the person fulfilling the ticket."

"The initial setup is simple and straightforward."

"Zendesk has been invaluable in automating communications such as email and phone calls."

"We rarely had issues with Zendesk."

"It's very convenient to use."

More Zendesk pros

Cons

"It is pretty clunky and not very intuitive. Even though I have used it for many years, I don't think it is a very good ITSM platform in general. In the telecom space, a lot of telco providers use this solution, but from my perspective, it is not very user friendly. It is a bit more laborious. There are still too many human touchpoints. There can be a little bit more automation. It would also be good to integrate it with other tools. Integration is quite difficult, especially in the telco space."

"It would be nice if they added the ability to go directly to a form via a deep link URL."

"The pricing could be a little lower and the product should cover more iTel versions."

"Reporting could be improved along with the option to create more fine tuned reports and to create specific fields for each type of ticket."

"The workflow should be made to be more user-friendly. It should also have more granular scalability."

"The mobile version of this product does not support asset management."

"We need more customizable reporting functionality. We could also use more collaboration of service desk tickets. This will allow for two departments to share the same information, track the progress of the total task scope no matter how complex the request is."

"Hyphens are not allowed in the quick search bar. This has created a problem in our environment where we use hyphens in our asset names."

More BMC FootPrints Service Core cons

"Zendesk's stability on inbound calls could be improved as compared to Talkdesk."

"Report generation is still slightly tricky and not very customizable as per my inquiries."

"The dashboard could be better."

"Zendesk Guide's customization could be improved. I would like it to be easier and maybe open-sourced, so that if you have a developer in your company, you can do it yourself. Right now, that isn't allowed, so you need to have it done via the integrator. Another improvement—this is nit-picking—is that it could be less easy to make changes. Some things are so easy that they sometimes look a little amateur-ish. Most of the templates are built-in so they can be used directly, so they are very simple."

"I'm going to piggyback on what I said regarding Freshdesk concerning what could be better in Zendesk: incorporate more AI."

"There could be improvements in integration, which can be achieved with APIs or tools like Zapier."

"Sometimes if there was a way to just flag the actual issue out of those email chains - that would be really helpful."

"You couldn't give administrative access to new hires."

More Zendesk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our costs are well over $250,000."

"Cost was on par with other service desk products, and well below Remedy, while still being a BMC product."

"This solution has good pricing."

"The licensing for FootPrints is a perpetual license with an annual support fee."

"We pay for the solution on a yearly basis and my understanding is that the cost is about $30,000. That's the cost for 24 to 25 agents."

"Zendesk's licensing is not cheap. For Enterprise, we are paying $200 per agent. It's a per-month cost, so it's pretty steep. There are some services you need to pay extra for. For example, with Zendesk Guide, we had to buy the most expensive offering in order to get Multibrand and everything. We also had to pay a lot of money for themes."

"You have to pay extra for better support. So it's not only the license that you pay for, but you have to pay extra for the support as well."

"From what I hear, Zendesk's pricing is a little expensive."

"There are different plans that are offered. We are using the entry-level plan. The overall price of the solution should be reduced. The price is too high."

"The price is very competitive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Computer Software Company

21%

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	29
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about Zendesk Support?

I found the user experience with vendors on Zendesk to be straightforward, especially when it comes to understanding and searching for specific tickets. The search and navigation tools are easy to ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zendesk Support?

Zendesk's pricing is reasonable. It is not the cheapest solution nor the most expensive, but it provides value for money.

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What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?

I'm going to piggyback on what I said regarding Freshdesk concerning what could be better in Zendesk: incorporate more AI. I know many CRM tools are already on the way to do that.

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Product Reports

IT Service Management (ITSM)

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Also Known As

FootPrints Service Core

Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell

Overview

FootPrints Service Core integrates IT service and asset management for end-to-end business services, and it's easy to install, use, and support. With configurable capabilities that streamline service delivery, FootPrints improves customer satisfaction and IT's reputation with your business users.

BMC

Zendesk Support is intuitive, and it's built with support agents in mind. Everything they need lives in a single, dynamic help desk interface so it's easy to be productive and manage customer interactions.

Sample Customers

Cast & Crew

Mailchimp, Tesco, Vimeo, Instacart, Mediaocean, Slack, Uber

BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Zendesk