BMC FootPrints Service Core vs Zendesk comparison

BMC FootPrints Service Core

Read 68 Zendesk reviews

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91% 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: January 2026).

BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Zendesk

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Helped 881,757 peers since 2012

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

28th

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

28th

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

5th

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

6th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM Customer Engagement Centers (4th), CRM (8th), Sales Force Automation (4th), Reporting (10th), Knowledge Management Software (3rd), Community Platforms (1st), AI Customer Support (21st), AI IT Support (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of BMC FootPrints Service Core is 1.5%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 5.2%, 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	5.2%
BMC FootPrints Service Core	1.5%
Other	93.3%

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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AmandaSanchez

Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises

Macros and automation have streamlined workflows and reduced manual effort across support teams

The ability to communicate on the Zendesk ticket through the actual user software, so TOPs, would have been helpful. Somehow seeing a user's ticket history within our app would have been beneficial. That is the only thing that I do not think existed at the time that might have been helpful. Some people struggled with Zendesk, but it was always easy enough to show them how to use it and what they were missing. The only times we really had people report concerns about it was when they did not understand that it could do that or how to use it in that way.

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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

"It is stable and its technical support is good and quick."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"The discovery feature is very flexible."

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

"Implemented system-wide process for approving and tracking "employee move" requests for over 15,000 employees."

More BMC FootPrints Service Core pros

"We loved the notifications and the way to build custom views for a specific user's open tickets and to see how long they have been open, how long it was since the last request."

"My advice to others looking into using Zendesk is that if you are looking for a tool that is cheaper than others but provides a good solution, I would let them know that Zendesk is the best option."

"The initial setup is simple and straightforward."

"My advice to others looking into using Zendesk is that if you need an alternative to GitHub Actions or GitHub issues, this is worth looking at."

"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 use, and I haven't encountered any issues with delays or communication gaps in ticket resolutions."

"One of the most valuable features is that Zendesk gives you a lot of configurability, and a lot of leeway in terms of customizing the look and theme. Zendesk offers you the facility to design your own landing page, as well as the look and feel of the entire knowledge base. At the same time, they offer themes that you can simply purchase and implement. Either way, it can really be turned into the right look and feel of the knowledge base required by our company, which is very important—if you have a bland-looking page, most of the time, people will lose interest. Zendesk also allows you to test the customizations before you publish it. It gives you a sandbox location where you can test everything new that you're trying to create and publish, which is very interesting."

"The most valuable feature is the trackability of incoming requests. The system keeps a comprehensive history of work requests, making it a useful tool for our internal processes."

"It's a very stable tool, very powerful."

More Zendesk pros

Cons

"It would be better if it were more user-friendly. The reporting part in the version we have is a little complicated. It takes too long to build and report. It would also be better if there were another way to manage notifications."

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

More BMC FootPrints Service Core cons

"The support team is time-consuming, and they don't find the answer to our problem."

"They have something called Zendesk Explore, which isn't as good as what they had in place previously."

"The solution itself wasn't easy to set up."

"From what I recall, the experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Zendesk was quite expensive and that is what prohibited us from expanding usage of it into more users and using more of its capabilities."

"My experience with Zendesk's customer support has not been positive. When I open a ticket for a bug, it often does not expedite the resolution process."

"Zendesk could actually support HTML on the tickets so we could format our text better than the current options such as size, bold, italic, or underscored, because the text processing is too simple."

"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."

"The data you get when logged in to Zendesk Support differs from the data you get when you programmatically query Zendesk Support through its API because of a sync time delay."

More Zendesk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This solution has good pricing."

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

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

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

"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."

"The price is very competitive."

"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."

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

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

Computer Software Company

Outsourcing Company

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	36
Midsize Enterprise	21
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?

From what I recall, the experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Zendesk was quite expensive and that is what prohibited us from expanding usage of it into more users and using more o...

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What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?

I wish there was a more easily dynamic tool. Currently, it is quite difficult because not all the tools are labeled. A feature that would be beneficial is if hovering over an icon would tell you wh...

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Product Reports

IT Service Management (ITSM)

Download BMC FootPrints Service Core product report

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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 Helix

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