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BMC Helix Enterprise Service Management vs ServiceNow comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 21, 2025

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 Helix Enterprise Servic...
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
25th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
4.8
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
ServiceNow
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
223
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (1st), IT Asset Management (1st), Rapid Application Development Software (2nd), No-Code Development Platforms (1st)
 

Featured Reviews

KV
Utilize comprehensive IT service modules while addressing configuration database issues
There are several areas where BMC Helix Enterprise Service Management could be improved. Currently, ServiceNow has an edge when it comes to the ease of discovering Configuration Items (CIs). In BMC Helix, there are issues with the Configuration Management Database (CMDB), such as duplicate entries and problems with reconciliation. The recently introduced dashboard tool in Helix, which replaced Smart Reporting, has several issues. Reporting has been a consistent problem in BMC, and it would greatly benefit from enhancements.
Nikhil Gohil - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables effective incident management and seamless workflow automation with valuable mobile accessibility
I haven't thought deeply about improvements for ServiceNow or what might be missing right now. There are so many modules and features in ServiceNow that I haven't explored them all, so it's hard to say what might be missing or should be improved. I suggest making the cost more affordable for smaller companies.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The support of BMC is generally good and better compared to some competitors."
"Will give us better control over asset management and technical debt once we can centralize all contract information."
"I don't have to look through a whole bunch of other incidents that aren't relevant to me. It's very useful in that sense."
"I like that in ServiceNow creating workflows is simpler than that in HP Service Manager. Also, I really like the customization feature. It allows us to customize the service portal and permits us to do a lot of customization per business needs."
"There are lots of modules around IT service management such as IT business management and human resource management (HRC)."
"Discovery has reduced, on average, the time to build/deploy devices within our environment by one hour. This may not seem like much but it adds up over time. It also reaps additional time savings with its ability to capture changes through subsequent discoveries over the life of the device."
"The return on investment is good when implementing for ourselves and for other clients."
"ServiceNow is great. You can download the data into Excel and you can basically create reports. It's very flexible."
"A workflow automation platform that's reliable, performs well, and has good reporting and integration."
 

Cons

"There are several areas where BMC Helix Enterprise Service Management could be improved. Currently, ServiceNow has an edge when it comes to the ease of discovering Configuration Items (CIs)."
"Change Management is the area I have found that this tool can be improved because there are so many fields which are missing, such as urgency of the customer request and how the priority is defined. These are some of the areas in which I found that BMC Remedy is much better than ServiceNow."
"It is annoying that ServiceNow keeps on changing back to Quebec every six months."
"The discovery of assets could be improved; right now they only allow for one domain."
"Time to respond from support could definitely be better, as the global support timing sometimes causes delays in interactions."
"I would like the reporting aspect to be better, including the graphs. It could have some way for us to easily to export to a csv or spreadsheet so that if a graph cannot be provided by ServiceNow itself, we would be able to use other applications to create them. Also, if there was a feature that enabled us to interact with end users directly from ServiceNow, like an instant-messaging type of feature, that would be great."
"One thing I don't care for is the reporting and the way it functions."
"Creating service catalog forms could be made easier."
"We are struggling with the scheduling part, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it is a ServiceNow issue. It could be the way we have configured it. We don't have it configured in a way where you can schedule a support call with our end users. We are looking for more automation in the box and the chat feature."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"This is a pretty expensive product, so the licensing could be better."
"The license model is based on a number of fulfillers (active users who play some role within the ServiceNow functionality). Therefore, you can serve as many end-users as you want, without additional costs."
"It is fairly expensive."
"I know that it's not too bad because people continue to use it and they are happy to renew up their contract."
"ServiceNow pricing is an art, not a science. The deal depends on how commercially savvy you are, which does make it something that is quite difficult to get right. It is most definitely an opportunity area for ServiceNow to improve and have more visibility around pricing of the different products within the platform."
"The first impact for the customer is that it is expensive, but do not forget that it is a solution that includes infrastructure; a single cost, easy to justify."
"It's sold as a less expensive solution, but it has to be highly modified. That's where you get into the cost."
"The mandatory minimum is US$ 20,000 for licensing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business54
Midsize Enterprise36
Large Enterprise163
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BMC Helix Enterprise Service Management?
While I am not very sure about the pricing, I have heard that the license cost of BMC is relatively lower than its competitors.
What needs improvement with BMC Helix Enterprise Service Management?
There are several areas where BMC Helix Enterprise Service Management could be improved. Currently, ServiceNow has an edge when it comes to the ease of discovering Configuration Items (CIs). In BMC...
What is your primary use case for BMC Helix Enterprise Service Management?
I use BMC Helix Enterprise Service Management ( /products/bmc-helix-enterprise-service-management-reviews ) primarily for IT service management. It supports modules like incident management, change...
Which solution is better for developing non-ITSM applications: OutSystems or Service Now?
The short answer is that OutSystems is far better for 2 main reasons. Firstly, with Service Now you are locked into that platform for good. The business model is to lock in and then keep pumping th...
Would you choose ServiceNow over Microsoft PowerApps?
Hi Netanya, I will choose ServiceNow because ServiceNow is a very good tool compared to Microsoft PowerApp. Because ServiceNow has a very strong module (Performance Analysis) reporting which will ...
What do you like most about ServiceNow?
The solution has a user-friendly interface.
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
AAA, AstraZeneca, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Broadcom, Christus Health, Epicor, Equinix, GE Capital, Intuit, KPMG, Loyola Marymount University, OshKosh, Quantas, RedHat, Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss Re, U.S. Department of Energy, Safeway, Yale University, and Zillow    
Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, Atlassian, BMC Helix and others in IT Service Management (ITSM). Updated: September 2025.
868,706 professionals have used our research since 2012.