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Clarity SM vs OpenText Service Management (SMAX) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
8.5
Clarity SM yields satisfactory ROI; larger organizations benefit more, but simpler tasks might incur unnecessary costs, with limited data available.
Sentiment score
3.7
OpenText SMAX aids IT operations with automation; ROI measurement varies, with users valuing customizability and operational impact.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Clarity SM's customer and technical support receives mixed reviews, praised for knowledge but criticized for inconsistent and slow resolutions.
Sentiment score
4.7
OpenText SMAX receives mixed feedback with varying support experiences, generally rated between seven and eight for effectiveness.
Support for OpenText Service Management (SMAX) is better.
Technical Lead at Bharti AXA Life Insurance
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Clarity SM efficiently scales for thousands, adapting to various environments and processes, proving reliable for large enterprises.
Sentiment score
6.9
OpenText SMAX is highly adaptable for medium to large businesses but may be costly for small enterprises.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Clarity SM offers stable performance with improved reliability, though larger deployments face challenges; system configuration is crucial.
Sentiment score
6.9
OpenText SMAX is stable but some users face Kubernetes-related downtime and ongoing stability concerns despite resolved issues.
OpenText Service Management (SMAX) has some stability challenges that are crashable and not stable at times.
Technical Lead at Bharti AXA Life Insurance
 

Room For Improvement

Clarity SM requires updates in scalability, UI modernization, integration, reporting, mobile experience, customization, stability, and comprehensive documentation.
OpenText SMAX faces challenges in integration, customization, and user satisfaction, requiring improvements in AI, reporting, and connectivity.
The module shouldn't just report on the components of OpenText Service Management (SMAX) but also track how the tool is used by end users.
Head Of Delivery at Timestamp ITM
The custom reports that were already prepared work fine.
Information Security & IT Governance Manager at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Different scenarios require different workflow configurations.
Technical Lead at Bharti AXA Life Insurance
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers find Clarity SM pricing competitive but express concerns about cost management and prefer its flexible licensing models.
OpenText SMAX provides diverse licensing options, with costs influenced by configuration, operators, and features, offering flexible pricing.
OpenText Service Management (SMAX) is okay, not expensive and not the cheapest.
Technical Lead at Bharti AXA Life Insurance
 

Valuable Features

Clarity SM offers robust ticket management, seamless integration, customization, automation, and ITSM support, enhancing security, scalability, and user satisfaction.
OpenText SMAX provides adaptable, user-friendly service management with AI, low-code configuration, and multilingual support for various business operations.
Our feedback is that because OpenText Service Management (SMAX) portal is very easy to use, we see customers abandoning their legacy ways of reporting like phone calls and emails, concentrating everything on a portal, which provides end users with more visibility of what's happening because they can control the status of their requests, allowing IT a faster way to intervene and solve issues.
Head Of Delivery at Timestamp ITM
Reporting tools and sophisticated customization options are available with different capabilities.
Information Security & IT Governance Manager at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Configuration is available for different scenarios including change request, incident management, and problem management.
Technical Lead at Bharti AXA Life Insurance
 

Categories and Ranking

Clarity SM
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
21st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (22nd)
OpenText Service Management...
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
10th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category, the mindshare of Clarity SM is 1.7%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Service Management (SMAX) is 2.1%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IT Service Management (ITSM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
OpenText Service Management (SMAX)2.1%
Clarity SM1.7%
Other96.2%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

Featured Reviews

Sandip Kheni - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Developer at STL - Sterlite Technologies Limited
Allows for customization of the service desk manager
They should enhance the service desk manager's service point function to be more customizable. Presently, there are so many limitations in this particular UI. Thus, similar to the existing UI, they should provide a customization source for this new UI. It could turn out to be very good for the end-user experience.
HugoAlmeida - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of Delivery at Timestamp ITM
Centralized service processes have improved cross‑department visibility but reporting still needs work
The machine learning capabilities in OpenText Service Management (SMAX) are somewhat not published the way they should be. They work pretty well, but they are not used as much in the current experience of our customers. They have them; the solution has them, but they usually go a little bit below the radar in terms of visibility. I believe there is room for improvement when it comes to machine learning capabilities. OpenText Service Management (SMAX) has room to improve mainly on reporting components. The reporting components include dashboards, and while OpenText Service Management (SMAX) has a reporting module, it's somewhat limited, so I believe it has room to improve there, with more inclusion of artificial intelligence in the models and more in project management and portfolio management capabilities. We want to see better use and more functionalities enabled with the already existing capabilities such as AI and reporting in the next OpenText Service Management (SMAX) release, but one important thing we think should be included is a module for metrics, similar to Google Analytics, that focuses on the metrics of the tool usage. The module shouldn't just report on the components of OpenText Service Management (SMAX) but also track how the tool is used by end users, for example, what functionalities users utilize more frequently, the performance of those functionalities, and how long it takes them to open a ticket or log in, focusing on applicational monitoring metrics and performance management metrics.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Marketing Services Firm
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Media Company
7%
Performing Arts
7%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
9%
Healthcare Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise66
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your primary use case for Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX)?
We mostly deal with OpenText Service Management (SMAX), Service Management, and UCMDB, the UD Discovery, Unified Discovery.
What advice do you have for others considering Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX)?
We are still working with OpenText and Splunk. I remember that Splunk is now with what Cisco AppDynamics bought. We are implementers; we work with other partners for Splunk, and for OpenText, we ar...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX)?
OpenText Service Management (SMAX) is okay, not expensive and not the cheapest. It is overall good.
 

Also Known As

CA Service Desk Manager, Clarity Service Management, CA Service Management, Unicenter Service Desk, CA SDM, CA Service Catalog, CA Business Service Insight
OpenText Service Manager, Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX)
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Banco G&T Continental City of Perth, FEMSA, Fujitsu, Manpower, Muslim Commercial Bank - MCB, Punjab National Bank, Santa Clara County Social Services, Stefanini
Zurich Airport, Envirosuite, Norsk Helsenett, Achmea, University of Milan, World Vision, Petroleum Development Oman, Court of Justice of the Federal District and Territories (TJDFT).
Find out what your peers are saying about Clarity SM vs. OpenText Service Management (SMAX) and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.