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Clarity SM vs TOPdesk comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

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

Clarity SM
Ranking in Help Desk Software
22nd
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
21st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
TOPdesk
Ranking in Help Desk Software
17th
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
15th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Clarity SM is 1.6%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TOPdesk is 2.0%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Help Desk Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
TOPdesk2.0%
Clarity SM1.6%
Other96.4%
Help Desk Software
 

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.
Martina Peneva - PeerSpot reviewer
People Technology Lead at Scandinavian Tobacco Group
Implement service management changes while addressing UI improvements
Topdesk's user interface makes it easy to handle requests and escalate them to other groups or reassign them when working on a single ticket. Additionally, the service management tool in HR allows for a change in delivering services, replacing email communication with ticket raising. The knowledge library enables the local HR to store and share relevant information and frequently asked cases, enhancing collaboration. The ticket system also facilitates escalating cases to other involved departments. IT, HR, and some other teams primarily use this system.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"XFlow (Temperature) and Service Point together provided an extremely user-friendly and collaborative experience to the point of making it easy for all users of the product, whether end-users or analysts."
"Most of all is the end-user experience, in your company you have IT experienced people and non-IT experienced end-users, they need the ability to reach out, report an issue, or request something that they need to do their job, they need the ability to get that done quickly, utilize different technology other than calling a help desk, and get the metrics behind the scenes that we can report on what's going on in the environment."
"It has helped us to organize a lot of our assets, so we have configuration items to attach to our change management. We can have tickets for change management and set them aside for an approval process."
"The ticket incidents and requests management are the most valuable features for us."
"We can search open and closed cases to find what we have done in other incidents."
"The tool itself is valuable as a result of all its features combined. Therefore, I have found that there is no feature more valuable than another."
"When we went to the tool that we're now using, SDM, we noticed that the performance was so much more increased than it was in the past."
"The most valuable fractures of Clarity SM are its ease of use and security. I have been highly satisfied. We've been able to integrate it with email and an SMS gateway for the purposes of notifications. That works very well."
"It is an easy-to-use solution."
"TOPdesk is overall very stable."
"The most valuable feature of TOPdesk is the reports."
"This solution has provided me with a well-defined process and interaction, compared to my previous tool, GLPI."
"Change management is the most critical feature."
"When it comes to implementing new features, they listen to what their customers want via a suggestion forum that they have."
"Its ITSM approach is quite useful."
"The most valuable feature of TOPdesk is its ease of use if you have implemented it in the right way. If you're not implementing it in the right way, then it's very difficult."
 

Cons

"Readily available plugins: Plugins should be made available for integration with third-party tools that are commonly used (e.g., Nagios)."
"Customer Service: Horrific. Unless an explicit and costly "service issue" was raised through the enterprise support agreement, CA had zero interest in accepting problem reports."
"The upgrading process needs to be improved. They need more testing with more customers before the release."
"More user experience in the look and feel of the application. ​"
"Diversifying notification methods with pop-ups or ready-made WhatsApp or Skype integration packages would be welcome."
"Release Management is not supported out of the box"
"It doesn't yet have the ability to integrate with other products."
"We talk a lot about the idea that Service Desk Manager should be more "service" oriented, not just ticket oriented."
"One of the disadvantages of TOPdesk is the reporting tool. It is very poor and not in real-time. You do not always receive the correct information."
"Change management implementation, facility management, and making reservations on assets can be improved."
"The solution should be made more user-friendly."
"It is time-consuming to add new users."
"An operator is also a user but requires creating two different records."
"From a UI perspective, there is room for improvement. It sometimes takes many steps to do something simple, like creating or moving a knowledge item."
"This solution is modular so you only buy what you need, but I prefer what some companies are doing where they include everything in the package."
"All companies have processes that need to be adjusted. When you have a change, you need to name it, and many companies have a set of changes you can use. It would be helpful if there were more space in TOPdesk to name the change or use metadata to record the kinds of changes."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't see anyone other than large companies being able to afford this system."
"Clarity offers a perpetual license. Customers purchase the license once and then pay for maintenance. CA provides a subscription model as well. Both models are available for our customers."
"I think pricing of this model is suitable for growing corporations."
"The pricing is based on a subscription model."
"The solution is quite reasonable compared to other solutions in the market."
"There is a subscripted needed to use Clarity SM. The price of the solution could be less expensive. ServiceNow is less expensive and BMC Helix is priced similar to Clarity SM."
"Pricing is simple, as it’s per concurrent analysts."
"It is a bit expensive, but you definitely get what you pay for. It is worth it!"
"The cost of the solution on a yearly basis is $20,000. Technical support is not extra. It's included in the yearly cost. Updates are also included. The solution is good at keeping its product up to date."
"TOPdesk's pricing is cheaper than Jira's."
"The solution's pricing is reasonable and not expensive."
"Compared to other products in this segment, I think that they are priced well and not too expensive."
"There are three fee options to choose from for a company and these options compared to market prices are very high. For example, if I use one of the first options for 10 assets, then it costs 20,000 Euros. If you went to competitors, then you pay less."
"The solution is inexpensive compared to competitors."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Marketing Services Firm
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Media Company
7%
Performing Arts
7%
Educational Organization
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Healthcare 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 Business2
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for TOPdesk?
The solution's pricing is reasonable and not expensive.
What needs improvement with TOPdesk?
From a UI perspective, there is room for improvement, as some tasks like creating or moving a knowledge item within the library require many steps instead of simple actions like drag and drop. This...
What is your primary use case for TOPdesk?
I use Topdesk to change the way we deliver our services in HR to the business. Instead of writing an email to a particular person or visiting their desk, I ask employees to raise a ticket for servi...
 

Comparisons

 

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
No data 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
City of Amsterdam, University of Edinbroughm, IKEA, KLM Catering Services, FloraHolland, BOVAG, PostNL, Total, Hilton, Oce, Canon, Agip, Compass Group, Serco, Danone, BMW, Eneco, And many more.
Find out what your peers are saying about Clarity SM vs. TOPdesk and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.