Freshdesk vs SolarWinds Web Help Desk comparison

Freshworks and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Help Desk Software category. Freshworks is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.1, while SolarWinds is ranked #31. Additionally, 93% of Freshworks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

Freshdesk and SolarWinds Web Help Desk are customer support solutions. Freshdesk seems to have the upper hand with its ease of use and budget-friendly pricing, while SolarWinds stands out with robust IT management features.

Features: Freshdesk offers AI-driven automation, multichannel support, and seamless integrations with other business applications. It supports diverse customer interaction methods. SolarWinds Web Help Desk, on the other hand, excels in customizable ticketing solutions, asset management, and advanced reporting tools which are essential for IT infrastructure management.

Room for Improvement: Freshdesk could improve in ticketing customization, enhancing visual customization of the knowledge base, and improving scalability for larger operations. SolarWinds Web Help Desk could reduce the complexity of its setup, offer more cloud-based features, and improve user-friendliness for non-IT staff.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Freshdesk is a cloud-based solution that facilitates quick setup, making it great for businesses requiring a simple online solution. Its ease of access is complemented by helpful support resources. SolarWinds Web Help Desk provides a more robust deployment with on-premises or hybrid models, suiting organizations with specific IT security needs, though it requires more technical setup.

Pricing and ROI: Freshdesk employs a transparent pricing model with lower upfront costs, which is advantageous for organizations on a budget, promising a faster ROI due to its quick deployment. SolarWinds Web Help Desk, although potentially more expensive initially due to customization and setup, offers significant long-term value in large IT environments with its comprehensive management features.

To learn more, read our detailed Freshdesk vs. SolarWinds Web Help Desk Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Freshdesk vs. SolarWinds Web Help Desk

August 2026

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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

Automation Anywhere

Featured Reviews

Venkat Sivaprakash

Management Consultant at Accenture

Has significantly improved document-driven workflows and reduced processing time across finance and HR functions

Automation Anywhere has evolved significantly and upgraded itself to provide agentic AI and AI-based automation solutions for document automation. The product has matured considerably over time. We can create workflows that can call an API. We can include prompts in particular workflows for ChatGPT-related functions, connecting to an LLM and RAG to perform tasks. For document automation, modern features are available to train documents, ensuring high accuracy and repeatability over time. The system is very easy to use. I recently completed a course in document automation, typically designed for people involved in coding and technical aspects. Though I understand coding comprehensively, I don't do actual coding. The course was very accessible. Currently, extensive coding isn't necessary due to the hybrid model incorporating GenAI aspects, low-code, no-code capabilities, APIs, and numerous pre-built objects in Automation Anywhere. The features include GenAI-driven prompting methods and workflow creation capabilities. In these workflows, we can create decision boxes and call APIs without coding. We simply pull objects, drop them, connect them, and add minimal coding when needed. The most crucial aspect isn't coding but rather sizing the automation and fleshing out the details. Automation Co-pilot takes notes and performs automated analysis. It can extract details from videos, summarize conversations, and provide detailed information. During calls, it identifies instructions and performs tasks such as preparing reports and reconciliation. Automation Anywhere can also connect with Microsoft Co-pilot. Through Co-pilot, real-time operations can be executed, allowing direct interaction between vendors and automation through this component.

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Gauri Thakur

Director, Portfolio Projects at Microland Limited

Integrated support workflows have provided a unified view but need broader enterprise flexibility

Freshdesk's scalability could be improved for larger businesses across departments. Its intuitive interface is appealing for small to medium-sized businesses. However, when you look at larger enterprise levels, ServiceNow operates more efficiently. This scalability is an area where Freshdesk could expand its offerings. Additionally, I don't have too much hands-on experience with Freshdesk ticket routing. I need to check with the service desk team if they've used it. Similarly, for analytics capability, I haven't explored much on Freshdesk, but I have done it for ServiceNow. I have seen a lot on ServiceNow and the BMC Remedy, so I can speak better for them. I haven't had the chance to look at it so much that I can do a comparison. I haven't had much experience with Freshdesk's reporting. Within its paradigm of customer service management, Freshdesk is quite scalable. But I've said that inter-department and the interoperability is better off in ServiceNow than in Freshdesk.

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GANESAN K

Senior Technical Engineer at Safezone Secure Solutions Private Limited

Has supported daily operational workflows and improved approval management across departments

We actually do the reselling. We created a self-service portal for the customers, and this particular function does impact reducing IT staff workload overall. From technical standpoints, comparing SolarWinds Web Help Desk with TeamViewer, we need ease of configuration and ease of allocating, creating new fields or creating new layouts for many specific use cases. An organization can have a number of use cases when it comes to a ticketing tool. It's not a security solution; it's more of a service solution where you will be configuring the needed categories and needed fields for each department. On a scale of 1-10, I rate SolarWinds Web Help Desk an 8.

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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

"We have had a lot of success using Automation Anywhere products and we've actually built a few solutions that were done on the EY cloud, which are offered to clients as a managed service."

"The most valuable feature of Automation Anywhere is the ease with which it integrates with our existing APIs."

"The tool is a huge time saver. If I want to do something manually, it will take half an hour, but the bot can do the task within minute or seconds. In a day, month, or year, this will be a huge amount of time for me. A reduction to a fraction of seconds will be a big impact."

"It removes demotivating, repetitive work from our teams."

"Our onboarding process was pretty good. We got access to all software that we needed to learn and utilize. The Automation Anywhere University is really good. In our business, the person who was onboarding us helped us to understand how to create a center of excellence and what verticals we needed to improve. So, the support was there. We are gradually becoming a center of excellence ourselves."

"From a technical perspective, developers can easily create bots and get things done with this tool."

"The feature of this solution that I like the most is that it is coding free - it is a coding free tool. It does not need much coding at all. For all the activities you just drag and drop. That is the best advantage of this tool."

"The technical support is very good. We are very happy with them."

More Automation Anywhere pros

"It is very easy to make reports."

"These features are easy to use, and the filtering is really good, providing a good overview of active tickets and who's working on them."

"It is quite easy to program custom apps and integrate them."

"While using Freshdesk for their ticket management solution for reaching out to the end users, we are transferring a large part of that to the central team which is operating through ServiceNow, so everything which is flowing there ultimately flows into ServiceNow to give a 360-degree view of how well the support is running."

"Their knowledge base is phenomenal. The way that it learns from our users is awesome, and responses are really awesome as well. It does a pretty good job of picking up what's needed. The knowledge bases are great."

"The organization that is possible with other departments is the solution's most valuable aspect."

"Overall, this is a good and robust solution that offers an extensive number of features that we have not yet used."

"Omnichannel is one of the most valuable features of the solution."

More Freshdesk pros

"SolarWinds is a very good application that provides you with a detailed monitoring capability of your network and assets."

"It is easy to use."

"It has a pretty good search function. If you do the advanced search, you can basically search for anything in any field. If I do a search on the request field and just put in some terms I'm searching for, I can usually find the ticket that I'm looking for."

"Once installed, it runs like a charm and doesn't ever crash."

"The biggest advantage for SolarWinds Web Help Desk is the user interface; we were able to configure a different UI for administrators, employees, and HODs based on their hierarchy level."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the assets management module."

"The solution scales well; currently is working for 60 help desk technicians (IT and non-IT) for over 2,000 users."

"A person who is not in IT, but has some good ITSM knowledge will be able to configure it directly on SolarWinds, and Manage Engine."

More SolarWinds Web Help Desk pros

Cons

"I would like to see integration better integration with Excel and SAP."

"The debugging tools need to be included, for where and why it has failed to execute the bot in a clear manner."

"Configuring A2019 and using it is getting a little difficult because of frequent errors of compatibility. It is not so user friendly like the enterprise desktop version."

"IQ Bot should have an easier way to tag the document's source after extracting information from the document. (Which group does the document or a transaction belong to)."

"The initial setup was not that great. The road was very up and down."

"As far as stability is concerned, there have been some challenges."

"Many of our clients would want to see scalability in pricing, and while I could say cheaper, that's part of it."

"They should consider being more multi-platform."

More Automation Anywhere cons

"Improvement can be done with the overall look, and fields like Query Type can be shown at the home page itself."

"I would like to see a little bit more color in the solution."

"The solution's inbound calls could be improved."

"I would like to be able to change the subject in emails for ourselves. If we could have the option to do that, it would improve our speed and the overall cleanliness of the CRM."

"I would like a better integration towards Azure DevOps. The current integration is more complicated and doesn’t work as well."

"We have many cases where a ticket comes in, and it ends up having multiple team members working on it. It would be really nice to be able to assign a single ticket to multiple people, rather than having to create the parent-child hierarchy that they have set up. It generates a proliferation of tickets that I really don't want to have. Having to jump from a parent to one child and then to another child makes it harder for me to be able to see the entire case from end to end. A simple example is our new hire process or our termination process. We have people who leave. We also have people who come on board. We have got multiple people participating and doing things related to the leaving or onboarding process. Currently, I have to go to different tickets to be able to see whether all tasks are really done or not. If I could assign lots of people to one ticket, it would be really nice."

"If Freshdesk had forms in it so that I could go to the portal and fill out a service request, that would improve it immensely and make it more valuable for enterprise customers, but that's not a current functionality. You can't have a certain catalog of any type. You can't be like, "Hey, I want to just go submit a ticket," and then type in. You can't prompt them to ask anything. It is just a blank form."

"However, the challenging part comes from getting exactly what other departments needed from Freshdesk, especially the sales department, which requires good collaboration to extract the needed data."

More Freshdesk cons

"It would be good if there were training and tutorial videos on the Web Help Desk."

"However, it's a little outdated compared to newer products that include protection and detection."

"The program seems buggy to me. Not infrequently, when I click to add a Note, the Notes section disappears instead of opening a box to add a Note."

"Dashboards need some amount of work to be done. Ease of customization is desired."

"This solution needs to have mobile application support added."

"This is a good solution, but the GUI is really old-fashion and needs to be updated."

"The working part, the deployment part, and the configuration part was a little bit complex."

"The interface feels clunky to me compared to some other systems that I've used. I used ManageEngine Service Desk prior to this at my previous job and that had stuff like categories that we use that I don't see in SolarWinds."

More SolarWinds Web Help Desk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have established a CoE and we take our bot opportunities based on their ROIs. The best ROI opportunity goes to development first. Our ROI opportunities are compliance, profitable growth, productivity enhancements, productivity gains, number of hours the productivity saved, and resources not available that the work can be done by the bot. However, the single most important criteria that we use to measure ROI is how much time does the bot cut down from an analyst's work, as this has the best ROI. E.g., if an analyst is spending a 100 hours of work that a bot can do in one hour, we calculate the 99 hours saved as ROI."

"The cost of this solution is a little bit high, but it is worth the price."

"Initially, they charged a premium, but now the rest of the vendors have increased their overall pricing and Automation Anywhere is not that high at this time. It's pretty viable."

"Annual licensing costs would be about $100,000."

"It is subscription-based. They have different schemes. The price depends on how you negotiate with the local partner or local representative in your country."

"Automation Anywhere is costlier than the general competition. That is aligned with the share of the market it has."

"We're just starting to renew our license, and we were quoted $115,000 without the IQ Bot. The IQ Bot is another $30,000. This is with very limited pages, as we go through our first projects. The majority of the cost was for ten days of onsite training."

"The solution itself is free unless we want to add the support option but we have to pay for the bots we use."

More Automation Anywhere pricing and cost advice

"We pay approximately $70 per agent to use Freshdesk. We have 10 agents, which is approximately $700 or $800 per month. It is a fixed license, there are not any additional fees."

"It is costly."

"We use a licensing model only so we pay for the number of agents we have configured in the system only."

"It was definitely not expensive. It was two grand or maybe three grand total for a year. It has just straight and simple standard licensing fees. There is no additional fee."

"The best system plan is enterprise. It costs basically 79 Euros per agent per month when it's billed annually and 95 Euros per agent per month when it's billed monthly."

"Freshdesk was the best solution with the best price. It was cost efficient and included all the features that we needed."

"The price could be better, but it's okay. Compared to ServiceNow and JIRA, Freshworks offers a competitive price. There are also additional licensing costs because you need Microsoft Outlook. Each new email account costs around $15 to $19."

"The pricing is pretty manageable and acceptable."

More Freshdesk pricing and cost advice

"When you compare with ManageEngine and ServiceNow, SolarWinds is reasonable."

"They charge by the technician. It costs $117 per technician per year."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Construction Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Construction Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Construction Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	157
Midsize Enterprise	81
Large Enterprise	558

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	29
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	14

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

It depends on your use case. Is it simply to automate a couple of processes? Is it to augment a human team? AA is ver...

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How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

From my experience using AA tool, it depends on the applications that you want to automate, because there some applic...

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How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

It is a highly preferred RPA tool. You can check my Automation Anywhere Review to know more.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Freshdesk?

I think the main problem with Freshdesk is the deep settings, interface, and analytics. When you need complex cross-f...

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What is your primary use case for Freshdesk?

My main use case for Freshdesk is customer support tickets. A specific example of how my team uses Freshdesk for cust...

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What advice do you have for others considering Freshdesk?

My advice for others looking into using Freshdesk is to consider that compared to Zendesk or Salesforce, where the se...

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What needs improvement with SolarWinds Web Help Desk?

Areas of improvement can be enhanced regarding configuration. We had the deployment metrics and usability, ease of us...

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What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Web Help Desk?

For Zoho, we did OP Manager, Audit Security, AD Security and Asset Management, Patch Management. These things we are ...

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What advice do you have for others considering SolarWinds Web Help Desk?

We actually do the reselling. We created a self-service portal for the customers, and this particular function does i...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Power Automate vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 9% of the time

Blue Prism vs Automation Anywhere

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AutomationEdge vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 2% of the time

WorkFusion vs Automation Anywhere

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ServiceNow vs Freshdesk

Compared 11% of the time

Zendesk vs Freshdesk

Compared 7% of the time

JIRA Service Management vs Freshdesk

Compared 6% of the time

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs Freshdesk

Compared 4% of the time

IFS Cloud Platform vs Freshdesk

Compared 3% of the time

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ServiceNow vs SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Compared 15% of the time

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Compared 14% of the time

Zendesk vs SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Compared 7% of the time

BMC Helix ITSM vs SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Compared 7% of the time

SysAid vs SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Automation Anywhere

August 2026

Download Automation Anywhere product report

Buyer's Guide

Freshdesk

August 2026

Download Freshdesk product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Web Help Desk

July 2026

Download SolarWinds Web Help Desk product report

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)

No data available

Interactive Demo

Automation Anywhere

Demo not available

Freshworks

Demo not available

SolarWinds

Overview

Automation Anywhere offers ease of use, robust system connectivity, and GenAI-driven document automation through a cloud-native platform, significantly enhancing productivity across multiple industries with advanced AI features.

Delivering a comprehensive suite of tools designed for easy integration and rapid deployment, Automation Anywhere drives efficiency by reducing costs and automating repetitive tasks. Its cloud-native platform supports broad industry adoption, including advanced AI features like process automation and Co-Pilot, streamlining complex workflows with minimal technical skills required. Users benefit from robust integration capabilities, which facilitate seamless interaction with multiple systems. However, there is room for improvement in areas such as user-friendliness for beginners, stability, flexible licensing, and enhanced OCR functionality. Organizations in sectors such as banking, finance, manufacturing, and healthcare gain from the improved operational efficiency and ROI Automation Anywhere offers.

What are the important features of Automation Anywhere?

Ease of Use: Simplifies automation tasks with a user-centric interface.
Robust Connectivity: Provides seamless integration with multiple systems.
GenAI-Driven Document Automation: Leverages AI to automate document management.
Process Automation & Co-Pilot: Enhances workflow automation with advanced AI.
Cloud-Native Platform: Enables rapid deployment and integration.

What benefits should be evaluated in reviews?

Time Savings: Automation drastically reduces manual processing time.
Cost Efficiency: Decreases overall operational costs by automating tasks.
Productivity Enhancement: Streamlines workflows with AI-driven tools.
Improved Integration: Enhances ability to work with multiple systems.
Scalability: Supports growth with a flexible cloud-native architecture.

In the insurance industry, Automation Anywhere is utilized for automating processes such as enrollment management and compliance checks. Its applications extend to supply chain management, financial transactions, and business performance monitoring across sectors like banking, finance, manufacturing, and healthcare, helping organizations to automate routine tasks, improve efficiency, and reduce costs.

Automation Anywhere

Freshdesk enhances support operations with features like a centralized ticketing system, omnichannel communication, and seamless tool integration. It addresses customer queries and automates processes, driving efficiency and satisfaction.

Freshdesk offers robust capabilities for managing customer support, enhancing efficiency through automation and integration. Its streamlined ticketing system centralizes queries from multiple platforms, including email, chat, and social media. Features like a knowledge base help reduce repetitive inquiries, while its easy integration with tools such as Slack and Jira supports effective team collaboration. However, users seek improvements in customization flexibility, scalability, and pricing for advanced features. Performance issues may arise with high volumes, and there's room for improved API limits and cloud availability. Freshdesk's automation and communication abilities make it crucial for both internal IT and external customer service, ensuring seamless resolutions and SLA compliance.

What Features Stand Out in Freshdesk?

Ticketing System: Centralizes customer interactions for streamlined management.
Omnichannel Support: Integrates communication platforms for consistent service.
Automation: Reduces manual tasks, boosting efficiency.
Knowledge Base: Decreases repetitive inquiries with self-service resources.
Tool Integration: Connects seamlessly with platforms like Slack and Jira.
Analytics & Reporting: Tracks performance for informed decision-making.

What Benefits Should Users Look For?

Improved Efficiency: Automation and centralized systems enhance support speed.
Customer Satisfaction: Consistent and responsive service elevates user experience.
Scalability: Adapts to growing support needs with integrations and customization.
Reduced Manual Effort: Automates repetitive tasks, allowing focus on complex issues.

Freshdesk is widely adopted in industries like IT and customer service, where efficient issue resolution and communication are critical. By converting emails to tickets and automating assignments, companies enhance their response times and maintain SLA compliance. Its integration capabilities support diverse tools, facilitating a multi-channel approach for superior customer experiences.

Freshworks

SolarWinds Web Help Desk offers a streamlined approach to technical ticketing and asset management, enhancing departmental operations with efficient asset-user linking and automated scheduling.

Offering an intuitive interface for multiple roles, SolarWinds Web Help Desk enhances ticket management through automated scheduling. Integrating ticketing with remote support provides smooth transitions, while LDAP integration streamlines user permissions. It supports diverse departments, including non-IT sectors, providing detailed case management, reporting, and approval workflows.

What are the standout features of SolarWinds Web Help Desk?

Intuitive User Levels: Customizable interfaces for different roles enhance user experience.
Efficient Ticket Management: Automated scheduling aids in managing tickets effectively.
Comprehensive Asset Management: Links assets to users, improving resource tracking.
Advanced Search: Facilitates easy ticket retrieval and management.
Scheduled Report Generation: Uses Power BI for regular, detailed reports.

What benefits or ROI should users consider?

Streamlined Operations: Automates routine tasks, saving time and resources.
Enhanced Reporting: Detailed reports support data-driven decision-making.
Remote Support Integration: Smooth integration improves support team efficiency.
User and Asset Linkage: Increases asset usage visibility and accountability.

In industries like HR, cybersecurity, and maintenance, SolarWinds Web Help Desk is deployed on-premises, serving as a robust case management tool that supports both IT and non-IT departments' specific needs. It helps maintain departmental efficiency by managing technical tickets and supporting patch management workflows.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics

Honda, 3M, Hugo Boss, Petronas, Sony Pictures, The Atlantic, goodreads, Clear Channel Radio, Penn University of Pennsylvania, unicef, Kuoni, Movember

Instacart

Buyer's Guide

Freshdesk vs. SolarWinds Web Help Desk

August 2026

Free Report: Freshdesk vs. SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Find out what your peers are saying about Freshdesk vs. SolarWinds Web Help Desk and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.

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