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ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus 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
6.9
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus boosts ROI with cost-effective solutions, improving asset management and efficiency for SMEs, while some await benefits.
Sentiment score
3.7
OpenText SMAX aids IT operations with automation; ROI measurement varies, with users valuing customizability and operational impact.
For example, previously incidents had to be resolved manually, requiring communication to respective teams via email, but now automatically generated tickets streamline this process while adhering to SLA times, ultimately saving resources.
Sr. Presales & Technical Lead at Elitbuzz Technologies Ltd
ManageEngine has been particularly beneficial for small and medium-sized businesses in terms of value for money since they receive similar service at a lower cost compared to ServiceNow.
Vice President Delivery & Operations at Rezilyens
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.2
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus support is praised for responsiveness but criticized for slow resolutions, needing faster, efficient service improvements.
Sentiment score
4.7
OpenText SMAX receives mixed feedback with varying support experiences, generally rated between seven and eight for effectiveness.
Their response time could be quicker.
Information Security Specialist at Arab Open University
The ManageEngine technical support team deserves a rating of ten out of ten because we receive up-to-date support.
Software Engineer at Galaxy Office Automation Pvt. Ltd.
They respond to emails based on time zone considerations.
Principal Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Support for OpenText Service Management (SMAX) is better.
Technical Lead at Bharti AXA Life Insurance
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus excels in scalability, supporting various organization sizes with simple expansion and high user growth management.
Sentiment score
6.9
OpenText SMAX is highly adaptable for medium to large businesses but may be costly for small enterprises.
It is trickier to expand across endpoints with Help Desk.
Information Security Specialist at Arab Open University
Scaling ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is easy, and I would rate its scalability as nine out of ten.
Vice President Delivery & Operations at Rezilyens
The tool is suitable for medium to large-scale operations and can be used effectively by mid-size companies.
Sr. Service Architect at NTT Security
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is highly rated for stability, despite minor bugs, with outages usually caused by external factors.
Sentiment score
6.9
OpenText SMAX is stable but some users face Kubernetes-related downtime and ongoing stability concerns despite resolved issues.
We have not experienced any significant issues.
Vice President Delivery & Operations at Rezilyens
We have not faced any stability issues or challenges with this tool.
IT Director at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus has shown stability with no downtime and no major issues identified thus far.
Sr. Presales & Technical Lead at Elitbuzz Technologies Ltd
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

Users criticize ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus for its complex interface, limited customization, and inadequate integration, support, and pricing options.
OpenText SMAX faces challenges in integration, customization, and user satisfaction, requiring improvements in AI, reporting, and connectivity.
It would be beneficial to have an option to assign approvals to a user group or a variable.
IT Director at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
There could be improvements in licensing flexibility, like the ability to use a single license for multiple users simultaneously.
Sr. Service Architect at NTT Security
They might consider creating a bundled ERP solution for all these tools where purchasing one license would enable access to all functionalities.
Principal Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
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.
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

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus offers flexible, cost-effective pricing with various licensing options, providing enterprise features affordably compared to competitors.
OpenText SMAX provides diverse licensing options, with costs influenced by configuration, operators, and features, offering flexible pricing.
The cost of ManageEngine is more affordable, making it viable for small to medium-sized businesses.
Vice President Delivery & Operations at Rezilyens
The licensing is based on the number of technicians or analysts providing support as well as the number of IT assets, with no limitation on adding IT assets in ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus.
Sr. Presales & Technical Lead at Elitbuzz Technologies Ltd
It is not as expensive as ServiceNow, which has a very high cost.
Sr. Service Architect at NTT Security
OpenText Service Management (SMAX) is okay, not expensive and not the cheapest.
Technical Lead at Bharti AXA Life Insurance
 

Valuable Features

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus enhances efficiency and satisfaction with ITIL integration, automation, customization, reporting, and seamless application integration.
OpenText SMAX provides adaptable, user-friendly service management with AI, low-code configuration, and multilingual support for various business operations.
The best features ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus offers for my team include automating manual tasks, which allows whatever tasks we previously did manually to be converted into automatic tasks.
Sr. Presales & Technical Lead at Elitbuzz Technologies Ltd
It provides a simpler and more intuitive interface for creating semi-automated use cases and managing problem solutions.
Vice President Delivery & Operations at Rezilyens
The automation capabilities are good, with the workflow being an integral part of it.
IT Director at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
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

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
70
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (3rd)
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 ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is 3.8%, down from 7.3% 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 (%)
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus3.8%
OpenText Service Management (SMAX)2.1%
Other94.1%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

Featured Reviews

Mostafiz Miah - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Presales & Technical Lead at Elitbuzz Technologies Ltd
Automation has transformed daily request handling and now tracks every customer interaction
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus helps my team manage and resolve requests compared to previous methods as we previously managed things through paperwork and diaries. After deploying ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, whenever any customer request comes, we provide the customer a product demo if they ask about the products. We then convert that request to a lead, which is converted to a demo, and then to the product POC, allowing us to follow up every stage of the requests. Everything can be tracked from ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, whether at the closing stage or the initial stage. I use ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus daily in a unique way because previously everyone managed their own tracking system through their diary, but now everyone inputs data into this solution so that at the end of the day, we can get reports on how many leads we have taken care of and when they need to be taken care of. This information is visible from the ServiceDesk tool, and using the dashboard, we can easily identify it, providing an at-a-glance view. The best features ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus offers for my team include automating manual tasks, which allows whatever tasks we previously did manually to be converted into automatic tasks. Currently, they have also introduced Zia, a very helpful solution for us. Using Zia, we can search for anything, not only inside the tool but also outside, integrating it with ChatGPT and Teams, and it can integrate with other ManageEngine solutions as well as solutions such as Jira and ServiceNow. When we integrate our network monitoring solutions with ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, it automatically raises an incident ticket and assigns it to the right team whenever any incident has occurred, which saves us time and reduces manual tasks. Previously, we had to communicate to the right people through mail or phone calls after an incident, but now the incidents are automatically converted and assigned to the relevant support groups along with the SLA. The integration with Teams allows us to raise tickets without logging into the portal, and we can see the ticket status and add comments through Teams, which is very helpful. Additionally, mail integration can automatically convert emails into tickets, adding further efficiency. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus has positively impacted our organization, particularly in customer satisfaction. Previously, customers managed service requests, incidents, changes, and problems manually, but after integration, most of these processes are automated. This includes change requests that now follow a workflow based on organizational needs and ITIL best practices, making tracking incidents and requests much easier for end customers through scheduled reports.
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
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
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 Business32
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?
The platform's most beneficial features are incident management, change management, request management, and asset management.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?
Regarding pricing, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus offers three editions: Standard edition, Professional, and Enterprise. The Enterprise edition is the full suite, and the Professional edition has in...
What needs improvement with ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?
Currently, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is a mature solution, and I do not think major improvements are needed, as it already covers most ITIL features such as incident, change, problem, service r...
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

No data available
OpenText Service Manager, Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX)
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Tranter IT Infrastructure Services Limited, Sterlite Technologies, averda, Radiology Associates
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 ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs. OpenText Service Management (SMAX) and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.