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OpenText Universal Discovery and Universal CMDB vs ServiceNow CMDB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

OpenText Universal Discover...
Ranking in Configuration Management Databases
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
ServiceNow CMDB
Ranking in Configuration Management Databases
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Configuration Management Databases category, the mindshare of OpenText Universal Discovery and Universal CMDB is 9.5%, down from 11.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow CMDB is 26.0%, down from 38.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Configuration Management Databases Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ServiceNow CMDB26.0%
OpenText Universal Discovery and Universal CMDB9.5%
Other64.5%
Configuration Management Databases
 

Featured Reviews

Prajwal Kewat - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Engineer at Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
The UCMDB Tool is easy to manage IT assets and is auto-discovery features; But for ease of use the tool proper it needs to be documented in detailed fashion.
Based on my experience with the UCMDB tool, I have faced challenges while discovering servers (nodes). We need to define the IP list for discovery in RTSM and run jobs. However, over time, whenever new assets are added, we must manually add the new IPs in RTSM and run the jobs again. From the agent's perspective, we need to provide the Data Flow Probe IP. This can be done in one of two ways: we install the agent at the server (node) level, define the IP of the Data Flow Probe, and then our Data Flow Probe will capture the data from the agent and send it back to UCMDB. This method allows us to eliminate the step of manually adding the IPs in RTSM. In a dynamic production environment where changes are continuous, we need to stay updated on new servers (nodes). Ideally, the auto-discovery feature should automatically detect the new CIs (nodes/servers) in the environment and notify the IT personnel. This process could be achieved without the need for agents, or with a one-time agent setup.
reviewer2782440 - PeerSpot reviewer
ServiceNow Consultant at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Automation features and integrated service mapping have streamlined incident and change management processes
There is probably room for improvement in ServiceNow CMDB. I'm so immersed in projects and solving direct customer issues that I don't think too much about potential improvements. Maintaining an accurate and up-to-date ServiceNow CMDB can be challenging due to incoming data from various sources, but ServiceNow has been developing small AI components to help with data discrepancies and deduplication recently. They have also improved integrations with other tools, providing many out-of-the-box integrations to different monitoring tools and CMDBs, which previously required coding experience for custom integrations. They are moving towards a more low-code or no-code approach, which is part of their goal as a company.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The ability to use it as our single source of truth, feeding in from multiple sources and uploading into various Service Management toolsets, not just Micro Focus ones."
"This product discovers, maps and reports information about our configuration on a daily basis and is capable of being our source of truth for audit purposes."
"It can discover various pieces from hardware, software, custom applications, and tie them together to create a map using ASM."
"UCMDB is one of best discovery softwares available in the market; it can discover almost everything and creates relationship among discovered CIs, along with creating topology modeling."
"Precision, trustworthiness, reconciliation, and user-friendly presentation are the key features I value most."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the discovery."
"The product is easy to set up."
"It can discover almost everything and creates relationship among discovered CIs, along with creating topology modeling."
"The product's initial setup phase was simple."
"There is a lot of documentation online regarding CMDB."
"One important element is automation. We can back up and manage multiple configurations. It also enables password self-service."
"It integrates with so many different things. ServiceNow CMDB assisted us in streamlining multiple processes."
"The product's most valuable feature is its ability to extract the details of organizational hardware and provide the latest setup updates."
"ServiceNow CMDB works great for large and small businesses."
"We were previously using spreadsheets to keep track of everything. ServiceNow CMDB has enabled us to consolidate all this information into one place, which helps with audits and reporting. It also improves visibility."
"The most valuable feature of ServiceNow is the user interface because you can customize or configure it directly from the user interface by using the mouse. It is easy to use even for non-IT people. You can also directly plug your ServiceNow instance within your Microsoft Active Directory and then retrieve all your users and groups. So, you can use the users and groups to put automation inside the application. When you have new hires, you can automate the group security and group attribution. It is very good in terms of performance. Its performance is almost 100%. Once, it took less than two minutes to back up and run an instance. It has very good reliability."
 

Cons

"The page loading is very slow."
"Improve the GUI and documentation."
"When we work in an environment, the production environment continuously changes and at that time we should have knowledge about the new server (node). However, the auto-discovery part should automatically discover the new CI (node/servers) in an environment and inform the IT person."
"Improve the GUI and documentation."
"The implementation could be simplified."
"I think the product is so large and complex that the learning curve is long if you want to understand all aspects of what it can do."
"Making it simpler to set up and understand would be a big improvement."
"Some of the UI could always be improved, but that is personal taste."
"While ServiceNow CMDB is flexible and comprehensive, it's also difficult to implement and requires a lot of customization. In order to fully leverage ServiceNow CMDB, you need ServiceNow Discovery and some other ServiceNow solutions. It's expensive to purchase all of these. We're negotiating with ServiceNow, but we're thinking about replacing it with another CMDB solution."
"There are areas that could be improved, but that's a longer discussion. It all depends on what you are looking to do with it and then it becomes an issue of how do you configure the CMDB accordingly."
"There is some customization we need from the customer side."
"In general, the pain points are related to ServiceNow. There is a lack of development. ServiceNow is not a true configuration management tool. So, a lot of development is needed to get it to be the kind of tool that you would like it to be. It serves as a platform, and you only get out of it what you invest in terms of development. So, CMDB on its own isn't quite robust until you actually have a CMD project to make it robust. The same thing is there with asset management and all other parts of it. Out of the box, it's not competitive with a like-for-like application."
"If you select any CI, the associated applications with that CI should also be made available for users since, currently, the tool lacks such a feature."
"There's room for improvement in terms of integration."
"Because I'm a SME, the most important thing is the technical help that I can get, so better, more useful technical support would be good."
"Definitely, the price needs to be lower because there are clients that I work with who cannot afford ServiceNow. I have to end up proposing alternate solutions to fit their budget."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is competitive."
"Compared with other solutions, I would say that it's more expensive especially since we have an on-premise version and an older implementation."
"In comparison to the cost of other solutions, you get value for your money with ServiceNow CMDB. It could definitely be cheaper though."
"It is really expensive. I don't know actually how much it costs, but in 2016, when a client decided to move from an old solution to ServiceNow and had to choose a supplier for ServiceNow, I had heard that it could cost $10 per hour, which is really expensive. I am not aware of any additional fees to the standard licensing fees. There is no standard ServiceNow solution. When a company wants to acquire ServiceNow, they already know which module they will choose. In a basic package, you would have Service Catalog, Incident Management, and Change Management. These modules are usually required in an IT company."
"It is always fluctuating. It seems to change every six months. Every time they come out with a new iteration, it changes. It is pretty complicated, and they should improve it."
"The product price falls on the higher side of the spectrum."
"The product is pricey."
"The market sees ServiceNow as the Ferrari in terms of pricing. It's at the very top, and its cost is very, very high."
"I would like it to be cheaper. If you've got a large environment, it can get quite expensive quite quickly. You still get a return on investment, but everybody has a tight budget. In terms of licensing, everything is pretty much known upfront. Being SaaS-based, there are no real additional gotchas that we came across."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Marketing Services Firm
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Large Enterprise9
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise21
 

Questions from the Community

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What needs improvement with ServiceNow CMDB?
I would like to improve ServiceNow CMDB through better implementation and parameterization. ServiceNow has capabilities, and I wonder if they have included some AI capability to detect data that ar...
What is your primary use case for ServiceNow CMDB?
I mostly deal with ServiceNow CMDB, orchestration, and also project management with ServiceNow. I also provide support for operations in Jira.
What advice do you have for others considering ServiceNow CMDB?
I am a consultant, not a reseller. I used to work for a company, but now I am a consultant. There is project management, ServiceNow CMDB, and orchestration features. Today, we have integrated it wi...
 

Also Known As

Micro Focus Universal Discovery and Universal CMDB, Micro Focus Universal CMDB, UCMDB, HPE Universal CMDB
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

China Merchants Bank, NNIT, Alfa-Bank, Sprint
Wayfair, Siemens, Allianz, Experian, Vitas Healthcare
Find out what your peers are saying about OpenText Universal Discovery and Universal CMDB vs. ServiceNow CMDB and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.