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Salesforce Service Cloud vs ServiceNow comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

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
6.5
Salesforce Service Cloud improves ROI through efficiency, visibility, and integration, yielding up to 50% ROI amidst varying challenges.
Sentiment score
6.5
Organizations experience varied ROI with ServiceNow, noting efficiency, cost savings, and project improvements despite initial adoption challenges.
Salesforce Service Cloud requires significant maintenance effort to see ROI.
Lead Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
They have removed the costs associated with on-prem infrastructure, including data center costs, power costs, and physical server costs.
General Manager at sPerception IT
The return on investment is good when implementing for ourselves and for other clients.
ServiceNow Developer at Bangmetric services pvt ltd
Manually, there are huge numbers that come up because these integrated tools help organizations make the right decisions with all the information in one place, while manual methods lack visibility.
Associate Vice President at Wissen infotech
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.6
Salesforce Service Cloud is praised for responsiveness and community support, though premium support is recommended for complex issues.
Sentiment score
6.9
ServiceNow's customer service is efficient but inconsistent, with strong community support and varying technical assistance effectiveness.
Unless you have premium support, assistance is restricted.
Lead Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Salesforce directly does not give you the support, and it is through the partner that you have to go, leading to some time delays.
Head Of Information Technology at SAISOFT
The support is exemplary and deserves a perfect rating.
Team Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Obtaining support for maintenance is the current challenge because they don't have a presence in the local market.
General Manager at sPerception IT
Whenever we have had issues, they have provided good support, and those issues have never recurred.
Vice President Delivery & Operations at Rezilyens
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Salesforce Service Cloud is scalable, customizable, and cloud-based, enabling seamless growth and integration for enterprise-level adaptability.
Sentiment score
7.4
ServiceNow is praised for its scalability, efficiently supporting large enterprises with proper customization and adherence to best practices.
Salesforce Service Cloud is the most advanced in scalability, rating around nine to ten.
Head Of Information Technology at SAISOFT
Nobody can compete with Salesforce Service Cloud's scalability.
Lead Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
There are no limitations or performance issues with ServiceNow; it is cloud-based, so it is highly scalable and performs well.
General Manager at sPerception IT
It is capable of vertical scaling with no issues.
Team Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I rate the scalability of ServiceNow as an eight on a scale of one to ten.
IT infra Admin at synu
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Salesforce Service Cloud is stable and reliable, with rare disruptions, excellent support, and scalability when following best practices.
Sentiment score
7.7
ServiceNow is reliable with minimal downtime and issues, offering proactive support and a positive user experience.
We rarely encounter stability issues with Salesforce Service Cloud, although when they occur, they cause significant disruption.
Lead Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
It is cloud-based, so it is highly scalable and performs well.
General Manager at sPerception IT
I haven't faced any issues with stability; I've rarely seen any downtime.
Solution Engineer - Digital Platform | Mobile at British American Tobacco
ServiceNow is stable enough.
ServiceNow Developer at Bangmetric services pvt ltd
 

Room For Improvement

Salesforce Service Cloud needs UI/UX improvements, pricing adjustments, stability, better integrations, and enhanced reporting, email, and AI capabilities.
ServiceNow faces challenges with customization complexity, high costs, insufficient integration, inadequate documentation, and limited support and training resources.
Salesforce Service Cloud should focus on simplification.
Lead Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Configuring Flows in Salesforce Service Cloud is very difficult.
Assosiate Partner at Autana Business Partners
It could be better in areas such as media; it does not handle media effectively, particularly with pictures and uploads.
CTO at Glenavoo Digital
It makes no sense in my opinion, and they should offer the team at the front to help customize the product to fit each company's needs, as every company has different demands and forms of submitting a request that need adjustment over time.
Manager of Security Engineering & Architecture at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
My priority points for improvement are the UI glitches and modern AI technology integrations for faster incident management.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
There is a need for bug or error tracking in ServiceNow.
Team Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Salesforce Service Cloud's high costs can be offset by negotiating contracts, offering flexible licensing and significant functionality for large teams.
ServiceNow's high pricing and complex licensing make negotiation crucial for users evaluating its cost against organizational needs.
The approximate licensing costs for Salesforce Service Cloud are around three hundred dollars a year per user.
Application Owner at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Salesforce Service Cloud is expensive.
Lead Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
ServiceNow's pricing can be justified if more functionality is required.
ServiceNow Developer at Bangmetric services pvt ltd
ServiceNow does come with a price.
Associate Vice President at Wissen infotech
ServiceNow is expensive for all regions.
Security Architect at وزارة الثقافة Ministry of Culture
 

Valuable Features

Salesforce Service Cloud excels in customization, integration, automation, and scalability, offering real-time data, email management, and extensive API support.
ServiceNow provides flexible, customizable IT solutions with robust reporting, automation, and seamless incident management, suitable for diverse businesses.
Salesforce Service Cloud improved our organization with its mobile capabilities.
Application Owner at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Salesforce Service Cloud offers pre-built packages that are best in class.
Lead Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Usability is one of the strongest characteristics of Salesforce Service Cloud.
Assosiate Partner at Autana Business Partners
ServiceNow provides a wide range of functionality, covering all the necessary modules, unlike Jira which is primarily for IT.
ServiceNow Developer at Bangmetric services pvt ltd
Automation capabilities are impressive, bolstered by a vast repository of out-of-the-box connectors and plugins that facilitate integration with various applications worldwide.
Security Architect at وزارة الثقافة Ministry of Culture
The features of ServiceNow that I find most valuable include its ability to easily access ticket details if you know the ticket number, monitor the timeline of when the ticket was created, and see the current status.
IT infra Admin at synu
 

Categories and Ranking

Salesforce Service Cloud
Ranking in Help Desk Software
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (2nd), Knowledge Management Software (4th), IT Alerting and Incident Management (6th)
ServiceNow
Ranking in Help Desk Software
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
224
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (1st), IT Service Management (ITSM) (1st), Rapid Application Development Software (2nd), No-Code Development Platforms (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Salesforce Service Cloud is 2.0%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow is 13.1%, down from 24.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Help Desk Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
ServiceNow13.1%
Salesforce Service Cloud2.0%
Other84.9%
Help Desk Software
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2688993 - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Leverage top-tier automation capabilities while streamlining complex naming conventions
Salesforce Service Cloud offers pre-built packages that are best in class. The automation capabilities have evolved over time, consolidating previous features into Salesforce flows. However, these work best when everything is within Salesforce Service Cloud and everyone has a license. Without an enterprise MuleSoft license, external interactions complicate automation significantly.
SP
General Manager at sPerception IT
Adopting flexible workflows with customized automation delivers measurable benefits
There are things that I would like to see improved in ServiceNow, such as the pricing, as it is a very costly solution compared to other tools. Additionally, its presence in the local market is very limited; in Pakistan, for example, I don't see any vendor or distributor of ServiceNow available. They need to increase their sales spectrum globally so people can easily access them and engage them for client meetings and more. From a functionality perspective, the features in ServiceNow are acceptable as, at the moment, the ITSM modules rank highly, being 13 plus Pink Elephant certified, which is a good aspect to have. When providing advice to users, I would suggest they consider making strategic decisions about their per user pricing since it is very high. In our region, people normally start with 5 to 10 users, but the per user price is quite steep. Moreover, ServiceNow does not charge based on data uploaded or downloaded, so they should reconsider their pricing and data policies to align better with the financial capabilities of the region.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
University
9%
Performing Arts
9%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business55
Midsize Enterprise35
Large Enterprise166
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Salesforce Service Cloud?
I do not have any knowledge of the cost regarding Salesforce Service Cloud.
What needs improvement with Salesforce Service Cloud?
I face challenges with Salesforce Service Cloud because it requires and is difficult to customize. It could be better in areas such as media; it does not handle media effectively, particularly with...
What is your primary use case for Salesforce Service Cloud?
I am not a user, partner, reseller, or implementer as we implemented it ourselves. We do SLA management through Salesforce Service Cloud, which is the role of Service Analytics.
Which solution is better for developing non-ITSM applications: OutSystems or Service Now?
The short answer is that OutSystems is far better for 2 main reasons. Firstly, with Service Now you are locked into that platform for good. The business model is to lock in and then keep pumping th...
Would you choose ServiceNow over Microsoft PowerApps?
Hi Netanya, I will choose ServiceNow because ServiceNow is a very good tool compared to Microsoft PowerApp. Because ServiceNow has a very strong module (Performance Analysis) reporting which will ...
What do you like most about ServiceNow?
The solution has a user-friendly interface.
 

Also Known As

Service Cloud
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Stanley Black & Decker, Coca-Cola, Activision, Wells Fargo, Spotify, Aldo, Philips, The Red Cross, Blue Shield of California, Sprouts Farmers Market, Direct Energy Solar, Inspirato, Kiva
AAA, AstraZeneca, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Broadcom, Christus Health, Epicor, Equinix, GE Capital, Intuit, KPMG, Loyola Marymount University, OshKosh, Quantas, RedHat, Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss Re, U.S. Department of Energy, Safeway, Yale University, and Zillow    
Find out what your peers are saying about Salesforce Service Cloud vs. ServiceNow and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.