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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 boosts ROI with improved efficiency, productivity, customer satisfaction, and significant KPI advancements, yielding a 135% ROI.
Sentiment score
6.5
ServiceNow enhances efficiency and ROI through automation, with payback periods ranging from three months to five years.
The ROI depends on the context; if I am comparing one application to another, it might be around ten percent, but if it is from manual to a streamlined process, the ROI is much higher—sometimes reaching forty percent for parts return and the first-time fix rate.
Preseales And Solution Head at Tata Consultancy
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 offers praised support but experiences vary; premium support and community engagement improve issue resolution.
Sentiment score
7.0
ServiceNow's customer service is responsive but can lack in-depth support, with experience varying by issue complexity and account size.
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 praised for its robust scalability, easily supporting growth and integrating across enterprise applications.
Sentiment score
7.4
ServiceNow offers excellent scalability, though custom setups may pose challenges; effective support ensures smooth integration and expansion.
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
I would rate scalability highly because it is scalable, and there are always parts or other improvements.
Preseales And Solution Head at Tata Consultancy
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, robust, and reliable, with occasional performance issues, and stability is valued despite its cost.
Sentiment score
7.7
ServiceNow users enjoy excellent stability and high performance, with minimal downtime and minor issues tied to customizations.
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 enhancements in integration, functionality, customization, performance, and user-friendly features for better efficiency and usability.
ServiceNow's customization flexibility leads to challenges with usability, cost, integration, and a need for improved interfaces and support.
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 is costly, yet negotiable and flexible, ideal for larger enterprises considering infrastructure and staffing savings.
ServiceNow's premium pricing offers broad functionality for enterprises, with negotiable fees and high costs for setup and customization.
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
Regarding pricing, I would say Salesforce field service is affordable, but the cost is increasing a little bit.
Preseales And Solution Head at Tata Consultancy
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 offers robust case management, integration, and customization, enhancing service operations with user-friendly, flexible features.
ServiceNow provides customizable, scalable IT management with automation and analytics, enhancing decision-making and adaptability across diverse business needs.
I can easily connect with the customer, have agent AI to directly communicate with them, and customers can create a case without any intervention.
Preseales And Solution Head at Tata Consultancy
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
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
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (1st), 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 February 2026, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Salesforce Service Cloud is 2.0%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow is 12.9%, down from 24.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Help Desk Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
ServiceNow12.9%
Salesforce Service Cloud2.0%
Other85.1%
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.
MT
Manager of Security Engineering & Architecture at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Seamless data integration and advanced automation improve service delivery efficiency
I think that nothing needs to be improved with the product; you just need the user to commit and spend appropriate time to overcome that learning curve. Once that is done, the product itself is pretty wonderful. I've seen a very nicely built interface with ServiceNow, and I've also seen the ugliest version that feels outdated. ServiceNow does allow that team to exist. They should modernize their fonts and their layout, the UI friendliness. They did introduce AI, chatbots, and AI on the back end, so that's wonderful and extremely useful if you train it. If you don't train it, it's pretty useless. Assessing the impact of ServiceNow's automation on service delivery times is complicated. The engineers who operate on ServiceNow find it isn't straightforward because the data set is accessible by everybody. The problem is that understanding how to manage that data set requires an enormous amount of engineering skill set to run the product. I would not hand the key to the customer; I would highly recommend that ServiceNow take control of that. Instead of offering support for the software, they should offer administrative support for the software. They should provide professional service or some kind of support system that allows us to use their product at a faster pace. I'm sure they offer something, but it's often outrageously expensive, or they rely on another company to resell their product and offer professional service. 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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
University
9%
Performing Arts
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise25
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: February 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.