ServiceNow Discovery vs Zenoss Cloud comparison

ServiceNow and Zenoss are both solutions in the Server Monitoring category. ServiceNow is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.0, while Zenoss is ranked #26. ServiceNow holds a 3.3% mindshare in SM, compared to Zenoss’s 1.7% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of ServiceNow users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Zenoss users who would recommend it.

ServiceNow Discovery

Read 44 ServiceNow Discovery reviews

3,616 Views
1,916 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Zenoss Cloud

Read 8 Zenoss Cloud reviews

2,016 Views
444 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

ServiceNow Discovery

Zenoss Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

Zenoss Cloud and ServiceNow Discovery are two leading IT operations management solutions. Zenoss Cloud holds the upper hand in ease of deployment and customer support, while ServiceNow Discovery excels in features and overall user satisfaction.

Features: Users value Zenoss Cloud's real-time alerting, extensive monitoring capabilities, and ease of deployment. ServiceNow Discovery is praised for its comprehensive asset discovery, integration with IT Service Management, and robust feature set, making it preferable for users needing in-depth asset management.

Room for Improvement: Zenoss Cloud could improve its scalability, integrations, and feature breadth. ServiceNow Discovery needs enhancements in dashboard customization, speed, and system complexity. Both products exhibit areas for growth, but Zenoss Cloud’s improvements are focused on expanding integration capabilities, whereas ServiceNow Discovery should enhance user experience facets.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zenoss Cloud users report quick deployment times and responsive customer service. ServiceNow Discovery’s deployment is considered more complex and time-consuming, though its customer service is well-rated but not as prompt as Zenoss Cloud’s.

Pricing and ROI: Zenoss Cloud is highlighted for its reasonable setup costs and good ROI. ServiceNow Discovery, though more expensive, offers extensive features and higher ROI as perceived by users. Zenoss Cloud is framed as more cost-effective but ServiceNow Discovery provides higher long-term value.

To learn more, read our detailed ServiceNow Discovery vs. Zenoss Cloud Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Discovery vs. Zenoss Cloud

January 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 881,082 peers since 2012

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

ServiceNow Discovery

Ranking in Server Monitoring

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Asset Management (6th), Cloud Resource Discovery Services (1st)

Zenoss Cloud

Ranking in Server Monitoring

26th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Infrastructure (28th), Event Monitoring (13th), Network Monitoring Software (76th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (52nd), Container Monitoring (7th), Cloud Monitoring Software (43rd), AIOps (24th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Server Monitoring category, the mindshare of ServiceNow Discovery is 3.3%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zenoss Cloud is 1.7%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Server Monitoring Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
ServiceNow Discovery	3.3%
Zenoss Cloud	1.7%
Other	95.0%

Server Monitoring

Featured Reviews

reviewer2759271

Manager, Solution/Service Delivery at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Has supported enterprise needs well and addresses discovery across environments

Small companies will not be able to afford ServiceNow Discovery from the pricing perspective. Hence, they will not opt for ServiceNow Discovery as a solution, either as an ITSM solution or ITOM solution. It will not be affordable. I am specifically talking about the Middle East and Africa region. ServiceNow ITOM is particularly not very strong in terms of monitoring capabilities. They do not have any monitoring tool. They use event management from getting events from other tools. In that front, they had a roadmap for going for an open-source solution, but I have not seen that materialize. There is a lack of tools perspective for monitoring. Perhaps they do not have a plan because there are hundreds of tools available, and they prefer to focus on integration and event management.

Read full review

ClaudiaChen

Cloud Architect - Senior Technology Architect at Telstra

Generates close to real-time alerts so users can resolve issues, but needs more integration and public cloud monitoring features

As Zenoss Service Dynamics is more for network-centric devices and you want to monitor, for example, a server, its services, IP addresses, and interfaces, if it's a network and you're going to monitor multiple items, you'll be charged multiple times. This is what Zenoss Service Dynamics needs to improve to make sure that customers pay just one fee to monitor the entire server. What I'd like to see in Zenoss Service Dynamics in the future is a public cloud monitoring feature, particularly for the Azure public cloud. Another additional feature I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is integration with the Azure public cloud because I know that there are some services from Azure that Zenoss Service Dynamics is currently unable to monitor.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Most fields on our forms are auto-filled, reducing manual maintenance for our infrastructure team. Post Discovery implementation there is hardly any maintenance."

"ServiceNow Discovery works better than other products I've used."

"It's a single system of record and it captures the relationships."

"The best part about ServiceNow Discovery is that it is included in the ServiceNow suite."

"It's pretty robust, and it's agentless for the most part. So, you don't need to deploy agents, which makes it a lot easier to stand up."

"I find that the Discovery and scripting features are the most useful."

"It is a stable solution...The initial setup of the product is straightforward."

"ServiceNow's Discovery feature is quite significant because it allows for service mapping and integrates with VIN management. It involves adding a business context to servers, routers, switches, and data centers. This means understanding not only what's installed on these systems and how they function together but also recognizing their significance in terms of business applications from the business's perspective and how they impact business processes and capabilities. So when we delve into these aspects and connect them to the essential components, it can help you engage in more meaningful discussions to enhance capacity management practices. In essence, it contributes to the overall IT portfolio, almost functioning as a business platform. This platform is accessible to users who leverage the data to initiate incidents, implement changes, and resolve problems. Consequently, consolidating all configuration items or assets into a unified platform makes sense, especially considering you already have Discovery in place. If the cost is reasonable, the other two components might not provide much value, except for their user-friendliness, which is often less important to leaders compared to the desired outcomes."

More ServiceNow Discovery pros

"They have also accommodated many state-of-the-art technologies like Docker and ZooKeeper."

"The most valuable feature is the flexible discovery mechanism."

"The custom built integration is one of the most valuable features because you can see all the especially critical items."

"It's easy to use."

"The product offers good documentation that helps with initial training."

"Its Docker Container concept is mind blowing. It is the first monitoring tool which comes with Docker features."

"What I like most about Zenoss Service Dynamics is that it monitors the devices and gives close to real-time alerts. For example, in case the device is not available, Zenoss Service Dynamics generates an alert so my team can resolve the issue."

Cons

"Without improvement in the patters, applications can't be discovered"

"The solution is too high priced."

"The current limitation requires having mid servers or discovery servers in each data center for proper discovery, hindering the ability to discover assets across continents such as Asia Pacific and Europe."

"I cannot tie CMDB at this stage with strategic planning regarding ServiceNow Discovery ability to maintain accurate data in CMDB."

"The initial setup could be made easier. We hired professionals to implement it, and they trained our employees for ongoing processes."

"The product should improve its customer interface, web interface, and front end. I would like to see the integration of keyboard chat with the solution."

"ServiceNow Discovery could improve the interface. The navigation bar could improve. It would be helpful to have a landing page to go to find all the elements in one place."

"Whenever you try to discover something with the solution, you get errors that are not descriptive enough."

More ServiceNow Discovery cons

"As Zenoss Service Dynamics is more for network-centric devices and you want to monitor, for example, a server, its services, IP addresses, and interfaces, if it's a network and you're going to monitor multiple items, you'll be charged multiple times. This is what Zenoss Service Dynamics needs to improve to make sure that customers pay just one fee to monitor the entire server. What I'd like to see in Zenoss Service Dynamics in the future is a public cloud monitoring feature, particularly for the Azure public cloud. Another additional feature I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is integration with the Azure public cloud because I know that there are some services from Azure that Zenoss Service Dynamics is currently unable to monitor."

"The inclusion of a feature to show a graphical view of the network would be a helpful improvement."

"It would be ideal if the product offered sound alerts."

"There was a problem with Zenoss and storage monitoring."

"Now it is stable, but they should design threshold parameters in percentage instead of raw values."

"The AI aspect needs to improve."

"There is room for improvement with the administrative part. They introduced Control Center to manage things in Zenoss 5. The services that Zenoss provides remained the same, but the administrative part, since they introduced Docker, etc., has become a little complex"

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is not recommended for smaller companies because of the price."

"ServiceNow Discovery has very broad pricing, so it becomes costly. It would be better if it had a pay-as-you-use licensing model because the total cost of ownership is quite high."

"It costs a lot. It is probably close to over a hundred thousand. It's an expensive platform, but you can't compare ServiceNow's Discovery functionality to other discovery tools. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison of ServiceNow to a configuration management tool to an asset management tool because it does those things, but it's not those things."

"If the product is not deployed properly, it can be very expensive."

"The solution is very expensive."

"Setting up and licensing for ServiceNow can be expensive, especially for enterprise service management."

"There is a subscription for ServiceNow Discovery. It's expensive, but I think it's one of the best solutions on the market, so it's worth it."

"It's a bit expensive compared to other products in the market, but it's worth the money you pay because it's far advanced in terms of features, automation, and capabilities compared to other products."

More ServiceNow Discovery pricing and cost advice

"The pricing depends on the environment, the number of services, and the size of the data center. It can go from $100,000 to a million dollars."

"It depends on the customer, what he wants."

"There are additional costs you'll have to pay apart from the license fee for Zenoss Service Dynamics. I can't remember exactly how much my company is paying because I don't handle the finance part, but the cost is paid annually. On a scale of one to five, with one being the cheapest and five being the most expensive, I'm rating the solution three out of five."

"It is very cost-effective compared to the tools I worked with in the past. The company is gaining a lot with respect to the cost factor. It provides agentless monitoring and in a very cheap way."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Server Monitoring solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	23

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Large Enterprise	5

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ServiceNow Discovery?

The solution can prioritize the discovery of IP ranges. The product automatically places all Discovery CIs into the correct class within the CMDB.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Discovery?

The pricing information for ServiceNow Discovery was requested but not provided.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ServiceNow Discovery?

A CMDB debugging tool to give indication about the errors that appear would be appreciated.

See all answers

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

In my experience, I worked with many monitoring software, but the one that gave me the most functionalities of a large-scale company is Zenoss, due to its ability to monitor completely hybrid and a...

See all answers

Comparisons

Tanium vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 18% of the time

Lansweeper vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 14% of the time

BMC Helix Discovery vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 10% of the time

Flexera One vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 6% of the time

More ServiceNow Discovery Competitors

Nagios XI vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 7% of the time

Zabbix vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 6% of the time

SCOM vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 5% of the time

Nagios Core vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 5% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

More Zenoss Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Discovery

January 2026

Download ServiceNow Discovery product report

Buyer's Guide

Zenoss Cloud

January 2026

Download Zenoss Cloud product report

Also Known As

No data available

Cloud Monitoring, Zenoss Service Dynamics

Overview

ServiceNow Discovery finds applications and devices on your network, and then updates the CMDB with the information it finds. Discovery is available as a separate subscription from the rest of the Now Platform.

ServiceNow

Zenoss Cloud revolutionizes IT infrastructure monitoring with a service-centric approach, prioritizing the overall health of services and applications. Harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AIOps), Zenoss Cloud offers end-to-end visibility across servers, networks, storage, and applications. Real-time monitoring, event correlation, and automated remediation ensure immediate insights and efficient issue resolution. The customizable dashboards empower users to tailor visualizations to their needs, while scalability accommodates diverse infrastructures. Zenoss Cloud guarantees improved application performance, reduced downtime, and enhanced IT efficiency, making it an ideal choice for businesses of all sizes, from small enterprises seeking simplicity to large corporations requiring advanced scalability. Experience unified monitoring and proactive management with Zenoss Cloud, a comprehensive solution that transforms IT infrastructure optimization in today's complex environments.

Zenoss

Sample Customers

York, National Grid, DXC Technology, experian, BEACHBODY

2degrees, Rackspace, State of North Dakota, El Paso Independent School District, NWN Corporation

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Discovery vs. Zenoss Cloud

January 2026

Free Report: ServiceNow Discovery vs. Zenoss Cloud

Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow Discovery vs. Zenoss Cloud and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our ServiceNow Discovery vs. Zenoss Cloud report.

See our list of best Server Monitoring vendors.

We monitor all Server Monitoring reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.