ServiceNow vs SolarWinds Service Desk comparison

Why PeerSpot?

ServiceNow and SolarWinds are both solutions in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category. ServiceNow is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6, while SolarWinds is ranked #14 with an average rating of 9.0. Additionally, 92% of ServiceNow users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between ServiceNow and SolarWinds Service Desk based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two IT Service Management (ITSM) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed ServiceNow vs. SolarWinds Service Desk Report (Updated: November 2026).

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow vs. SolarWinds Service Desk

November 2026

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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

Automation Anywhere

Featured Reviews

Nadeem K.

Rpa Developer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

Automation has freed teams from repetitive finance and supply tasks and supports global operations

In the current organization, we had trouble initially because I think the documentation and support could be better than what it is now. This is one difference between Automation Anywhere and other RPA tools such as UiPath. In UiPath, if you have an issue, you go to the UiPath website and search for it, and you get lots of help materials. In Automation Anywhere, you do not get exactly what you are looking for. You get a very large number of results when you search for something, and from this large result set, you have to filter out what you need, or only partial information will be available. User handbooks are available for each product. In that regard, I would say Automation Anywhere is lagging compared to other RPA tools. It is difficult to get hold of their customer support team. I want to clarify that it is not a matter of us building logic on Automation Anywhere and it failing. When it is a product-related issue, they have to give us support because we only know how to develop within Automation Anywhere. We do not know how to fix Automation Anywhere itself. Whenever we have an issue, trying to get in touch with them always takes three to four business days.

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Hemanthreddy Vakiti

Data Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Structured workflows have improved SLA compliance and now support prioritized incident handling

I think the licensing and pricing of ServiceNow is quite expensive compared to other tools. For large organizations, it is acceptable, but specifically for small and medium organizations to track incidents or change requests, ServiceNow is quite expensive. Sometimes performance can be slow when workflows and integrations are configured for complex tasks. For advanced customizations or advanced features which we rarely use, the documentation is not up to standard. The documentation needs to be improved for advanced customization features. However, the platform is stable overall and the features are quite good. The user experience and performance concerns I mentioned are areas I want to be improved. When many workflows and interactions are configured, performance is slow. For the features it is providing, it is quite expensive. If these performance features are improved, we can easily pay that price and get the return on investment.

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Vaibhav Patkar

CISO at Orient Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Improved service requests and network monitoring have increased efficiency but integration needs work

SolarWinds Service Desk is a recognized product across the world and a dependable product. Kaseya is somewhat dated, and SolarWinds Service Desk has better connectivity in terms of superior integration facilities compared to Kaseya. Additionally, SolarWinds Service Desk offers multiple options within the same tool, including ITSM as well as NOC and network monitoring capabilities. SolarWinds Service Desk has much greater acceptability in the market and a wide range of implementations and integrations with various tools and applications. Life becomes simpler when choosing a standard product, whereas Kaseya may not be as highly regarded in the market. SolarWinds Service Desk may have some flaws, but work is being done to address them. SolarWinds Service Desk is an affordable product. SolarWinds Service Desk is suitable for all customers ranging from small to enterprise. There are some small customers, and the primary usage is within the company itself, and then as customers require it, access can be provided to them.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We are able to satisfy our clients in ways that we did not think was possible."

"I like the new GenAI and Automation Co-Pilot, which is something like attended automation."

"It can be easily learned by anyone who spends a bit of time with it."

"Automation Anywhere offers a complete suite of development tools to empower developers for various enterprise automation needs."

"Automation Anywhere's most valuable features include its end-to-end capabilities within a single platform. It offers desktop automation, unattended automation, a recorder for tasks, and advanced IDP capability, which means that I can handle everything from basic cutting and pasting to advanced use cases. With Automation Anywhere, I don't need multiple other tools to automate end-to-end processes. I only need one additional chatbot tool, assuming conversational AI is part of the solution. If I don't have chatbots, all the capabilities are built into the platform."

"The way it integrates with subsystems is impressive. When automating business processes, there might be multiple systems in use. Automation Anywhere provides various ways to connect, such as by directly using backend APIs or using the frontend. This is incredibly useful."

"Automation Anywhere has had a huge impact in my organization, especially in saving time and compliance-related process automation by reducing errors drastically and ensuring quick processing of requests with proper logs available for the audit team."

"Improved Efficiency : Post RPA services, the efficiency and accuracy of the processes have increased tremendously and now the employees can focus more on important research and analysis work."

More Automation Anywhere pros

"The product is extremely stable, with no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze, making it very reliable and not problematic at all."

"We are very happy with the product."

"The workflow makes things extremely efficient and it improves effectiveness."

"Very good incident management, chain management and problem management features."

"It's ease of use, extensibility and just the ability to take it out of the box and use it with minimal custom configuration."

"I would tell you to take a look at it; it's a great product, get a demo and get familiar with it, because you can pretty much do anything you need to do with it."

"If you are looking for something that you can bring into your organization to be more than just a single purpose, if you are looking to truly transform your organization with the tools that you are using, ServiceNow is the go-to."

"I have definitely seen a positive impact of ServiceNow on our company and customer processes, including time savings and money savings."

More ServiceNow pros

"SolarWinds Service Desk is a recognized product across the world and a dependable product."

"What I appreciate the most about the product is that, as per the name given, it brings better visibility to the client in terms of their infrastructure, application, and performance."

"The solution is very stable."

Cons

"The Automation Anywhere Control room component features can be improved, as of now it contains too many roles and rules which makes it confusing to use it."

"Copilot is an area with a lot of scope for improvement. It's the number one thing to improve."

"In order to score nine or ten, they still need to provide more flexibility and integration with other tools and options."

"We have found that the passwords are not very stable in terms of their accuracy. We could only get 70 percent accuracy in these cases. Our clients require more accurate results. We are working toward this."

"I noticed that from version 10.5 to 11.3 the number of clicks to start a bot through the Control Room and Schedule Manager have increased. In certain cases, I would like to see that become simpler, faster, and easier."

"Logging into Automation Anywhere takes some time. I use it frequently, and each login currently takes some time. A reduction in this time would be helpful."

"The human training area is still something that needs to be improved. It's not so much the actual technology learning, but rather how you bring this to life with all the peripheral competencies that are needed for it."

"Automation Anywhere should make it easier for developers to manage queues and exception handling. The OCR component could also be better. We have had to use other OCR tools to get information from the account documents."

More Automation Anywhere cons

"I don't know where that's going to end because at some point ServiceNow will become a marlock and people will turn away from a 'one solution fits all' and go more into the niches again."

"There should be fewer clicks and faster integrations between solutions."

"Its stability and pricing need improvement."

"There should be greater integration with other enterprise applications. We're using Microsoft, Oracle, and other applications, and it would be good to have a greater integration on some of the immediate hiccups that you have with these services. It doesn't mean that when we have a problem with using another application, ServiceNow should be able to fix it, but ServiceNow should be able to alert us to things. There should be a bit more automation or integration."

"I would say database or data visibility. In fact, I think for me, I'm going for the physical side, most of the people like to access data without any constraints."

"I'd like to have an offline mode. For us, we do a lot of workforce management."

"It should enhance its offerings by providing the chance to obtain course certifications at an affordable fee."

"Reaching beyond IT asset management is the biggest challenge to ServiceNow right now."

More ServiceNow cons

"The integration with other applications can use improvement because, for example, it was nearly impossible to integrate SolarWinds Service Desk with monday.com because we had to get an add-on from Zapier."

"The primary concern so far is the integration part because of the APIs; this is the main area of concern."

"The only additional features I would like to see in the future, to make it closer to perfection, are intelligent features that are currently being developed on the cloud platform and not on the on-premise model."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is fantastic. It has been great. It is perfectly priced for the quality received. When paying for quality, that is exactly what you get."

"I am not involved in the pricing, but based on what I hear from our central RPA team, it is not very expensive; it is also not cheap. Its price is in the midrange."

"If we talk about the automation RPA. it definitely has worked very well for us. I'm talking about giving good savings, about more than 180 FTE savings, after implementing more than 200 plus bots. It has worked well. As an organization, it has supported us very well, and also for our customers."

"It depends. For example, for my group, we are centralizing the infrastructure in Paris. Our contract is signed with Automation Anywhere in France. The currency and the pricing of Automation Anywhere in France can appear beneficial and interesting for Germany and Scandinavian countries, but when we share our infra and are internally charging other countries such as Poland, Brazil, or some other country with a lower currency value as compared to Euro, it becomes less beneficial. They would prefer to sign the contract directly with Automation Anywhere because they will benefit from a price that is as per their local market."

"Our licensing costs are setup on an annual basis."

"Costs savings have been seen by employing bots for multiple shifts instead of people."

"Time and monetary savings can range from 20 to 90 percent."

"Annual licensing costs would be about $100,000."

More Automation Anywhere pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is on the high side, but if you look at the stability and option to work, it's kind of justified."

"Initially, the licensing model ServiceNow came up with was very good. But now, from a licensing perspective, they are changing their model day by day. It is becoming a bit expensive for customers."

"$230 per user."

"I am from Brazil. For Latin American markets, ServiceNow is very expensive as compared to other vendors, such as VMware."

"They could be more competitive with their licensing."

"The license model is based on a number of fulfillers (active users who play some role within the ServiceNow functionality). Therefore, you can serve as many end-users as you want, without additional costs."

"While the option exists to pay for a monthly license, we are dealing with large enterprises and these typically involve multi-year licenses of ten or five years, at a minimum."

"Getting the solution up and running is expensive."

More ServiceNow pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Outsourcing Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Outsourcing Company

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

28%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	162
Midsize Enterprise	86
Large Enterprise	565

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	57
Midsize Enterprise	35
Large Enterprise	179

No data available

Questions from the Community

How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

It depends on your use case. Is it simply to automate a couple of processes? Is it to augment a human team? AA is ver...

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How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

From my experience using AA tool, it depends on the applications that you want to automate, because there some applic...

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How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

It is a highly preferred RPA tool. You can check my Automation Anywhere Review to know more.

See all answers

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 t...

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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 ...

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What is the cost of implementation and maintenance of ServiceNow?

Nobody can give you a clean percentage without knowing your license tier, but here’s how I’d budget it, based on what...

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What needs improvement with SolarWinds Service Desk?

The primary concern so far is the integration part because of the APIs; this is the main area of concern. Currently, ...

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What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Service Desk?

SolarWinds Service Desk is used for ITSM and network monitoring purposes. The major use cases being utilized are from...

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What advice do you have for others considering SolarWinds Service Desk?

I think the pricing of SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability is now comparative and suited to our business model, whi...

See all answers

Comparisons

UiPath Platform vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 10% of the time

Blue Prism vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Power Automate vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 4% of the time

AutomationEdge vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 3% of the time

Appian vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 2% of the time

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IBM Maximo Application Suite vs ServiceNow

Compared 7% of the time

BMC Helix ITSM vs ServiceNow

Compared 4% of the time

JIRA Service Management vs ServiceNow

Compared 3% of the time

Zendesk vs ServiceNow

Compared 3% of the time

Airtable vs ServiceNow

Compared 3% of the time

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Samanage vs SolarWinds Service Desk

Compared 22% of the time

JIRA Service Management vs SolarWinds Service Desk

Compared 19% of the time

Atera vs SolarWinds Service Desk

Compared 12% of the time

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs SolarWinds Service Desk

Compared 7% of the time

BMC Helix ITSM vs SolarWinds Service Desk

Compared 6% of the time

More SolarWinds Service Desk Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Automation Anywhere

November 2026

Download Automation Anywhere product report

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow

October 2026

Download ServiceNow product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Service Desk

October 2026

Download SolarWinds Service Desk product report

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)

No data available

Interactive Demo

Automation Anywhere

Demo not available

ServiceNow

Demo not available

SolarWinds

Overview

Automation Anywhere offers ease of use, robust system connectivity, and GenAI-driven document automation through a cloud-native platform, significantly enhancing productivity across multiple industries with advanced AI features.

Delivering a comprehensive suite of tools designed for easy integration and rapid deployment, Automation Anywhere drives efficiency by reducing costs and automating repetitive tasks. Its cloud-native platform supports broad industry adoption, including advanced AI features like process automation and Co-Pilot, streamlining complex workflows with minimal technical skills required. Users benefit from robust integration capabilities, which facilitate seamless interaction with multiple systems. However, there is room for improvement in areas such as user-friendliness for beginners, stability, flexible licensing, and enhanced OCR functionality. Organizations in sectors such as banking, finance, manufacturing, and healthcare gain from the improved operational efficiency and ROI Automation Anywhere offers.

What are the important features of Automation Anywhere?

Ease of Use: Simplifies automation tasks with a user-centric interface.
Robust Connectivity: Provides seamless integration with multiple systems.
GenAI-Driven Document Automation: Leverages AI to automate document management.
Process Automation & Co-Pilot: Enhances workflow automation with advanced AI.
Cloud-Native Platform: Enables rapid deployment and integration.

What benefits should be evaluated in reviews?

Time Savings: Automation drastically reduces manual processing time.
Cost Efficiency: Decreases overall operational costs by automating tasks.
Productivity Enhancement: Streamlines workflows with AI-driven tools.
Improved Integration: Enhances ability to work with multiple systems.
Scalability: Supports growth with a flexible cloud-native architecture.

In the insurance industry, Automation Anywhere is utilized for automating processes such as enrollment management and compliance checks. Its applications extend to supply chain management, financial transactions, and business performance monitoring across sectors like banking, finance, manufacturing, and healthcare, helping organizations to automate routine tasks, improve efficiency, and reduce costs.

Automation Anywhere

ServiceNow offers customizability and cloud-based integration that sustains operational efficiency. Enabling change and incident management, it accelerates workflow automation and project management without downtime issues, serving deployment needs for IT service and productivity enhancements.

ServiceNow stands out with its adaptable workflows and cloud-native infrastructure, boosting IT service, project, and asset management. Known for its robust incident and change management, the platform addresses business needs through its user-centric design and extensive integration options. By facilitating seamless IT operations and automation, ServiceNow empowers businesses to enhance productivity and efficiency. Regular updates ensure users benefit from the latest features without service interruptions, although pricing and licensing complexities demand attention. Users seek improved reporting tools and a more intuitive design while expressing interest in refined mobile functionality and better documentation.

What are the key features of ServiceNow?

Customizability: Enables tailored workflows to align with business processes.
Cloud-Based Integration: Allows seamless updates and operational sustainability.
Incident and Change Management: Supports efficient handling of IT-related issues.
Automation Capabilities: Automates repetitive tasks, enhancing productivity.
User-Friendly Design: Simplifies navigation and improves user interaction.
Comprehensive Reporting: Provides detailed insights for better decision-making.

What benefits and ROI should users anticipate from ServiceNow?

Improved Efficiency: Streamlines processes and reduces manual efforts.
Enhanced Productivity: Automates tasks, enabling focus on strategic initiatives.
Seamless Operations: Integrates across departments for unified management.
Effective IT Management: Smooth incident, change, and problem resolution.
Cost and Time Savings: Reduces operational costs through efficient workflow management.

ServiceNow finds implementation across industries like IT, HR, asset management, and help desks, addressing ticketing and configuration needs. Businesses use its dashboard for tracking performance metrics, enhancing decision-making in departments like HR service delivery. Its adaptability also makes it suitable for industries requiring robust operational management and process automation, driving efficiency and growth.

ServiceNow

SolarWinds Service Desk provides IT service management capabilities designed to streamline service delivery and enhance the efficiency of IT operations, catering to a knowledgeable audience looking for effective IT solutions.

It offers comprehensive functionality for IT service management. Utilizing automation and advanced analytics, it improves workflow management and incident resolution times. With cloud-based architecture, it ensures easy access and scalability. Features enable effective tracking, reporting, and management, making it a sought-after choice for IT teams seeking efficient service management.

What are the most important features of SolarWinds Service Desk?

Incident Management: Streamlines the resolution process to manage incidents efficiently.
Service Catalog: Allows customization of service offerings to meet specific requirements.
Automation: Automates routine tasks to boost operational productivity.
Change Management: Facilitates controlled change processes with risk assessment capabilities.
Asset Management: Provides detailed tracking and management of IT assets.

What benefits and ROI can users expect from SolarWinds Service Desk?

Reduced Downtime: Minimizes service interruptions, improving operational continuity.
Cost Efficiency: Lowers operational costs through optimized workflows and automation.
Scalability: Grows with business needs, supporting evolving requirements.
Enhanced Productivity: Increases team efficiency with a streamlined service management framework.
Improved Satisfaction: Boosts end-user satisfaction with prompt service delivery and resolution.

In industries such as healthcare and education, SolarWinds Service Desk is implemented to improve compliance and service quality. IT departments benefit from its flexible workflows that adhere to specific sector regulations. Customizable features cater to specific requirements, ensuring effective service management across different sectors.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics

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

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow vs. SolarWinds Service Desk

November 2026

Free Report: ServiceNow vs. SolarWinds Service Desk

Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow vs. SolarWinds Service Desk and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.

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