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ServiceNow vs Zendesk comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 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
7.0
Organizations experience varied ROI from ServiceNow, often seeing efficiency gains and cost savings, but face adoption challenges.
Sentiment score
7.3
Zendesk offers cost efficiency and improved productivity, with ROI influenced by alignment with operational needs and process integration.
They have removed the costs associated with on-prem infrastructure, including data center costs, power costs, and physical server costs.
The return on investment is good when implementing for ourselves and for other clients.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
ServiceNow excels in customer service responsiveness, but technical support quality varies, particularly with complex issues, prompting community reliance.
Sentiment score
7.0
Zendesk receives praise for responsiveness and ease of use, but some users desire better chat features and human interaction.
The support is exemplary and deserves a perfect rating.
Obtaining support for maintenance is the current challenge because they don't have a presence in the local market.
I rate the technical support of ServiceNow as a nine on a scale of one to ten.
The technical support provided by Zendesk has been very satisfactory.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
ServiceNow excels in scalable cloud infrastructure, supporting smooth expansions across organizations by following best practices and upgrading hardware.
Sentiment score
7.5
Zendesk is praised for scalability and customization, although some face initial setup challenges and structural integration issues.
There are no limitations or performance issues with ServiceNow; it is cloud-based, so it is highly scalable and performs well.
It is capable of vertical scaling with no issues.
I rate the scalability of ServiceNow as an eight on a scale of one to ten.
Zendesk can scale from very small companies to very large ones.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
ServiceNow is highly stable with excellent uptime, strong support, and impressive reliability, though scalability issues occur with heavy customizations.
Sentiment score
7.9
Zendesk is stable with minimal downtimes, reliable performance, occasional minor issues, and high reliability ratings, especially for smaller businesses.
It is cloud-based, so it is highly scalable and performs well.
I rate the stability of ServiceNow as a nine on a scale of one to ten.
ServiceNow is already a stable tool.
The stability has been quite reliable.
 

Room For Improvement

ServiceNow needs pricing, usability, and support enhancements, including better documentation, UI, integration, and global support for improvement.
Zendesk faces challenges with data management, flexibility, integration, user-friendliness, and customer communication, while users are dissatisfied with support and pricing.
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.
Their customer support could make it a great solution, not just product support but also their relationship with partners and training initiatives in different regions.
The initial setup of ServiceNow was easy for me, and I can easily access the knowledge base, pass tickets to another team through internal notes, and each individual will get a personal email when a ticket is placed into their queue.
There could be improvements in integration, which can be achieved with APIs or tools like Zapier.
 

Setup Cost

ServiceNow's pricing is higher due to licensing complexity, requiring negotiation for better deals despite unlimited end-users being supported.
Enterprise buyers find Zendesk's pricing high but valuable, with costs varying by agent count and business needs for tailored solutions.
ServiceNow's pricing can be justified if more functionality is required.
ServiceNow is expensive for all regions.
It is not the cheapest solution nor the most expensive, but it provides value for money.
 

Valuable Features

ServiceNow enhances IT operations with flexible integration, customization, and modules, offering efficiency, automation, and seamless cloud-based upgrades.
Zendesk offers user-friendly ticket management, seamless integrations, multi-channel support, and robust security for efficient and productive customer service.
Automation capabilities are impressive, bolstered by a vast repository of out-of-the-box connectors and plugins that facilitate integration with various applications worldwide.
ServiceNow provides a wide range of functionality, covering all the necessary modules, unlike Jira which is primarily for IT.
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 allows us to handle more support cases with fewer people due to its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities.
 

Categories and Ranking

ServiceNow
Ranking in Help Desk Software
1st
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
219
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (1st), Rapid Application Development Software (2nd), No-Code Development Platforms (1st)
Zendesk
Ranking in Help Desk Software
9th
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (7th), CRM (19th), Sales Force Automation (7th), Reporting (13th), Knowledge Management Software (4th), Community Platforms (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of ServiceNow is 23.4%, down from 26.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 4.3%, up from 4.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Help Desk Software
 

Featured Reviews

Somnath Kand - PeerSpot reviewer
Custom integration and reporting lead to efficient ticket management
There is a need for bug or error tracking in ServiceNow. Although there are child incidents or tickets, tracking primary issues or bugs within enhancements is not present. The reporting features in the new portal could be more user-friendly. While it provides options to minimize chart and image sizes, actual implementation doesn't always reflect these changes.
JohanSkibdahl - PeerSpot reviewer
Automating customer support with advanced AI capabilities and seamless communication
Zendesk has been invaluable in automating communications such as email and phone calls. It allows us to handle more support cases with fewer people due to its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities. This intelligent tool can manage complex queries before users even realize they are interacting with a non-human. Additionally, we have integrated Zendesk with Datto and Klaviyo ( /products/klaviyo-reviews ), enhancing our workflows.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
26%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
24%
Educational Organization
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
What do you like most about Zendesk Support?
I found the user experience with vendors on Zendesk to be straightforward, especially when it comes to understanding and searching for specific tickets. The search and navigation tools are easy to ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zendesk Support?
Zendesk's pricing is reasonable. It is not the cheapest solution nor the most expensive, but it provides value for money.
What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?
There could be improvements in integration, which can be achieved with APIs or tools like Zapier ( /products/zapier-reviews ). However, easier integration could enhance the usability. Multilingual ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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    
Mailchimp, Tesco, Vimeo, Instacart, Mediaocean, Slack, Uber
Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow vs. Zendesk and other solutions. Updated: May 2025.
851,491 professionals have used our research since 2012.