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ServiceNow vs Zoho Desk 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
7.0
Organizations experience varied ROI from ServiceNow, often seeing efficiency gains and cost savings, but face adoption challenges.
Sentiment score
6.8
Zoho Desk offers ROI through cost-control and analytics, but requires expertise for optimal configuration and effective use.
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.
The Zoho platform is powerful when used correctly, but without a specialist, it is not simple to configure and make full use of the tools.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
ServiceNow excels in customer service responsiveness, but technical support quality varies, particularly with complex issues, prompting community reliance.
Sentiment score
7.5
Zoho Desk support is praised for its quick response and reliability, despite occasional technical comprehension issues.
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 experience was satisfactory
I find the response time in emails to be very good, and the solutions provided are simple.
 

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
8.0
Zoho Desk is scalable, efficient for any company size, with high reviews despite minor ticket handling 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.
 

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
8.1
Zoho Desk is praised for stability and reliability, with most users rating it 7-9, despite minor server issues.
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.
 

Room For Improvement

ServiceNow needs pricing, usability, and support enhancements, including better documentation, UI, integration, and global support for improvement.
Zoho Desk users desire better integration, enhanced features, improved support, and customizable modules while finding pricing high.
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.
Zoho Desk could be improved by making it multi-tenant, as it is currently not suitable for service providers with multiple customers.
The main concern is the pricing of Zoho Desk, as I consider it to be on the expensive side.
 

Setup Cost

ServiceNow's pricing is higher due to licensing complexity, requiring negotiation for better deals despite unlimited end-users being supported.
Zoho Desk offers flexible subscription pricing, starting from $10 per user monthly, with variations based on package and region.
ServiceNow's pricing can be justified if more functionality is required.
ServiceNow is expensive for all regions.
The pricing for each user is around $350, with penalties if not all users in a company are licensed.
The price point is a concern.
 

Valuable Features

ServiceNow enhances IT operations with flexible integration, customization, and modules, offering efficiency, automation, and seamless cloud-based upgrades.
Zoho Desk offers a user-friendly interface, customization, integration, automation, and mobile access for seamless multi-channel 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.
Maintenance is easy, and one person is sufficient for handling it, aided by a thorough handoff of key pointers facilitating easier initial setup.
The AI tool, Tele Zia, translates calls into bullet points, providing insights such as when to send emails or contact the customer based on previous conversations.
 

Categories and Ranking

ServiceNow
Ranking in Help Desk Software
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
219
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (1st), IT Service Management (ITSM) (1st), Rapid Application Development Software (2nd), No-Code Development Platforms (1st)
Zoho Desk
Ranking in Help Desk Software
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (6th)
 

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 Zoho Desk is 2.8%, up from 2.6% 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.
Babatunde-Olugbode - PeerSpot reviewer
End-to-end solution to manage customer support tickets and consolidate all communication channels into one platform
For me, the valuable features are related to customer engagement because I want to ensure I don't miss any customer inquiries, no matter the channel. For example, I haven't seen any other platform that consolidates all channels into one console. That's a valuable feature to me. Then there's the pricing, which is better than Zendesk. Zendesk charges in USD per user, per month, whereas Zoho let us pay in Naira (Nigerian currency). Zoho can also identify user locations, letting you leverage existing reviews. These are valuable features that many organizations have adopted Zoho Desk for. We can download the mobile app to see requests and respond from anywhere. It is one of the most improved applications and widely integrated systems I've worked with. You can virtually integrate it with almost anything, like Microsoft Teams and other data applications. The marketplace lets you find native integrations. For example, we have an organization that uses multiple systems and wants to ensure agents don't log in to multiple platforms to see emails. They have a native integration system that takes care of that and works seamlessly.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
26%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
51%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
4%
 

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 Zoho Desk?
The most valuable features of Zoho Desk are archiving queries and analytics.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zoho Desk?
The pricing in Brazil is complicated due to the high exchange rate, with one dollar equaling six reais. Altasnet has a favorable pricing from Zoho as an early account in Brazil, but current website...
What needs improvement with Zoho Desk?
Zoho Desk could be improved by making it multi-tenant, as it is currently not suitable for service providers with multiple customers. Additionally, Zoho Desk's potential would be fully realized wit...
 

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    
Intel, Sears, Daimler, Essilor, Aon Hewitt, Shop Your Way, CoffeeRocket
Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow vs. Zoho Desk and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.