Top 10 Alternatives to Solarwinds Service Desk

Solarwinds Service Desk has been around the block for quite some time and is indeed a powerful tool. 

But if you are having thoughts about switching to a better Solarwinds Service Desk alternative, you are not alone. A lot of users have complained about its outdated interface, lack of customization options, unreliable customer support, and more. 

Don’t worry as we have done the heavy lifting for you. 

After painstaking research and comparison, we have curated a list of 10 alternatives to Solarwids Service Desk that can prove to be great IT support solutions for your team. 

But before we begin with our list, let’s take a look at the price and feature comparison of the top 10 alternatives. 

Solarwinds Service Desk Alternatives Feature & Price Table

What is Solarwinds Service Desk? 

Solarwinds Service Desk is a modern IT Service Management (ITSM) solution that helps you automate incident management across the company. Whether employees work from the office, home, or in the field, they can easily submit tickets via email, phone calls, a service portal, mobile app, or even in-person. Moreover, you can create an employee service portal so that members from different departments can submit and track tickets. 

So how much does Solarwinds cost? The tool comes in four options – Team ($19/agent/month), Business ($39/agent/month), Professional ($69/agent/month), and Enterprise ($89/agent/month).

Why Look for Solarwinds Service Desk Alternatives?

Despite these features and benefits, why do people look for the best alternatives to Solarwinds Service Desk? 

Well, we have highlighted some of this tool that will make you realize why it might not be the best option for your team or business. Let’s have a look: 

• Complicated & Outdated Interface: Solarwinds Service Desk’s interface appears quite outdated and lacks that modern appeal. Due to overwhelming reports and functionalities, getting started with this tool can be time-consuming and frustrating. 

• The Basic Plan Misses Out on Key Features: Even though Solarwinds’s basic plan called Team costs $19/agent/month, it still does not live up to expectations. It misses out on some must-have features such as service catalog, change management, custom roles, and more. 

• Lack of Customization & Integration Options: This tool needs to offer more customization options to users. Moreover, considering its biggest competitors, there are very few integration options available to enhance the power of your help desk. 

• Poor Customer Support: A lot of users have complained about the quality of service they received from Solarwinds. Moreover, in order to receive chat, email, and phone support, you will have to opt for expensive plans that start from $69/month. 

The Features Solarwinds Service Desk Alternatives Should Have

Different support teams across the world have different expectations from their support solutions. While one may look for an easy-to-use interface, others might be more intrigued by in-depth reports. 

Now, we know that every tool cannot offer every single feature. Therefore, to make this Solarwinds Service Desk comparison easier, we have short-listed some must-have features that every alternative should offer. 

• Incident and Request Management: All Solarwinds alternatives must allow you to track all incidents as well as requests in a single platform. This will ensure not a single ticket is lost. 

• Knowledge Management: The alternative tools must help you create a repository of knowledge articles, FAQ pages, etc., to encourage self-service and reduce ticket volume. 

• Customization: The alternatives to Solarwinds Service Desk should offer multiple customization options so that you can finetune your help desk according to your needs. 

• Reports & Analytics: All the alternatives should come with advanced reporting capabilities. This will help support managers track agent performance, monitor service desk metrics, and uncover improvement areas. 

Our Selection Criteria for Solarwinds Service Desk Alternatives

To ensure only the best tools make it to our list, every alternative should meet the following criteria. 

Ticket Management Features: All Solarwinds alternatives should offer core ticketing features such as ticket tracking, automated ticket assignment, ticket prioritization, ticket filters, etc. 

Listed on the Leading Software Review Platforms: The help desk alternatives should be listed on the top online software comparison platforms such as Capterra, Getapp, SoftwareWorld, etc. 

Minimum 10 User Reviews: All alternatives to Solarwinds must have at least ten reviews from people who have used the tool. Genuine user reviews can shed light on what works well and which features need improvement. 

What Are the Best Solarwinds Service Desk Alternatives?

Now it’s time to explore the top 10 alternatives to Solarwinds Service Desk. You can go through an in-depth comparison that includes features, pricing, pros, cons, etc., for every tool. 

1. ProProfs Help Desk

ProProfs Help Desk does a great job of bringing multiple channels on a single platform – email, live chat, help center, web forms, etc. Agents can collaborate in real-time to resolve all major incidents, requests, and end-user complaints. 

As software cheaper than Solarwinds Service Desk, ProProfs helps you monitor the customer experience using CSAT and NPS surveys. Moreover, you can leverage smart reports to monitor ticket first response time, ticket resolution times, agent ratings, customer satisfaction, and other relevant metrics. 

Top Features of ProProfs Help Desk: 

• Create a self-service knowledge base for employees as well as customers 
• Interact with website visitors in real-time using a customizable, live chat widget
• Develop powerful chatbots and automate your IT support process
• Design relevant forms and allow agents to get the complete context about an issue
• Break complex incident tickets into multiple child tickets 

Why We Picked It:

• The tool is quite easy to implement and your agents can get started in no time
• With the shared inboxes feature, you can manage multiple team mailboxes in one place

Choose it for: Multichannel communication, internal collaboration, ticket prioritization, surveys, knowledge base, web forms, chatbots, etc. 

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Startups, small to mid-sized businesses, large enterprises

ProProfs Help Desk Plans Include: 

Starts at $20/agent/month (billed annually).

2. Jitbit Helpdesk

Jitbit offers a SaaS-based help desk solution that is hosted on AWS data centers. This means that you don’t need to worry about data security or backups. Your help desk inbox automatically updates itself in real-time so your team can always be up-to-date about issues. 

With the help of Jitbit’s ticket grid, you can instantly view all ongoing customer issues and any files related to them. In addition to this, you can automatically calculate the time spent by agents on tickets and calculator billable hours. 

Top Features of Jitbit:

• Link similar support tickets together and save time
• Record your screen and upload it to the support ticket
• Support customers from anywhere with mobile apps for Android and iOS
• Create canned responses for frequent issues or requests
• Create a self-service portal for publishing FAQs and how-to articles

Why We Picked It:

• Jitbit offers a multilingual help desk that supports languages such as English, German, French, etc. 

• Easily find tickets using keywords or ticket tags

Choose it for: Multilingual capabilities, asset management, ticket categorization, etc. 

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Small to mid-sized businesses

Case Study: 

Spring Arbor University is a Christian liberal arts university based in Spring Arbor, Michigan. The educational institution attained University status in 1994 and offers 70+ majors and programs for students. 

The support team had to deal with multiple questions and issues pertaining to academics and professional courses, networking/connection issues, and much more. 

Spring Arbor University chose Jitbit over other tools as it was less expensive and allowed unlimited agent license. Moreover, Jitbit’s mobile apps for iOS and Android proved to be very useful for in-field technicians. 

Jitbit Plans Include: 

Freelancer: $29/month

Startup: $69/month

Company: $129/month

Enterprise: $249/month

3. Salesforce Service Cloud

Salesforce Service Cloud is another help desk software like Solarwinds that helps you support customer interactions on multiple channels. You can encourage self-service by connecting customers to knowledge base articles, account information, and community members. 

Salesforce allows you to create AI-powered workflows to speed up support and enhance the customer experience. For instance, you can automatically route issues to agents or prioritize critical issues that demand immediate attention. 

Top Features of Salesforce Service Cloud: 

• Get a 360-degree view of every customer and personalize interactions
• Integrate with Slack and solve customer problems together
• Share proactive service notifications and status updates
• Access data online and offline with Salesforce’s field service app
• Leverage reports to understand customer issue trends and churn risks

Why We Picked It:

• With Visual Remote Assistant, you can support customers over video chat
• Build a branded, mobile-responsive service portal

Choose it for: Unified agent workspace, incident management, omnichannel routing, video support, etc.  

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Startups, small to mid-sized businesses, large enterprises

Case Study: 

Herman Miller is a popular home and office furniture company, best known for its chairs that are designed to reduce strain. 

Right from the start, Herman Miller’s customers expected a personalized shopping experience to match the high-quality products it sells.

After partnering with Salesforce Service Cloud, the furniture brand was able to get the complete customer information needed to deliver fast, personal, and responsive shopping experiences. 

Salesforce Service Cloud Plans Include:

Essential: $25/user/month

Professional: $75/user/month

Enterprise: $150/user/month

Unlimited: $300/user/month

4. LiveAgent

LiveAgent is a free Solarwinds Service Desk alternative that is famous for features such as live chat, social integrations, automation, and call center capabilities. 

LiveAgent offers a stylish and intuitive live chat widget that can help your team increase engagement and generate more leads. You can automatically route chat to agents, see what customers are typing in real-time, and invite customers to chat based on the time they have spent on your website. 

Top Features of LiveAgent:

• Provide instant support over live chat and increase your sales
• Store and access relevant customer information inside your help desk
• Automatically filter spam emails to avoid irrelevant messages
• Add private notes to tickets and discuss issues together
• Allow customers to rate agents after their support session is completed

Why We Picked It:

• Avoid duplicate replies with the agent collision detection feature
• Easily attach files to tickets with the drag and drop feature

Choose it for: Universal inbox, automated ticket distribution, internal tickets, time tracking, etc.

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Small to mid-sized businesses

Case Study: 

Zľava Dna is a website in Slovakia and Czech Republic that offers deal-of-the-day discounts to customers. The customers can use these discounts to get a great bargain for outfits, holidays, or gifts. 

The company started using LiveAgent to provide exceptional service (an inexpensive way of marketing). They have a small support team of 8 agents who handle around 9000 customer queries and complaints every month via email and live chat. 

LiveAgent Plans Include: 

Free: Forever free plan with some limitations

Ticket: $15/agent/month

Ticket + Chat: $29/agent/month

All-Inclusive: $39/agent/month

Read More: Top 10 LiveAgent Alternatives for 2022

5. Freshservice

Freshservice is an IT service management tool that can be used to unify customer experiences and enhance employee productivity. The tool offers powerful automation features and no-code workflows to rise above repetitive tasks and manual work. 

You can identify critical issues, communicate proactively with customers, and reduce the impact of downtimes on your business. Moreover, MS Teams and Slack integrations ensure that your support agents can always communicate with each other and stay up to date. 

Top Features of Freshservice:

• Manage SLAs for different business hours and incident categories
• Create a knowledge base to assist end-users and reduce ticket volume 
• Get a 360-degree view of all company-wide assets
• View and track all your ongoing projects in one place
• Allow employees to raise tickets directly from the support portal

Why We Picked It:

• You can create reports to track the health of incidents, problems, and changes
• Freshservice allows you to customize your service portal to match your brand’s design

Choose it for: SLA management, knowledge management, unified service catalog, asset discovery, etc. 

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Large enterprises

Case Study: 

Donvale Christian College is a Melbourne-based co-education school.  

Since Donvale Christian College was growing rapidly, it wanted an ITIL-aligned support solution to resolve and track the requests of multiple end-users – students, employees, and parents. Their IT and maintenance team’s main objective was to help end-users quickly and guide them with relevant solutions. 

After opting for Freshservice,  the institution witnessed a 99% SLA and first call resolution rating. Moreover, their IT team saw a significant improvement in productivity and service quality.

Freshservice Plans Include: 

Starter: $19/agent/month

Growth: $49/agent/month

Pro: $99/agent/month

Enterprise: $109/agent/month

6. Jira Service Management

As software like Solarwinds Service Desk, Jira Service Management allows multiple departments such as IT, HR, or Legal to set up a service desk quickly. You can respond to requests, incidents, and changes, to enhance the end-user support experience. 

Jira Service Management offers machine learning (ML) capabilities that make it easier for employees and customers to search for knowledge articles and other content. Moreover, you can even link relevant documentation to requests and speed up issue resolution. 

Top Features of Jira Service Management: 

• Create problem tickets immediately after an incident is resolved
• Link incidents to problems and understand the root cause behind them
• Track the complete ownership of assets in a single platform
• Escalate critical incidents to relevant agents or departments
• Share ticket-related updates via channels such as SMS, email, or mobile push

Why We Picked It:

• Jira Service Management offers multiple integration options to users
• Field service agents can create their own tickets and stay updated

Choose it for: Request management, self-service, asset tracking, change approvals, etc.

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Small to mid-size businesses, large enterprises

Case Study: 

Canva is an online graphic design platform that allows users to create social media graphics, posters, presentations, documents, and other visual content. 

As the design platform grew to more than 1,000 employees and 40 million users, its support team was finding it difficult to keep up with demand and gain visibility across workflows. 

Canva uses Jira Service Management for incident tracking and reporting. No matter how many queries or requests their team receives, every concern is dealt with in time. 

Jira Service Management Plans Include: 

Free: Forever free for up to three agents

Standard: $20/user/month

Premium: $45/user/month

7. SysAid

SysAid is another remarkable Solarwinds alternative that helps you automate ticket sorting, prioritization, and other help desk processes. Empower our staff members to resolve common IT issues or inquiries on their own using a dedicated self-service portal. 

Whether staff members are present in their cubicles or customers are present in their homes, you can lend support from anywhere. For instance, with the remote control feature, agents can connect directly to end-users’ machines and resolve issues. 

Top Features of SysAid: 

• Customize your help desk’s UI without writing a single line of code
• Automate ticket workflows and attain your SLA targets
• Create powerful reports to monitor key performance indicators and stats
• Allow agents to record their screens and upload them to tickets
• Create a repository of how-to solutions for end-users and administrators

Why We Picked It:

• SysAid is offered in both cloud as well as on-premise versions
• You can create multiple routing and escalation rules

Choose it for: Workflow automation, asset management, performance analytics, problem management, etc. 

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Small to mid-sized businesses, large enterprises

Case Study: 

Relay Resources is a non-profit organization located in Portland, Oregon that provides employment opportunities to people with physical, mental, and developmental disabilities. 

Before switching to SysAid, their IT service management was behind time – employees were not able to find assets or credentials they needed in a timely manner. 

Relay Resources uses SysAid’s hierarchy and time-based escalations to manage ticket workflows. Moreover, their team is able to track real-time information about the location and use of the company’s assets. 

SysAid Plans Include: 

SysAid offers three plans – Help Desk, ITSM, and ITSM Plus. However, the pricing details are only available on request. 

8. Spiceworks

Spiceworks is a free alternative to Solarwinds Service Desk that brings multiple features to the table. When you opt for their cloud help desk, you don’t have to worry about procurement, heavy investments, setup, or regular maintenance. All these things are taken care of by the vendor. 

With Spiceworks, you can capture IT requests via email, mobile devices, a self-service portal, and other channels. You can empower end-users to track the progress of their tickets using the self-service portal and reduce incoming call and email volume. 

Top Features of Spiceworks:

• Create a user self-service portal and allow them to track their ongoing tickets
• Monitor help desk metrics such as first response time, ticket close times, etc.
• Automatically distribute support tickets among your team 
• View agent performance metrics at a glance 
• Add private comments to tickets and discuss issues with other agents 

Why We Picked It:

• Spiceworks has a vast community of users, entrepreneurs, and tech experts
• You can easily get started with their cloud-version

Choose it for: Incident management, ticket collaboration, multi-site support, user self-service, etc.

3rd party integrations allowed: No

Suited for: Small to mid-sized businesses

Case Study: Not Available

Spiceworks Plans Include: 

All Spiceworks plans are free of cost. 

9. Zendesk

Many experts consider Zendesk as the best alternative to Solarwinds Service Desk. But what makes this tool so effective? Well, it comes across as a complete customer service solution that can be easily scaled as and when your business grows. 

You can interact with customers over a plethora of channels such as messaging, live chat, email, phone, social media, and more. In addition to this, you can use Zendesk to build a vast online community forum where customers can hold discussions and help each other. 

Top Features of Zendesk: 

• Reward the top contributors of your online forum with suitable badges
• Build an integrated help center and allow customers to resolve common issues
• Leverage AI-powered answer bots to handle low-priority support tickets
• Automatically escalate issues when SLAs are not met
• Integrate with Slack, Zoom, Trello, and other tools

Why We Picked It:

• Allow agents to contribute to help articles so that your content is always up to date
• AI-powered answer bots can help you deflect a majority of tickets

Choose it for: AI-powered bots, multichannel ticketing, intelligent routing, knowledge management, etc. 

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Large enterprises

Case Study: 

Tile is a technology and electronics company that helps you locate and find your valuable items. You can add a Tile to your keys, wallet, or phone and use the Tile app to know their exact location. 

During the pandemic, Tile support agents could easily access Zendesk’s cloud-based service suite while working from home. The company used Zendesk’s Agent Workspace to unify its channels and increase agent productivity. 

As a result, Tile was able to cut down its average handle time by around 40%. Moreover, the company even saw a 14% increase in customer satisfaction. 

Zendesk Plans Include: 

Suite Team: $49/agent/month

Suite Growth: $79/agent/month

Suite Professional: $99/agent/month

10. ServiceNow

ServiceNow is a leading ITSM tool that can help you auto-assign IT tickets to relevant members of your team. You can create virtual agents that understand simple human language and are capable to assist end-users with their common requests or complaints. 

With real-time analytics, ServiceNow offers you complete visibility and rich insights into your IT support process. In addition to this, you can provide your staff members with an AI-powered self-service portal that works on all devices. 

Top Features of ServiceNow:

• Leverage intelligent routing to quickly resolve incident and request tickets
• Build a self-service help center for customers and employees
• Resolve issues on the go with the ServiceNow mobile app
• Automate approvals for initiating changes across the organization
• Proactively identify major incidents and uncover opportunities for improvement.

Why We Picked It:

• The tool makes it quite easier to categorize and sort tickets
• Users can easily submit tickets using multiple channels

Choose it for: Incident management, virtual agents, predictive intelligence, agent workspace, mobile app, etc. 

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Medium businesses, large enterprises

Case Study: 

Lavazza is a coffee manufacturing company established in Turin in 1995. Right from developing coffee blends for domestic consumption to launching a voice-controlled espresso machine, Lavazza has come a long way. 

While the company was expanding rapidly, its existing IT solutions were not able to keep up with demands. Soon Lavazza switched to ServiceNow due to its market leadership and flexibility. 

The company now manages more than 70k IT support tickets annually using ServiceNow. Moreover, it also overlooks 100+ IT projects using the same tool. 

ServiceNow Plans Include: 

The pricing details for this product are not available. 

Comparison of Best Alternatives of Solarwinds Service Desk 

Final Verdict: Which Solarwinds Service Desk Alternative Should You Go For?

Solarwinds Service Desk is a leading IT help desk software that allows you to:

• Track and prioritize incidents
• Create a dedicated service catalog
• Built a service portal to empower users
• Implement company-wide changes quickly

However, despite the benefits, there are some serious limitations that make people look for the right alternatives to Solarwinds Service Desk. Some drawbacks are outdated user interface, lack of customization options, poor customer support, etc. 

All the alternatives shared in this Solarwinds Service Desk comparison blog have been carefully chosen. If you are still unsure, we would recommend you go for ProProfs Help Desk – a powerful, affordable, and easy to implement IT help desk solution. If price is not an issue, you can even opt for Zendesk or Jitbit based on your feature needs.