RATED SEPTEMBER 2026
Scores out of 10, a lead ranking for teams without ITIL or a CMDB, a full ITSM ranking for teams with them, every price and feature linked to the vendor page it came from, and a census of which ticket stages each vendor actually automates.
Last reviewed 27 September 2026 · Service Desk Compare reviewers
The lead ranking scores five criteria at 20% each for teams that do not run ITIL processes or a CMDB. The same scores feed the full ITSM ranking, which adds ITIL and CMDB. On the full ITSM ranking, Freshservice ranks first at 8.3 out of 10, with Halo and Jira Service Management tied second at 7.8.
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| Rank | Service desk | Total | AI20% | Time to value20% | Requesters20% | Integrations20% | Pricing20% | ITIL / CMDBInformation only | Full ITSM rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank 1=Tied at 8.3 | Zendesk for IT (Employee Service) | 8.3 / 10 | 8.5 | 8.0 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 8.0 | 4.0 / 3.0 | 7= |
| Rank 1=Tied at 8.3 | monday service | 8.3 / 10 | 9.0 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 7.5 | 8.0 | 4.0 / 2.0 | 7= |
| Rank 3 | Freshservice | 8.2 / 10 | 8.0 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 7.5 | 8.5 | 8.5 / 8.0 | 1 |
| Rank 4 | Jira Service Management | 7.9 / 10 | 7.5 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 8.0 / 7.5 | 2= |
| Rank 5 | Halo | 7.7 / 10 | 8.0 | 6.5 | 7.0 | 8.0 | 9.0 | 8.5 / 8.0 | 2= |
| Rank 6=Tied at 7.1 | ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus | 7.1 / 10 | 6.5 | 6.5 | 6.5 | 7.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 / 8.0 | 4 |
| Rank 6=Tied at 7.1 | SysAid | 7.1 / 10 | 8.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 6.5 | 7.0 | 7.5 / 6.5 | 6 |
| Rank 8 | ServiceNow ITSM | 6.2 / 10 | 9.0 | 4.0 | 7.0 | 9.0 | 2.0 | 10.0 / 10.0 | 5 |
| Rank 9 | Ivanti Neurons for ITSM | 5.5 / 10 | 7.5 | 4.5 | 6.5 | 7.0 | 2.0 | 9.0 / 8.5 | 9 |
ITIL / CMDB column: ITIL practice coverage and Configuration management (CMDB). These matter to teams running formal change, problem and configuration processes, so they are shown here but not scored. If they matter to you, use the full ITSM ranking.
Run ITIL change and problem management or need a CMDB?
Use the full ITSM ranking. It scores ITIL practice coverage and configuration management alongside the other five criteria.
See the full ITSM rankingThe Lifecycle Automation Census tracks six stages every ticket passes through, from logged to reviewed, and records whether each vendor's public pages document automation at that stage. It measures what vendors document, not what their products can do after configuration.
Freshservice
01
Logged
Partial02
Categorised
Not documented03
Routed
Documented04
Resolved
Documented05
Closed
Not documented06
Reviewed
DocumentedHalo
01
Logged
Documented02
Categorised
Documented03
Routed
Documented04
Resolved
Documented05
Closed
Documented06
Reviewed
DocumentedJira Service Management
01
Logged
Documented02
Categorised
Partial03
Routed
Partial04
Resolved
Documented05
Closed
Not documented06
Reviewed
DocumentedManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
01
Logged
Partial02
Categorised
Documented03
Routed
Documented04
Resolved
Partial05
Closed
Not documented06
Reviewed
DocumentedServiceNow ITSM
01
Logged
Documented02
Categorised
Partial03
Routed
Partial04
Resolved
Documented05
Closed
Not documented06
Reviewed
DocumentedSysAid
01
Logged
Partial02
Categorised
Not documented03
Routed
Not documented04
Resolved
Documented05
Closed
Not documented06
Reviewed
DocumentedZendesk for IT (Employee Service)
01
Logged
Documented02
Categorised
Documented03
Routed
Documented04
Resolved
Documented05
Closed
Not documented06
Reviewed
Documentedmonday service
01
Logged
Documented02
Categorised
Documented03
Routed
Documented04
Resolved
Documented05
Closed
Not documented06
Reviewed
DocumentedIvanti Neurons for ITSM
01
Logged
Documented02
Categorised
Documented03
Routed
Documented04
Resolved
Documented05
Closed
Not documented06
Reviewed
Documented| Vendor | 01 Logged | 02 Categorised | 03 Routed | 04 Resolved | 05 Closed | 06 Reviewed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freshservice | PartialFreddy AI collects and verifies requester details (general service page) | Not documented | DocumentedFreddy AI routes the issue to the right agent | Documented'Domain-specific AI resolves issues instantly' (vendor wording) | Not documented | DocumentedProblem management on Pro; Freddy AI Insights surfaces emerging issues |
| Halo | DocumentedEnd-user virtual agent triages and logs requests on chat, Teams, Slack and portal | DocumentedAI suggestions for categorisation and prioritisation | DocumentedAI suggestions for team routing and SLA-breach warnings | DocumentedProcess agents auto-resolve known issues | DocumentedA requester's thank-you reply is read as resolution | DocumentedTicket records turned into standardised knowledge |
| Jira Service Management | DocumentedPortal, email, chat and forms on every plan | PartialRovo Agents for AI-powered employee support; no auto-categorisation claim | PartialQueues and workflows; no AI routing claim | DocumentedVirtual service agent (Premium) | Not documented | DocumentedGroup incidents to problems for root cause analysis |
| ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus | PartialZia virtual support agent; intake channels not detailed on the page read | DocumentedPredictive intelligence for ticket triage | DocumentedPredictive routing and assignment | PartialZia virtual agent and generated replies; no autonomous resolution claim | Not documented | DocumentedProblem management (Enterprise or add-on) |
| ServiceNow ITSM | DocumentedOmnichannel self-service across portal, chat, voice, email, mobile, Teams, Slack | PartialNow Assist AI-guided recommendations | PartialAI agents streamline incident management and request fulfillment | DocumentedAutonomous AI specialists for password resets, access and VPN issues | Not documented | DocumentedProblem management on the same platform and CMDB |
| SysAid | PartialAI aims to resolve incidents before they become tickets | Not documented | Not documented | DocumentedPre-built AI agents handle issues start to finish | Not documented | DocumentedProblem and knowledge management listed |
| Zendesk for IT (Employee Service) | DocumentedAI agents work on any channel | DocumentedDetects intent and tone | DocumentedOmnichannel routing assigns tickets to qualified agents | DocumentedAI agents resolve multi-step workflows | Not documented | DocumentedAI monitoring across 100% of interactions |
| monday service | DocumentedIntake through email, WorkForms and the portal | DocumentedAutomatic categorization and summarization of cross-channel requests | DocumentedSkill-based and load-balanced routing | DocumentedIntake & Triage Agent auto-resolves common requests | Not documented | DocumentedKnowledge Agent flags stale articles and learns from resolved tickets |
| Ivanti Neurons for ITSM | DocumentedVirtual agent, chatbots and self-service portals | DocumentedAutomatically classifies incoming tickets | DocumentedRoutes tickets to the right team | DocumentedAgentic AI detects and remediates issues | Not documented | DocumentedKnowledge articles generated from resolved incidents |
Halo is the only vendor whose pages document automation at all six stages, including closure. Closure is the least documented stage overall: only one of nine vendors describes automated ticket closure. Ivanti, monday service and Zendesk document five of six stages; ServiceNow documents three and describes two more in general terms.
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| Vendor | Entry plan and price | Top published plan | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freshservice | Starter $19 | Pro $99 | Custom Source: Freshservice pricing |
| Halo | Single plan £66 (UK list) | Same plan, all features | Enterprise Package $1M a year, unlimited licences Source: Halo pricing |
| Jira Service Management | Free (3 agents), Standard $20 | Premium $51.42 | Custom Source: Atlassian pricing |
| ServiceDesk Plus | Free (2 technicians), Standard from $13 | Enterprise from $67 | Enterprise from $67 Source: ServiceDesk Plus pricing |
| ServiceNow ITSM | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| SysAid | Professional $89 | Professional $89 | Custom, from 20 agents Source: SysAid pricing |
| Zendesk (Employee Service) | Suite Team $29 | Suite Professional $99 | Contact sales Source: Zendesk Employee Service pricing |
| monday service | Standard $31 (3-seat minimum) | Pro $45 | Contact sales Source: monday service pricing |
| Ivanti Neurons for ITSM | Not published | Not published | Not published Source: Ivanti Neurons for ITSM page |
List price is rarely the whole bill. Add-ons (ServiceDesk Plus sells problem, change and CMDB modules at $1,195 a year each on lower editions), AI add-ons (Freddy AI Copilot at $29 per agent), plan gates on ITIL practices (JSM puts change management on Premium) and implementation partners change the total. Our total-cost explainer walks through a worked example.
Jira Service Management keeps incidents, changes and development work in one Atlassian stack, with deployment gating on Premium. Start on the free plan and budget for Premium if you need change management.
ServiceNow ITSM has the deepest CMDB and the broadest ITIL coverage in this set. Plan for a quote, a partner and a longer rollout.
Freshservice ships problem, change and release on Pro with published prices and agentless discovery for the CMDB.
monday service names AI agents for IT, HR, finance, facilities and more, and puts AI ticket triage on every plan. It does not document problem, change or CMDB, so it suits teams whose ITIL needs stop at requests and incidents.
ServiceDesk Plus publishes identical edition pricing for cloud and on-premises; Ivanti offers cloud, on-premises and hybrid deployment with 14 ITIL 4-certified practices.
Every score is an editorial assessment from public vendor material: pricing pages, product pages and documentation. We did not test the products, run demos or interview vendors. G2 figures appear on some pages for context and do not feed the scores.
Read the rating methodAtlassian moved its DoD Impact Level 5 submission forward by six months to July 2028, with a FedRAMP High submission to follow in January 2029. Jira Service Management is among the initial products, and the post ties the programme to the Data Center end-of-life date of 28 March 2029.
Source: Atlassian blog
The 14 September release notes add Anthropic's Claude as a provider for Ask Zia and GenAI features, chart generation in Ask Zia, and reusable workflow approvals.
Source: ManageEngine release notes
Admins describe an automation in their own words and SysAid sets the triggers, conditions and actions. SysAid names assignment, prioritisation, categorisation and escalation as the four functions and calls the builder an ITSM industry first.
Source: SysAid blog
On the business-teams ranking, Zendesk for IT (Employee Service) and monday service tie for first at 8.3 out of 10, with Freshservice third at 8.2. That lead ranking is for business teams and lean IT without ITIL processes or a CMDB. On the full ITSM ranking, Freshservice ranks first at 8.3 out of 10, with Halo and Jira Service Management tied second at 7.8. ServiceNow ITSM scores highest on ITIL coverage and CMDB depth but ranks fifth of 9 on the full ITSM ranking because it publishes no prices and takes the longest to stand up.
Freshservice, Halo and Jira Service Management all score higher than ServiceNow on the full ITSM ranking, mainly on time to value and pricing transparency. None matches ServiceNow's CMDB depth. See our ServiceNow alternatives page for the trade-offs.
ServiceNow ITSM and monday service tie for the highest AI score (9 out of 10). ServiceNow documents autonomous AI specialists and an AI Agent Orchestrator; monday service documents named IT agents and AI ticket triage on every plan. Halo is the only vendor that documents automation at all six ticket stages we track.
Freshservice, Halo, Jira Service Management, ServiceDesk Plus, SysAid (Professional plan), Zendesk and monday service publish at least one price. ServiceNow ITSM and Ivanti Neurons for ITSM do not.
monday service documents request intake, AI triage, routing, SLA monitoring, a knowledge base and a portal. Its public pages do not document problem management, change management or a CMDB, which is why it scores 4 on ITIL coverage and 2 on configuration management here.