The right Freshservice alternatives depend on which ITSM processes you must run. For change approvals, shortlist ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, SysAid, InvGate, or HaloITSM. Inside Atlassian, use Jira Service Management. If you work tickets, requests, SLAs, and assets without a formal approval workflow, SherpaDesk is the lighter pick.
Key takeaways
Freshservice sits in the first row as your baseline. The columns show fit, the entry price for 3 technicians, where CMDB and change start, and what to watch.
| Tool | Best fit | Entry price for 3 technicians | Where CMDB and change management start | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freshservice (baseline) | Mid-size internal IT that wants ITIL modules from one vendor | Starter: $57 a month billed annually, without asset units | Asset units, counted in its CMDB, from Growth at $147 a month for 3; change management on Pro at $297, both billed annually | 100 asset units included from Growth; more sold in packs of 500 |
| SherpaDesk Ours | Small IT teams that work tickets, requests, SLAs, and assets | Base Camp: $80 a month billed annually; High Camp $100 with Asset Management | Built for tickets, SLAs, and asset records per user and location | Cloud only |
| Jira Service Management | IT teams whose company already runs Jira and Confluence | Free: $0 for up to 3 agents | Assets and configuration from Standard; change approval workflows on Premium, priced per agent, so price it for 3 agents | Free plan: 2GB storage, Community support |
| ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus Cloud | Teams that want full ITIL with a free start | Standard: $0, free for up to 5 technicians | Both built into Enterprise; no published 3-technician price | Professional and Enterprise prices rise with your asset count |
| SysAid | Larger IT teams that want CMDB, change, and AI in one plan | Professional: quote for 3 agents | Both in Professional | 250 managed assets included on Professional |
| InvGate Service Management | Teams of up to 5 agents that want a fixed yearly price | Starter: $1,499 a year for up to 5 agents ($124.92 a month) | Change management on Service Management Pro, from $2,500 a year; automatic CMDB mapping in the separate Asset Management product | Price the pair with InvGate if you need both |
| HaloITSM | Teams that want every module in one price and can fund setup | One plan: $297 a month for 3 named agents, billed annually, before onboarding | Both included in the one plan | Onboarding package required, at a bespoke cost |
For a team of 3 billed annually, per month, SherpaDesk costs $80 on Base Camp or $100 on High Camp. Freshservice costs $57 on Starter, $147 on Growth, and $297 on Pro. InvGate Starter works out to $124.92, and HaloITSM to $297 for named agents before onboarding. Jira Service Management Free and ServiceDesk Plus Cloud Standard cost $0, and SysAid is quote-based.
How we chose
We publish this guide, and SherpaDesk is one of the 6 tools. It uses the same template and lists its limitations.
ServiceNow isn't in this list. If it's on your shortlist, ask its sales team for a price at 3 agents and set it against the table above.
Freshservice is Freshworks' IT service management product, sold in four plans: Starter, Growth, Pro, and Enterprise. IT service management (ITSM) covers how IT designs, delivers, and improves its services, from incidents to change, problem, asset, and knowledge management. The reasons people leave come down to which of those pieces they pay for and which they need.
Freshservice licenses asset management by Asset Units, counted on the assets in its CMDB. Growth, Pro, and Enterprise include 100 ITAM Growth Asset Units, and more are sold in packs of 500. Starter includes none.
One r/ITManagers member has run Freshservice for about a year. Their complaint: "To use the inventory system and manually manage assets, you need an add-on that increases the cost by about 50 percent for just 500 assets." The same member added: "If you want to set up integrations that aren't tied to a specific user … you have to buy a full agent license."
Count your laptops, phones, and printers before you compare seat prices.
If you track more than 100 assets, ask Freshservice how many units they count as. Count your laptops, phones, and printers before you compare seat prices.
Starter covers incident management and a knowledge base. Growth adds a service catalog, SLA management, and asset units counted in the CMDB. Problem, change, and release management start on Pro, along with major incident management. Pro is $99 per agent per month billed annually, or $119 billed monthly, against $49 or $59 on Growth.
Change management, in IT, is the process of proposing, approving, scheduling, and recording changes to systems so they don't break the service people rely on. The test is your own process, not how often you'd open the module. Do your changes need an approval, a risk assessment, a rollback plan, and a log you keep?
If your team of 3 announces changes in a Teams channel with no approval step, Pro roughly doubles the seat price for a process you don't run. If a firewall change needs a named approver and a rollback plan, you need the workflow.
"Freshservice is customizable, but only to a point," wrote one r/ITManagers member two months into using it, who had used Jira, ServiceNow, BMC Remedy, and Cherwell before. The same member pointed to a workflow gap: "Whatever you type in the resolution field doesn't get sent back to the customer."
It's a useful trial test for any tool: close a real ticket and read what the employee receives.
The member who raised the asset pricing named support as the bigger problem, in three threads within six weeks. Their summary: "It works fine if you stick to the basics, but once you try to go beyond that, expect to waste a lot of time with support …" In a December thread, the same member said they were actively considering switching providers.
Freshservice keeps defenders. When a small team asked about ServiceNow, one r/ITManagers commenter told them to choose Freshservice instead. It "gives you plenty to play with, incredibly simple to admin, and costs way less (both from licensing and administration stand point)."
If you must keep change approvals, risk reviews, and rollback plans on record, the right move may be renegotiating your renewal, not migrating. The alternatives below make sense when the plan and the work have drifted apart.
There's also a middle step: move down a plan. Say your team of 3 is on Pro but runs no formal change or problem process. Moving to Growth saves $150 a month billed annually. You keep the service catalog, SLA management, and 100 asset units.
Check two things first: whether your contract allows a downgrade before renewal, and whether Freddy AI Copilot, sold on Pro, is something your techs rely on. For where a helpdesk ends and a service desk begins, see Help Desk vs Service Desk.
Before you compare, price what you pay now. Here are Freshservice's four plans next to SherpaDesk's two paid plans, in both billing periods.
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed annually | Team of 3 per month, monthly / annual | What the plan adds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freshservice Starter | $29 | $19 | $87 / $57 | Incident management, knowledge base; no asset units |
| Freshservice Growth | $59 | $49 | $177 / $147 | Service catalog, SLA management, 100 asset units |
| Freshservice Pro | $119 | $99 | $357 / $297 | Problem, change, and release management |
| Freshservice Enterprise | Quote-based | Sandbox, plus everything in Pro | ||
| SherpaDesk Base Camp | $45 | $40 | $90 / $80 | Multiple technicians |
| SherpaDesk High Camp | $55 | $50 | $110 / $100 | Adds Asset Management |
Freddy AI Copilot is an add-on at $29 per agent per month billed annually, or $35 billed monthly. Occasional agents get 3 free Day Passes at sign-up, and more start at $3. On SherpaDesk, your first agent is free on any plan, so 3 technicians pay for 2.
Example: say you run IT with 3 technicians, and you pay annually. For tickets, SLAs, and assets, Freshservice Growth costs $147 a month and SherpaDesk High Camp $100. That's $47 a month less on High Camp.
Some teams bought an ITSM suite and use it as a ticket queue with SLAs and an asset list. If that's you, a lighter helpdesk carries the same daily work with less to administer.
Best for internal IT teams of 1 to 15 technicians that run tickets, requests, SLAs, and assets without a formal change-approval workflow
$45 per agent per month on Base Camp · $40 billed annually · High Camp $55 ($50 billed annually) adds Asset Management
A helpdesk and PSA a small IT team can run alone. You can run it as an internal ticketing system for your own staff. Two founders who ran their own MSP have built it since 2001.
You forward your support address to a SherpaDesk dropbox, and incoming email becomes tickets. Routing rules send tickets by class, organization, or severity to one technician or a group. Priorities carry SLA response and completion goals, with business hours and holidays.
Asset records carry a category, type, make, and model. Each asset is assigned to a location and a user, with work history and total cost of ownership. Users can sync from Microsoft 365, Azure AD, or Google and sign in with SSO.
In the trial, forward your support address, route three real requests by class, and check the SLA goals each one takes from its priority.
Recommendation
Choose SherpaDesk if your week is tickets, requests, SLAs, and an asset list, and your changes don't go through a formal approval workflow. Consider another option if your changes need approval, risk assessment, rollback plans, and a kept log; the full ITSM picks below carry them.
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These four carry change and problem management, the ITIL modules Freshservice puts on Pro, and each offers a CMDB. InvGate sells its CMDB mapping as a separate product. They differ on price model, setup cost, and hosting.
Best for IT teams that want full ITIL modules with a free start, in the cloud or on their own servers
Cloud: Free on Standard for up to 5 technicians · Professional from $645 a year · Enterprise from $1,595 a year, each for 2 technicians and 250 assets
ServiceDesk Plus comes in three editions. Standard is the IT service desk, Professional adds asset management, and Enterprise adds the rest of the ITIL set. On Professional, the CMDB is an add-on; Standard can't add it. Change and release management is an add-on on Standard and Professional.
The free allotment covers one service desk instance. ServiceDesk Plus also runs on your own servers, priced separately from the cloud editions above.
One r/ITManagers member moved from Freshservice to ServiceDesk Plus: "Cost wise it's less expensive and covers everything we need." In the Enterprise trial, approve one change and check that the log names who approved it, and when.
Recommendation
Choose ServiceDesk Plus if you want Enterprise's CMDB and change management at a published yearly price, or a free Standard edition to start. Consider another option if your asset count is large; Professional and Enterprise prices step up with it.
Best for larger internal IT teams that want CMDB, change management, and AI in one plan
$59 per agent per month on Professional, billed annually, shown on a 70-agent example · Enterprise custom, from 20 agents
Professional includes request, incident, change, and problem management, asset management, and a CMDB that maps relationships between assets, services, and systems. Change management covers templated workflows, approvals, risk logs, and CAB notifications. SysAid's plan page lists agentic AI with no usage caps.
The purchase button on Professional is "Get a quote." Ask for the rate at your own agent count before you budget. In the trial, rate one change's risk and read what the risk log keeps.
Recommendation
Choose SysAid if you want change approvals, a CMDB, and AI in one plan without add-ons. Consider another option if you need a price you can read today for 3 agents.
Best for IT teams of up to 5 agents that want one fixed yearly price
$1,499 a year on Starter, fixed price for 5 agents · Pro $500 per agent per year, from $2,500 a year · Enterprise custom, from $12,000 a year
Starter covers ticketing, knowledge management, a self-service portal, SLAs, problem management, and approval management. It also includes service configuration management, and it integrates with InvGate Asset Management, a separate product. Pro adds change management and a workflow builder for 5 to 100 agents.
Automatic CMDB mapping sits in InvGate Asset Management, on that product's Pro plan. So changes plus automatic CMDB mapping means two products: Service Management Pro and Asset Management Pro.
Price the pair with InvGate. On-premises hosting is available on Enterprise only.
At 3 agents, Starter's fixed price works out higher per agent than at 5. Budget it as one price for up to 5 seats. In a Pro trial, close one change and check that its full history stays on the record.
Recommendation
Choose InvGate if you'll grow to 5 agents and want problem management and approvals at a fixed yearly price. Consider another option if you need change management but can't fund Pro's $2,500 yearly minimum.
Best for IT teams that want every module in one price and can fund a setup project
$99 per named agent per month, billed annually, for up to 24 agents in the US calculator · rate falls at 25, 50, and 100 agents
Halo sells one plan with no tiers. Change management, problem management, the CMDB, asset discovery, and software asset management ship in the one price.
The trade-off is setup. Halo's pricing page makes an onboarding package a required purchase, priced by scope. One r/ITManagers member moved from Freshservice to Halo and summed it up.
"Moved to Halo last month and couldn't be happier, it's definitely a beast which takes a lot of configuring but the customisation is endless and support has been great."
In the 30-day trial, configure one change type end to end and note how long it takes.
Recommendation
Choose HaloITSM if you want every ITIL module without tier upgrades, and you have time for configuration. Consider another option if you can't budget an onboarding project on top of $297 a month for 3 named agents.
Best for internal IT teams whose developers and company already work in Jira and Confluence
Free for 3 agents · Standard $21.50 and Premium $55.28 per agent per month, billed monthly, at the page's default of 75 agents
Jira Service Management is sold in Atlassian's Service Collection. The Free plan takes requests by email, Microsoft Teams, Slack, an embedded widget, or a portal, with 1,250 automation steps a month. Standard adds asset and configuration management. Premium adds change management that routes approvals by change type, risk assessment, or CAB procedure.
The per-agent price changes with team size, so set the selector to your own count. Add a fourth agent to Free, and Atlassian moves you to a 14-day trial of Standard.
Help Desk Migration lists a Freshservice to Jira Service Management path that maps Freshservice changes and problems to Jira issue types. In a Premium trial, route one change by type to an approver.
Recommendation
Choose Jira Service Management if three agents or fewer handle requests and your company already lives in Atlassian. Consider another option if you need change approvals but can't budget for Premium.
General helpdesk criteria, from routing to reporting, are in our guide to IT Helpdesk Software. The checks below are the ones a move off Freshservice adds.
| Check | In Freshservice before you leave | In the new tool's trial |
|---|---|---|
| Service-account seats | List every integration that runs on a service account or a shared agent login | Ask in writing how a non-human integration account is licensed |
| Paused SLA clocks | Note which statuses pause the SLA timer, and your business hours and holidays | Rebuild one SLA policy, put a test ticket on hold, and read the due time |
| Change and problem history | Count open changes and problems, and close or hand off what you can | If the tool has no change module, export the history as an archive first |
| Asset records | Export assets with owner, location, and the tickets linked to them | Import a sample and check owner, location, and ticket links |
| Private notes | Find tickets with private notes and check how they appear in your export | Run the free demo migration and confirm private notes stay private |
| Requester portal and approvals | List catalog items that need a manager's approval before work starts | Submit one request through the new portal and approve it as a manager |
| Onboarding cost | Look up your renewal date and notice period | Ask for the onboarding quote in writing, and compare it with a year of licenses |
If the CMDB decides it, read What Is A CMDB first. A CMDB is a database of the hardware and software in your IT services and the relationships among them. If you never ask "what breaks if this server goes down," you may need an asset list, not a CMDB.
Plan the move in four phases, and finish before your renewal date.
Write down the processes your team runs and the records you must keep: incidents, service requests, changes, problems, assets. Note your asset count, SLA policies, and every integration running on a service account.
Help Desk Migration offers a free demo on 20 real tickets and 20 knowledge base articles, in about 15 minutes, with no card. SherpaDesk partners with Help Desk Migration, and a small test import can run in under 15 minutes.
Recreate your categories, routing rules, SLA targets, and forms in the new tool before cutover. Check a sample of migrated tickets against the originals: requester, dates, and attachments.
Point your support address at the new tool and send three test tickets. Check your Freshservice renewal date and contract terms, and give notice before an annual plan renews.
Expect the first two weeks after cutover to surface the small rules nobody wrote down. Typical ones are a category that auto-assigned to one tech, or an SLA that paused on weekends. Keep a running list in the new queue and fix them in one pass.
How this works in SherpaDesk
A helpdesk and PSA a small IT team can run alone. No contract. No implementation project. No dedicated admin.
An employee emails your support address, and the forwarded message becomes a ticket. A routing rule sends it by class to the right technician or to a pool. Its priority sets the SLA response and completion goals.
If it needs a second tier, Levels and Escalations move it up. The employee checks status in the portal, and your tech can attach a public knowledge base article to the reply.
Base Camp is $45 per agent per month ($40 billed annually), and High Camp is $55 ($50) with Asset Management. Your first agent is free, forever. 14 days free, no card.
Ticket Management In SherpaDesk →
Who this isn't for
If your service desk runs on a CMDB or a change-approval workflow, pick from the full ITSM section. SherpaDesk's Asset Manager keeps the asset record your tickets point to: who has it, where it is, what it cost, and what was done to it.
SherpaDesk runs in the cloud only, so on-premises teams should look at ServiceDesk Plus or InvGate Enterprise.
Yes, on the Pro and Enterprise plans, together with problem and release management. Pro costs $99 per agent per month billed annually, or $119 billed monthly; Starter and Growth don't include it. Our guide to IT Change Management covers the process itself.
ServiceDesk Plus Enterprise, SysAid Professional, InvGate Service Management Pro, and HaloITSM include change management. Jira Service Management puts change approval workflows on Premium. InvGate and HaloITSM publish a price for 3 agents, and ServiceDesk Plus a starting price for 2 technicians; Halo adds a required onboarding package. SysAid works by quote.
Per agent per month, billed annually: Starter $19, Growth $49, and Pro $99. Billed monthly, they cost $29, $59, and $119. Enterprise is quote-based. For tickets, SLAs, and assets, a team of 3 on Growth pays $147 a month billed annually, against $100 on SherpaDesk High Camp, where the first agent is free. The Freshservice Price Table shows every plan.
No. Freshworks is the company, and Freshservice is its IT service management product, with its own pricing page and plans. Freshdesk is Freshworks' customer service software, a separate product.
For Freshservice's IT service management, the vendors in this guide are the closest: Atlassian with Jira Service Management, ManageEngine with ServiceDesk Plus, SysAid, InvGate, and Halo with HaloITSM. Each sells a service desk for employees. If you run tickets, SLAs, and assets without change approvals, you can run them on SherpaDesk, the lighter helpdesk in the list.
Two. Jira Service Management is free for up to 3 agents, with 2GB of storage and Community support. ServiceDesk Plus Cloud Standard is free for up to 5 technicians, on one service desk instance. Neither free plan includes change management. On SherpaDesk, the first agent is free, forever.
Yes. Help Desk Migration moves data out of Freshservice as well as into it, and runs a free demo first. SherpaDesk partners with Help Desk Migration. Plan the cutover around your renewal date.
A team of 3 needs the processes it actually runs. ITSM is the wider set, including change, problem, and knowledge management. If your changes go through approval and rollback planning, you need a change-approval workflow. If they don't, consider a lighter helpdesk.
Patrick co-founded SherpaDesk and has led it as CEO since 2013. He has worked with IT service providers since 1998, first on network projects for schools and government offices, then on the helpdesk software their technicians use every day.