Feature packed ITSM which has room for improvement.

Moving from a shared mailbox it has been a lot easier to manage incoming incidents and track who is working on which ticket. Being an ITIL based ITSM we can now properly track system changes and gain approval across the business based on our business processes.

Pros

Simple to use - one of the main reasons we went with FreshService was that during a trial of many other systems FreshService was by far the easiest to setup and configure. This means more time doing other projects rather than administering the helpdesk system.

Powerful Automations - my trial version had the new Smart Workflow addon which made creating complex workflows very easy and simple. There is still room for improvement and some fields cannot be used in automations e.g. Impact or Urgency.

Self service catlog - its a nice to have and allows easy segregation of Service Requests compared to Incidents, the custom forms are nice although would be better to dynamic i.e. drop down of all requesters for example.

Branding - nice branding options and easy to use giving full access to CSS / HTML although not as easy to manipulate as ZenDesk.

Self Service Portal - We haven't rolled this out to end users yet but the portal is easy to use and with the branding options can be customised. The embedded widget is also useful and can be embedded into SharePoint.

Cons

Reporting - very limited compared to some systems although improvements are on the road map.

Software Assets - confusing to use as you have to track each software item as an asset, cannot easily search on what is installed on computers across the database. Again improvements coming on the road map.

Dashboard is useless - current implementation of the system gives a very basic overview of the system and an activity log. We don't use it as it doesn't provide any useful information.

Certain Form Fields - you cannot change the default fields or even hide them without using JavaScript, this means I have had to create custom fields to tell my agents to ignore certain fields which isn't ideal. Also the categories list is shared among tickets, our change requests differ from our incidents.

SLA breaches - compared to ZenDesk it isn't as easy to see when a ticket is due to breach SLA. Currently the ticket interface only shows Resolve Due date and not response due date, the response due just appears in the main ticket view when its close to expiry. Not ideal but workable.

Feature-rich and intuitive

We are back "with the times" compared to our previous ticket system.

Pros

The FreshService interface is pleasant and pretty intuitive to work with. We had been using a different ticket system for more than a decade. Nonetheless, the switch to FreshService was relatively smooth for the whole team. I think the major reason is that the interface feels rather natural or comfortable to work with.

The same kind of intuitiveness is also seen under the hood (Admin panel), which is where a lot of other systems fall short. Even though Fresh Service packs a ton of features under the hood, you are not battling against a maze of intertwined difficult-to-manage configurations. I personally don't need to do a lot of changes in the configuration (I'm rather the "backup" for those kind of things), but when I do, it doesn't take me too long to find out where I need to adapt what setting.

I had to contact Fresh Service support a few times and so far always got a satisfactory reply in a decent reply time.

Cons

With all of the above said, it also lacks some features you could see as "basic" or "take for granted" here and there.

Agents can't configure an "out-of-office" period themselves.
There's no possibility to set up a custom dashboard per agent.
My major pet peeve is the text editor, which options are very limited (can't send a reply with a paragraph in fixed with font, can't edit the source ...) and which sometimes behaves unexpectedly (some odd behaviour with linebreaks, weird cursor position when pasting text ...)

And finally, while there is integration with Jira, I have the feeling it tends to break quite easily. We've probably had it more half- or not-working-at-all than working as it should. This makes it unreliable, requires manual effort and follow-up and really undoes the usefulness of having integration at all.

Freshservice is quite a solid ITSM solution in the Cloud, with no investment in IT infrastructure.

The rapid deployment! Being Cloud, we were ready to start almost from day zero. The learning curve is quite smooth, and it was fairly easy to perform basic to moderate customizations on the portal and forms. Also the automation options were quite easy to follow (we basically used templates of the predefined ones) and one key for more novice users is that Freshservice has tutorials all around the solutions.

Pros

It's literally "pay and use". Zero footprint in your current IT architecture, everything is habdled via any compatible web browser. And yet it includes advanced ITSM functionalities such as asset management and CMDB, in which you mdeploy Probes and Agents to Windows, Linux and Mac devices to scan and inventory hardware and software. And like every other Freshworks solution, it's very customizable interms of UI, automation and notifications, as well as integrations with third-party solutions and via API for developers.

Cons

Perhaps adding new modules. Freshservice deals with this by integrations and automations, but out of the included modules (Tickets, Problems, Changes, Releases, CMDB, Projects, Solutions and Reports) you can't, at the moment, add a new one, such as Facilities or HR for example. However, provided that the included modules cover most, if not all, or ITSM's basic needs, and that the mnost generic modules (such as Tickets) are easily adaptable and customizable, that's not much of a problem.

Great Help Desk Software, Particularly For Time Pressed Admins

The pricing for this product is very competitive which is great for the IT budget and value for dollar represent a good deal. I find the Support team is very helpful and responsive. This is not a complex product to set up but does take a little time to figure out how things work within Freshservice. I am very please overall.

Pros

SaaS based product so no on premises hardware or software. Setup is more than 10 minutes that some of the marketing indicates, but definitely not a complex setup. Once you understand the workflow things become fairly intuitive in setting up the software. The ability to process tickets from one screen, enabling you to reply, enter case notes and disposition the ticket from one screen is very good. Like anything there is a learning curve involved, but it becomes very straightforward to Administer. This is very important as I am handling issues, closing tickets and assisting end users so I do not have the time to spent an hour a day doing routine maintenance tasks. The technical support team is also very helpful.

Cons

Most of the issues have not been with things that do not work as much as do not conform to our individual work flows and processes. A few things that are challenges include that pasting into tickets using the portal does not work. Any screen shots or images depicting issues and end user is facing need to be added as attachments. By default you are given a long and not intuitive URL for your Portal. While you can create a custom URL it requires purchasing an SSL certificate or the connection is not secure. If a User submits a ticket via email and at a later time tries to create an account on the Portal it will advise them that the email is in use. To resolve this they just need to request a password reset, but it is not intuitive to the User, they think something is wrong.

Simple to use and has all the features you actually need.

I really like Fresh Service (and before it, Fresh Desk). I keep trying to find a reason to switch to Zendesk because of the possibilities with their integrations but keep abandoning the trial. I would have to reproduce in Zendesk what I currently have in Freshservice in order to start experimenting with the possibilities. That's where the problems start. All the things I have in Freshservice are add-ons in Zendesk that cost extra and don't work the same way. If you have a fairly small team, we have 4 IT personnel for a 24/7 $400 million dollar company, this is your solution.

Pros

Layout is clean and easy to understand. Has fun 'gamify' system which lets my techs compete with with other for prizes with the system keep score. This is available on our subscription level. Also has SLA monitoring for those pesky KPI requirements. Can setup a catalog of services and items for end users to 'order' with a workflow approval process. Can integrate with chat and phone. Great all around alternative to Zendesk. Doesn't nickel and dime you to have basic features.

Cons

List of Integration possibilities are pretty small in comparison and hasn't really grown in the several years we have been using it.

Great tool for tracking issues, managing assets, staying compliant

It allowed us to determine the number of IT staff needed to support a growing company. It also allowed us to track changes for SOC II compliance.

Pros

FreshService is a simple to use system that has allowed us to manage IT issues, assets, and changes within a quickly growing company. Prior to the implementation of FreshService we were unable to appropriately identify our staffing needs or areas of concern due to the lack of ability to track issues across the entire organization. With FreshService implemented we're now able to put metrics to the volume of support our team provides to the company. We're tracking assets across multiple states. And we're tracking changes within our environment for SOC II compliance.

Cons

I wish there were some built-in features which made viewing issues by Location easier. Currently, it appears that Locations can be linked to Requesters which implies issues by Location. However, it would be ideal to be able to quickly see and change the Location the issue is occurring. This would lead to reporting mechanisms that would allow us to see which Locations have the highest number of issues.

Freshservice is a very simple web based portal with a great deal of functionality.

Freshservice is an easy way to manage and resolve issues by following the ITIL proces

Pros

Freshservice follows the ITIL process which means it is easier to structure in a way which works for our business. Tickets can be raised by internal users or customers outside of the business allowing for greatly improved communication. Tickets are easy to manage in terms of responses and audit trails. The service catalogue is a great feature, this allows us to capture all the necessary information first time every time. Outside of tickets and communication there are a vast amount of admin features, one we commonly use is dispatcher. This allows our business to create rules for tickets/service requests that hit the helpdesk. This in turn saves time and further increases productivity. The ability to create reports is a great way to identify where we can improve and provide a much improved service to our users.

Cons

While the admin features are vast, on occasions it can be difficult to locate what you need unless you know your way around. However, it's not impossible and with time does become easier.

A great, fully featured, ITSM solution that is easy to setup and highly customizable to your needs.

This software helps greatly with streamlining workflow and helping the team adopt ITIL standards. It is convenient and easy to use, and easy to learn for agents.

Pros

There's a lot of pros to FreshService.

The automated routing (dispatcher) system is excellent and extremely configurable. You essentially are able to make if-then statements with a ton of different variables to route tickets to groups or agents, along with custom notifications.

The ticket form, self-service portal, and service catalog are all very customizable and excellent resources as well.

Cons

The only thing that can be frustrating with FreshService is the tiered payment system that requires different payment amounts for different features.

While Freshservice is affordable, it can be frustrating when you see a cool feature and want to try it out, only to find that your particular tier does not support it.

The system is easy to use and has an inviting design that everyone can get used to.

Our company has very specific requirements and this software is able to fulfill all of them. We appreciate the continued development and clear control of the system. Management has better control over departmental processes. The use of this software has shifted our customer service to a higher level.

Pros

The system is easy to use and has an inviting design that everyone can get used to.
Even after years of use, the system is constantly evolving and improving. Freshservice can always surprise us with new functionality.
The range of features can satisfy every big and small business. Depending on the needs, an appropriate cost plan can be selected.
We greatly appreciate various kinds of reports.

Cons

Technical support is sometimes really slow. Until recently, we were complaining about the searching, but it was improved in the last update.
The price for a complete set of features is quite high.

Service Management System that just works!

Truly enables our team to work effectively and manage the work items from start to end no matter what is involved or how complicated the work items can sometimes be. We are able to reduce our metrics across the board due to the options available and the way the system works.

Pros

Follows ITIL practices, stable, UI, mobile app, lots of options from an administrator point of view. Service catalog works really well. Freshservice is constantly adding new functions and listening to user requests. The ability to link work items across entities such as incidents to problem, problem to change and feature requests to changes helps to tell a story of every work item and lets you get into the details when needed.

Cons

The user portal allows customization but it can be a challenge to work within the framework provided and has limits. License management is still a bit limited and challenging.

We've been using FreshService for over a year now and don't see a reason to change :)

We switched from Autotask which was too costly for us. Freshservice allowed us to cut costs practically to zero and also introduced automatic asset tracking for some of our clients' equipment. Another great feature is the ability to use keyboard shortcuts that allows me to do my work faster.

Pros

It's quite easy to set up and start using. We really like the asset management feature - it's helpful to be able to assign tickets to devices so that later we can spot trends. Freshservice didn't have on time tracking feature that we wanted and their support team was very helpful in implementing a custom solution for us. The ability to have 3 agents for free is incredible for small shops that are just starting.

Cons

It currently lacks integration with one of our monitoring tools so we spend quite some time closing tickets that are no longer valid but that will be solved in the future. It's great they support multiple languages but would appreciate if they provided email notification templates in each of the languages they support.

Simple online based ticketing solution

Cost effective online-based ticketing system with ease of setup.

Pros

Everything is hosted online and easily accessible via web browser or mobile app. FreshService provides a section for creating instruction guides and asset management. The platform is fairly easy to setup with our Microsoft Azure SSO environment. The support team is quick to respond and helpful.

Cons

There are only some minor interface annoyances. When initially loading tickets and attempting to scroll down, the screen keeps rolling back to the top. This keeps happening until the page fully loads and can take an extended period of time for lengthy tickets. Service Request items cannot be alphabetized (not sure why this is "by design"). The solutions guides have limited formatting so it takes extra time to create neat and proper formatting.

Freshservice covers all our requirements for ITSM

A better, more efficient support for our customers with an 360° view over all assets, contracts and sla's.

Pros

At first, we like the modern and intuitive User Interface. Then, all our requirements about an ITSM solution are fulfilled (processes, reporting, solutions db, assets, contracts and so on). Freshservice support our administrators in the daily business. The productivity tools like the Dispatch'r or Oberserver are awesome. The daily passes are cost effective for our consultants, who do not work with Fresh every day. In short: A modern and fresh ITSM tool with a lot of really nice feature, but not too complicated and "overloaded".

Cons

Our own fields (assets etc.) can not be selected for reporting. Overall, the reporting is too inflexible. It's possible to enhance ticket and other forms with own fields. Unfortunately with no relation to the standard fields or re-use. The support is sometimes really slow and you will wait for an answer.

Willingness to provide updates and pass ticket along to proper support channels is appreciated.

Ability to track support requests and provide some statistics to support the need for improvement in our operations as well as support/development staff has been a big plus. While there is still work that can be done to make this system more beneficial to the organization, it did not take much effort to put it in place and utilize it for the initial needs we had of reporting and categorizing our support requests.

Pros

Ease of use and mobile app functionality is excellent. Updates seem to be implemented almost weekly so it is encouraging to see the product constantly evolving and responding to user's requests for improvement.

Cons

The ability to utilize different parameters within certain portions of the site is lacking. IE: if I wanted to restrict visibility of certain service catalog items to individuals within certain departments I cannot do so; it will only allow for restriction based on groups (locations). Also, reporting on custom text fields would be a huge plus rather than only the drop down selectable fields.

This product is the heart of our service delivery system

ability to capture all service work and track to a billing stage

Pros

once setup it is easy to use - the mobile app is a real advantage and work well - it is a very good package for tracking service work - the process of moving from current to resolved to closed works well. The ability to track time by service delivery person is great along with the option to add a short note.

Cons

the company information fields are very limited and there is not enough fields - it is difficult search in the company admin screen. it would be an advantage to be able to setup the first user with company info - also the telephone format needs the country code and no spaces in the phone records otherwise it will not dial off the app - there are some other problems as well but they are minor tweaks

Great support and commitment to customer driven enhancements!

Our nonprofit managed services organization converted to FreshService on June 6th of last year (2016). The setup process was straightforward and not terribly resource intensive. The standard reporting is exceptional and they just recently added a custom report and scheduling capability. We made the change because our previous vendor was not investing in their solution. That is not the case with FreshService. The product is updated regularly and some of those have resulted from our requests. I would highly recommend this solution for any internal or managed services IT organization.

Pros

The standard set of reports is exceptional as compared to our previous product and other products we have looked at. These reports provide quantitative measures of staff productivity, SLA compliance, ticket flow, and customer satisfaction.

Cons

This is not really a con but it would be terrific if the product included a customer facing performance dashboard allowing the customer to view performance metrics at their leisure. This feature would drive a level of transparency valued by many internal and external clients.

We have developed a IT helpdesk scenario using freshservice and it is comfortably working for us

better manage our users issues and change requests. a high level of communication to give our users a satisfaction during the course from when they initiate a request, its progress and its ultimate completion. We also use this tool Lesson learned and utilize the historical tickets and its resolution when we have similar issues. We use Solutions function and most of the issue resolutions and methods are defined over there for smooth execution. We use this tool to provide our management the performance appraisal for IT Department

Pros

online and highy availability - well defined working structure - clear and crisp messages and seamless integration with our Email system.

Cons

more improvements are possible if they take input of our customers in terms of feedback on new functionality. Currently feedback is limited to current service quality.

Very simple easy to use for both an Admin user and for Requesters.

We always struggled getting teachers to log jobs with our old ticketing system, they always forgot their account details to log in. With Freshservice you are not required to create an account to put in a request, as long as the requester enters a valid email address they will receive emails with updates of the status of the ticket when ever you add notes or close the job. It was very easy to setup as well. We were able to modify the form for staff to fill out with their request and customise the portal with our school logo. You can also add your own FAQ and solutions page. Would definitely recommend for your organisation!

Pros

Unlike other service desk software, users are not required to have an account to put in tickets, they only need to put in their email address and will receive updates on the ticket as you make notes.

Cons

What I don't know like is if you have a guest admin replacing one of your regular admins you need to keep purchasing guest passes.

We love using ServiceDesk ! Much easier than our prior ticketing system.

We have streamlined our helpdesk processes considerably and provided our user base with a tool that they actual don't mind using!!

Pros

Customizable to your business. Simple data entry panels for the customers. Easy to keep track of tickets with views so you can see just your tickets, or your groups tickets. Escalation process that is built in works great for getting approvals for spend in advance. Has streamlined our efforts tremendously. Also love the private note capability so we (in IT) can assist one another with notes, but there is just one person dealing with the customer.

Cons

Would like the display a little more condensed. Would like the Project, Releases and Changes sections to have more of the features that tickets has where you can put in notes about progress, or ask others in the team for help on certain items.
Wish Solutions had a better editor.. I would like to copy and paste in a fully completed Word procedure and it doesn't accept all the formatting or images.

Easy to setup and configure, professional and modern to use

Instantly improved our ability to manage and prioritise our support of both our internal IT users, as well as our external clients. Have also started using Freshservice for asset management, which initially we had no intention of doing, but after testing have found it to work brilliantly for this too.

Pros

Very easy to use for our end-users, as well as agent. Also very easy to set-up, practically works "out of the box", and doesn't need any specialist knowledge of HTML, etc. Looks good and for the most part as customisable as required. Integration with O365/AD a bonus. Asset management tools are great. Automatically generated reports come out looking good straight out.

Cons

Some issues I've had to contact support for seem that they could quite easily be a knowledge base article (if they are, then need to be more easily found). Some customisations that seem basic can't be done, for example some default catagories/settings/fields cannot be removed or modified, and reporting isn't as customisable/bespoke as it could be .