Freshservice is the default pick for most mid-size IT teams, at $19 per agent per month for Starter on annual billing, with a clear path to full ITSM on Pro at $99 per agent per month. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus has the lowest published starting price here, at $13 per technician per month for Standard, with a free edition for up to 5 technicians and a choice of cloud or on-premises deployment. Jira Service Management fits teams already using Jira and Confluence, because it is now sold only inside Atlassian Service Collection, which also includes Customer Service Management, Assets and Rovo, and it is free for up to 3 agents.
IT service management software covers more than a ticket queue. A real ITSM tool should handle incidents, service requests, problems, changes, a knowledge base, service level targets and asset records in one place. The eight tools below all do that core work, but they split on price transparency, on where change management sits in the plan ladder, and on whether AI is included or sold as an add-on. One fact changes the shortlist: Jira Service Management can no longer be bought on its own, because Atlassian now sells it only inside Service Collection, and ServiceNow replaced its five legacy ITSM tiers with Foundation, Advanced and Prime on 9 April 2026.
On this page
Top-rated itsm software: comparison table
Swipe the table sideways on a phone to see every column.
| # | Name | Best for | Starting price | Free plan / trial | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Freshservice | Mid-size IT teams that want full ITSM without enterprise sales | $19 per agent/month | Free trial (14 days) | Visit |
| 2 | Jira Service Management | Teams already using Jira and Confluence | $21.50 per agent/month | Yes (free for up to 3 agents) | Visit |
| 3 | ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus | Cost-conscious IT teams that want cloud or on-premises | $13 per technician/month | Yes (free for up to 5 technicians) | Visit |
| 4 | SolarWinds Service Desk | Growing IT teams that want asset management included early | $39 per technician/month | Free trial (30 days) | Visit |
| 5 | SysAid | Mid-size teams that want AI included in the base plan | $89 per agent/month | Free trial | Visit |
| 6 | HaloITSM | Mid-market teams that want every module in one price | £66 per agent/month | Free trial (30 days) | Visit |
| 7 | ServiceNow | Large enterprises that need a broad ITSM platform | quote only | No | Visit |
| 8 | BMC Helix ITSM | Large enterprises that need cloud, hybrid or on-premises ITSM | quote only | No | Visit |
The 8 best top-rated itsm software tools, in detail
Freshservice
Best for: Mid-size IT teams that want full ITSM without enterprise sales
Freshservice is the clearest published-price route to full ITSM in this list. Starter costs $19 per agent per month on annual billing and covers incident, knowledge and task management and a support portal. Growth costs $49 and adds a service catalog, SLA management and on-call management.
- Pro costs $99 and adds problem, change, major incident, workload and release management, plus up to 50 portals against 1 portal on Starter.
- Freddy AI Copilot costs $29 per agent per month extra on Pro and Enterprise, so a Pro seat with Copilot costs $128.
- Enterprise is quoted, and each Enterprise license includes 1,200 sessions of Freddy AI Agent (Classic) per year.
- Asset Units are sold in packs of 500.
Pros
- Published prices for Starter, Growth and Pro
- problem, change and release management on Pro
Cons
- Problem, change and release need Pro at $99 per agent per month
- Freddy AI Copilot costs $29 extra
Jira Service Management
Best for: Teams already using Jira and Confluence
Jira Service Management suits teams that already live in Atlassian tools. Tickets link to Jira Software issues, the knowledge base sits in Confluence, and automation can move work between development and operations. The Free plan covers up to 3 agents with 2 GB of storage.
- Standard is shown at $21.50 per agent per month on the vendor calculator, and Premium at $55.28 at 75 agents.
- Standard includes Assets with 5,000 objects, while Premium and Enterprise allow 50,000 and 500,000 objects.
- The price depends on team size, because Atlassian uses tiered per-agent rates, so run your own agent count through the calculator.
- Premium adds the virtual service agent, with 1,000 assisted conversations per month included and extra conversations from $0.30 each.
Pros
- Free for up to 3 agents
- Assets in Standard with 5,000 objects
- links to Jira Software and Confluence
Cons
- Sold only inside Service Collection
- change management and virtual service agent need Premium at $55.28
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Best for: Cost-conscious IT teams that want cloud or on-premises
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is the value pick for teams that want real ITSM depth on a tight budget. Cloud Standard starts at $13 per technician per month, Professional at $27 and Enterprise at $67. Multilingual cloud costs $16, $34 and $79 for the same three editions.
- Standard covers incident management, a knowledge base and a self-service portal.
- Professional adds IT asset, purchase and contract management.
- Enterprise adds change, release and project management and a CMDB.
- The free Standard edition supports up to 5 technicians, which makes it a genuine starting point for a small team.
Pros
- Lowest starting price here
- free edition for up to 5 technicians
- cloud and on-premises deployment
Cons
- Asset management needs Professional at $27
- multilingual cloud Standard costs $16
SolarWinds Service Desk
Best for: Growing IT teams that want asset management included early
SolarWinds Service Desk gives growing teams more ITSM depth at the entry price than most rivals in this list. Essentials starts at $39 per technician per month on annual billing and includes incident management, a knowledge base, a service portal, asset management, a service catalog, change management, CMDB and SLA management. Advanced starts at $99 and adds custom fields and forms, advanced automations, runbooks, a virtual agent and API access.
- Premier starts at $124 and adds AI incident summaries, a visual CMDB, a sandbox and up to 1,500 API calls per user per minute.
- All plans support unlimited requestors, so employees who submit tickets do not need a technician license.
- Subscription fees are billed annually at the start of the contract.
- The 30-day free trial gives full access to Premier features.
Pros
- Asset management, change management and CMDB in Essentials
- unlimited requestors
- 30-day trial with Premier access
Cons
- Custom fields need Advanced at $99
- asset pricing is on request, not published
SysAid
Best for: Mid-size teams that want AI included in the base plan
SysAid sells AI as part of the platform rather than as a separate add-on. Professional is listed from $89 per agent per month and includes request, incident, change and problem management, asset management, an AI Copilot, pre-built AI agents, SLA management, dashboards and BI analytics. The page states that there are no usage caps on agentic AI.
- Professional includes 250 managed assets, 100,000 Workato credits, 2 years of storage retention and 24/6 support, with a 3-hour response target for Pr
- The volume effect is worth checking before you budget.
- The same pricing page shows $59 per agent per month for 70 agents, at $4,130 per month billed annually, well below the $89 headline figure.
- Enterprise is custom priced from 20 agents and adds a sandbox, tailor-made AI agents, 300,000 Workato credits and a 1-hour Priority 1 response target.
Pros
- AI included in Professional
- 250 managed assets included
- 100,000 Workato credits
Cons
- No free plan, only a trial
- Enterprise is custom priced from 20 agents
HaloITSM
Best for: Mid-market teams that want every module in one price
HaloITSM, now sold as Halo, takes the opposite approach from tiered rivals: one per-agent price covers every module. Incident, request, problem and change management, CMDB and asset management, automation, Halo AI and integrations are all included, with no feature tiers. The UK calculator shows £66 per agent per month billed annually, with 70 agents at £4,620 per month and £55,440 per year.
- The US calculator shows $99 per agent per month for 1 to 24 agents, falling to $85 at 100 to 249 agents.
- Named and concurrent licenses cost the same per agent, which suits shift teams.
- End users and portal users are free, and the price is based only on agent count, never on tickets or data volume.
- One limit is commercial: onboarding packages are required with purchase at a bespoke cost, so the first-year total is higher than the license line alo
Pros
- One price includes all modules, AI and integrations
- named and concurrent licenses at the same price
Cons
- Onboarding required at a bespoke cost
- UK list is in pounds, so US buyers must check the dollar calculator
ServiceNow
Best for: Large enterprises that need a broad ITSM platform
ServiceNow is the enterprise standard in this list, and it is also the hardest to budget without a sales conversation. The vendor publishes no list price for ITSM, and every package ends with a request for a custom quote. ITSM is sold in three packages: Foundation, Advanced and Prime.
- Foundation covers incident management, request and service catalog, asset management and CMDB, a virtual agent and Now Assist.
- Advanced adds major incident and on-call work, change and problem management and AI voice agents.
- The packaging changed on 9 April 2026, when ServiceNow replaced five legacy tiers with the three current packages.
- Now Assist is bundled into every tier, with higher allowances on Advanced and Prime, and AI use is metered in assists against a contracted pool.
Pros
- Broad ITSM, operations and employee service scope
- AI bundled into every package
Cons
- No published list price
- AI use is metered in assists
BMC Helix ITSM
Best for: Large enterprises that need cloud, hybrid or on-premises ITSM
BMC Helix ITSM is the other enterprise quote-only option in this list, and it suits organisations that need deployment choice as much as feature depth. It covers incident, problem, change and release management, a CMDB, asset management, service level management and a service catalog, with AI agents layered on top. The product is ITIL 4-certified and PinkVerify-certified across 18 practices, according to its datasheet.
- BMC does not publish a price on its website.
- Contracts are quoted by deployment model, selected modules and organisational requirements, and HelixGPT AI is priced separately in some bundles.
- A guided evaluation is available on request, usually for 30 days, but it needs BMC approval and does not turn into a subscription without a signed ord
- Self-service users are included at no extra charge, while analysts and administrators need named licenses.
Pros
- ITIL 4-certified ITSM
- cloud, hybrid or on-premises deployment
- CMDB and dashboards included
Cons
- No published list price
- guided evaluation needs BMC approval
How we chose
We selected ITSM platforms that are in active sale, cover incident, problem, change, request and asset work, and publish enough plan detail to compare them fairly. Prices and plan limits come from official vendor pricing pages and vendor documentation opened on 12 November 2026, and each price is cited in Sources. We did not test any tool hands-on. Where a vendor publishes no list price, we wrote quote only rather than repeating a third-party estimate as a fact.
Pick by team size and budget
| Team size | Budget route | Pick |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 5 technicians, no budget yet | Free edition | ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, free for up to 5 technicians |
| 1 to 3 agents, Atlassian shop | Free plan | Jira Service Management, free for up to 3 agents |
| 5 to 20 agents, published price | $19 to $49 per agent per month | Freshservice Starter at $19 or Growth at $49 |
| 10 to 50 technicians, asset-heavy | $39 to $99 per technician per month | SolarWinds Essentials at $39 or Advanced at $99 |
| 20 to 70 agents, AI included | $59 to $89 per agent per month | SysAid Professional, $59 at 70 agents on the vendor calculator |
| 25 to 100 agents, one all-in price | £66 per agent per month, UK list | HaloITSM, with onboarding quoted by scope |
| 100 or more fulfillers, enterprise scope | Quote only | ServiceNow or BMC Helix ITSM, with implementation quoted separately |
Frequently asked questions
How much does ITSM software cost per agent per month?
Published starting prices here run from $13 per technician per month for ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus Standard to $21.50 per agent per month for Jira Service Management Standard, $19 for Freshservice Starter, $39 for SolarWinds Essentials, and $89 for SysAid Professional. ServiceNow and BMC Helix ITSM are quote only, and HaloITSM is £66 per agent per month on the UK list.
Which is the best ITSM software for a small IT team?
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus fits a small team with no budget yet, because its free Standard edition supports up to 5 technicians. Jira Service Management fits a small Atlassian team, because it is free for up to 3 agents. Freshservice Starter at $19 per agent per month fits a small team that wants a published upgrade path to full ITSM on Pro at $99 per agent per month.
Which ITSM software is best for change management?
Freshservice Pro, Jira Service Management Premium, SolarWinds Essentials and HaloITSM all cover change management, but the price of entry differs. Freshservice needs Pro at $99 per agent per month, Jira Service Management needs Premium at $55.28, SolarWinds includes it in Essentials at $39 per technician per month, and HaloITSM includes it in its single price of £66 per agent per month on the UK list.
Does Jira Service Management have a free plan?
Yes. Jira Service Management is free for up to 3 agents, with 2 GB of storage and community support. Customers who raise requests through the portal are free and do not need a license. Standard and Premium offer a 14-day free trial, which can be extended to 30 days. The product is now sold only inside Atlassian Service Collection.
Is ServiceNow worth the quote-only pricing?
ServiceNow is worth a quote if you need a broad enterprise platform that covers ITSM, IT operations and employee service, with AI bundled into Foundation, Advanced and Prime. It is not worth a quote if you need a published price or a small-team budget, because every deal is custom quoted, AI use is metered in assists, and implementation is billed separately.
Sources
- https://www.freshworks.com/freshservice/
- https://www.freshworks.com/freshservice/pricing/
- https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/service-management/
- https://www.atlassian.com/collections/service/pricing
- https://www.manageengine.com/products/service-desk/
- https://www.manageengine.com/in/products/service-desk/pricing.html?what-is-sdp
- https://www.solarwinds.com/service-desk/
- https://www.solarwinds.com/service-desk/pricing
- https://www.sysaid.com/
- https://www.sysaid.com/pricing
- https://www.usehalo.com/
- https://www.usehalo.com/pricing
- https://www.servicenow.com/
- https://www.servicenow.com/lpgp/pricing.html
- https://www.bmc.com/itsm
- https://www.bmc.com/it-solutions/remedy-itsm.html
Prices and features were read on each company’s own website in November 2026. They change often, so confirm the current offer on the official site before you sign up or buy.