IT AI Index
Index › IT operations and endpoint › September 2026 Edition

IT service management

Asked as “ITSM platform”, and as “IT service desk and ticketing tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 48 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Freshservice
Clear leader
58% of first choices, clear leader.
ShowinginAll 67 categories →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessFreshservice39%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketFreshservice58%Clear leaderThis pageEnterpriseServiceNow47%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Freshservice58%0%51endorsed leader
02Jira Service Management21%6%53accepted challenger
03ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus10%15%33accepted challenger
04Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk6%9%11accepted challenger
05InvGate Service Management2%0%18accepted challenger
Show the seven products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
12ServiceNow0%61%44criticized challenger
11BMC Helix ITSM0%48%27criticized challenger
09Zendesk0%36%14criticized challenger
10Ivanti Neurons for ITSM0%33%15criticized challenger
08SolarWinds Service Desk0%21%14accepted challenger
07HaloITSM0%7%15accepted challenger
06SysAid0%0%13accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Freshservice vs Jira Service ManagementFreshservice vs ManageEngine ServiceDesk PlusJira Service Management vs ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
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05
06
07
08
09
10
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12
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative70%
Key
01Freshservice58%
02Jira Service Management21%
03ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus10%
04Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk6%
05InvGate Service Management2%
06SysAid0%
07HaloITSM0%
08SolarWinds Service Desk0%
09Zendesk0%
10Ivanti Neurons for ITSM0%
11BMC Helix ITSM0%
12ServiceNow0%

02What they warned about

Ten of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. DeepSeek V4 Flash and Llama 4 Maverick changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
ServiceNow
61%
27 of 44 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 8 hard negative
“Avoid enterprise-grade platforms like ServiceNow, which require six-figure budgets and dedicated, full-time administrators” Gemini 3.5 Flash, paraphrase prompt
BMC Helix ITSM
48%
13 of 27 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 9 hard negative
“This platform is frequently mentioned as one to steer clear of due to its complexity, high cost, and reputation for being difficult to implement and maintain.” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Ivanti Neurons for ITSM
33%
5 of 15 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“perhaps the platform to be **most cautious** about, due to a serious, ongoing **security track record**” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
15%
5 of 33 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“**ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus** — official advisories show multiple security fixes over time” GPT-5.4 mini, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

65 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 824 links across 208 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

gartner.com
36 answers · 43 citations · 10 models
blog.invgate.com
vendor site · InvGate31 answers · 47 citations · 10 models
motadata.com
vendor site · Motadata17 answers · 20 citations · 7 models
deskday.com
17 answers · 17 citations · 9 models
alloysoftware.com
15 answers · 17 citations · 9 models
reddit.com
14 answers · 38 citations · 8 models
flamingo.run
14 answers · 14 citations · 7 models
console.com
vendor site · Console13 answers · 13 citations · 8 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow13 answers · 13 citations · 5 models
virima.com
vendor site · Virima13 answers · 13 citations · 7 models
xurrent.com
vendor site · Xurrent12 answers · 13 citations · 5 models
expertinsights.com
vendor site · Expert Insights12 answers · 12 citations · 7 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

gartner.com/reviews/market/it-service-management-platforms
35 answers · 10 models
deskday.com/best-itsm-tools
17 answers · 9 models
blog.invgate.com/best-itsm-software-for-mid-market-companies
16 answers · 9 models
blog.invgate.com/best-itsm-tools
13 answers · 7 models
guideflow.com/blog/it-service-management-tools
13 answers · 5 models
expertinsights.com/it-management/the-top-it-service-management-itsm-solutions
12 answers · 7 models
motadata.com/blog/best-itsm-tools
12 answers · 7 models
virima.com/blog/top-itsm-software-platforms-compared-2026-buyers-guide
12 answers · 6 models
console.com/blog/best-itsm-tools
11 answers · 7 models
alloysoftware.com/blog/best-itsm-platforms-for-small-business
10 answers · 9 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best ITSM platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which IT service desk and ticketing tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top ITSM platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best ITSM platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an ITSM platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which ITSM platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Freshservice
Two alternativesInvGate Service Management, SysAid
against: ServiceNowFreshserviceHeld
Three alternativesInvGate Service Management, SolarWinds Service Desk, SysAid
ServiceNow
Five alternativesHaloITSM, Hornbill, Ivanti Neurons for ITSM, Jira Service Management, TeamDynamix
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
One alternativeAlloy Navigator
against: Spiceworks Cloud Help Deskno first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniJira Service Management
Two alternativesFreshservice, ServiceNow
Jira Service ManagementHeld
Two alternativesFreshservice, Zendesk
against: ServiceNowno first choiceFreshservice
Two alternativesManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, SolarWinds Service Desk
against: ServiceNowno first choiceagainst: Ivanti Neurons for ITSM, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Gemini 3.5 FlashFreshservice, Jira Service Management
Two alternativesHaloITSM, InvGate Service Management
against: ServiceNowFreshservice, Jira Service ManagementHeld
Two alternativesHaloITSM, InvGate Service Management
against: ServiceNowFreshservice, Jira Service Management, ServiceNow ITSM
Four alternativesBMC Helix ITSM, SysAid, TeamDynamix, Xurrent
Jira Service Management
Three alternativesDesk365, GLPI, Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Freshservice
Four alternativesHaloITSM, InvGate Service Management, Jira Service Management, SysAid
against: ServiceNowagainst: BMC Helix ITSM, Cherwell Service Management, EasyVista, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, Older Ivanti / Landesk / HEAT Suites, ServiceNow
Perplexity SonarFreshservice
Five alternativesInvGate Service Management, Jira Service Management, Motadata ServiceOps, SysAid, TOPdesk
FreshserviceHeld
Four alternativesHaloITSM, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, SysAid
no first choiceManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Three alternativesAlloy Navigator, Jira Service Management, Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
no first choiceagainst: BMC Helix / Remedy, Ivanti Neurons for ITSM, ServiceNow
Grok 4.1 FastFreshservice
Four alternativesInvGate Service Management, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, TeamDynamix
against: BMC Helix ITSM, ServiceNowFreshserviceHeld
Three alternativesHaloITSM, Jira Service Management, SysAid
against: ServiceNowServiceNow IT Service Management
Six alternativesBMC Helix ITSM, Freshservice, InvGate Service Management, Ivanti Neurons for ITSM, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Three alternativesGLPI, Jira Service Management, Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Freshservice
Two alternativesHaloITSM, Jira Service Management
against: ServiceNowagainst: BMC Helix ITSM, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, ServiceNow ITSM
Mistral SmallFreshservice
Three alternativesEasyVista, Motadata ServiceOps, SysAid
against: ServiceNowFreshserviceHeld
Two alternativesFreshdesk, Jira Service Management
ServiceNow
Three alternativesBMC Helix ITSM, Freshservice, Jira Service Management
Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Two alternativesManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, Zoho Desk
no first choiceagainst: BMC Helix ITSM
DeepSeek V4 FlashFreshservice, InvGate Service Management
Three alternativesJira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, TOPdesk
against: ServiceNowFreshserviceChanged
Two alternativesJira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
against: ServiceNowServiceNow
Four alternativesBMC Helix ITSM, Freshservice, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
against: ZendeskManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Four alternativesFreshservice, GLPI, Jira Service Management, Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
against: ServiceNowFreshservice
One alternativeJira Service Management
against: ServiceNowagainst: BMC Helix ITSM, Ivanti Neurons for ITSM, ServiceNow, SolarWinds Service Desk, Zendesk
Llama 4 MaverickFreshservice
Two alternativesEasyVista, SysAid
no first choiceChangedno first choiceSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Two alternativesGLPI, Siit
no first choiceagainst: BMC Helix ITSM
Qwen 3.7 FlashFreshservice
Two alternativesInvGate Service Management, Jira Service Management
against: ServiceNowFreshserviceHeld
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Jira Service Management, Zendesk
Jira Service Management, ServiceNow
Two alternativesBMC Helix ITSM, TeamDynamix
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Three alternativesAtera, Freshservice, Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
against: ServiceNowFreshservice
Two alternativesJira Service Management, Servicenow Now Perform
against: BMC Helix ITSM, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, ServiceNow, iTopagainst: BMC Helix ITSM, ManageEngine OpManager, ServiceNow
Kimi K2Freshservice
Three alternativesJira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, SysAid
against: ServiceNowFreshserviceHeld
Two alternativesInvGate Service Management, Jira Service Management
against: ServiceNowServiceNow
Three alternativesFreshservice, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
against: ZendeskSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Five alternativesFreshservice, GLPI, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, Zammad
Freshservice, Jira Service Management
Three alternativesInvGate Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, SolarWinds Service Desk
against: ServiceNowagainst: BMC Helix ITSM, Cherwell Service Management, Ivanti Neurons for ITSM, Jira Service Management, ServiceNow
GLM 4.7 FlashXFreshservice
Four alternativesInvGate Service Management, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, SolarWinds Service Desk
against: ServiceNow ITSMFreshserviceHeld
Two alternativesJira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ServiceNow
Six alternativesBMC Helix ITSM, Cherwell, Freshservice, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, Zendesk
Freshservice, GLPI, Jira Service Management
Five alternativesHappyFox, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, Zammad, Zoho Desk, iTop
against: HaloITSMno first choiceagainst: BMC Helix ITSM, Hornbill, Ivanti Neurons for ITSM, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, ServiceNow ITSM, SolarWinds Service Desk, TeamDynamix, Xurrent
MiniMax M2.5Freshservice, Jira Service Management
One alternativeServiceNow
against: BMC Helix ITSM, ZendeskFreshservice, Jira Service ManagementHeldno first choiceJira Service Management
Two alternativesFreshservice, Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
against: ServiceNow, SolarWinds Service Desk, Zendeskno first choiceagainst: BMC Helix ITSM, ServiceNow
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:09yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:36yes16 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:47yes2032 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:37yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 09:45yes3417 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:43yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:25yes912 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:17yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:50yes521 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:43yes1030 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:32yes1467 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:58no041 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:20yes98 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:01yes47 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 14:05yes1123 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:22yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:32yes3219 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:39yes1311 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:32yes1011 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:35yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:25yes1070 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:33yes1525 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:43yes24185 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:09yes1560 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:38yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:31yes79 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:16yes1926 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:09yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:46yes2916 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:28yes56 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:25yes1420 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:45yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:18yes1033 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:08yes1030 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:45no042 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:11yes523 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:48yes96 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:11yes54 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:31yes2120 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 14:01yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:34yes4318 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:23yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:42yes914 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:51yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:49yes1043 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:53yes1534 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:11yes22140 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 14:15yes561 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:24no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:07no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:04yes924 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:43yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:41yes1811 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:18no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:12yes2827 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:03yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:48no047 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:27yes1380 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:00no0207 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:33yes525 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:08yes188 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:33yes59 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:26yes2423 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:21yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:45yes4117 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:45yes59 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:51yes2922 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:34yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:33yes953 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:04yes3074 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:18yes3080 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:33yes1226 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Atlassian (Jira Service Management) read as Jira Service Management
BMC read as BMC Helix ITSM
BMC Helix read as BMC Helix ITSM
BMC Helix (formerly Remedy) read as BMC Helix ITSM
GoTo (LogMeIn) read as GoTo Resolve
InvGate read as InvGate Service Management
Ivanti read as Ivanti Neurons for ITSM
Ivanti Neurons read as Ivanti Neurons for ITSM
Jira read as Jira Service Management
ManageEngine read as ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
SolarWinds read as SolarWinds Service Desk
Spiceworks read as Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Spiceworks Cloud read as Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Unresolved, counted raw
FreeScout
Older Ivanti / Landesk / HEAT Suites
Servicenow Now Perform (formerly Spoke)
SymphonyAI
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in it operations and endpoint

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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