IT AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › IT operations and endpoint › ITSM › Small business › September 2026 Edition

IT service management for small business buyers

Asked as “ITSM platform”, and as “IT service desk and ticketing tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 49 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Freshservice
Contested
39% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 67 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

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%ContestedThis pageMid-marketFreshservice58%Clear leaderStanding →EnterpriseServiceNow47%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 small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Freshservice39%4%56endorsed leader
02ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus16%5%41accepted challenger
03Jira Service Management14%10%50accepted challenger
04Zoho Desk8%0%13accepted challenger
05Freshdesk8%0%12accepted challenger
06Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk6%10%20accepted challenger
07Alloy Navigator2%0%20accepted challenger
08Zendesk2%28%18criticized challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
11BMC Helix ITSM0%100%14criticized challenger
12ServiceNow0%96%25criticized challenger
09SysAid0%0%13accepted challenger
10HappyFox0%0%10accepted 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 →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Freshservice39%
02ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus16%
03Jira Service Management14%
04Zoho Desk8%
05Freshdesk8%
06Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk6%
07Alloy Navigator2%
08Zendesk2%
09SysAid0%
10HappyFox0%
11BMC Helix ITSM0%
12ServiceNow0%

02What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 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
96%
24 of 25 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 14 hard negative
“The Verdict: Avoid unless you have a rapidly scaling enterprise-bound company with a dedicated budget and dedicated IT platform engineers.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
BMC Helix ITSM
100%
14 of 14 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 11 hard negative
“BMC Helix (previously known as Remedy) - it is filled with glitches and still isn't functioning properly even after more than two years.” Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt
Ivanti Neurons for ITSM
88%
7 of 8 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“**Examples:** ServiceNow, BMC Helix, Ivanti - **Why Avoid:** These platforms are often overkill for small businesses” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Zendesk
28%
5 of 18 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“roughly 49% cheaper than competitors like Zendesk while including features others charge extra for” Kimi K2, paraphrase 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

66 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. 838 links across 172 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

alloysoftware.com
44 answers · 48 citations · 10 models
eesel.ai
37 answers · 42 citations · 9 models
gartner.com
33 answers · 33 citations · 11 models
cloudnuro.ai
26 answers · 27 citations · 10 models
blog.invgate.com
vendor site · InvGate22 answers · 34 citations · 10 models
toolradar.com
21 answers · 21 citations · 8 models
motadata.com
vendor site · Motadata19 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
siit.io
vendor site · Siit17 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
servicedeskinstitute.com
17 answers · 19 citations · 10 models
xurrent.com
vendor site · Xurrent15 answers · 15 citations · 8 models
resources.rework.com
14 answers · 15 citations · 8 models
g2.com
13 answers · 26 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.

alloysoftware.com/blog/best-itsm-platforms-for-small-business
41 answers · 10 models
eesel.ai/blog/itsm-for-smb
35 answers · 9 models
gartner.com/reviews/market/it-service-management-platforms
32 answers · 10 models
cloudnuro.ai/blog/best-itsm-tools-for-small-businesses-budget-friendly-opti…
25 answers · 10 models
toolradar.com/guides/best-itsm-software
20 answers · 8 models
blog.invgate.com/best-itsm-software-for-small-business
16 answers · 9 models
servicedeskinstitute.com/resources/itsm-tools-for-small-business
14 answers · 10 models
xurrent.com/blog/top-itsm-tools
13 answers · 8 models
pcmag.com/picks/the-best-it-help-desk-software
11 answers · 8 models
teamdynamix.com/blog/best-itsm-tools
11 answers · 6 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 small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which IT service desk and ticketing tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top ITSM platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best ITSM platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating an ITSM platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which ITSM platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceFreshdeskChanged
Four alternativesHelp Scout, Pylon, TeamSupport, Zoho Desk
Freshservice
Three alternativesAtera, Jira Service Management, SolarWinds Service Desk
Freshservice, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
One alternativeJira Service Management
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniFreshservice
Two alternativesJira Service Management, Zendesk
against: ServiceNowFreshserviceHeld
Two alternativesJira Service Management, Zendesk
Freshservice, Jira Service Management
One alternativeZendesk
against: ServiceNowFreshservice, Jira Service Managementagainst: ServiceNowno first choiceagainst: BMC Helix ITSM, ServiceNow IT Service Management
Gemini 3.5 FlashFreshservice
Three alternativesHaloITSM, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
against: ServiceNowFreshservice, PylonChanged
Six alternativesFreshdesk, Help Scout, Jira Service Management, Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk, Supportbench, Zoho Desk
Freshservice
Five alternativesAtera, InvGate Service Management, Jira Service Management, NinjaOne, Zendesk
against: ServiceNowJira Service Management
Four alternativesFreshservice, GLPI, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Freshservice, Jira Service Management
Four alternativesAtomicwork, Desk365, Rippling, Risotto
against: BMC Helix ITSM, Ivanti Neurons for ITSM, ServiceNowagainst: BMC Helix ITSM, Broadcom, Front, Help Scout, Ivanti Neurons for ITSM, OTRS, OpenText SMAX, Request Tracker, ServiceNow, Zendesk, Znuny
Perplexity SonarFreshservice
Three alternativesAlloy Navigator, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
against: HaloITSMZoho DeskChanged
Four alternativesFreshdesk, Freshservice, Help Scout, Jira Service Management
against: ZendeskFreshservice
Four alternativesHappyFox, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, TeamDynamix
against: Spiceworks Cloud Help DeskManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Four alternativesAlloy Navigator, Freshservice, Jira Service Management, Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
no first choiceagainst: Aisera, BMC Helix / Remedy, Ivanti Neurons for ITSM, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, ServiceNow, TOPdesk
Grok 4.1 FastFreshservice
Three alternativesJira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, Zendesk
against: ServiceNowSpiceworks Cloud Help DeskChanged
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Freshservice, Zoho Desk
Freshservice
Four alternativesHaloITSM, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
One alternativeJira Service Management
against: FreshserviceFreshservice
Three alternativesJira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, SysAid
against: BMC Helix ITSM, Jira Service Management, ServiceNow
Mistral SmallAlloy Navigator, TeamDynamix
One alternativeSysAid
ZendeskChanged
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Microsoft Teams with the built-in ticketing app, Zoho Desk
Freshservice
Six alternativesAlloy Navigator, HappyFox, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, TOPdesk, eesel AI
Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Two alternativesAlloy Navigator, Freshservice
Jira Service Management
Four alternativesFreshservice, InvGate Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, SysAid
against: ServiceNow, Zendeskagainst: BMC Helix ITSM, Ivanti Neurons for ITSM, ServiceNow
DeepSeek V4 FlashFreshservice
Four alternativesAlloy Navigator, HappyFox, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
FreshdeskChanged
Two alternativesFreshservice, Zoho Desk
against: TeamSupportFreshservice, Jira Service Management
Two alternativesManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, Zendesk
against: ServiceNowManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Two alternativesFreshservice, Zoho Desk
against: Jira Service ManagementFreshservice
Four alternativesAlloy Navigator, HappyFox, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
against: ServiceNowagainst: BMC Helix ITSM, Cherwell, Freshservice, Ivanti Neurons for ITSM, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, ServiceNow
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldFreshservice
Two alternativesInvGate Service Management, Jira Service Management
against: BMC Helix ITSMFreshservice, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plusno first choiceagainst: BMC Helix ITSM, ServiceNow
Qwen 3.7 FlashFreshservice, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Two alternativesHappyFox, Jira Service Management
FreshdeskChanged
Two alternativesHelp Scout, Zoho Desk
Freshservice
Three alternativesAlloy Navigator, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
against: Spiceworks Cloud Help DeskManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Three alternativesFreshservice, Jira Service Management, Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Jira Service Management
Five alternativesAutotask, Freshservice, HaloPSA, NinjaOne, Zendesk
against: BMC Helix ITSM, ServiceNowagainst: BMC Helix ITSM, GLPI, IBM Maximo, Ivanti Neurons for ITSM, Jira Service Management, KACE, ServiceNow, osTicket
Kimi K2Freshservice
Four alternativesAlloy Navigator, HappyFox, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Zoho DeskChanged
Two alternativesFreshdesk, TeamSupport
against: ZendeskFreshservice
Five alternativesAlloy Navigator, HubSpot Service Hub, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Jira Service Management
One alternativeFreshservice
Freshservice
Four alternativesHappyFox, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, SysAid
against: BMC Helix ITSM, Cherwell Service Management, Ivanti Neurons for ITSM, ServiceNow, SolarWinds Service Desk
GLM 4.7 FlashXFreshservice
Three alternativesAlloy Navigator, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
against: ServiceNowZoho DeskChanged
Three alternativesFreshdesk, HaloITSM, Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
against: ZendeskFreshservice
Three alternativesJira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Four alternativesAlloy Navigator, Freshservice, Jira Service Management, Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
against: ServiceNowno first choiceagainst: ServiceNowagainst: Aisera, BMC Helix ITSM, Cherwell, Moveworks, ServiceNow
MiniMax M2.5Jira Service Management
Four alternativesAlloy Navigator, Freshservice, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, SysAid
against: ServiceNowFreshdesk, Zoho DeskChanged
One alternativeSupportbench
no first choice
Four alternativesAlloy Navigator, Freshservice, Jira Service Management, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Freshservice
Three alternativesFreshdesk, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Freshservice
One alternativeJira Service Management
against: BMC Helix ITSM
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 10:11no04 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:27yes411 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:23yes1721 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:20yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:41yes3016 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:50yes55 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:29yes810 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:58yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:07yes845 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:19yes847 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:30yes22362 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:59yes525 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:44yes1810 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:35yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:22yes1222 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:12yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:13yes3514 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:44no02 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:53yes2525 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:09yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 14:14yes530 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:38yes2070 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:07yes1432 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:48yes529 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:30yes911 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:04yes99 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:32yes1320 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:44yes207 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:20yes2615 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 14:08yes59 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 14:07yes1718 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:00yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:52yes1465 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:43yes926 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:15yes3045 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:41yes1325 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:32yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:53yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:13yes2224 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:40yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:42yes3218 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:47yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:02yes811 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:24yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 14:09yes1238 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:02yes930 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:53yes1198 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:45yes1434 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:25no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:49no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:50yes19142 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:59yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:47yes1912 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:47no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:44yes1014 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:53yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:44no040 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:07yes1429 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:54yes18144 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:30yes524 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:10yes1710 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 14:15yes37 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:01yes1121 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:49yes209 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 09:36yes3116 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:01yes139 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:39yes2538 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:06yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:11yes1671 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:34yes3060 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:57yes2637 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:25yes1138 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
BMC read as BMC Helix ITSM
BMC Helix read as BMC Helix ITSM
BMC Helix (formerly BMC Remedy) read as BMC Helix ITSM
BMC Helix (formerly Remedy) read as BMC Helix ITSM
BMC Remedy read as BMC Helix ITSM
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
Remedy read as BMC Helix ITSM
SolarWinds read as SolarWinds Service Desk
Spiceworks read as Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Unresolved, counted raw
Atomicwork
Eesel
Front
Groove
HaloPSA
Microsoft Teams with the built-in ticketing app
Mojo Helpdesk
OpenText SMAX
Request Tracker (RT)
Znuny
eesel AI
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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