Adapting to changing customer needs continues to be a top priority for enterprise organizations. By 2026, Gartner predicts that 60% of large enterprises will transform their business models to achieve world-class customer and employee advocacy levels.
As customers and users demand better products and services, technology sits at the center of meeting their ever-evolving expectations. That’s why organizations are looking for tools that enable teams to move with agility while still delivering integrated services and seamless experiences.
Jira Service Management is one of the leading platforms that’s helping organizations achieve business transformation through improved service experiences. But it’s not the only one. With hundreds of service management platforms on the market, how do you know which one is best for your business?
In this article, we explore how Jira Service Management stacks up against some of its main competitors, ServiceNow and Ivanti (which acquired Cherwell Service Management in 2021). We also explore different use cases where one platform would better serve an organization than the others.
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Ivanti recently announced End of Life for Cherwell Service Management and associated products on December 31, 2026. Read the full announcement on this Ivanti community forum. |
Named a Leader in the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™, Jira Service Management is Atlassian’s service management solution that unites development, IT operations, and business teams on an integrated platform to accelerate work, eliminate silos, and deliver high-velocity service experiences.
Initially oriented toward ITSM and DevOps practices, Jira Service Management has grown into a powerful solution for implementing Enterprise Service Management strategies. From ACI Worldwide to the world's largest brewing company, Jira Service Management has helped organizations of all sizes modernize ways of working and deliver seamless experiences across the enterprise.
Another popular ITSM solution is ServiceNow. Also positioned as a leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™, ServiceNow helps organizations accelerate digital transformation by delivering IT services with greater speed and consistency through its integrated platform called Now.
ServiceNow states that its Now Platform is “a highly versatile, scalable cloud-based solution for IT, operations, business management, and process automation.” Serving as the single source of truth for all business data, ServiceNow aims to provide an integrated platform with a broad portfolio of IT and business applications to help customers manage workflows across all departments.
The Now Platform is a powerful service management solution that enables cross-enterprise workflows. However, accessing these features comes with a cost. When comparing the integration capabilities of Jira Service Management vs. ServiceNow, the third-party apps that create ServiceNow’s enterprise connections are expensive.
Jira Service Management also has more add-ons available to extend its capabilities. The Atlassian Marketplace offers over 5,000 apps that enable seamless integration with Jira Service Management and your go-to tools outside of the Atlassian ecosystem. ServiceNow is more limited, with only 350 apps in the ServiceNow store.
If you’re looking for full ITIL 4 coverage — whether that be for compliance reasons or you just want to have all your bases covered — then ServiceNow is the better option. ServiceNow also provides extensive customization options for businesses with unique requirements. Jira Service Management’s custom configuration options may not be as feature-rich, but it provides powerful out-of-the-box capabilities with everything teams need to quickly spin up a service desk.
The complexity and amount of customizations in ServiceNow’s platform mean that it takes longer to deploy and adopt. In fact, Jira Service Management takes only 1.57 months to implement, compared to ServiceNow which takes 5.19 months. This explains why Jira Service Management scored higher for “Integration and Deployment” on Gartner’s Peer Insights.
Another critical factor that sets these two platforms apart is price. Jira Service Management offers transparent and flexible pricing, starting at $20 per agent/month for 4+ agents. ServiceNow’s pricing starts at $100 per user/month, which is significantly higher than Jira Service Management, especially when you account for the costs of add-ons.
Want to learn more about the financial impact of Jira Service Management? Read our whitepaper, Build a Collaborative Ecosystem with Jira Service Management.
Also appearing in Gartner®’s Magic Quadrant™ is Ivanti, another software company that helps organizations implement ITSM best practices with their platform Ivanti Neurons for ITSM. After Ivanti acquired Cherwell, Ivanti was positioned to be “the only enterprise service management vendor to offer end-to-end service and asset management from IT to lines of business and from every endpoint to the IoT edge.”
With the acquisition of Cherwell Service Management software, Ivanti Neurons for ITSM provides enterprise teams with service management capabilities that support the entire service delivery lifecycle, from requests to incident resolution. Available in both cloud and on-premise deployments, Ivanti Neurons for ITSM supports 11 ITIL 4-certified practices.
When comparing Jira Service Management vs. Ivanti, Jira Service Management has more integration capabilities to extend its out-of-the-box capabilities. Compared to Atlassian's 5,000+ marketplace apps, Ivanti only offers a fraction of add-ons.
This difference is also reflected in how users rate both platforms based on their available third-party connectors. On Gartner’s Peer Insights, users gave Jira Service Management a 4.5 out of 5 for its ease of integration and Ivanti only scored a 4.1.
If an organization requires special customizations or workarounds to meet specific requirements, Ivanti may be the better choice. While Jira Service Management certainly offers customizable workflows, Ivanti Neurons for ITSM provides more robust customization options.
Similar to ServiceNow, endless customization comes with a tradeoff. A more complex platform like Ivanti’s Neurons for ITSM means that there is a bigger learning curve for users. On that same note, users have expressed that Ivanti’s platform lacks certain out-of-the-box features that make deploying ITSM strategies easy. They have also noted that Ivanti’s interface feels outdated, especially for an enterprise-level platform.
Atlassian offers a more transparent pricing model for Jira Service Management. Ivanti offers solution packages to support different business needs, but their pricing isn’t straightforward.
Ivanti users have also shown frustration with the lack of support offered for the platform, whereas Atlassian is well-known for providing world-class customer service. Atlassian also has a global community where users can crowdsource best practices and network with other Atlassian users. Based on Gartner’s Peer Insights that compare Ivanti and Atlassian’s customer service, Atlassian scores 4.4 out of 5, while Ivanti falls short with a score of 4.1.
Every organization has unique requirements based on size, budget, and service management needs. All of these factors will come into play when deciding on the best ITSM platform for your business.
If you are an organization that needs specific configurations to support your ITSM processes or you need to comply with ITIL 4 practices, ServiceNow or Ivanti are better options. Many organizations rely on an integrated ecosystem of tools, however, if this isn't a focus for your teams, then ServiceNow or Ivanti's robust platforms could serve as a one-stop shop.
However, if you are looking for a less expensive, user-friendly platform that enables your teams to deliver high-velocity service, then Jira Service Management is your best bet. Even if you are a large organization with unique requirements, sometimes less is more. Having an overly complex platform will only complicate things for your teams. With ServiceNow or Ivanti, you could end up paying for more features than you actually need.
Another big reason why Jira Service Management stands out from the competition is that it incorporates the best of both worlds from Agile and DevOps. If your development and IT operations teams use Jira Software to move work forward, it makes sense to choose a service management solution built on the same platform your teams already know and love.
Want to know more about how the Atlassian platform compares to other project management tools? Read our articles on Jira vs. Redmine and Jira vs. Notion.
If you need guidance on how to make the most out of your technology investment, Praecipio can help. Reach out to learn how we can connect your teams and tools through our Enterprise Service Management solutions.