TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Salesforce Service Cloud vs. SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Salesforce Service Cloud

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/AService Cloud is a customer service platform that helps businesses manage and resolve customer inquiries and issues. It provides tools for case management, knowledge base, omni-channel support, automation, and analytics, enabling companies to deliver exceptional customer service experiences.

    $25

    per month

    SolarWinds Service Desk

    Score7.7 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds Service Desk (formerly Samanage) is a cloud-based, multi-tenant IT service desk and asset management software for IT and enterprise service management. Samanage is on a single, always new instance of software. The service desk includes a self-service portal, service catalog, knowledge base, and SLA management tool. The integrated agent-based asset management solution collects contracts and licensing data from Windows, Mac, Linux, and Unix systems.N/A
    Pricing
    Salesforce Service CloudSolarWinds Service Desk
    Editions & Modules
    Starter Suite
    $25
    per month
    Pro Suite
    $100
    per month per user
    Enterprise
    $165
    per month per user
    Unlimited
    $330
    per month per user
    Agentforce 1
    $550
    per month per user
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Salesforce Service CloudSolarWinds Service Desk
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Salesforce Service CloudSolarWinds Service Desk
    Considered Both Products
    Salesforce
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds Service Desk
    Solarwinds Service Desk is a larger solution than just a ticketing system. I think it stacks up quite well and surpasses some of the other solutions by providing asset inventory capability, change management, vendor management, contract management options. Many other …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    88%
    Would buy again
    36 Answers
    92%
    Would buy again
    86 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    82%
    Delivers good value for the price
    28 Answers
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    85 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    90%
    Happy with the feature set
    37 Answers
    92%
    Happy with the feature set
    86 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    81%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    21 Answers
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    78 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    83%
    Implementation went as expected
    24 Answers
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    84 Answers
    Features
    Salesforce Service CloudSolarWinds Service Desk
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Salesforce Service Cloud and SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
    Feature
    Salesforce Service Cloud
    8.8
    77 Ratings
    9% above category average
    SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
    7.0
    97 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Organize and prioritize service tickets9.475 Ratings8.096 Ratings
    Expert directory8.553 Ratings6.057 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications8.663 Ratings8.967 Ratings
    ITSM collaboration and documentation8.260 Ratings6.077 Ratings
    Ticket creation and submission9.375 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ticket response9.174 Ratings00 Ratings
    Service restoration00 Ratings6.058 Ratings
    Self-service tools00 Ratings7.086 Ratings
    ITSM reports and dashboards00 Ratings7.087 Ratings
    Self Help Community
    Comparison of Self Help Community features of Salesforce Service Cloud and SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
    Feature
    Salesforce Service Cloud
    8.7
    72 Ratings
    10% above category average
    SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
    -
    Ratings
    External knowledge base8.463 Ratings00 Ratings
    Internal knowledge base8.970 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-Channel Help
    Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Salesforce Service Cloud and SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
    Feature
    Salesforce Service Cloud
    8.7
    77 Ratings
    11% above category average
    SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
    -
    Ratings
    Customer portal7.954 Ratings00 Ratings
    IVR8.834 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social integration8.947 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email support9.276 Ratings00 Ratings
    Help Desk CRM integration8.866 Ratings00 Ratings
    ITSM asset management
    Comparison of ITSM asset management features of Salesforce Service Cloud and SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
    Feature
    Salesforce Service Cloud
    -
    Ratings
    SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
    7.3
    82 Ratings
    12% below category average
    Configuration mangement00 Ratings8.074 Ratings
    Asset management dashboard00 Ratings6.980 Ratings
    Policy and contract enforcement00 Ratings7.064 Ratings
    Change management
    Comparison of Change management features of Salesforce Service Cloud and SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
    Feature
    Salesforce Service Cloud
    -
    Ratings
    SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
    7.0
    80 Ratings
    18% below category average
    Change requests repository00 Ratings7.064 Ratings
    Change calendar00 Ratings7.044 Ratings
    Service-level management00 Ratings7.072 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Salesforce Service CloudSolarWinds Service Desk
    Small Businesses
    Help Scout
    Score7.9 out of 10
    Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    LiveAgent
    Score9.7 out of 10
    ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Front
    Score7.1 out of 10
    Ivanti Neurons for ITSM
    Score4.5 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Salesforce Service CloudSolarWinds Service Desk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.3
    (83 ratings)
    8.0
    (119 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    6.2
    (8 ratings)
    6.5
    (8 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (12 ratings)
    8.0
    (8 ratings)
    Availability
    9.5
    (28 ratings)
    8.7
    (7 ratings)
    Performance
    8.6
    (7 ratings)
    8.9
    (4 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.0
    (20 ratings)
    8.0
    (92 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.9
    (3 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.9
    (4 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.7
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Salesforce Service CloudSolarWinds Service Desk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Salesforce
    It is a helpful tool, but it can be a bit cumbersome to manage. It is also a bit expensive, but we already use CRM for Salesforce and it is convenient to be able to immediately tag contacts and accounts when the tickets come into the system and tie them directly to the account. I do know an integration with Jira is possible (we use Jira internally for our engineering team to escalate issues) but it is not configured right now so managing the connection between support tickets and Jira tickets is manual and hard to keep up with
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    If you are looking for a way to support a company and bill based on the outcome this software works really well. If it's a quick password change there was no charge, but if it's troubleshooting things you click the box to charge. It works really well for this. Also bringing all your assets into this and associating them to a client works well. I can't think of anything that this software would not be less appropriate for. It works well for what we use it for.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Salesforce
    • Allows us to make changes quickly and with relative ease
    • Can be flexible enough to use among several teams who do very different work
    • Salesforce in general provides SO much training that anyone on the team can skill up and help maintain the system
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Approval flows: You can have multiple layers of approval required for the tickets and service requests you design. This helps us show auditors that access to privileged systems and data was formerly reviewed and approved by the appropriate managers.
    • Easy to design forms: You don't need to spend hours reading the documentation to figure out how to create forms. It's simple enough that you can just jump right in and start creating them with minimal training.
    • Lots of options and features are available for you to include in your forms.
    • Integrates well with SAML-based SSO and has capabilities for MFA.
    • Easy and useful search function. Need to find that ticket from last year that you worked for a particular user or issue? Just search by keyword or username, and it'll quickly find the ticket.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Salesforce
    • There is a slight scope for error, but sometimes it has a heavy impact. So this can be improved.
    • Costing is high.
    • Maintenance is more.
    • Expertise is required for implementation.
    • The number of communication messages have some limit per organisation account.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • There is potential to greatly improve the capacity for cascading attributes. Currently, categories are limited to a top-level category and one subcategory. This leaves a fairly shallow decision tree.
    • Greater flexibility to modify the layout of incident request forms.
    • More integration options for cloud file-sharing platforms. Solarwinds Service Desk has tie-ins to Dropbox but not other vendors.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Salesforce
    Professional edition works best for a small company with lower call volumes and is very useful but as you grow exponetially I think it has limited ability to do all the things we want to - SLA management, defect, release management to name a few. Reports and dashboards being available in real time.
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    My renewal is soon coming up, it is fairly likely I will renew again for the 5th year. I may consider evaluating what else is out there, It was requested by my staff to not make a change. They feel that SSD fits our needs, is easy to use and should keep it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Salesforce
    I had Salesforce experience prior to using Service Cloud which made it a little easier to learn and navigate, but overall my team (some who had no Salesforce experience) caught on very quickly and found Service Cloud to be easy to use.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    Solarwinds Service Desk has a very "user friendly" interface. Everything looks nice and neat. And, learning how to use the system is very easy. It provides multiple services that are easy for most people to grasp, and allows for great organization of incidents and assets. Support for Solarwinds Service Desk has a good response and resolution time and are easy to work with.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Salesforce
    Salesforce's Trust Center clearly communicates occasional issues to anyone who subscribes, down to an organization's cloud instance. Bundled sandboxes ease updates, and seasonal upgrades are seamless, scheduled well in advance with plenty of information about what's coming. Support agents have noticed intermittent Omni-Channel disconnects due to internet connections, and these are clearly notified.
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    Because the data is stored on Amazon Web Services (AWS) there are very rarely any outages. There have been some times when the product has been slow to load, but because the interface is web based it could be anything between my computer and AWS that was causing the issue. But also, because the application is web based it can be access from anywhere which makes it very convenient
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Salesforce
    The Salesforce Service Cloud generally has very good performance, however the overall new Lightning user experience can bring that down. For example, if you have too many tabs open, then it can take a while for the Lightning UI to load. This UI is probably not well equipped to handle loading of all of that information at once, but Users tend to leave their tabs open all day long. It can also be fickle depending on which browser you use, what extensions you have installed, and whether you've cleared your cache. This can be the downfall with any software as a service though, not just Salesforce
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    When the system is working, the pages load very quickly. We run reports all the time in the system. The reporting can be extremely complex or very simple. Either way, we have not had any issues with the reports. We do not currently integrate Solarwinds Service Desk with any other software.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Salesforce
    Salesforce offers support, although it generally gets routed to overseas support teams first, and once they are unable to help, it gets escalated up the chain to higher tiers. Frequently, the answer back from support is that there is no native solution, and we either have to turn to the AppExchange for some solution provided by another developer, or custom build our own solution.
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds support department will respond to you quickly from the time of purchase to after-purchase instructions & supporting, and the company is great in customers support. In buying a software, our organization always has a priority for the seller and support and accountability is very important to us, and the manufacturer or seller must be responsible and supportive.
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Salesforce
    Our in-person training was provided by our implementation partner and it was quite good. This was in part because we were already working with them and so it naturally leant itself to a good training relationship. And because they were building our customizations and configuring things, they could then provide training on those things naturally.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Salesforce
    Trailheads are great but it was often unclear what actually applied to our organization. This made it difficult to get a whole lot out of it. Part of it is that because the basic Salesforce features didn't quite work for us, we had to add customizations, which then nullified a lot of the training.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    When we first purchased Samanage (now Solarwinds) they provided us with an informational training session to show us all of the basics on how the service works and showed us everything we were interested in using. There are still some areas of Solarwinds that we do not yet utilize but I know if we choose to use them in the future we would be able to schedule another session with our representative to have them show us what we need to know.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Salesforce
    I would go through an implementation very differently knowing what I know now. It was difficult coming from systems we liked in post-sales service and having to adapt to the clunky and underwhelming feature set in Salesforce. I would trim back our expectations
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    The implementation process for our organization was fairly simple. We set up an email address to receive the emails from the system (for incident creation), and we allowed the system to spoof our IT email to respond to requests. Solarwinds helped us with the rest of the implementation, and it took less than a week to get the system fully operational.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Salesforce
    Salesforce service cloud is more configurable than Zendesk and Freshdesk. It has its own inbuilt AI chatbot also which further improves service agent efficiency. Salesforce is more integration agnostic and has pre-built connectors with multiple 3rd party systems. However, in terms of pricing it is priced at a premium compared to the other solutions
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    We chose SolarWinds Service Desk for its user friendly platform compared to what we had. Its was easier for requestors to submit tickets, provide feedback, merge tickets, build a suitable approval process. Our organization had a hard time going back and forth with the end user on providing a status on their request or issue, where most users just didn't follow through or lost interest in their issue. We would have to send multiple emails to get any type of feedback and that's something we did not want to keep on doing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Salesforce
    The product has scaled up with our company growth just fine. No issues here other than slowness in clicking around and running reports
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    We have over 500 computers and tablets across our organization and this has helped us greatly in keeping track of where computers are and who is currently using it. I can see this product being useful to groups both larger and smaller than us and I really appreciate this product.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Salesforce
    • Because this is a cloud service, the security, implementation framework and feature list is very mature and you don't have to develop these during implementation.
    • The larger the implementation programme the better the licensing arrangements
    • Free developer toolkit for proof of concepts or showcasing features
    • Limited to annual subscription model
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • We are more easily able to quantify user satisfaction with support.
    • We are able to develop SLAs that quantify and define the obligation of our support teams.
    • The actual cost of Solarwinds Service Desk per agent user is high in our estimation. The more you implement this platform across your organization, the more tightly tethered you are to this solution.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Salesforce Service Cloud Screenshots

    Screenshot of Workflows and OrchestrationScreenshot of Service CatalogScreenshot of Contact Center

    SolarWinds Service Desk Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot