Research shortlist for internal IT support, not sales or general customer-support software. Feature and pricing pages checked; no hands-on workflow test.
Research-based; no hands-on test claim.The shortlist
| Product & fit | Documented scope | Limits to evaluate | Cost basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freshservice Internal IT teams seeking a hosted service desk View product details | Incident, knowledge and service-management features across plan tiers. | Change management, audit and asset entitlements are tier-dependent; verify the exact bundle. | Per-agent plans; asset units and AI capabilities can add cost. Check current pricing and billing term. |
| GLPI Teams wanting asset-centred service management View product details | Open-source IT asset and help-desk platform with commercial service options. | Self-hosting transfers patching, backup and availability work to your team. | Community software and paid support/hosting options; include infrastructure and administration. |
Specify the support process first
Write a small workflow covering intake, impact and urgency, assignment, escalation, waiting and closure. Decide how service requests and changes differ from incidents. List the asset relationships and approvals that technicians actually need.
Freshservice documents incident and knowledge functions with additional capabilities across plan tiers. GLPI combines asset and service-management functions with community and commercial options. The relevant comparison is whether the chosen edition supports your process without excessive manual work.
Check the entitlements that change the cost
For Freshservice, compare agent seats, service-management tier, asset units and optional AI features. Do not assume every feature shown on the product website is included in the entry plan. Request the complete recurring cost and billing commitment.
For GLPI, distinguish self-hosted community operation from paid hosting or support. Budget upgrades, backups, mail integration and identity configuration. A team choosing self-hosting needs somebody responsible for the service desk itself during an outage.
Run realistic tickets through the pilot
Create an incident, an access request and a change with an approval. Use separate requester, technician and administrator identities. Verify what each can see and whether internal notes remain restricted.
Test a reassignment, a waiting condition, a breached target and a reopened ticket. Link a ticket to an asset and export the record. Evaluate notifications with real message volume; a workflow that floods users can undermine an otherwise capable system.
Evaluate the exit and the operating burden
Check export of tickets, attachments, knowledge and asset relationships. Record API limits and any integration licence costs. Verify how privileged access is removed and how audit evidence is retained.
Choose after the process and permissions work in the pilot. Avoid a complex ITSM configuration that the team cannot maintain, and avoid reducing the decision to the lowest agent price. This comparison does not establish support quality or time saved.