Freshservice Review – The online software turns on the autopilot for service desks, automatically handling mundane tasks, so that admins can focus their efforts on more important matters.

If there’s one department that gets labeled as complicated, it’s usually IT. Information technology departments deal with complex systems and detail-oriented tasks that other groups within large organizations don’t typically handle. Now, an online ITIL service desk is trying to change that perception. Freshservice has come up with a refreshingly simple alternative to popular ITSM tools.

In this Freshservice review, I will take a close look at Freshservice and describe how the online service desk software works for businesses large and small. In describing some of the major benefits that Freshservice provides to its users, I hope to also showcase what it is that makes Freshservice stand apart from other SaaS service desk competitors. Finally, I will offer my ultimate review of whether Freshservice is a product that internal IT admins should check out.

Freshservice Review – About the Solution

Built with IT admins in mind, Freshservice is a plug-and-play ITIL service desk that provides its users with ticketing and asset management capabilities. The platform itself is incredibly easy to use, as it has been developed for organizations looking to implement best practices without requiring the support of an implementation expert.

Created by the team behind Freshdesk, a top customer support software service used worldwide, Freshservice takes just minutes to setup and customize. Core functionalities within the platform include incident management, problem management, change management, release management, and asset management tools.

Main Functionality of Freshservice

As mentioned previously, Freshservice was designed to handle the tasks of asset management and ticketing management, along with many other features that are integral to service desks at most organizations.

Freshservice’s asset management tools enable IT admins to track and manage every asset owned by their companies, from printer cartridges and Ethernet cables all the way to laptops and servers. Product configurations and inventory lists allow admins to identify the impact of specific assets before deciding where to place them. Every piece of information that should be known about an asset—for example, software licenses, hardware, and network infrastructure—is viewable on one main screen.

Ticketing management is another feature that Freshservice provides to its users. Self-service ticketing tools ensure that service requests are simple to track and never fall through the cracks. Using Freshservice’s powerful system, IT admins can track specific incidents, delegate requests, and check on outstanding tickets without ever getting up from their computer terminals. This process is made even easier for organizations that create detailed knowledge bases using Freshservice’s straightforward tools.

Benefits of Using Freshservice

Freshservice has worked hard to add style and substance to a product that is typically viewed as overly complex. The company’s online IT service desk software includes all of the elements that IT admins need to handle internal operations, including asset, incident, problem, change, and release management features. Freshservice also provides native integrations with popular services like FreshBooks, Atlassian JIRA, and LogMeIn Rescue.

Freshservice also streamlines operations for IT admins by adding “smart suggestion” capabilities to its knowledge base articles when users are creating tickets. This encourages users to resolve issues themselves, and decreases the burden on overworked IT admins. For those tickets that do get through, canned responses and automation features also help to speed up the reply process.

The Basics: What Does the Interface Look Like?

Every help desk begins with a dashboard. This is the view that your IT admins will see when they sign in to the platform each day. Along the top of the dashboard is a ticket summary, which includes the total number of tickets that are overdue, open, on hold, due today, or unassigned.

Freshservice dashboard

Scroll through your list of open tickets, and click on any ticket you like. Each ticket should be assigned a status and a priority, letting you know which issues should be tackled first. Once you’ve read a ticket, you’ll want to assign it to a specific admin on your team.

Open tickets to be assigned

Click on the “Problems” tab to see a list of unresolved problems, which have been submitted by your colleagues. Underneath each problem is a custom analysis and a recommended solution. If nothing appears in the solution box, then add your own permanent solution or workaround solution. You can also adjust the status, priority, and impact of the problem, and select a due date to ensure it gets remedied in a fair amount of time.

List of problems to be resolved

Support Information

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that an IT service desk application provides standout customer support. Click on the “Support” tab to enter Freshservice’s expansive knowledge base. You can browse the knowledge base by topic, or search by keyword. Create a new support ticket to find the answer to a question that hasn’t been covered in the knowledge base, or visit the community forums to see which topics are being discussed by your fellow users.

Pricing Information

Freshservice believes that great IT support doesn’t have to cost a lot, which is why the company starts its pricing at $0. Paid plans range from $29 per agent, per month (for the Blossom plan) to $99 per agent, per month (for the Estate plan). Organizations can purchase additional assets at 30 cents per month, regardless of which paid plan they select.

Freshservice Review – The Bottom Line

IT admins should be begging their employers to switch to Freshservice’s IT service management software. The online software essentially turns on the autopilot for service desks, automatically handling mundane tasks like categorizing and prioritizing issues so that admins can focus their efforts on more pressing matters. This helps IT departments work more efficiently, which is one of the primary reasons why I believe Freshservice is an excellent SaaS solution that businesses in a number of industries would be smart to check out for themselves.

Ratings: ease of use 5/5, features 5/5, value 5/5