Freshservice and ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus are the two most popular ITSM tools for Indian IT departments. Both are built by Indian companies — Freshworks (Chennai) and Zoho Corp's ManageEngine (Chennai). This comparison helps Indian IT managers choose the right platform.
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus has a free tier for up to 5 technicians with basic incident management. It lacks change management, CMDB, and asset discovery at the free tier. Freshservice does not have a free tier.
Yes — ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is available as an on-premise installation (Windows Server or Linux). This is a major advantage for banks, government organisations, and businesses with strict data residency requirements that cannot use cloud ITSM.
Freshservice is significantly easier — most small IT teams are fully operational within 1–2 days. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus requires more configuration, especially for on-premise deployments which can take a week for a clean setup.
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