The best alternative to ServiceNow

The software is a distraction with no benefit. It’s like using an IBM 3270 “green screen” interface. The user interface design is poor and it lacks an understanding of human factors and fails to embrace modern technology. The designers show a very low interest in gathering the concerns being discussed.^[1]

It is quite complex to set up dashboards, this needs to be simplified. The website can be slow at times and finding a specific keyword on a ticket can be difficult.^[2]

One of the most frequently mentioned challenges is the steep learning curve. Customization is a double-edged sword – while it allows for tailored solutions, users report difficulties managing and maintaining custom scripts and configurations. Over-customization can lead to increased complexity and potential performance issues. Scalability is another significant concern, particularly for large organizations. High licensing and implementation costs are also a major concern.^[3]

Customers are struggling with its pricing policy, feeling they are being nudged into higher price brackets and failing to benefit from supposed discount packages. They sometimes repackage functionality into new product types as a way to upsell customers into newer and more expensive feature-rich products. Enterprise license agreements are supposed to lower prices of individual products but sometimes they increased prices.^[4]

Corporate politics can start to come into play due to the software’s tracking and metrics capabilities. There is a palpable stress that comes with deadlines. Another problem with it is the lack of communications within.^[5]

The UI is awful and it’s missing features from the current applications we use. Implementation has been poor because we used a third party to help set up things and it’s very basic. Licensing can feel pretty scummy with how disjointed their products are if you plan to customize and there are basically unknowable license rules. They’ve come knocking multiple times asking for fees for licenses they came up with AFTER we implemented with them and for things we’ve had in production for years.^[6]

The platform’s execution is worse than terrible. Update sets are often filled with ‘changes’ that are exactly the same as the previous version. The back button takes you to a random page that you visited in the span of the last 10 minutes. There’s little to no documentation on almost every part of the system.^[7]

The software doesn’t load anything consistently. Drop down boxes? Forget about it until you literally click around the blank areas of the page. Templates? Only some of the fields. Clone task? Also, forget about it.^[8]

ServiceNow’s approach often feels like over-engineering simple problems. The complexity can be overwhelming for teams that just need basic workflow management. Many organizations find themselves paying premium prices for features they may never use, while struggling with the basic functionality that should work seamlessly.^[9]