Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus VS Jira

Compare ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus VS Jira and see what are their differences

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus logo ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

Over 100,000 organizations, across 185 countries, trust ServiceDesk Plus to optimize IT service desk performance and achieve high end user satisfaction.

Jira logo Jira

The #1 software development tool used by agile teams. Jira Software is built for every member of your software team to plan, track, and release great software.
  • ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-06
  • Jira Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-09

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus features and specs

  • Incident Management
    Reduce outages, improve agent productivity, meet SLAs, and manage the complete life cycle of IT tickets.
  • Asset Management
    Optimize asset utilization, avoid vulnerabilities, and ensure license compliance.
  • Project Management
    Create projects, manage resources, track progress, and integrate projects with requests and changes to fine-tune your overall IT service delivery.
  • Problem Management
    Analyze root causes, reduce repeat incidents, and boost your IT help desk's productivity.
  • CMDB
    Visually build relationships between CIs and analyze the business impact of any outages or change implementations.
  • Service catalog
    Showcase your available services to end users, with custom SLAs and multi-stage approvals.
  • Change management
    Streamline planning, approval, and implementation with automated workflows.
  • Enterprise service management
    Extend proven ITSM best practices to HR, finance, and other service delivery areas.
  • IT release management
    Make your releases work in tandem with your change management process.

Jira features and specs

  • Robust Feature Set
    Jira offers a comprehensive suite of tools for project management, including issue tracking, agile reporting, and workflow automation, which can handle both small and large projects effectively.
  • Customizability
    Organizations can customize Jira extensively, tailoring workflows, fields, and issues to meet their specific requirements, which enhances productivity and alignment with business processes.
  • Integration Capabilities
    Jira integrates seamlessly with other Atlassian products like Confluence, Bitbucket, and more, as well as third-party tools such as GitHub and Slack, ensuring a connected and efficient workflow.
  • Agile Methodologies Support
    With built-in support for Scrum, Kanban, and other agile frameworks, Jira helps teams to manage their agile processes efficiently, offering features like sprint planning, backlog grooming, and burndown charts.
  • Strong Community and Support
    Jira has a large, active user community and extensive documentation, along with professional support options, which can be invaluable in troubleshooting and optimizing its use.
  • Comprehensive Task Management
    Jira Core provides a robust set of features for managing tasks and projects, including customizable workflows, forms, and dashboards, which are beneficial for tracking progress and enhancing productivity.
  • Integration with Other Atlassian Products
    It integrates seamlessly with other Atlassian tools like Confluence, Bitbucket, and Trello, enabling streamlined collaboration and improved visibility across teams.
  • Customizable and Flexible
    Jira Core allows a high degree of customization for workflows, task types, and notifications, making it adaptable to various business processes and team needs.
  • Scalability
    It supports scalability, which makes it suitable for both small-scale teams and large enterprises, evolving as the organization grows.
  • Strong Reporting Capabilities
    The software offers comprehensive reporting tools to gain insights into project progress and team performance, helping in making informed decisions.

Possible disadvantages of Jira

  • Complexity
    Due to its extensive feature set and customizability, Jira can be overly complex for new users or small teams, requiring a steep learning curve and potentially making simple tasks time-consuming.
  • Cost
    While Jira provides robust features, it comes at a cost. Subscription fees can be high, especially for larger teams or organizations requiring advanced capabilities.
  • Performance Issues
    On occasion, users might experience performance issues, particularly with large datasets, causing slowness and reduced efficiency in managing tasks.
  • Overhead
    Maintaining and configuring Jira can require significant administrative overhead, needing dedicated resources to manage its setup, customization, and updates.
  • User Interface Complexity
    While powerful, Jira's user interface can be overwhelming and cluttered, which may hinder usability and speed for those not already familiar with the platform.
  • Complexity for New Users
    Jira Core's wide range of features and customization options can be overwhelming for new users, leading to a steep learning curve.
  • High Configuration Overheads
    Setting up and configuring the software to fit specific project needs can be time-consuming, especially for teams without dedicated administrative resources.
  • Cost Considerations
    For smaller teams or organizations with limited budgets, the costs associated with Jira Core licenses and potential add-ons might be a constraint.
  • Limited by Internet Connectivity
    As a primarily cloud-based solution, its functionality can suffer in environments with poor or inconsistent internet connectivity.

Analysis of ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

Overall verdict

  • ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is a good choice for organizations seeking an affordable and feature-rich ITSM solution. Its scalability and customization options make it suitable for businesses of various sizes, while its reliability and ease of use make it a popular choice among IT professionals.

Why this product is good

  • ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is considered a robust IT service management software due to its comprehensive range of features, including incident management, change management, asset management, and a self-service portal. It provides a user-friendly interface and strong reporting capabilities, which can enhance the productivity of IT teams. Additionally, it offers integrations with other ManageEngine tools and third-party applications, making it versatile for various IT environments.

Recommended for

    This solution is recommended for medium to large enterprises with established IT service management processes in need of a comprehensive tool to manage their IT services. It is also well-suited for organizations looking to streamline their IT operations and improve service delivery without incurring the high costs associated with some other enterprise-level ITSM tools.

Analysis of Jira

Overall verdict

  • Jira is generally considered a strong choice for organizations seeking a comprehensive and flexible project management tool, especially those in software development. However, it can be complex and may have a steep learning curve for new users, which can be a drawback for some teams.

Why this product is good

  • Jira by Atlassian is highly regarded due to its robust set of features tailored for software development and project management. It offers extensive customization options, effective tracking capabilities, and seamless integration with other tools, particularly within the Atlassian suite. Its flexibility allows teams to adapt workflows to suit their processes, making it a versatile option for various project management needs.

Recommended for

    Jira is recommended for software development teams, agile project management enthusiasts, companies that require detailed workflow customization, and organizations already using other Atlassian products seeking seamless integration.

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus videos

ServiceDesk Plus overview demo

More videos:

  • Review - Manageengine Servicedesk Plus Mobile

Jira videos

Jira Core Walkthrough and Review

More videos:

  • Review - JIRA Core: Business Team Use Cases
  • Review - (2018) The NEW Jira Begins Now - Modern Software Development
  • Demo - JIRA in a Nutshell demo video
  • Review - (Re)Discover JIRA Core: Tricks That Make a BIG Difference - Atlassian Summit 2016

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus and Jira)
Help Desk
100 100%
0% 0
Project Management
0 0%
100% 100
Service Desk
100 100%
0% 0
Task Management
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus and Jira

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus Reviews

10 Best RMM Software | Remote Monitoring & Management Tools 2021
ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP is a remote monitoring and management (RMM) software for managed service providers to assist them in managing their client’s desktops, servers, laptops, and mobile devices from a central location. It is suitable for small, medium, as well as large MSPs.
8 Zendesk Alternatives to Rock Your Customer Service
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is No. 1 on our list of the most popular help desk software options. It offers dashboards for projects, milestones, and tasks for all your projects. From there, the system will tell you what caused incidents so you can be proactive about preventing them.

Jira Reviews

  1. Luminous Valentine
    my experience

    Jira may be extremely sluggish and require a large amount of memory on the client side.

    👍 Pros:    Affordable price|Affordable
    👎 Cons:    Super simple|Scalable

10 Best Canny Alternatives and Competitors in 2025
Jira is an issue-tracking tool that flags and tracks bugs, creates product roadmaps, and collects user insights. Beloved by SaaS companies and startups, it’s a great tool for gathering and analyzing what your customers say about your products. Plus, it highlights areas for improvement to target pressing issues instantly. ✍️
Source: clickup.com
25 Best Asana Alternatives & Competitors for Project Management in 2024
Jira is a bug-tracking and project software. Compared to Asana, it’s geared towards agile teams and technical power users. With advanced reporting options, including user workload, average issue age, and recently created issues, project managers can make informed decisions to plan smarter sprints.
Source: clickup.com
The 10 best Asana alternatives in 2024
Unlike Asana, Jira was built specifically for teams that use Scrum and Agile workflows. When you sign up, you'll answer a few questions about your preferred methodologies, project types, and deadlines. Then, Jira will suggest a project template and methodology to fit your team's needs.
Source: zapier.com
16 Best Asana Alternatives of 2024 (Free + Paid)
Jira is a software product of Atlassian and is often used for tracking issues in software development. But Jira has grown to be used outside of the IT segment for tracking a range of issues, tasks and work items. What it might lack in features is made up on the Atlassian Marketplace where many plugins can be purchased to extend the tool’s features.
The Ultimate List of 20 Best AI Work Management Tools
Atlassian Intelligence (preregistration): Jira leverages artificial intelligence to automate various tasks, including summarizing meeting minutes, answering questions, converting natural language queries into JQL or SQL, and offering instant assistance through virtual agents in Slack and Microsoft Teams, accelerating work and enhancing user experience.
Source: ppm.express

What are some alternatives?

When comparing ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus and Jira, you can also consider the following products

Intercom - Intercom is a customer relationship management and messaging tool for web businesses. Build relationships with users to create loyal customers.

Asana - Asana project management is an effort to re-imagine how we work together, through modern productivity software. Fast and versatile, Asana helps individuals and groups get more done.

tawk.to - tawk.to is a free live chat app that lets you monitor and chat with visitors on your website or from a free customizable page

Trello - Infinitely flexible. Incredibly easy to use. Great mobile apps. It's free. Trello keeps track of everything, from the big picture to the minute details.

JivoChat - JivoChat is a live chat that enables you to talk to visitors on your website

Basecamp - A simple and elegant project management system.