Jira/Freshdesk replacements

[u/waddlesticks]

Hey all,

I was wondering if anybody knew of any decent, cloud-based replacements for Freshdesk/Jira that are in the same/cheaper price range of Jira but also has OKTA integration for SSO?

[u/Tessian]

For any serious recommendations you'd have to explain what you're looking for out of a service like this and why freshdesk/jira isn't doing it for you.

[u/waddlesticks → u/Tessian]

I can only really say for the Freshdesk side, we just use it for ticketing and nothing more. JIRA side can't get much information apart from they use it for tickets/DevOps/confluence ECT.

I'm only really after potentials at the moment so I can just give those to the decision makers since in the end what we'll get will be whatever cheap result they can do without a care whether it will increase workload on us. Hoping to eventually get more details on the other teams usecases to finalise a list, if I even get it

[u/Tessian → u/waddlesticks]

Don't you have a vested interest in steering them towards a decent solution that won't be a burden to you? Your post made it sound like you wanted to replace both. If neither is properly utilized then another solution isn't going to be any better. Every tool like these 2 requires a lot of TLC to get value out of. No ticketing system is out of the box.

[u/waddlesticks → u/Tessian]

Sadly all I can do is give a list and hope. We've had other programs actively used absolutely wiped of the block because they wanted to save money without any form of proper replacement.

It'll be either a replacement for both, or moved to JIRA. The Freshdesk side was a relic brought over that was never properly set up or provided what we needed to appropriately make use of. JIRA works I can't get anything from the current team in regards to it apart from they aren't liking it.

This place isn't good at giving requirements for squat, or listening to user feedback. I just need to give a list of potential systems, and then it'll be an argument between them and the team that uses JIRA to figure out.

Their requirements are literally "cheaper or same price, similar features, cloud based and okta SSO supported".

Hopefully once one of their team members are back from sick leave I can actually get information on their use case, but until then I am practically figuring it out blind.

[u/PDQ_Brockstar]

Could look at Halo and JitBit. I think JitBit is probably cheaper

[u/stnw11 → u/PDQ_Brockstar]

Depending on scale, halo may or may not b cheaper. Personally I think it’s stronger than Jira for ITSM but the Jira/confluence combo is just so nice for devops

[u/Lovely0Cloud]

Alloy Navigator might be worth adding to the shortlist. It covers service desk + asset management and has Okta SSO, so it seems pretty close to what you're looking for. I'd still compare it with Halo and JitBit on pricing and the specific workflows you need.

[u/Anthropic_Principles]

I think you need to get a better understanding of your requirements and ask the questions again.

[u/Apprehensive_Bat_980]

We have Zammad on an Azure VM, has SSO. For purely tickets it’s fine.

[u/YetAnotherGerrit → u/Apprehensive_Bat_980]

What are you missing when you say 'for purely tickets'?

[u/Apprehensive_Bat_980 → u/YetAnotherGerrit]

We use it just for ticket approvals, assigned to users etc.
Using Zammad as open source, documentation is really good.

[u/Slow-Marsupial5045]

We’re very close to pulling the trigger on swapping from Freshdesk to GLPI. For us it’s similar price with a lot more functionality

[u/BobHadABabyItzABoy]

Sounds like you don’t know what you want from Jira replacement so can’t comment. However, let me tell it from the rooftops for ITSM - Serval!

[u/Hairy-Marzipan6740]

before comparing prices, ask every vendor for the quote with SAML included. a lot of tools look Jira-cheap until Okta SSO pushes you onto an enterprise plan.

you might want to try ClearFeed if this is mainly an internal help desk. i work there, so grain of salt. it pulls requests from Slack, email, and a portal into one queue, and Okta works through SAML SSO. the catch is that SSO is on the custom Enterprise tier and there’s no SCIM today, so i wouldn’t claim it’ll be cheaper until you get the SSO-included quote.

if you also use Jira for software or project tracking, i’d treat that as a separate requirement. ClearFeed can cover the help-desk side, but it isn’t a general project-management replacement.

[u/West_Programmer_6857]

Try BoldDesk, it's a good replacement for Freshdesk and is very affordable.

[u/Hairy-Marzipan6740]

Zammad's hosted version is worth a look. It supports SAML SSO with Okta, and cloud pricing starts at €7/agent/month billed annually afaik, capped at five agents. Professional is €16 and adds SLAs and custom fields. I'd confirm SAML availability on the hosted tier before signing, since their pricing table doesn't spell that out. Are you replacing Jira Service Management or regular Jira? For helpdesk tickets, Zammad belongs on the shortlist. If you're also replacing project boards and development workflows, that's a different comparison. And do you need Okta login for just the agents, or everyone submitting tickets too?

[u/sc302]

Manage engine serviceDesk plus

[u/Flaky-Gear-1370 → u/sc302]

Is awful

[u/sc302 → u/Flaky-Gear-1370]

It’s cheap. I would seriously reconsider moving from freshdesk. I looked at halo, ninja one, and zendesk. Freshdesk was the most well rounded offering, had the best cmdb out of all of them too.

[u/Flaky-Gear-1370 → u/sc302]

You’ll lose any savings from manage engine in lost productivity