# Freshservice alternative

> Excellent at what it is for, and what it is for is a different shape of organisation.

**URL:** https://cubemsp.co.uk/alternatives/freshservice

**Vendor:** Freshworks | **Category:** General ITSM | **Last reviewed:** 2026-08-06

## What Freshservice actually is

Freshservice is a modern IT service management platform with a deservedly good reputation for interface quality and ease of adoption. It covers incidents, service requests, problems, changes, assets and a service catalogue, and it does so with noticeably less friction than the enterprise ITSM tools it competes with. Its design centre, however, is the internal IT department: one organisation, one estate, one set of employees. A managed service provider has a materially different shape - many client organisations that must never see one another, recurring commercial arrangements per client, and client-facing governance - and platforms not built for that shape tend to model clients as a tag or a department, which works until it does not.

## What Freshservice does well

- A well-designed interface, which materially affects whether a service desk actually uses the tool.
- Solid ITIL-aligned coverage of incidents, requests, problems, changes and assets.
- Quick to adopt relative to traditional enterprise ITSM platforms.
- Strong asset and service catalogue handling for a single organisation.

## Side by side

| Dimension | Freshservice | CubeMSP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Designed for | Internal IT departments serving one organisation | Providers serving many client organisations |
| Client separation | Achieved through configuration - departments, views, permissions | Enforced at the data layer; cross-tenant access returns a 404 |
| Recurring commercials | Not its purpose | Services with cost, sell, term and renewal date as a core module |
| Client reviews | Internal management reporting | Branded client reviews assembled from period data |
| Projects with clients | Internal project handling | Shared boards with client users at no per-seat charge |
| Interface maturity | Polished and widely praised | Younger, and we will not claim parity |

## Worth checking before you sign

- **Built for one organisation:** The data model assumes a single company with departments and employees. Representing thirty separate client organisations, each requiring guaranteed separation from the others, is working against the design rather than with it.
- **No commercial layer for a provider:** Recurring services, cost and sell prices, renewal dates and client margin are not what it is for. Those stay in a spreadsheet, which is usually the problem the provider was trying to solve.
- **Client-facing reporting is internal-facing reporting:** Dashboards are designed for an IT manager reporting upwards inside their own organisation, not for a provider evidencing value to a paying client at renewal.
- **Isolation is a configuration concern:** Where clients are modelled as departments or tags, separation depends on views and permissions being configured correctly and staying correct. For a provider, that is the wrong place for that risk to live.

## When Freshservice is the better choice

If you are an internal IT department rather than a service provider, Freshservice is very likely a better answer than CubeMSP and we would say so without hesitation - our multi-client model would be so much overhead you do not need. The same applies if formal change management with a change advisory board is central to how you work, which we do not currently support.

## What leaving Freshservice involves

- **Restructure clients properly:** Departments or tags representing clients become real client records with sites and contacts. This usually uncovers duplicates and inconsistencies, which is uncomfortable and worth doing.
- **Build the recurring book for the first time:** It has probably never existed as structured data. Expect a few days assembling it from contracts and spreadsheets - it is where most of the early value shows up.
- **Bring the ticket history:** It migrates cleanly and it is what makes the knowledgebase and retrieval useful immediately.

## Frequently asked questions

**Can Freshservice be made to work for an MSP?**

Providers do run it, generally by modelling clients as departments or using separate instances. Both work up to a point. The point is usually reached when isolation between clients becomes a compliance question rather than a configuration preference.

**What does CubeMSP add?**

The commercial layer - services with cost and sell, renewals, client margin - plus client-facing reviews and shared project boards, on a model where every client organisation is isolated by construction rather than by configuration.

**Is your interface as good?**

Freshservice sets a high standard and we are a younger product. We think ours is clean and quick, and we would rather you judged that in a demonstration than took our word for it.

**Do you support ITIL processes?**

Incidents, requests, problems, a service catalogue and knowledge management, yes. Formal change management with a change advisory board, no - and if that is central to your operation, Freshservice is the better fit.

## Related comparisons

- **Atera alternative** - https://cubemsp.co.uk/alternatives/atera
- **HaloPSA alternative** - https://cubemsp.co.uk/alternatives/halopsa
- **Spreadsheets & A Shared Mailbox alternative** - https://cubemsp.co.uk/alternatives/spreadsheets-and-shared-mailbox

> Freshservice is a trade mark of Freshworks. Cube Systems Limited is not affiliated with, endorsed by or a partner of Freshworks. This comparison is based on information published by the vendor and was last reviewed on 2026-08-06. Verify current details with the vendor before making any decision.

## Contact

- **Product:** CubeMSP
- **Trading name of:** Cube Systems Limited (company number 17220899, ICO registration number ZC216972)
- **Email:** hello@cubemsp.co.uk
- **Sales:** sales@cubemsp.co.uk
- **Support:** support@cubemsp.co.uk
- **Telephone:** 01234 672 617 (+441234672617)
- **Address:** Unit 11, Olney Business Park, Osier Way, Olney, Buckinghamshire, MK46 5FP
- **Opening hours:** Monday to Friday, 9am to 5.30pm
- **Part of:** Crushed Ice Group (https://crushedicegroup.co.uk)