IT tools allow users to manage IT assets and IT operations effectively.
As an IT manager or system administrator, you may have come across several challenges while protecting critical IT assets from vulnerabilities and enhancing user satisfaction in terms of addressing queries. These might include little or no visibility of assets, warranty leakage, policy enforcement issues, and management of IT helpdesk tickets. If this sounds familiar to you, maybe it’s time to invest in IT management software.
IT management solutions provide you with complete visibility over your IT assets. The tools allow you to identify non-performing assets, track potential network issues, and reduce unplanned downtime. Having an IT management solution in place ensures that the administrators are able to access and monitor IT assets, even from remote locations. With these tools, you can address user queries and manage customer service tickets effectively.
This article highlights nine of the best IT management software (sorted alphabetically) for professionals, based on ratings and reviews from users like you. (Read the complete methodology here.)
1. Atera: Provides ticket filtering to locate tickets quickly
Atera is an online IT management tool that offers a complete solution to managed service providers in a single module. The software provides functions for time recording in case of ticket management, expense tracking, billing and invoicing, document management, and patch management.
The single dashboard allows users to create tickets, manage alerts, and view activities that require immediate attention. It also features a remote monitoring tool that provides complete visibility over distributed networks and real-time updates about the logged-in users, network and IP monitoring, and the overall health of the system. Atera provides a complete platform for patch management that allows you to locate missing or failed patches and identify system vulnerabilities.
The software features a ticket timer that allows technicians to automatically record the time spent on a ticket. With Atera, you can apply filters across all your tickets to find similar use cases. You can locate a ticket using the pre-set options in Atera, such as the status of the ticket, assigned technician, ticket creation date, and priority. Alternatively, you can create your own custom fields to search for a ticket in the future.
Atera offers chat, email, and phone support to customers.
Key Features
- Activity dashboard
- Alerts/notifications
- Asset tracking
- Automated routing
- Automatic patch deployment
- Backup and recovery
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Starting price
Device compatibility
Screenshots
Automating alerts in Atera
2. Freshservice: Offers AI-powered ticket field suggestions
Freshservice is an online IT helpdesk and service management software that features a ticketing system, a self-service portal, and a knowledge base for customers. The software allows users to assign, track, and prioritize IT help desk tickets from multiple sources, such as a mobile app, email, chatbot, and walk-ups.
With Freshservice, you can perform the root cause analysis of a specific problem to identify, track, and solve recurring issues. Once a problem has been detected, you can attach important images, links, and documents to provide context to the issue under discussion.
The software offers Artificial Intelligence(AI)-enabled ticket field suggester that allows users to assign parameters to tickets, based on their category, impact, urgency, and type. The feature helps redirect tickets to the right team. The software also provides users with possible solutions for tickets in the form of knowledge base solution articles. Agents can select the appropriate solution and insert the URL or the content itself in response to the customer query.
Freshservice offers phone, email, and chat customer support.
Key Features
- Activity tracking
- Alerts/escalations
- Approval workflow
- Asset tracking
- Backup and recovery
- Bug tracking
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Starting price
Device compatibility
Screenshots
Ticket automator in Freshservice
3. JumpCloud Directory Platform: Provides multi-factor authentication for safety reasons
JumpCloud Directory Platform is an IT management solution that enables users to access and manage multiple devices and workstations from a single web-based console. The software provides an end-to-end directory and system insights to users. While system insights include the state of the machine, device uptime, and security vulnerabilities for every managed device, directory insights provide a view of all user activities and changes to access rights.
JumpCloud offers multi-factor authentication (MFA) to secure access to your organization's admin portal. Once you set up the MFA feature, admins will be able to access the portal by using a one-time verification code, Duo-security MFA, or WebAuthn MFA options. While Duo security allows users to authenticate using push notifications or phone callbacks, WebAuthn MFA allows admins to authenticate using security keys. With JumpCloud, you can also set password complexity requirements (i.e., you can define the minimum attributes for a strong password).
JumpCloud features a dashboard that allows users to access user and device-related data for compliance monitoring. It allows you to create, view, and share compliance reports with auditors.
JumpCloud’s customer support options include phone, email, and chat support.
Key Features
- Access control
- Access management
- Activity dashboard
- Authentication
- Compliance management
- Endpoint management
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Starting price
Device compatibility
Screenshots
Managing organization systems in JumpCloud Directory Platform
4. ManageEngine OpManager: Offers over 2000 metrics for network monitoring
ManageEngine OpManager is a network management software tool that offers network monitoring, configuration management, and bandwidth analysis facilities. It allows you to measure network performance with the help of over 2000 metrics, including network traffic, Wide Area Network (WAN) performance, Central Processing Unit (CPU), memory, errors, and discards.
OpManager’s discovery engine can discover up to 5000 devices and collect important information, including device name, type, operating system, and configurations. The software also features a fault management tool that allows users to identify network faults, be it in the form of performance degradation or unforeseen outages, and work out possible resolutions. As soon as there is a fault in the network, the software alerts the user over a text or an email.
The software analyzes the network traffic and monitors real-time bandwidth consumption using various technologies, such as sFlow and J-Flow. While sFlow provides a comprehensive view of the network traffic, J-Flow provides information about network usage.
ManageEngine OpManager offers phone, email, and chat support to customers.
Key Features
- Access controls/permissions
- Automatic configuration
- Backup and recovery
- Bandwidth monitoring
- Configuration management
- Dashboard
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Starting price
Device compatibility
5. ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus: Automates patch management process
ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus is an automated patch management solution that allows users to automate all the functions of patch management-from scanning of machines to detection of missing patches, their deployment, and reporting. The software allows you to manage and deploy patches to over 350 third-party applications, including Java, Adobe, and WinRAR.
ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus allows IT administrators to test the patches on a small group of computers before deploying them to the entire network. Once the installation is successful in the test group, you can either approve the patches manually or automate the approval process. After approval, the patch automatically gets installed over the entire network.
The patch management solution comes with a missing patches feature that provides the admins an idea of the missing security patches across the entire network. The software also offers a reporting feature that allows you to view and share critical reports, such as the ones on important updates, install statuses, failed updates, and database vulnerabilities.
Patch Manager Plus offers customer support via phone, email, and chat.
Key Features
- Approval process control
- Automatic patch deployment
- Customization
- Dashboard
- Network wide management
- Patch testing
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Starting price
Device compatibility
Screenshots
Viewing patch updates in ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus
6. PRTG Network Manager: Offers multiple notification methods for alerting
PRTG Network Manager is a network monitoring solution that enables you to analyze and monitor all the devices and applications in your IT infrastructure. The software offers over 10 notification methods to alert you in case there is a threshold breach or change in the sensor status of a specific device (s). These alerts could be in the form of emails, push notifications, and alarm audio files.
PRTG features a bandwidth monitoring tool as well that allows you to measure the actual bandwidth on a local system (LAN or Wi-Fi). With PRTG, you can keep a track of the incoming and outgoing traffic on a device and check what applications are majorly consuming the bandwidth.
PRTG Network Manager allows users to visualize their networks using real-time maps and live status information on a single dashboard. What’s more, you can share these maps with internal/external stakeholders via a URL link. PRTG also offers an in-depth reporting feature, which means that you can view historic data reports for each sensor on demand. You can also export data as an XML or CSV file for further processing.
PRTG Network Manager offers email and chat customer support.
Key Features
- Activity dashboard
- Bandwidth monitoring
- Configuration management
- Data collection
- Data visualization
- Inventory management
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Starting price
Device compatibility
Screenshots
Device monitoring in PRTG Network Manager
7. Pulseway: Features a mobile app for remote network monitoring
Pulseway is a remote management IT tool that allows users to monitor network devices, including routers, switches, firewalls, servers, storage appliances, printers, and more! The network monitoring tool comes with a fully-featured mobile app that enables you to receive real-time alerts and fix network issues-all from your mobile phones or tablets. The software provides alerts via email or push notification.
The tool offers a web dashboard that allows you to customize which systems or metrics you want to see in real time. The feature helps you prioritize important metrics or specific systems that require immediate attention. These dashboards can also be shared with others to show the real-time system performance.
Other than network monitoring, Pulseway also offers patch management functionality. The feature allows technicians to automate and manage their patching tasks using the mobile app. The software allows users to generate reports, such as executed patches, failed patches, and the history of patch policies to analyze the overall health of the IT infrastructure. Pulseway’s patch management module supports your third-party applications as well.
Pulseway offers phone, email, and chat as customer support options.
Key Features
- Alerts/notifications
- Application management
- Approval process control
- Automatic patch deployment
- Backup and recovery
- Capacity management
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Starting price
Device compatibility
Screenshots
Systems overview in Pulseway
8. ServiceNow: Uses contextual search to recommend solutions
ServiceNow is an online IT service management platform that allows technicians to identify the root cause of issues, manage IT services, and improve user satisfaction. The software allows agents to view all the details related to an incident in a single pane. This helps the teams in resolving multiple issues together. It also helps them respond to user queries and change the status of multiple tasks-all from a single location.
The platform offers an agent assist feature that provides agents with a list of possible solutions for an issue. The software uses contextual search to search for possible recommendations based on knowledge base articles, catalog items, related incidents, and questions that are relevant to a particular issue.
The IT tool offers a mobile app that enables users to submit requests, manage tasks, and access resources even from remote locations. It also provides chatbot-embedded self-service portals that provide round-the-clock answers to common user queries. ServiceNow features a virtual agent designer that allows you to determine common conversation topics and create dialogues between the virtual agent and the user. You can also provide resolution(s) to user queries based on the information supplied by the user.
ServiceNow offers customer support via phone, chat, and email.
Key Features
- Automated routing
- Change management
- Compliance management
- Customizable branding
- Data management
- Impact management
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Starting price
Device compatibility
Screenshots
Managing customer tickets in ServiceNow
9. Spiceworks: Allows users to create unlimited service tickets
Spiceworks is an online IT helpdesk and network monitoring solution that allows users to manage IT tickets raised by clients. The platform allows customers to create as many service tickets as may be required in a particular situation. Customers can submit their tickets with a brief summary of the issue, their email address, and attachments, if any, on the help desk portal. As a Spiceworks user, you can customize the look of the portal, manage content on the portal, and set authentication options for logging in to the user portal. You can allow the end-users to log in with their email address, their active directory credentials, or create their own passwords to access the portal.
Spiceworks also features a dashboard that displays all open tickets, assigned tickets, unassigned tickets, and new tickets at a glance. You can also view various important help desk metrics on the dashboard, such as the average time taken to solve a ticket, the status of unresolved tickets, and the average first response time. As an agent, you can add notes inside a ticket to build a narrative or provide a reply.
The software solution allows users to create basic and advanced reports, such as ticket reports, vendor reports, and reports on all software applications installed on each device. You can also export these reports in PDF, CSV, and XLS formats.
Spiceworks offers chat support to customers.
Key Features
- Activity monitoring
- Automated routing
- Capacity management
- Compliance management
- Customizable branding
- Dashboard
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Starting price
Device compatibility
Screenshots
Managing help desk tickets in Spiceworks
How to choose the best IT tools for your business?
Here are some important considerations to keep in mind before finalizing your purchase of the best IT tools in the market:
Select a tool based on your business requirements: Before you invest in an IT tool, assess your needs, recurring issues, and your expectations from the software. For instance, if you want to have increased control over distributed IT assets and you wish to optimize the procurement and use of these assets, you may want to invest in an IT asset management software with features such as asset tagging, customizable categories, and reporting. However, if you need a solution to provide a quick resolution to user queries and enhance customer satisfaction, you probably need an IT helpdesk software with automation and ticketing management capabilities.
Select a tool that offers a customizable dashboard: While looking for the best IT tool for your business, make sure that it provides a customizable dashboard that provides a complete view of your virtualized network. Having a centralized dashboard makes it easier to monitor appliances, network traffic, important performance metrics related to specific devices, and more! In the case of an IT help desk software, customizable dashboards allow you to track, manage, and prioritize tickets.
Select a tool with alerts escalation: An IT tool with alerting capabilities allows you to closely monitor the health of your system and prevent sudden breakdowns and associated downtime. It helps you minimize unplanned repairs, maintenance costs, and the risk of critical asset failure. If it is an IT help desk tool, the feature helps alert your teams when an important conversation goes silent or if a query has been open for too long and needs to be prioritized.
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Common questions to ask while selecting tools for IT professionals
Does the software facilitate collaboration?
Your shortlisted software should allow teams to collaborate while working on important incidents and discuss network issues with ease. Several products available in the market offer integration with communication tools that help improve alert handling tasks. In the case of IT service management, having a tool with collaboration features helps resolve customer queries in a seamless manner. It helps you route customer requests across teams.
Does the software support remote working?
With the sudden increase in the number of people working from home, it can be challenging for the IT teams to identify failed networks, address troubleshoot problems,and handle increased ticket volumes. The IT software that you select should, therefore, allow your teams to access network monitoring functions from anywhere, thereby eliminating the need to travel to places in order to check the network status. Having a software with a remote access tool allows your IT service desk team to improve their first-time fix rate.
Does the software offer reporting capabilities?
The IT tool that you select for your organization should allow you to create, view, and share different reports with internal/external shareholders. For a network monitoring solution, it could be network status reports, inventory reports, resource utilization reports, and reports related to the overall health of the systems. In the case of an IT help desk, it could be related to the number of tickets received, assigned, closed, and pending.
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