Complete Buyer’s guide: Best Incident Management Software in 2024
Compare the top tools - their features, pros and cons.
May 26, 202421 MINS READ
When an IT incident occurs, every additional second of disruption or downtime typically results in more financial and reputational damage for a business. Thus, manually addressing these issues is simply no longer sufficient with so many intelligent tools now available on the market. Incident management software serves as a centralized location from which technical teams can coordinate their response efforts, generally offering a plethora of proactive monitoring tools, automated workflows, and AI-driven features to help streamline various processes as well.
Trying to resolve a wide-spread disruption without an incident management platform is like fighting a wildfire with a garden hose; you may eventually succeed, but not without suffering increased damage along the way.
Tag along as we break down what incident management platforms are, the benefits they can provide, and the top 15 solutions currently available to you.
What is incident management software?
Incident management software is a tool used by organizations to manage and resolve disruptions that affect normal IT service delivery. These incidents can range from technical outages, security breaches, service interruptions, or any event that impacts business continuity.
Incident response systems help in logging incidents, prioritizing their severity, assigning them to the appropriate teams, and ensuring that they are resolved efficiently. Features like real-time alerts, workflow automation, and collaboration tools are typically included to verify that support staff is equipped to respond quickly and effectively to disruptions.
Essential features of incident management software
Effective incident management software is built around a set of core features that support every stage of the incident lifecycle, from detection to reporting. By incorporating tools for prioritization, workflow automation, real-time tracking, and detailed reporting, these platforms enable IT teams to address incidents efficiently and minimize operational disruptions.
Let’s take a look at some of the key components that a competent incident management system should provide:
Leveraging of AI
Within incident management platforms, AI-powered tools can automatically detect anomalies or patterns that indicate potential issues, triggering incident alerts even before they fully manifest. This predictive capability allows teams to proactively address incidents, reducing the impact on operations.
Even more, AI often helps classify and prioritize disruptions based on their severity, ensuring that critical issues are dealt with immediately while less urgent ones are queued appropriately. These automated processes minimize manual effort and reduce human error, leading to faster incident resolution.
Instant alerting
When a disruption occurs, such as a system failure or a service interruption, incident management software immediately generates an alert to notify relevant teams. These alerts can be sent through various channels, including email, SMS, or internal messaging systems, ensuring that teams are informed in real-time, regardless of their location.
Once an incident is identified, these solutions are designed to categorize and prioritize it based on predefined criteria, such as severity or business impact. This verifies that high-priority incidents trigger more urgent alerts and receive immediate attention from the appropriate personnel.
Integrates with current structure
Incident management platforms should offer robust integration capabilities with a wide range of different systems to ensure seamless operations across the IT infrastructure. For instance, connection with monitoring tools, such as application performance monitors, allows the software to detect issues automatically and log incidents without manual intervention. This integration ensures that the system has real-time data on the status of IT infrastructure, providing a more proactive incident response.
Beyond monitoring solutions, a capable platform should be able to connect with various IT service management (ITSM) tools, such as change management or asset management systems, to provide a comprehensive view of IT operations. This enables teams to correlate incidents with recent changes or asset status, speeding up root cause analysis (RCA) and resolution.
Strong workflow automation capabilities
Workflow automation in incident management systems should cover routine tasks such as logging, updating, and closing incidents. For example, the platform might automatically update the status of a disruption as it progresses through different stages or close tickets once resolution is confirmed.
Additionally, these solutions often support predefined workflows for common incident types, where they follow specific steps to address the issue based on best practices. For instance, when an incident is detected, the platform can trigger predesignated actions such as initiating diagnostic tests, sending notifications, or applying known fixes from a knowledge base.
Incident prioritization, assignment, reporting and tracking
Another key functionality of incident management software is its capacity to prioritize disruptions based on factors like their business impact and urgency. This helps ensure that critical incidents, such as those affecting essential services or high-value customers, are addressed first. The software should allow organizations to define custom criteria for incident categorization, ensuring that each one is assigned a priority level that reflects its potential impact on operations.
For assignment, platforms should include capabilities to route incidents to the most appropriate team members based on expertise and availability. When evaluating the effectiveness of these processes, solutions typically offer real-time dashboards that allow teams to monitor their performance in various areas of incident management. Detailed reporting features should provide insights into incident trends, root causes, and more, promoting a culture of continuous improvement.
15 best incident management softwares for 2024
1. Freshservice
Freshservice is a cloud-based IT service management platform that excels at efficiently handling unforeseen events. Its intuitive interface ensures prompt incident logging, categorization, and prioritization so that critical issues receive attention quickly. Its comprehensive incident tracking capabilities enable teams to monitor incident status in real-time, facilitating effective communication and stakeholder collaboration. Additionally, Freshservice’s analytics and reporting capabilities help to identify recurring issues and implement proactive measures to prevent future problems and incidents. Leveraging Freshservice's incident management capabilities means businesses can enhance operational resilience and deliver exceptional service experiences to their customers.
Key features
Major incident ticket type can be leveraged to create separate SLAs, custom fields, permissions, and workflows
Service health monitoring provides a user-centric view into the state of your digital operations by tracking the health of your technical services
AI assistance summarizes tickets and identifies similar incidents to expedite the resolution process
Tickets are automatically categorized, prioritized, and assigned to the right agents to speed up workflows
AI-driven knowledge base helps agents auto-generate help articles and deflect routine inquiries with short, actionable responses
Pros
Keep customers updated on the response process through a public status page
Users can easily generate a post-incident report containing all ticket information via placeholders
Teams can create multiple SLA policies to suit task deadlines or enforce a different policy for tickets based on business hours, specific departments, or groups
Priority matrix allows admins to focus on the right tickets and quickly resolve high-priority incidents based on impact and urgency
Alert management tools consolidate notifications from all monitoring tools on a single pane of glass, while Freddy AI digs through the noise to highlight critical operational issues
Why clients rave about Freshservice
In addition to its robust incident management capacity, Freshservice acts as a comprehensive ITSM platform, contributing to enhanced cost-effectiveness and return on investment (ROI). It provides a wealth of proactive monitoring and alerting measures to prevent potential issues from snowballing, while also offering a powerful arsenal of remediation tools to resolve incidents when they do occur. Freshservice serves as a single, unified location from which IT teams can coordinate all of their ITSM-related activities, ensuring that technical infrastructure is always operating at peak efficiency.
But don’t just take it from us—one of our many satisfied clients, Hamish G., praises Freshservice’s incident management capabilities and overall ease of use, saying, “Freshworks has made the way our team works much more streamlined. We previously used very old school methods of incident management, direct emails to team members, etc., and we needed to get our way of working sorted. We have been using Freshservice for over 2 years now and have found the way it helps us work, and the simplicity especially of that work, has meant that we are simply more productive.
2. Instatus
Instatus is a software tool that helps businesses monitor their website's performance and uptime, and create status pages to communicate with customers about issues or downtime. It allows users to send notifications through Slack, Discord, Telegram, Email, SMS, Webhook, or API.
Key features
Status pages act as a single, unified location where customers can get updates on your services, thus preventing tickets and cutting down on manual workloads
Users can customize status pages to reflect their unique branding through the addition of logos and alteration of color schemes
Incidents can be resolved directly from Slack, while users can also set up escalation policies to notify others if the on-call person doesn't respond
Pros
Can monitor a website's performance and functionality, including loading pages, forms, and API requests
Users are able to set up custom alerts to keep stakeholders informed about incidents and changes in the status of their services
Incident templates can be created and customized text can be added to save time
Cons
No automatic pings to see if your site is down—you’ll need to integrate with an external system for automatic updates
User reviews mention an unresponsive and unhelpful customer support team when assistance is required
Non-intuitive interface can create challenges in adding users, viewing your account information, and navigating from one feature to the next
Price
Instatus’s Starter plan is free forever, while its Business package will set you back $300 per month
3. HaloITSM
HaloITSM is a software solution that assists technical teams in managing services for both customers and employees. It's an IT service management platform that offers a range of features, including incident management, change management, asset management, and more.
Key features
Self-service portal serves as a unified location where end-users can access their requests, raise tickets, and find solutions from knowledge base articles
SLA management allows teams to create multiple and customizable SLA groups, timings, and priorities for response and resolution times
AI-powered tools can automatically perform tasks such as categorizing and prioritizing incidents based on historical data and severity
Pros
Automatically generates and updates knowledge articles based on resolved incidents and user interactions
Predictive analytics help anticipate service disruptions and resource needs by analyzing patterns and trends in data
Share a live view of all projects to gain clarity and visibility with real-time project dashboards
Cons
Customization is complex, requiring lots of time and resources to tailor to unique business needs
Limited knowledge base capacity, with lack of version control and access restrictions
Rule-based configuration is tedious, as users may find themselves manually entering lots of rules which are just slightly different from each other
Price
You’ll need to contact HaloITSM directly for a custom quote on its various plans and packages
4. ServiceNow
ServiceNow acts as a comprehensive ITSM platform, offering various ITSM and ITOM solutions. It helps businesses streamline multiple internal processes, like IT support, onboarding, and customer service.
Key features
Major incident management capabilities for resolving high-impact incidents
Built-in AI and machine learning help make incident resolution seamless
Incident response playbook stipulates clear steps for resolving incidents and automating manual tasks
Pros
Serves as a unified system of record for assessing incidents, problems, change requests, and their impact
Visual, Kanban-like task boards assist in team collaboration
Integration capabilities with AIOps to streamline operations, minimize incidents, and shorten mean time to resolution
Cons
Search features are complex and challenging to navigate
Customization for change approval could be improved
Users have reported service disruptions and slowness when searching through lists of tickets
Price
You’ll need to contact a ServiceNow sales representative for a custom quote based on your specific business needs
5. BigPanda
BigPanda is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that assists companies in preventing and resolving technical outages. It leverages AI to correlate IT alerts and changes to identify root causes and automate incident management.
Key features
Active IT incident feed enables teams to see the overall status of vital applications and services to identify areas for remediation
Visualization tools help to understand incident timelines and root causes
Real-time topology mesh integrates topology data to better understand effective management and optimization
Pros
Alert correlation feature helps place similar alerts together for easier management
API connectors are easy to integrate with monitoring tools
Machine learning and AI help DevOps teams to work efficiently and to handle large volumes of data
Cons
Activity tab functionality could include better options for filtering comments, incident status changes, and more
According to user reviews, support is slow and can take a long time to respond to requests
Mobile app needs improvement to function at the same level as the desktop version
Price
You’ll need to reach out to BigPanda directly for a custom quote on its various plans and packages.
6. Zendesk
Zendesk is a highly scalable customer service software that empowers organizations to improve customer experiences (CXs) and provide support to both employees and customers. It provides various tools that help teams take action and initiate the incident investigation and remediation process.
Key features
Automated alerts notify relevant stakeholders when an anomaly or incident is detected, allowing teams to take action quickly
AI technology is purpose-built for IT teams, allowing them to expedite processes where applicable and streamline the entire incident management process
Incident grouping empowers teams to mesh similar incidents together, helping address wide-spread issues with bulk actions
Pros
Automatically assign incidents to the right team members with skill-based routing
Empowers users to escalate issues based on predefined policies
Out-of-the-box functionality for workflow automations, so you don't need to involve skilled developers
Cons
Fairly expensive compared to other similar providers with comparable features
Overwhelming set of features may not be necessary for businesses with straightforward needs or tighter budgets
Difficult to customize processes to fit specific organizational requirements
Price
Zendesk’s Suite Team plan begins at $55 per user per month, while you’ll need to reach out to the company directly for a custom quote on its Suite Enterprise package
7. SolarWinds
SolarWinds offers a suite of IT management software and services. Its Orion Platform serves as a monitoring and management system for on-premises, hybrid, and SaaS environments, providing network management tools that can help with configuration, performance monitoring, topology mapping, and more.
Key Features
Active Response provides preconfigured, customizable actions for incident management based on which trigger conditions are satisfied
Security Event Manager incident response solutions are designed to ingest threat intelligence findings and act on unique user-defined actions
Out-of-the-box compliance reporting for HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOX, ISO, and more help ensure that teams adhere to the regulations that govern their industry or region
Pros
Leverages AI and machine learning (ML) to unite granular, accurate, and trusted data so that teams can act on and stay ahead of issues
Gain better insight into IT infrastructure and asset dependencies with CMDB software
Offers both internal and external knowledge bases to help improve various processes, as well as encourage end-users to solve problems themselves
Cons
Can be difficult to navigate logging filters to designate severity and urgency
Limited proactive monitoring restricts ability to identify anomalies before they grow into larger issues
IT teams may have to deal with false positives, making it harder to recognize legitimate incidents
Price
You’ll need to contact SolarWinds directly for a custom quote on its various plans and packages
8. Spiceworks
Spiceworks is a free, cloud-based software suite that provides a variety of tools for IT professionals, including a help desk, network monitoring, and community support. It offers four free forever plans with no user or asset limits, making it ideal for larger teams with fairly basic technical requirements.
Key features
Connectivity Dashboard helps visualize the status of the network connectivity between end-users and the resources they need to do their job
Remote support empowers IT teams to access a user’s computer from any location
Consolidated activity streams and graphical dashboards help teams stay on top of tickets and fine-tune strategies over time
Pros
Automatically assign and route tickets based on priorities and categories
Easily organize your tasks with custom ticket queues
Highly functional mobile app allows teams to perform any actions they would at their desk while on the move
Cons
Not an ideal solution for businesses with advanced incident response needs
Limited scalability can lead to slower response times and inadequate resources as your organization grows
Lack of useful automation features can lead to heavier manual workloads, slowing down incident response times
Price
Spiceworks offers four unique packages, all of which are completely free of cost
9. Rundeck
Rundeck is an open-source platform that serves to automate operational tasks, such as managing workflows and infrastructure. It provides a centralized interface for managing and executing tasks across multiple systems.
Key features
Remote node inventory enables users to automate tasks in a secure environment, where inventory can only be discovered within the environment’s perimeter
Remote task execution allows users to run scripts, discover nodes, and gather secrets in a remote environment
Automated diagnostics expedite the retrieval of ‘diagnostic’ data during incidents, helping shorten the length of incidents and gather evidence for fixing the root-cause after the incident
Pros
Easily automate routine processes like provisioning, security, software updates and deployment, change configurations, and more
ROI metrics data empowers users to track time and money saved, and gather insights into the effectiveness of teams and projects
Jobs can be executed on-demand or on a schedule, have a single schedule or multiple schedules, and schedules can be applied to multiple jobs
Cons
Designed with SMBs in mind, so may not be ideal for enterprise-level organizations
Remote command function can cause unpredictable situations if arbitrary commands are used
Open-source nature may present some security concerns
Price
You’ll need to contact Rundeck directly for a custom quote based on your specific business requirements
10. ManageEngine
ManageEngine's ITSM software assists organizations in managing their technical operations and delivering IT services efficiently. Its core functions include consolidating all IT-related information into a single dashboard and helping technical teams identify technical issues before they impact business continuity.
Key features
Swift and accurate ticket triage, routing, and assignment through an ML-based prediction engine
AlarmsOne consolidates all your IT alerts and intelligently groups them based on host, network device, application, database, and more
Alarm Poller polls your on-premises applications through REST API calls or custom scripts, and sends your IT alerts back to the platform
Pros
Availability of on-premises and cloud models, along with the flexibility of migration between them
Flexibility to leverage various AI technologies and large language models (LLMs) contextually across workflows and employee touchpoints
Integrates with infrastructure monitoring, cloud monitoring, and project management tools, pulling alerts from them in real-time and instantly notifying users
Cons
Weak spam filter can make it hard to sort through the noise to find the important requests
Convoluted and non-intuitive UI make the platform difficult to navigate
Fully implementing and customizing the software to fit unique business needs can be an elongated process that requires the assistance of developers
Price
ManageEngine’s pricing is based on the number of endpoints and servers you’ll be managing, as well as any add-ons you’re interested in
11. NinjaOne
NinjaOne is a remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform that allows IT departments and MSPs to manage their IT assets. Its monitoring and alerting capabilities can detect changes in performance and notify technicians when something requires attention.
Key features
Flexible device reporting allows users to add and arrange data columns and filter devices on any characteristics to best suit viewing preferences
Auto-remediation instantly detects and resolves endpoint issues such as stopped services, missed reboots, and missing applications
Hardware and software inventory provides up-to-date information about all devices in your IT estate, including real-time telemetry data
Pros
Automate all your endpoint management tasks—from patching to configuration management—so your team can scale efficiently
Real-time monitoring, alerting, and actions enable remote, hands-on management
See your patching stance at a glance with an actionable patching dashboard
Cons
Initial implementation and onboarding training can be both time- and resource-intensive
Mobile application and offline equipment can be challenging to set up and hard to use, requiring a desktop or laptop, and an internet connection to use effectively
Lacks workflow automation that similar providers offer, creating heavier workloads and extended resolution times
Price
You’ll need to reach out to NinjaOne directly for a custom quote on its various plans and packages
12. PagerDuty
PagerDuty is a cloud computing company and ITOM platform that enables organizations to detect and respond to infrastructure issues. The platform leverages AI and machine learning to reduce false positives and highlight the issues that are most important.
Key features
AIOps helps reduce the noise and accelerate incident triage
Automated workflows allow responders to leverage time-based loops for flexibility and trigger actions with conditional blocks
Narrative Builder helps users quickly see the story of what happened, how things unfolded, and how to make those events easier to coordinate in the future
Pros
Easily define incident roles, and assign tasks and guided actions for streamlined management
Integrations with Slack and Microsoft Teams allow for quick and easy collaboration in a distributed environment
Highly functional mobile app available on both Android and iOS
Cons
Lack of audit logs limit accountability and make it difficult to review activity
Auto-routing could use some fine-tuning, as it usually requires manual effort to customize the feature to fit unique business needs
Limited integration capacity compared to similar platforms, making it difficult to connect to existing infrastructure
Price
PagerDuty offers a Free Forever plan for up to 5 users, while you’ll need to get in touch with a sales representative for a custom quote on its Enterprise package
13. Atera
Atera is a cloud-based IT management software that combines remote monitoring and management (RMM) with other tools to help technical professionals and managed service providers (MSPs) oversee technical systems and networks. It excels with tasks like patch management, time recording and expense tracking, ticket management, and more.
Key features
Server monitoring software seamlessly integrates with existing infrastructure, providing proactive insights and real-time tracking of server health
Alerts management configures and sends notifications based on pre-set thresholds to inform users of any incidents or performance issues
Asset and inventory scanning automatically inspects networks for connected devices and provides detailed asset information
Pros
Automate repetitive tasks by setting IT automation profiles and assigning them to different devices or end-users
Manages all OS patches for Windows and Mac, and also integrates with Chocolatey and Homebrew to automate software installation, patching, and updates for a wide range of software
All actions are automatically logged into the main database, providing total traceability for a 360-degree view of what’s going on inside your IT systems
Cons
Can be prohibitively expensive, particularly for smaller businesses operating on strict budgets
File size limitation when moving files can negatively impact the user experience
Weak reporting and analytics make it difficult to gather useful insights and improve strategies over time
Price
Atera’s Professional plan begins at $149 per user per month, while you’ll need to reach out to the company directly for a custom quote on its Enterprise package
14. Splunk
Splunk is a software platform that helps organizations manage and analyze large amounts of data, also known as big data. It’s most often used to enhance security, observability, and compliance and reporting.
Key features
Synthetic monitoring enables teams to proactively spot and resolve performance issues across user flows, business transactions, and APIs
AI- and ML-driven features like service maps and trace analytics provide directed guidance that helps teams resolve issues faster
NoSample tracing eliminates blind spots by collecting and analyzing 100% of your data
Pros
Automatically correlate petabyte-scale log analytics with real-time metrics and traces
Integrate business context workflows and tags with telemetry data to prioritize troubleshooting efforts
Ability to aggregate, filter, and transform your data, allowing your business to pay only for what it needs
Cons
Tends to lag when managing large datasets or high volumes of requests
Overwhelming complexity can make the platform difficult to set up and require specialized training to utilize to its fullest potential
Limited reporting and analytics make it hard to conduct RCAs and ensure continuous improvement
Price
You’ll need to reach out to Splunk directly for a customized quote on its various plans and packages
15. Opsgenie
Opsgenie serves as a dedicated incident management platform that helps IT operations teams manage alerts and minimize the impact of service disruptions. It offers an abundance of intelligent tools that help streamline every stage of the incident management process.
Key features
Alert enrichment allows users to add optional fields to notifications and attach charts, logs, runbooks, and more to provide enhanced context
Incident templates empower teams to design their incident response and set up different workflows for incidents of varying priorities
Status updates show the latest activity for each incident separately, reducing the noise so responders can focus on the right context and resolve problems quickly
Pros
Stakeholders can stay informed about incident resolution progress through automatic notifications, visiting a status page, or subscribing to status page updates
Automatically group related alerts originating from across various systems into a single incident based on pre-specified conditions
Understand exactly how teams responded to major incidents with in-depth post incident analysis reports
Cons
Overactive alerts can annoy users and make it challenging to hone in on significant issues
Confusing alert filters take a while to get used to and to ensure that notifications are routed to the right people
Lack of onboarding documentation and support can make initial implementation more difficult than it needs to be
Price
Opsgenie offers a Free Forever plan for up to 5 users, while its Enterprise package runs $29 per user per month
What to Look for When Choosing Incident Management Tools?
Here are some factors to consider when choosing your incident management solution:
Reporting: You’ll want your tool to assist with answering key questions about incident response times and other key metrics that are important to your IT team.
Scalability: Consider how the software is going to help with the size and complexity of your business needs.
Security and compliance: Think about how your incident management platform is going to operate in heavily regulated industries (like banking or healthcare).
Mobile accessibility: It’s always vital that incidents are acted upon as quickly as possible. Mobile functionality ensures that relevant teams are notified even when they’re not at their desk.
As incident management becomes increasingly more complex, identifying the appropriate features in your response tools is becoming even more essential. While these are only a few of the factors you may want to consider, thoroughly assessing providers before making a commitment can help verify that you pick a comprehensive solution that best suits your unique business requirements.
Optimize your incident management approach with Freshservice!
Freshservice acts as a unified ITSM solution from which technical teams can coordinate all of their incident management efforts—no matter how big or small the disruption may be.
A vast array of powerful automated workflows and AI-powered tools serve as the backbone of Freshservice’s incident management capabilities, expediting various internal processes to ensure normal service is restored as quickly as possible. The moment a disruption is detected, tickets are auto-assigned to the right agents, while AI assists in summarizing requests and identifying similar incidents to speed up the resolution process.
For critical disruptions, major incident management is available, helping pool all available resources into rectifying the issue. Teams simply must select the ‘Major Incident’ ticket type to create separate SLAs, custom fields, permissions, and workflows. This helps establish clear processes and set expectations for multiple teams from the onset, enabling them work together to mitigate any crisis promptly.