iTop vs ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
iTop and ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus are both IT service management software. ITop is open source under AGPL-3.0, with 1.2k GitHub stars. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is a commercial product from Zoho Corporation.
Which to pick
- Pick iTop when
- You need ITIL processes tied to a data model you can reshape, and want an open-source product with a commercial vendor behind it.
- Pick ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus when
- An IT department wants a full-featured service desk it can host on its own servers at moderate cost.
Side by side
IT Operations Portal: a web-based ITSM tool with a configurable CMDB, helpdesk, change, SLA and contract management, and impact analysis.
ITIL service desk with incident, problem, change, asset and project management, available on-premise or in the cloud.
Customising the data model means learning its XML extension system, and several useful extensions are paid.
The interface is dated and on-premise installs need timely security patching.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server
Self-hosted server and cloud service
PHP, Symfony and MySQL
Java
Open source, AGPL-3.0 (network copyleft)
Closed source, sold by Zoho Corporation
Use inside your business is unrestricted. If you change it and let customers use it over the internet, you must publish your changes.
Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code.
1.2k GitHub stars
No Wikipedia article of its own
Established: started 8 years ago, latest release 3.3.0.
Not known
Other comparisons
More IT service management (ITSM) and PSA tools
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from makers' descriptions, Wikipedia, READMEs and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.