UNIVERSITY · LESSON 04

Plan gates: which service desk plan includes problem management, change management and a CMDB

Last reviewed 27 September 2026 · Service Desk Compare reviewers

What is a plan gate?

Most service desks sell three or four plans. The entry plan covers ticket intake, incidents and requests; higher plans add practices such as problem and change management, a CMDB, advanced AI or a sandbox. The feature is not missing from the product, it is missing from the plan you are pricing. That is why a per-agent price only makes sense next to the list of practices it includes.

Where do the gates sit at each vendor?

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Where problem management, change management and the CMDB sit, from vendor pages read on 27 Sep 2026
Service desk	Problem and change management	CMDB or assets	Source
Freshservice	Pro ($99 per agent per month) and Enterprise; not on Starter or Growth	CMDB with agentless discovery; the plan is not stated on the pages we read	[Freshservice pricing] [Freshservice IT asset management]
Jira Service Management	Change management and advanced incident and problem management on Premium ($51.42) and Enterprise	Asset and configuration management from Standard ($20); advanced Assets on Premium	[Atlassian pricing]
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus	Included in Enterprise (from $67); add-ons at $1,195 a year each on Standard	Included in Enterprise; a $1,195 a year add-on on Professional	[ManageEngine pricing]
SysAid	Request, incident, change and problem management on both plans	All-in-one asset management, 250 managed assets on Professional	[SysAid pricing]
Halo	Included in the single plan	Assets and CMDB included in the single plan	[Halo pricing]
Zendesk for IT (Employee Service)	Not listed on the Employee Service pricing page	IT asset management from Suite Growth ($59); no CMDB listed	[Zendesk Employee Service pricing]
monday service	Not documented on the pages we reviewed	Not documented on the pages we reviewed	[monday service pricing] [monday IT page]
ServiceNow ITSM	Incident, change, problem and request management on one platform; prices not published	A single CMDB with Discovery and Service Mapping; prices not published	[ServiceNow ITSM] [ServiceNow CMDB]
Ivanti Neurons for ITSM	Change management among 14 ITIL 4-certified practices; prices not published	Configuration management among the certified practices; prices not published	[Ivanti]

Which other features are gated?

AI: Freshservice sells Freddy AI Copilot at $29 per agent per month [Freshservice pricing]; the Jira Service Management virtual service agent is on Premium [Atlassian pricing]; Zendesk lists Intelligent Triage and Auto Assist on Suite Enterprise + Copilot [Zendesk Employee Service pricing]; monday service AI Ticket Triage covers 1 ticket board on Standard, 3 on Pro and unlimited boards on Enterprise [monday service pricing]; SysAid lists tailor-made AI agents on Enterprise [SysAid pricing].
Portal users: monday service includes portal access for up to 10 users on Standard, 100 on Pro and unlimited users on Enterprise [monday service pricing].
Testing: Zendesk and SysAid list a sandbox on their Enterprise plans [Zendesk Employee Service pricing] [SysAid pricing].
Compliance: monday service lists HIPAA compliance on its Enterprise plan [monday service pricing].

How do you compare prices across plan gates?

Pick the practices you expect to need in year two, not only in year one, then find the lowest plan at each vendor that includes all of them. Price that plan for your agent count, add any add-ons, and only then compare. The calculator's 'Plan that includes change management' setting does this at list prices, and the total cost guide works through a 20-agent example.

What should you ask a vendor?

Which plan includes problem management, change management and the CMDB, and are any of them add-ons?
Which AI features are on our plan, and which are metered or sold separately?
What happens to our configuration if we move down a plan later?
Can we trial the plan we would buy, not the entry plan?

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