In today’s resource-conscious environment, CIOs and IT leaders are under more pressure than ever to deliver value with precision. Budgets are tightening, expectations are rising and every tool in the tech stack is under scrutiny. Among the highest recurring expenses for IT operations in large organizations especially in public institutions and enterprise-scale environments is the cost of service management platforms. And for many, ServiceNow tops that list.

While ServiceNow has long held a reputation for feature depth, it’s no secret that the platform comes with a high price tag. Annual costs can exceed $100,000 before factoring in add-ons, custom development, consulting and support. For organizations focused on operational efficiency and cost rationalization, it’s a number that demands reconsideration.

This is where Jira Service Management (JSM) enters the picture not just as an alternative, but as a leaner, purpose-built ITSM platform with a strong financial upside.

Understanding the Cost Gap

The most common reason IT leaders begin evaluating a switch from ServiceNow to Jira Service Management is straightforward: ServiceNow’s pricing model becomes increasingly difficult to justify, especially as teams grow or scale services. The platform’s tiered licensing, reliance on certified partners for customizations and inflexible pricing for enterprise features can lead to total cost-of-ownership (TCO) figures that balloon quickly.

In contrast, Jira Service Management built on Atlassian’s cloud-native stack takes a more flexible and transparent approach. Pricing is user-based, predictable and significantly lower in almost every use case. Moreover, teams already using Jira Software or Confluence can fold JSM into their ecosystem with minimal friction, avoiding the siloed duplication of cost and data.

Example Scenario:

• ServiceNow Enterprise License (500 agents): $120,000+ annually (not including implementation and support).
• Jira Service Management Premium Plan (500 agents): ~$72,000 annually.

That’s a savings of around 40% right out of the gate with no compromise in the core capabilities required for effective ITSM.

Feature Parity Without the Bloat

One concern often raised in conversations about migrating off ServiceNow is whether JSM can meet the same functional needs. For most organizations, the answer is yes. Jira Service Management offers robust ITIL-aligned features across:

• Incident, problem and change management
• Request fulfillment workflows
• SLA tracking and reporting
• Asset and configuration management (via Insight)
• Automation rules
• Approvals and escalation paths

Crucially, JSM avoids the complexity bloat that can accompany legacy platforms. Rather than requiring extensive configuration to fit the platform to the team’s needs, JSM encourages simple, scalable workflows that align closely with how cross-functional teams already operate.

Lower TCO, Faster Time to Value

Beyond subscription savings, the real cost advantage of Jira Service Management lies in its implementation and operational flexibility. ServiceNow deployments often require months of custom configuration, vendor engagement and user training before teams can achieve meaningful results.

With JSM, many organizations can:

• Configure a working portal and service catalog in weeks, not months
• Use prebuilt templates tailored for ITSM, DevOps and HR use cases
• Onboard users quickly through a familiar Atlassian UI
• Reduce reliance on third-party consultants

These factors contribute to a lower total cost of ownership over the product’s lifecycle not just cheaper licensing.

Case Insight: What One Higher Ed Institution Achieved

A large public university had been on ServiceNow for nearly five years, managing internal IT requests and faculty support through a customized platform that had grown increasingly unwieldy. Annual license costs exceeded $100K and support costs (both internal and outsourced) added another $50K+.

After switching to Jira Service Management, the institution:

• Reduced licensing costs by 42%
• Migrated to a single, integrated Atlassian cloud instance
• Cut onboarding time for new agents by 60%
• Improved request resolution time by 28%

The change not only delivered measurable savings but also helped IT leadership simplify reporting and increase visibility across departments.

Financial Predictability for Growing Teams

As organizations scale, the ability to forecast and control IT costs becomes essential. ServiceNow’s pricing model often introduces variable costs tied to usage caps, module access and premium support tiers. Jira Service Management, by contrast, offers transparent pricing tiers that scale based on user count, not ambiguous usage thresholds.

For fast-growing businesses and public institutions alike, this predictability is key to avoiding unpleasant budget surprises while maintaining quality of service.

Integration and Extensibility Without Breaking the Bank

Another area where costs often escalate with ServiceNow is integrations. While the platform offers a marketplace of partners and APIs, many integrations require custom development or third-party licensing.

Jira Service Management supports native integration with:

• Jira Software
• Confluence
• Bitbucket
• Opsgenie (for alerting and incident response)
• Slack and Microsoft Teams

Additionally, the Atlassian Marketplace offers thousands of plug-ins and connectors many of them free or low-cost—to extend functionality.

The Clovity Advantage: A Guided Path to Cost-Efficient Migration

Migrating from ServiceNow to Jira Service Management isn’t just about flipping a switch it requires thoughtful planning, mapping of existing workflows and change management. That’s where Clovity comes in.

Our Atlassian-certified experts help:

• Assess your current ServiceNow environment
• Identify equivalent or improved processes in JSM
• Build migration blueprints that reduce risk and preserve continuity
• Provide training and long-term support for internal teams

This end-to-end approach ensures you not only reduce costs but also set the foundation for a more agile, efficient service management future.

📧 Contact us at sales@clovity.com or visit 🌐 atlassian.clovity.com to get started today