PAIRING · CMDB WITH DISCOVERY / CMDB WITH DISCOVERY

Device42 or Freshservice: which keeps your CMDB record more accurate?

SHORT ANSWER

On our default weights Freshservice scores 60.8 against 55.2 for Device42. Device42 scores higher on data trust and reconciliation and keeping the CMDB in sync; Freshservice scores higher on completeness of discovery, ownership mapping, effort to maintain, actionability and pricing clarity.

By The Record Desk · CMDB Alternatives Compare · Published 2026-10-11

How do they compare criterion by criterion?

Device42 and Freshservice: criterion scores 0 to 100, with reasons
Criterion	Weight	Device42	Freshservice	Higher
Completeness of discovery	20%	60	66	Freshservice
Reasons Device42: Agentless discovery from mainframes to cloud containers, SNMP network devices, AWS and Azure; laptops, SaaS and identities are not documented. Source: Device42 homepage · Read 27 Sep 2026 Freshservice: Agentless discovery of devices, software, storage and cloud resources; SaaS discovery on ITAM Pro and service discovery with application dependency mapping on Enterprise; OT, IoT and identities are not documented. Source: Freshservice IT asset management pricing · Read 11 Oct 2026
Data trust and reconciliation	20%	58	54	Device42
Reasons Device42: A CMDB fed mainly by its own scheduled discovery, with fewer third-party sources to reconcile. Source: Device42 features · Read 27 Sep 2026 Freshservice: Builds the CMDB from discovery data and interdependencies; merging records from several third-party tools is not described. Source: Freshservice IT asset management · Read 27 Sep 2026
Ownership mapping	12%	36	40	Freshservice
Reasons Device42: Ownership mapping is not described; the focus is infrastructure and dependencies. Source: Device42 features · Read 27 Sep 2026 Freshservice: Asset ownership mapping is not described on the pages reviewed. Source: Freshservice IT asset management · Read 27 Sep 2026
Keeping the CMDB in sync	16%	70	66	Device42
Reasons Device42: Describes itself as a next generation CMDB and integrates with ServiceNow, Freshservice and Jira. Source: Device42 features · Read 27 Sep 2026 Freshservice: The CMDB is native to the service desk and fed by agentless discovery; sync with an outside CMDB is not described. Source: Freshservice IT asset management · Read 27 Sep 2026
Effort to maintain	14%	58	62	Freshservice
Reasons Device42: Discoveries run continuously on a schedule, but the main appliance and at least one Remote Collector are hosted and maintained by your own team; vendor-hosted SaaS is not stated. Source: Device42 docs: deploy Device42 · Read 11 Oct 2026 Freshservice: Agentless discovery cuts manual entry; discovery frequency is not stated on the pages reviewed. Source: Freshservice IT asset management · Read 27 Sep 2026
Actionability	10%	52	84	Freshservice
Reasons Device42: 30+ integrations including ServiceNow, Freshservice and Jira; no actions of its own are documented. Source: Device42 homepage · Read 27 Sep 2026 Freshservice: Problem, change and release management on Pro and Enterprise, service catalog and SLAs from Growth, on the same platform as the CMDB. Source: Freshservice pricing · Read 27 Sep 2026
Pricing clarity	8%	35	55	Freshservice
Reasons Device42: Pricing model published (annual subscription by number of devices); amounts not published. Source: Device42 pricing · Read 27 Sep 2026 Freshservice: Service desk prices are published per agent ($19 to $99 a month billed annually), but the CMDB comes with separately licensed ITAM plans priced in Asset Units, and the Asset Unit price is not shown. Source: Freshservice IT asset management pricing · Read 11 Oct 2026

What do their record cards show?

Device42

Freshservice

Device42 documents MATCHED more fully than Freshservice (partial against not documented).
Device42 documents CURRENT more fully than Freshservice (documented against partial).

How do they differ on price and deployment?

Pricing and deployment as published
	Device42	Freshservice
Pricing	Annual subscription based on the number of devices; amounts not published. Source: Device42 pricing · Read 27 Sep 2026	Service desk: Starter $19, Growth $49, Pro $99 per agent per month, billed annually; Enterprise custom; 14-day free trial. The CMDB and asset discovery come with separately licensed IT asset management plans (Growth and above), priced in Asset Units bought in packs of 500: 1 desktop or mobile device = 1 unit, 1 server, VM or network device = 4 units, 1 SaaS user = 1 unit. The Asset Unit price is not shown. Source: Freshservice IT asset management pricing · Read 11 Oct 2026
Deployment	Customer-hosted. The main appliance is a pre-configured Linux virtual appliance your organization hosts on VMware vCenter, Hyper-V, Citrix Xen, Xen/KVM, AWS or Azure, with at least one Remote Collector; an optional Discovery Agent covers Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD and Solaris. Vendor-hosted SaaS is not stated.	Cloud service desk from Freshworks.
Type	CMDB with discovery	CMDB with discovery
Best for	Data center teams that need dependency mapping from mainframes to containers	IT teams that want the CMDB inside a service desk with published agent prices

Which should you choose?

Choose Device42 if

Keeping the CMDB in sync matters most to you (it scores 70)
Completeness of discovery matters most to you (it scores 60)
Data center teams that need dependency mapping from mainframes to containers

Choose Freshservice if

Actionability matters most to you (it scores 84)
Completeness of discovery matters most to you (it scores 66)
IT teams that want the CMDB inside a service desk with published agent prices

Where next?

Frequently asked questions

Which scores higher overall, Device42 or Freshservice?

Which publishes a price?

Device42: Annual subscription based on the number of devices; amounts not published. Freshservice: Service desk: Starter $19, Growth $49, Pro $99 per agent per month, billed annually; Enterprise custom; 14-day free trial. The CMDB and asset discovery come with separately licensed IT asset management plans (Growth and above), priced in Asset Units bought in packs of 500: 1 desktop or mobile device = 1 unit, 1 server, VM or network device = 4 units, 1 SaaS user = 1 unit. The Asset Unit price is not shown.

Which needs less upkeep?

Freshservice scores 62 on effort to maintain against 58 for Device42: Agentless discovery cuts manual entry; discovery frequency is not stated on the pages reviewed.