The top 7 incident management tools on the market for effective incident tracking

Alert fatigue is a real issue for IT teams. When your technicians are overwhelmed and flooded with hundreds of incidents, it’s easy for the critical ones to slip through the cracks.

In enterprise environments, having the right incident management tool isn’t just helpful, it’s a must. The baseline benefit is that they help to reduce alert fatigue by categorizing incidents by their severity. And with new technologies, like Agentic AI, the benefits that incident management tools bring to organizations are hard to ignore.

While the benefits are notable, choosing the right incident management tool isn’t straightforward. The market is filled with new options daily, which makes choosing one hard. To help you choose an incident management tool, we’ve done the work and reviewed the top choices. 

Below is all you need to know about the best incident management tools.

The 7 best IT incident management tools in 2026

The best IT incident management tools. Based on our research, these tools are:

1. Atera – Best overall incident management tool
2. ServiceNow IT Service Management – Suitable for workflow automation
3. SolarWinds Service Desk – Fitting for incident and asset management
4. NinjaOne – Standard endpoint management tool with ticketing
5. Freshservice – Ideal for low-cost incident management
6. ManageEngine Service Desk – Suitable for customizable incident workflows
7. Jira Service Management – Ideal for simple incident management

Below, we will highlight each tool’s key features, pricing, and use cases to help you make an informed decision.

1. Atera – Best overall incident management tool

Atera makes it incredibly easy to manage incidents through its all-in-one IT management platform. From real-time monitoring and automated alerts to integrated ticketing and powerful AI agents, Atera covers every step of the incident resolution workflow.

Unlike most incident management tools that rely on obsolete technology, Atera enables IT to run autonomously through its AI agents. For tasks you might’ve done manually (or partially automated), like device troubleshooting or creating scripts, Atera’s AI agents can handle them automatically with no technician intervention.

Features and capabilities

In a nutshell, here’s how Atera’s incident management features work:

1. Monitor your systems in real-time: Use Atera’s RMM to monitor your endpoints in real-time. Get insights into device health, system updates, and potential security threats.

2. Receive alerts for potential issues: Receive alerts when Atera’s RMM agent detects a potential issue in your system, such as high CPU usage or unusual network activity. 

3. Automatically create and assign tickets: When an alert threshold is exceeded, assign tickets to the right technicians automatically. Categorize the tickets as “Incident,” track the status, remotely access devices, and use our AI to respond to tickets professionally.

4. Run scripts and automations: Run scripts to fix device issues, create automated patch schedules, and set up system backups. Pick scripts from our shared scripts library or use AI Copilot to generate scripts automatically. 

5. Analyze performance: Keep detailed logs of incidents and create reports to understand incident trends, resolution times, and technician performance.

6. Use AI agents to simplify the entire process: Use Atera’s two innovative AI Agents, Robin and Copilot, for incident management. Automate manual, repetitive incident management tasks and eliminate 40% of your IT workload automatically. 

Atera’s AI Agents are truly woven into every part of incident management. If end-users need assistance, Atera’s Robin is the first line of support.

Autopilot engages with users through human-like conversations via the User Portal, email, Slack, and Teams, diagnosing issues, answering questions, and offering tailored technical solutions. Autopilot is capable of solving nearly half of IT issues with no human intervention.

In addition, there is Atera Copilot for technicians. Copilot learns about your IT environment in real-time, and you can ask it account-specific questions to get actionable insights. You can also use Copilot to run health checks, diagnose issues, resolve issues in seconds, and more.

User interface and usability

From the ground up, Atera was designed to be intuitive and easy to use for users. Our customer reviews speak to this statement, and Atera has even won a G2 award for both ease of use and implementation.

Atera’s admin dashboard

Like with any tool, you may still need help navigating through. That’s why all Atera users can access a 24/7 live chat for technical support. We also offer self-help materials, such as an extensive knowledge base and an active IT community. Our dynamic online forum allows IT professionals to discuss problems and share best practices.

Pricing and value for money

Atera uses a transparent pay-per-technician pricing model with tailored pricing plans for both IT departments and MSPs. 

Atera’s pricing plans for IT departments:

• Professional: $149 per month, per technician
• Expert: $189 per month, per technician
• Master: $219 per month, per technician
• Enterprise: Custom quotation. Contact sales for pricing.

Atera’s pricing plans for MSPs:

• Pro: $129 per month, per technician
• Growth: $179 per month, per technician
• Power: $209 per month, per technician
• Superpower (Enterprise): Custom quotation. Contact sales for pricing.

You can get started with Atera with a 30-day free trial, no credit card required!

Customer reviews and ratings

Atera G2 rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars (830+ reviews)

What Atera users are saying on G2:

• “I use Atera in a healthcare environment, and it’s incredibly easy to set up automation policies and create scripts for rolling out software. We also have a dedicated Atera rep checking in with us every several months,” a G2 user says.

• “I found Atera very easy to get started with. In just two weeks, I had a clear view of my IT infrastructure,” a G2 user says.

Atera Capterra rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars (400+ reviews)

What Atera users are saying on Capterra:

• “Great onboarding experience. License per engineer instead of per endpoint. Excellent scripting capabilities with their AI assistant. Great community script library,” a Capterra user says.

• “Best RMM for the money. I’ve had a great experience with Atera in the past 6 years, and they’re always releasing new features,” a Capterra user says.

2. ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM) – Suitable for workflow automation

ServiceNow ITSM is a leading ITSM tool that technicians can use to identify, track, and resolve incidents. From a single interface, you can triage and route incidents, provide self-service portals for end-users, and create automated workflows for resolving high-impact incidents. ServiceNow has workflow templates, or you can build your own from scratch.

G2 rating: 4.4 out of 5.0 (1,000+ reviews)

Capterra rating: 4.5 out of 5.0 (300+ reviews)

ServiceNow ITSM pricing:

• Based on a custom quotation. Contact the ServiceNow team to find out more.

3. SolarWinds Service Desk – Fitting for incident and asset management

SolarWinds Service Desk’s main purpose is to automate incident management using tickets and track their entire lifecycle. This is accompanied by asset management, which allows you to link assets directly to tickets and incidents to improve troubleshooting. 

SolarWinds also has a simple AI tool for its ticketing system, which helps to prevent ticketing fatigue. When an end-user is about to create a ticket, the AI automatically suggests knowledge base articles to fix the issue.

G2 rating: 4.3 out of 5.0 stars (740+ reviews)

Capterra rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars (570+ reviews)

SolarWinds Service Desk pricing:

• Essentials: $39 per month, per technician
• Advanced: $79 per month, per technician
• Premier: $99 per month, per technician

4. NinjaOne – Standard endpoint management tool with ticketing

NinjaOne’s ticketing system is suitable for incident management, and it works in conjunction with the endpoint management tool. It alerts users of potential issues and creates tickets when a threshold is exceeded. Within the ticket, you can take remediation actions, such as installing software, rebooting it, or accessing the device remotely.

To help users solve issues on their own, you can create knowledge base articles with the available templates.

G2 Rating: 4.7 out of 5.0 (2,400+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 (240+ reviews)

NinjaOne pricing:

• NinjaOne states that it prices per endpoint but does not publicly disclose its pricing; it is based on a custom quotation. To learn more, visit their website.

5. Freshservice – Ideal for low-cost incident management

Freshservice is a low-cost ITSM solution that IT teams can use to track, prioritize, and assign tickets and automate ticket resolution. Freshservice uses AI and historical data to categorize tickets and assign them to the right agents. Like most incident management tools, Freshservice has a central dashboard that displays ticket status.

Freshservice offers reporting capabilities, though G2 users say the reporting should be more flexible. Users can create simple reports to track incidents, changes, and assets.

G2 Rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars (1,200+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0 stars (500+ reviews)

Freshservice Pricing:

• Starter: $19/month/agent
• Growth: $49/month/agent
• Pro: $95/month/agent
• Enterprise: Based on a custom quotation

6. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus – Suitable for customizable incident workflows

One of the most widely used ManageEngine products, Service Desk Plus, is a highly customizable service desk tool for IT teams. With it, you can manage the entire lifecycle of incidents, automatically assign tickets based on technician expertise, and create knowledge base articles.

End-users have many ways to open tickets, whether it’s through email, phone calls, or through the web-based self-service portal. ManageEngine places a lot of emphasis on automation workflows, but unfortunately, no AI-powered features are available.

G2 rating: 4.2 out of 5.0 (230+ reviews)

Capterra rating: 4.4 out of 5.0 (220+ reviews)

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus pricing:

• Standard: Starts from $16 per month, per technician
• Professional: Starts from $33 per month, per technician
• Enterprise: Starts from $78 per month, per technician

7. Jira Service Management – Ideal for simple incident management

Jira Service Management mainly meets the needs of small IT teams that need a simple service desk tool to report incidents. It automatically prioritizes the most important issues and categorizes them based on predefined criteria. Plus, you can use the available incident response templates to address incidents quickly.

The service desk is accompanied by an asset management tool for managing hardware and software inventory.

G2 Rating: 4.2 out of 5.0 stars (780+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0 stars (700+ reviews)

Jira Service Management Pricing:

• Free: Free for up to 3 technicians
• Standard: $22 per month, per technician
• Premium: $49 per month, per technician
• Enterprise: Pricing based on custom quotation. Visit their website to learn more.

Improve your IT incident management with Agentic AI technology

For organizations that need a smarter, more efficient way to manage their IT operations, Atera is an Agentic AI platform that helps resolve issues with AI agents, a skilled digital workforce for IT. 

Atera’s Robin takes on mundane tasks and assists end-users in self-solving IT problems, while Copilot works alongside technicians, expanding their human expertise and capabilities.

From automated device troubleshooting to faster resolution times and 40% of your IT workload automatically eliminated, the benefits of Agentic AI are evident.

Want to learn more? Listen here, how Atera customers are already using the AI agents.

If you are interested in how our AI agents can help your organization specifically, you can get in touch with our sales team.

What is IT incident management software?

IT incident management software is a suite of tools that assists in identifying and responding to incidents.

One key component of these systems is incident tracking software (also known as an IT ticketing system), which serves as a central hub to restore incident details and assign responsibilities. Another key component is alerting functionality, which ensures that the right technicians are notified when incidents occur.

Types of IT incident management software

The types of IT incident management software differ significantly, so it is important to understand the different options before investing in one.

Here’s a basic breakdown of the different options available.

1. Standalone incident management tools

Standalone incident management tools are made for basic-level incident tracking and resolution. These tools often include centralized incident status pages, basic-level IT automation, team collaboration, reporting, and third-party integrations.

Standalone solutions are best for users solely interested in incident management capabilities. The downside of these tools is that they may lack root cause analysis capabilities that address the underlying causes of recurring problems. 

2. IT service management (ITSM) tools

ITSM software combines incident management with other ITSM processes, such as change management, problem management, and IT asset management. 

The benefit of ITSM tools is that you can link tickets with related assets and get a more unified view of what’s happening and potential issues.

3. Open-source incident management tools

Open-source solutions are often free and offer a wide range of customization options, making them an attractive choice for organizations with specific needs or limited budgets. These tools often have active communities that contribute to the development of the tool.

While open-source solutions are cost-effective and customizable, their downsides include the technical expertise required, a lack of customer support, and security risks associated with open-source systems. Most IT organizations will find these to be a dealbreaker.

4. Unified IT management platforms

Unified IT management tools offer a holistic approach to IT and incident management by combining various capabilities into a single solution. These capabilities often include RMM, IT ticketing, remote access, automated patch management, asset management, reporting, etc.

With unified tools, you can do more than just incident management. You can monitor your entire IT environment, receive alerts for issues, create and handle tickets, solve issues through automation and scripts, and more. 

Why do you need an IT incident management software

IT incident management software comes with many benefits to organizations. Let’s look at each of these gains through an IT-specific lens. 

1. Minimized downtime

According to an ITIC report, 57% of SMBs with 20 to 100 employees said downtime costs them $100,000 an hour. For enterprises, the downtime cost can be as much as $1 to over $5 million per hour.

The takeaway from statistics like this one is clear: Avoid downtime at all costs, or it will cost you.

Incident management tools are designed for this very reason. They help prevent downtime and the associated losses by automatically detecting, addressing, and resolving IT issues before they escalate.

2. Automated routine tasks

Tasks you might’ve previously done manually, like ticket routing, status updates, or device troubleshooting, can be automated with incident management tools. 

Plus, with new technologies like Agentic AI, not only can you automate tasks, but you can do them fully autonomously, with no technician intervention. The ROI of Agentic AI for incident management is something organization’s shouldn’t ignore.

3. Centralized incident management

Managing incidents manually or through disjointed systems can be time-consuming and error-prone. Incident management tools eliminate silos and centralize incident tracking, communication, and resolution by bringing diverse capabilities onto a single platform. 

This centralized approach improves efficiency and brings cost savings for your organization.

4. Quicker resolution times

With real-time monitoring and AI baked into an incident management tool, your resolution times will drop significantly. In the ideal scenario, simpler incidents are automatically solved with no technician intervention.

These are not future scenarios. The best incident management tools are already solving issues autonomously, freeing techs’ time to focus on tasks that actually move the needle.