Customer support desks that replace a paid helpdesk
Each open source ticketing system in this group turns customer emails, chats and messages into tickets that a team can assign, answer and track.
Chatwoot is the pick for teams that talk to customers in many places at once. One inbox covers website chat, email, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram and SMS, and it adds an AI assistant for drafting replies. It is a Ruby on Rails app with a database and a background worker, so plan for a small server rather than shared hosting. It is a natural first stop for teams that want a Zendesk alternative with a chat-first feel.
Zammad is a full web helpdesk under the AGPL-3.0 licence. It handles email, chat, phone and social channels, and it includes SLAs (service level agreements, meaning response-time targets) and a knowledge base. Plan for a database and a search service alongside the app. Choose it when you need classic ticket queues with clear reporting.
FreeScout works like a shared mailbox, much like Help Scout. It is a PHP app under AGPL-3.0 and is one of the easiest options to host on a modest server. The core is free, and extra features such as live chat and workflows come as modules, some of which are paid. It suits small teams that mostly answer email.
Libredesk ships as a single binary, which makes it the quickest open source support desk in this list to install. It covers shared inboxes, automation rules and SLA tracking under AGPL-3.0. It is younger than the others, so check that the features you need are already there.
Frappe Helpdesk adds ticketing, SLA rules, canned responses and a customer self-service portal on top of the Frappe framework. It is the natural choice if you already run Frappe apps such as ERPNext, and heavier to set up if you do not.
UVdesk is a PHP helpdesk under OSL-3.0 with multichannel ticketing, workflows and a knowledge base. It leans towards online shops that need to answer order questions from several channels.
osTicket is one of the oldest projects here. It turns emails and web forms into tracked tickets, runs on a standard PHP and MySQL stack and uses GPL-2.0. The interface feels dated, but it is well understood and widely documented.
Faveo and Trudesk are smaller alternatives. Faveo is a Laravel ticketing system under OSL-3.0 with SLAs, canned replies and a knowledge base. Trudesk is a Node.js helpdesk with real-time updates and team groups.
django-helpdesk is different from the rest. It is a Django app under BSD-3-Clause that adds a ticketing helpdesk with email intake to a site you already run, so it suits developers rather than support managers.
Open source live chat for your website
If most of your support starts as a chat bubble on your site, these two focus on conversation first and tickets second.
Live Helper Chat is an Apache-2.0 live support chat with operator panels, chatbots and links to Telegram, WhatsApp through Twilio and Facebook Messenger. It is mature and flexible, though the admin screens take some learning.
Chaskiq is an Intercom-style messaging platform with live chat, bots, outbound campaigns and a help centre. Pick it if you want marketing messages and support chat in one tool. Its most recent commits are older than Chatwoot’s, so check the activity on GitHub before you commit to it.
IT service desks with asset tracking
IT teams usually need more than a ticket queue: they track laptops, licences and changes, often following ITIL (the IT Infrastructure Library, a common set of IT service practices).
GLPI combines an ITIL service desk with asset management, licence tracking and a knowledge base under GPL-3.0. It is the most complete IT option here and takes time to configure well.
iTop is a web-based IT service management suite under AGPL-3.0. It combines incident and change tickets and a user portal with a CMDB (configuration management database), which records your servers, applications and other IT items. It suits IT teams that want to see which systems a ticket affects.
Znuny continues the codebase of OTRS, an older open-source helpdesk, under GPL-3.0 and serves both customer service and IT service management. It is highly configurable, which suits larger organisations with defined processes.
Request Tracker, usually called RT, is a long-standing ticketing system under GPL-2.0 for support, IT and operations queues. It is written in Perl, so it fits teams that already run Perl services.
ITFlow is built for managed service providers (MSPs, companies that run IT for other businesses). Alongside ticketing it keeps client documentation, assets, passwords and billing under AGPL-3.0, with a client portal.
How to choose an open source ticketing system
Start with the channel your customers or colleagues use most, then match the effort to the people who will run the server.
- Many chat and social channels: Chatwoot.
- Email-first support on a small budget: FreeScout, or Libredesk if you want a single binary.
- Classic ticket queues with SLAs and reports: Zammad or osTicket.
- Already on Frappe or ERPNext: Frappe Helpdesk.
- Live chat on your website: Live Helper Chat or Chaskiq.
- Internal IT service desk with assets: GLPI, iTop or Znuny.
- Managed service providers: ITFlow.
Whichever self-hosted ticketing system you pick, you also take on updates, backups and email delivery. Test your shortlist with a week of real tickets before you move your team. If you want the wider open source help desk software list, the explorer button above shows every open source help desk in our catalogue, and you can add a department or platform filter to narrow it.