Zammad
95 · HealthyTicketing and helpdesk system with email, chat, phone and social channels in one view.
Open source Helpdesk & live chat
Chatwoot
89 · HealthyOmnichannel customer support inbox covering website chat, email, WhatsApp and social channels.
FreeScout
76 · StableShared-inbox helpdesk in PHP, close in spirit to Help Scout, extended through modules.
Helpdesk
76 · StableTicketing system with SLAs, a customer portal, canned responses and a knowledge base, built on the Frappe framework.
DeskcommCRM
70 · StableChat-first CRM for teams that sell over WhatsApp, with AI agents, sales pipelines and a shared inbox.
osTicket
54 · CautionVeteran PHP support-ticket system that routes inquiries from email, web forms and phone.
Papercups
15 · At riskLive chat widget and support inbox built with Elixir and React.
Source-available and unverified licenses
The code for these is public, but the license is not an OSI open source license, or we have not verified it yet. Check the license notes on each project before relying on it.
FreeScout
Shared-inbox helpdesk in PHP, close in spirit to Help Scout, extended through modules.
Alternative to
Will it still be around?
Stable
Score 76/100
Can a business use it freely?
Free, share hosted changes
AGPL-3.0 · open source (copyleft)
Features compared
has,doesn't9 features
1/11 Zendesk features free in FreeScout
Zendesk has every feature FreeScout has on this list.
✕ doesn't have it · ◐ partly · $ higher plan or paid editionBoth have 1
Headline Zendesk features on the Suite Professional plan, and whether FreeScout has each in its free, self-hosted edition.
| Feature | ZendeskSuite Professional plan | FreeScout1 of 11 free |
|---|---|---|
| Zendesk has, FreeScout doesn't9 | ||
| Email, social and messaging channels | Included | Paid editionChat and social channels are paid modules |
| Live chat widget | Included | Paid editionPaid module |
| Help center and knowledge base | Included | Paid editionPaid module |
| Macros and canned replies | Included | Paid editionSaved Replies module |
| Triggers and automations | Included | Paid editionWorkflows module |
| Satisfaction surveys | Included | Paid editionPaid module |
| Reports and dashboards | Included | Paid editionPaid module |
| Single sign-on | Included | Paid editionSAML and LDAP modules |
| API and webhooks | Included | Paid editionAPI and Webhooks module |
| Both have1 | ||
| Shared inbox and ticketing | Included | YesShared mailboxes |
| Neither has fully1 | ||
| AI agents and copilot | Higher planAdvanced AI add-on | PartlyFree AI module |
Sources
- Zendesk, checked 2026-10-09: zendesk.com
- FreeScout, checked 2026-10-09: freescout.net, github.com
Flat Rate Deploy
A 25-user team on Help Scout Plus pays about $1,125 a month. FreeScout on OpenTools costs $15 a month, setup included, so you save $1,110 a month, about $39,960 over three years.
Monthly cost
- FreeScout on OpenTools
- $15
- Help Scout
$1,125
You save each month
$1,110/mo
99% less than today
Saving from month one
You save
- Over 3 years
- $39,960
- In year one
- $13,320
List price checked 7 Oct 2026 · Source · Disclaimer
Health score: 76/100
Stable · activity, bus factor and issue responsiveness, from GitHub
Score v2 · How it works
Activity
45% weight100/100
- Last commit 7 days ago (100/100).
- 738 commits in the past 12 months (100/100).
- 50+ releases in the past 12 months (100/100).
Bus factor
30% weight21/100
- Top contributor wrote 84% of the last 100 commits (past 12 months).
- 4 people authored those commits.
Responsiveness
25% weight98/100
- 100% of all issues are closed (17 open, 5173 closed) (100/100).
- 29 of 30 recent issues got a reply or were closed (97/100).
License
Free, share hosted changes
AGPL-3.0 · Open source (copyleft)
What you need to do
Free for any use, commercial included. If you change the code and people outside your company use it over the network, you must publish your changes under the same license.
GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 · Open source (copyleft). OSI-approved license that requires sharing changes under the same license when you distribute (AGPL: also when you offer it over a network).
Detected by GitHub as AGPL-3.0.
GitHub activity
- Stars
- 4.6k
- Forks
- 727
- Commits, 12 mo
- 738
- last 7 days ago
- Releases, 12 mo
- 50+
- last 7 days ago
- Contributors
- 92
- 4 in last 100 commits
- Open issues
- 17
- 5.2k closed
Snapshot from 2026-10-08
Top contributors
Points for pull requests merged into FreeScout and reviews of them since 10 October 2025. Building something another user asked for earns more. 12 people have points on FreeScout in all.
