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95 · HealthyTicketing and helpdesk system with email, chat, phone and social channels in one view.
Open source Helpdesk & live chat
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FreeScout
76 · StableShared-inbox helpdesk in PHP, close in spirit to Help Scout, extended through modules.
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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.
osTicket
Veteran PHP support-ticket system that routes inquiries from email, web forms and phone.
Alternative to
Will it still be around?
Caution
Score 54/100
Can a business use it freely?
Free, share changes
GPL-2.0 · open source (copyleft)
Features compared
has,doesn't8 features1 feature
5/13 Zendesk features free in osTicket
✕ doesn't have it · ◐ partly · $ higher plan or paid editionBoth have 4
Headline Zendesk features on the Suite Professional plan, and whether osTicket has each in its free, self-hosted edition.
| Feature | ZendeskSuite Professional plan | osTicket5 of 13 free |
|---|---|---|
| Zendesk has, osTicket doesn't8 | ||
| Email, social and messaging channels | Included | PartlyEmail and web forms |
| Live chat widget | Included | No |
| Triggers and automations | Included | PartlyTicket filters |
| Satisfaction surveys | Included | No |
| Reports and dashboards | Included | PartlyDashboard statistics |
| Phone support | Included | No |
| Single sign-on | Included | PartlyLDAP and OAuth plugins |
| API and webhooks | Included | PartlyTicket creation API |
| osTicket has, Zendesk doesn't1 | ||
| Custom agent roles | Higher planEnterprise plan | Yes |
| Both have4 | ||
| Shared inbox and ticketing | Included | Yes |
| Help center and knowledge base | Included | YesFAQ knowledge base |
| Macros and canned replies | Included | Yes |
| SLA policies | Included | Yes |
Sources
- Zendesk, checked 2026-10-09: zendesk.com
- osTicket, checked 2026-10-09: osticket.com, docs.osticket.com
Flat Rate Deploy
A 25-agent team on Zendesk Suite Professional pays about $2,875 a month. osTicket on OpenTools costs $15 a month, setup included, so you save $2,860 a month, about $102,960 over three years.
Monthly cost
- osTicket on OpenTools
- $15
- Zendesk
$2,875
You save each month
$2,860/mo
99% less than today
Saving from month one
You save
- Over 3 years
- $102,960
- In year one
- $34,320
List price checked 7 Oct 2026 · Source · Disclaimer
Health score: 54/100
Caution · activity, bus factor and issue responsiveness, from GitHub
Score v2 · How it works
Activity
45% weight75/100
- Last commit 114 days ago (75/100).
- 81 commits in the past 12 months (83/100).
- 4 releases in the past 12 months (67/100).
Bus factor
30% weight13/100
- Top contributor wrote 90% of the last 81 commits (past 12 months).
- 8 people authored those commits.
Responsiveness
25% weight64/100
- 79% of all issues are closed (880 open, 3246 closed) (81/100).
- 16 of 30 recent issues got a reply or were closed (53/100).
License
Free, share changes
GPL-2.0 · Open source (copyleft)
What you need to do
Free for any use, commercial included. Running it in your company, changed or not, asks nothing of you; only if you hand modified copies to others must you publish your changes under the same license.
GNU General Public License v2.0 · 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 GPL-2.0.
GitHub activity
- Stars
- 4.0k
- Forks
- 1.8k
- Commits, 12 mo
- 81
- last 4 months ago
- Releases, 12 mo
- 4
- last 4 months ago
- Contributors
- 121
- 8 in last 81 commits
- Open issues
- 880
- 3.2k closed
Snapshot from 2026-10-08
Top contributors
Points for pull requests merged into osTicket and reviews of them since 10 October 2025. Building something another user asked for earns more.
