Open-source alternatives to Zendesk
The most popular self-hosted, open-source alternatives to Zendesk (customer support ticketing) are Zammad (6,017 GitHub stars), FreeScout (4,604 GitHub stars) and Erxes (4,092 GitHub stars). SelfHostHub lists 12 options below, taken from its Ticketing category; 7 support Docker and all of them can run on your own server.
Comparison of self-hosted Zendesk alternatives
| Project | GitHub stars | Licence | Language / platform | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zammad | 6,017 | AGPL-3.0 | Ruby, deb | Easy to use but powerful support and ticketing system. |
| FreeScout | 4,604 | AGPL-3.0 | PHP, Docker | Email-based customer support application, help desk and shared mailbox (alternative to Zendesk and Help Scout). |
| Erxes | 4,092 | AGPL-3.0, Commons-Clause | Docker, Nodejs | Marketing, sales, and customer service platform designed to help businesses attract more engaged customers. |
| Frappe Helpdesk | 3,435 | AGPL-3.0 | Docker | Helpdesk software which helps you streamline your company's support, offers an easy setup, clean user interface, and automation tools to resolve customer queries efficiently. |
| Libredesk | 3,051 | AGPL-3.0 | Docker, Go, Nodejs | Modern omnichannel customer support desk. Live chat, email, and more in a single binary. |
| ITFlow | 1,028 | GPL-3.0 | PHP | Client IT documentation, ticketing, invoicing and accounting for MSPs (Managed Service Providers). |
| OTOBO | 337 | GPL-3.0 | Perl, Docker | Flexible web-based ticketing system used for customer service, help desk, IT service management. |
| BugPin | 45 | AGPL-3.0, MIT | Docker | Visual bug reporting and ticketing tool for web applications. |
| Deskpro | — | ⊘ Proprietary | Unknown | On-Premise help desk software that includes email, chat, voice & help centre publishing. Full visible source code and API. |
| EKSO | — | ⊘ Proprietary | Docker | Help desk ticketing and project/issue tracker. |
| Full Help | — | ⊘ Proprietary | PHP | Simple, easy to use help desk & knowledge base software. Custom branding, custom themes, restful API, communication channels, multi-company support, multi-language support, and much more! At least 1 new release per month. |
| Jitbit Helpdesk | — | ⊘ Proprietary | .NET | Help desk software - simple but powerful. |
Star counts and licences come from the awesome-selfhosted dataset and may lag GitHub slightly.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the best open-source alternative to Zendesk?
By GitHub stars, Zammad is the most popular self-hosted alternative to Zendesk listed here, followed by FreeScout and Erxes. The best fit depends on the features and stack you need.
Is there a free self-hosted alternative to Zendesk?
Yes. All 12 projects on this page are open source and can be self-hosted at no licence cost; you pay only for your own server.
Which licences do these Zendesk alternatives use?
The most common licences among them are AGPL-3.0 (6), ⊘ Proprietary (4) and GPL-3.0 (2).
Can I run a Zendesk alternative with Docker?
7 of the 12 alternatives list Docker as a supported platform.