Top 10 Open-source Help Desks Based on GitHub Stars

Providing robust customer support is critical since ~70% of customers expect immediate service.¹ However, managing an increasing volume of inquiries and issues can quickly overwhelm support teams.

Help desk software can automate service operations, addressing customer concerns promptly. While paid help desk solutions offer more tailored features, several businesses—especially startups and small companies—may find them cost-prohibitive. Thus, service leaders of tight-budget companies look for help desks that deliver free ticketing systems.

See the best open-source help desk options, their key features, and paid versions’ pricing:

Top 10 open-source help desks

Table 1: Market presence 

See the explanation for cloud-hosted and self-hosted tools.

Disclaimer: Vendors are sorted based on GitHubStar numbers in descending order.

Vendor selection criteria:

• Number of GitHub stars: 900+ 
• Number of  GitHub contributors: 25+ 
• Update release: At least one update was released last month.

Read more: AI help desk software, help desk benchmarking.

Why you should use a help desk software?

Help desk software can streamline customer support processes and the effectiveness of service teams. Read about the features & benefits of help desk software based on research data:

Enhanced customer experience

Gartner predicts that by 2026, 50% of large companies will fail to integrate engagement channels, leading to a disconnected and siloed CX that lacks context.² Help desk software can deliver multiple engagement channels including self-service portals, knowledge bases, and chatbots to deliver context-based service. 

Live chat and messaging

 ~70% of consumers are more likely to buy from companies that let them browse, buy, and get answers over messaging.³ Help desk software can provide live chat support and messaging, allowing customers to reach support agents through a chat interface on their website or app.

Quick issue resolution with canned responses

~80% of surveyed customers demand immediate problem resolution from service professionals.⁴ Help desk software can speed up issue resolution by providing predefined answers to common questions.

Tailored answers with chatbots 

 ~70% of customers believe AI and chatbots enable them to receive faster responses.⁵

Here are some instances of how help desk  software chatbots can serve customers:

• Respond to FAQs by linking URLs to customer messages.
• Categorize tickets based on the nature of the issue.
• Route tickets to available live agents.

AI and chatbots can also provide 24/7 customer service via message channels, even when your agents are not available.

Read more: AI use cases in customer service.

Omnichannel ticketing system

According to a recent Forrester study, online interactions will influence more than 55% of US retail sales. Customers today expect a seamless experience across all channels.⁶

With omni-channel help desk systems customers and employees can enable 360-degree support using their preferred communication methods, such as Slack, email, messaging, and live chat.

Thus, context flows with the user from channel to channel and in the omnichannel agent workspace with a unified view of conversation history, background information, and contact data.

SLA and OLA management

• SLA: A service level agreement (SLA) is a document that defines support guidelines. 
• OLA: An operational level agreement (OLA) defines the responsibilities and expectations of internal teams to promote effective collaboration and coordination when handling customer complaints.

Help desks enable users to specify SLAs and OLAs for various tickets, specifying expected response and resolution timelines. For example, help desk software with SLA  monitors the status of tickets status, ensuring that response and resolution timeframes are within the established agreements.

AI-powered knowledge base

Customers may become upset if they can execute simple activities on their own. A knowledge base enables the customer to rapidly access relevant materials and handle issues, eliminating the need for support queries.

Creating an AI-powered knowledge base can improve the user experience by displaying tailored, relevant content depending on the search query. It also regularly examines existing content and detects trending themes to ensure that information is correct, and up to date.

Unified inbox

A unified inbox consolidates all inquiries into a single spot and enables communication among support teams.

Integrations

• CRM integration: Connects with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to provide a unified view of customer interactions.
• Project management tools: Integrates with project management software for seamless handling of complex issues that require project tracking.
• API access: Provides APIs for integrating the help desk system with other business applications.

Top 10 tools deep-dive

1. UVdesk

UVDesk is a helpdesk solution designed for multichannel customer assistance, mainly for eCommerce customers. UVdesk allows service managers to examine the performance of their agents using add-on features.

Customer reviews show that the technology is useful since it gives complete control over designing the knowledge base and allows users to make quick code changes. Indeed, the style of the texts and text is saved in the database, allowing users to change all of the articles at once. 

2. Zammad

Zammad is a web-based open-source helpdesk/customer support system that includes many features for managing customer communication across multiple channels such as phone, Facebook, Twitter, chat, and email. The product focus areas are:

• Product/service support for wholesale and retail
• IT service desk tech support

Users have found Zammad to be a low-cost (starting price is 7€ per agent/month), simple ticketing system for tracking and managing inquiries. 

Users of Zammad have been able to successfully handle service queries, document solutions, and improve overall response times. As a result, several customers have reported fewer open tickets than their previous ticketing system.

3. GLPI

GLPI is a free asset and IT management software solution that includes:

• data center management,
• ITIL Service Desk, 
• licensing monitoring, 
• and software auditing.

Users favored GLPI for help desk and IT inventory management. This shows that the software is effective at processing support tickets and keeping track of IT assets. Users also say that they can easily customize GLPI with plugins and track the performance & quality of teams.

4. osTicket 

osTicket is an open-source help desk and ticketing software that generates questions online, via email, and over the phone.

Reviewers appreciated osTicket’s customer assistance and communication features. Users like improved customer service, more issue visibility, and improved communication with customers. Customers have also complimented the platform’s self-help portal.

Some customers have highlighted shortcomings in real-time chat and remote support for larger enterprises.

5. FreeScout

FreeScout is a free, open-source help desk and shared mailbox. The tool is used by support teams, IT departments, suppliers, e-commerce businesses, and software development companies. FreeScout in numbers:

• Developers: 1 leading developer and 3 contributors.
• Time spent on development: 4 months
• Lines of code written: 20646
• Build size: 14.2 Mb

Users have found FreeScout to be an effective platform for managing query tickets smoothly, resulting in strong customer satisfaction, stating the developer is responsive and handles several issues in public on GitHub.

6. Helpy

Helpy is an open-source helpdesk and customer assistance tool. Knowledgebase, community conversations, and support tickets are all integrated with email. The tool offers translations for 19 languages and is simple to use. Some features include:

• Multichannel ticketing: Integrated with inbound email via Sendgrid, Mandrill, Mailgun, etc.
• Embed Widget: Helpy includes a lightweight javascript widget that allows your users to connect with you.

Pro version: Helpy also offers a pro version with additional features Some of the features present in the professional version:

• Notifications: Browser notifications when new tickets are received, or allocated to a ticket.
• Triggers: Add events at any time during the ticket’s lifecycle. This provides an outward JSON API.
• AI support chatbot: Create a chatbot for your website that can answer inquiries autonomously.

7. Peppermint

Peppermint is an open-source ticket management & help desk solution. Additional features include markdown-based notebooks and markdown-supported text input. It is self-hosted, it does not provide a cloud-hosted version.

8. Faveo

Faveo is a self-hosted and cloud-based ticketing system. Key features include:

• Ticket volume trends reporting:  Display which days/weeks/months/years have the most tickets received, unresolved, and resolved.
• Internal notes: Keep confidential discussions (for agents/admins, teams) within your team for internal ticket-related information. 

Faveo products are listed below:

• Faveo help desk community edition: Free, open-source edition
• Faveo help desk freelancer: Free version with features available in Faveo enterprise edition for two agents
• Faveo help desk enterprise edition: Paid version with more features and integrations
• Faveo service desk: Paid version for IT asset management

9. Trudesk

Trudesk offers more basic features compared to its competitors. The self-hosted plan is free and there are no additional features in this version. Thus, mid-size or large-scale companies should look for alternatives with more comprehensive features such as automated reporting and AI chatbots.

Trudesk has been active development since 2014. Third-party developers can integrate with Trudesk using the API. Here are some of the features that Trudesk Community Edition offers:

• Messenging: Chat between the agent and the customers/users. See the real-time online status of users

• Mail: Receive notifications for emails automatically. Generate tickets by polling an access control mailbox.

10. Request Tracker

Request Tracker is an enterprise-grade issue-tracking system.

Request Tracker enables businesses to keep track of what has to be done, who is working on which tasks, what has already been accomplished, and when tasks were (or were not) finished.

RT is commercially backed software. Buyers can purchase hosting, support, training, custom development, or professional services from the vendor.

Some distinct features of Request Tracker (RT) are listed below: 

• Over 400 freely available extensions
• Ticket locking
• Full ticket audit trail
• Satisfaction surveys
• Role-based security
• Incident management

Cloud-hosted and self-hosted help desk software

1. Cloud-hosted helpdesk software

Cloud-hosted help desks use distant servers to run and store data. Cloud-hosted help desks enable teams to provide excellent customer assistance without requiring in-house programming or IT knowledge.

These systems can better scale up and down in response to customer demand. Thus, they provide variable pricing based on usage, giving businesses choice in how they use the service.

2. Self-hosted help desk software

Self-hosted help desk solutions entail obtaining licensed software and deploying it on the company’s servers. With on-premise solutions, businesses control their support desk and are responsible for its maintenance, including data security. These solutions can be customized to work with internal systems and are more adaptable compared to cloud-hosted systems. 

Large organizations often use self-hosted help desks. Also, these enterprises hire external teams to maintain, customize, and operate the software. 

What to look out for when choosing a free help desk software

1. Evaluate the software’s reputation: The number of GitHub stars and contributors illustrates the widespread usage of free help desk software. Tools with more GitHub stars and contributors will get perks like the following:

• Collaborative community support
  
  • Larger user base: Tools with high GitHub stars often have a large and engaged user base, which implies that more people can ask for assistance, share expertise, and discuss the latest trends.
  • Frequent software updates: High contributor numbers frequently result in more frequent updates and enhancements, ensuring that the tool is up to date with the newest technology and practices.
    
• Better quality and reliability
  
  • Improved software performance: More contributors can increase code quality and robustness by applying diverse viewpoints and experience to problem-solving and code improvement.
  • Frequent bug fixes: Bugs are more likely to be detected and addressed quickly in highly active communities.

• Detailed documentation: Popular tools frequently have comprehensive documentation, tutorials, and guides generated by the community, making it simpler for newcomers to get started and experienced users to discover advanced administration techniques.

2. Analyze the software’s features: Free help desk software support features such as ticket management, e-mail support, and basic reporting. However, companies with 500+ employees may seek tools with:
   • automated ticket routing, 
   • Intelligent chatbots,
   • ticket escalation, 
   • and customized reporting for HIPAA and SOC compliance
     
3. Consider free and paid options: Free solutions have restricted integrations, less specialized capabilities, and lack of professional support, employing a more personalized solution with:
   • more comprehensive features (e.g. AI bots),
   • comprehensive official documentation,
   • a specialized support team to quickly address service problems.

Further reading

If you are interested in help desk technologies, here are other tools and vendors you can check:

• Top 4 Zoho Desk Alternatives
• Top 5 Helpshift Alternatives 

External Links

• 1. ”Zendesk CX Trends – 2023”. Zendesk. 2023. Retrieved on August 12, 2024.
• 2. ”Market Guide for Digital Customer Service and Support”. Gartner. 2023. Retrieved on August 12, 2024.
• 3. ”State of Customer Conversations 2024”. LIVEPERSON. 2024. Retrieved on August 12, 2024.
• 4. CX Trends 2025 | Surge ahead with human-centric AI.
• 5. CX Trends 2025 | Surge ahead with human-centric AI.
• 6. ”US Digital-Influenced Retail Sales Will Top $3.8 Trillion In 2027”. Forrester. 2022. Retrieved on August 12, 2024.