Alternatives to Zammad
Open source helpdesk from Germany
Zammad ranks #2 of 11 in Helpdesk software, with an Alt Score of 100. It is licensed under AGPL-3.0, open source with paid hosting from €7/agent/month and available on the web. 10 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
Support, service, and IT teams at businesses of any size who need to manage customer or internal requests without vendor lock-in, from small startups to larger enterprises with compliance requirements.
A unified ticketing system that consolidates email, chat, phone, and social media messages into a single structured view per conversation. It includes a self-service knowledge base, automation for repetitive tasks (rules, text modules, templates, bulk actions), and reporting/SLA tracking for visibility into team performance. As open-source software, it can be self-hosted for full infrastructure control or used via a hosted cloud offering.
Incoming messages from any connected channel become tickets in a shared queue, where agents triage, assign, and respond using saved replies, macros, and automation rules while collaborating internally on the same ticket. Managers track SLAs and volume through dashboards, and customers or agents can resolve simpler issues themselves via the knowledge base before a ticket is even needed.
Where Zammad stands out
Verified capabilities most alternatives don't have.
Why people leave Zammad
Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.
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Ranked alternatives
Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.
Feature comparison
Rows come from the Helpdesk software checklist (14 rows). Human-verified cells only. ? means the value has not been verified.
| Helpdesk software checklist | Zammad | Chatwoot | Help Scout | Freshdesk | Intercom | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ||||||
| Starts at | ||||||
| License | ||||||
| Platforms | ||||||
| Shared inbox | ||||||
| Live chat widget | ||||||
| Knowledge base | ||||||
| Automations & SLAs | ||||||
| AI answers / copilot | ||||||
| Self-hostable | ||||||
| Free tier limits | ||||||
| Multi-channel (email, chat, social) | ||||||
| Reporting | ||||||
| Per-seat price |
Every fact and feature listed for Zammad is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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Pricing model OSS + paid hosting verified 2026-07-11
7€ per agent / month
https://zammad.com/en/pricing -
Starts at €7/agent/month verified 2026-07-11
7€ per agent / month
https://zammad.com/en/pricing -
License AGPL-3.0 verified 2026-07-11
GNU AFFERO GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 3, 19 November 2007
https://github.com/zammad/zammad/blob/develop/LICENSE -
Platforms Web verified 2026-07-11
via our smart chat, your support team can solve customer queries 7x faster than via conventional email.
https://zammad.com/en/product/features -
Status active verified 2026-07-11
Zammad is a web based open source helpdesk/customer support system.
https://github.com/zammad/zammad -
Shared inbox Yes verified 2026-07-11
In Zammad, every conversation in your shared mailbox is uniformly displayed as one ticket with history, current agent, status, and priority.
https://zammad.com/en/blog/working-with-a-shared-email-box -
Live chat widget Yes verified 2026-07-11
The Zammad chat widget on your page is only displayed if at least one support person is online and still has the capacity for chat work.
https://zammad.com/en/product/features/chat -
Knowledge base Yes verified 2026-07-11
A knowledge base is your personal encyclopedia where you can store all the knowledge about your business and processes.
https://zammad.com/en/product/features/knowledge-base -
Automations & SLAs Yes verified 2026-07-11
When the SLA time is reached, the ticket escalates. Now all agents which have activated the corresponding setting will receive a notification.
https://zammad.com/en/product/features/sla -
AI answers / copilot Yes verified 2026-07-11
Helps craft clear and professional responses
https://zammad.com/en/product/artificial-intelligence -
Self-hostable Yes verified 2026-07-11
Zammad is committed to remaining free and open-source now and in the future, meaning anyone is welcome to install and run it on their own servers at no cost.
https://support.zammad.com/help/en-us/51-getting-started/8-why-is-there-a-paid-subscription-for-self-hosting-i-thought-zammad-was-free -
Free tier limits Yes verified 2026-07-11
Zammad is committed to remaining free and open-source now and in the future, meaning anyone is welcome to install and run it on their own servers at no cost.
https://support.zammad.com/help/en-us/51-getting-started/8-why-is-there-a-paid-subscription-for-self-hosting-i-thought-zammad-was-free -
Multi-channel (email, chat, social) Yes verified 2026-07-11
via our smart chat, your support team can solve customer queries 7x faster than via conventional email.
https://zammad.com/en/product/features -
Reporting Yes verified 2026-07-11
Reporting helps you to gain valuable insights into your company's and team's performance.
https://zammad.com/en/product/reporting -
Per-seat price Yes verified 2026-07-11
7€ per agent / month
https://zammad.com/en/pricing
FAQ
Yes. Freshdesk, Crisp and Tidio have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.
Chatwoot, osTicket and FreeScout — every license claim links its source.