9 Best Open Source or Free Ticketing Systems for Business Support

An effective ticketing system is the backbone of great customer service in today‘s digital age. It helps companies track issues, streamline workflows, collaborate better, and resolve problems faster.

But with so many options in the market, how do you choose the right ticketing platform for your business? Especially when working with a limited budget.

As your friend and trusted advisor, let me walk you through the top open source and free ticketing systems that can empower your team to deliver exceptional support.

Why Ticketing Systems Are Critical for Modern Businesses

Imagine this – a customer contacts your support team via email regarding an order issue. Sarah from your team replies asking for more details. The customer responds over Twitter this time, explaining the problem. Mike from your team sees it, but isn‘t aware about Sarah‘s email exchange.

Messy right? Now imagine this at a larger scale across channels like live chat, social media, SMS, calls etc. Customer issues falling through the cracks, duplicated efforts, long resolution times, and more.

A ticketing system centrally consolidates all customer interactions regardless of channel into one place as "tickets." Agents get a complete picture and can collaborate to resolve tickets faster.

According to a Zendesk benchmark report, companies with ticketing systems have:

• 26% faster first response times
• 38% faster average resolution times
• 60% lower customer contacts per ticket

This results in 54% higher customer satisfaction.

Ticketing systems also enable critical capabilities like:

• SLA monitoring – Track response time performance against service level agreements
• Ticket assignment – Route tickets automatically to right agents
• Task collaboration – Agents can comment, hand-off tickets, share files etc.
• Reporting – Insights into agent performance, ticket volumes, resolution times etc.
• Self-service – Customers can check statuses or find answers from knowledge base

In one survey, 75% of customers said they view ticket resolution as the true test of a company‘s customer service capabilities.

The bottom line – ticketing systems are the mission control centers empowering teams to deliver efficient, seamless customer support across channels.

Benefits of Free and Open Source Ticketing Platforms

Paid ticketing systems like Zendesk and Freshworks are feature-rich but can be costly. Their pricing is usually per agent.

This is where free and open source ticketing tools come in. They provide compelling benefits, especially for smaller teams:

1. No Licensing Costs

Free tools have no subscription fees or charges per agent. This results in massive cost savings compared to paid solutions.

As per Red Hat, open source ticketing systems can save companies 60-80% in licensing costs over proprietary systems.

2. Easy Setup and Installation

Open source platforms can be downloaded and installed on your own servers quickly without complex provisioning or configuration.

Paid SaaS platforms often have lengthy setup processes spanning days or weeks. This allows you to get started faster.

3. Flexibility and Customization

With access to the source code, open source systems can be tweaked and customized extensively to fit your unique needs.

You can modify interfaces, automations, data fields, workflows, integrations etc. Paid tools have limited customization capabilities in comparison.

4. Scalability With Growth

Many open source platforms are designed for scalability. You can easily expand to higher traffic and agents without expensive upgrades.

Paid platforms may need costly enterprise plans as your needs grow over time.

5. Vibrant Communities

Mature open source projects often have vibrant communities of developers and users. This gives you access to documentation, guides, add-ons, expert assistance etc.

6. Security and Compliance

Open source code can be audited for security and compliance. Some tools like osTicket enable running the entire system on-premises too.

This is beneficial for organizations with strict data security and privacy requirements.

7. No Vendor Lock-in

With both the software and your data on your own servers, migrating away from open source systems is easier.

Paid SaaS tools can impose long term binding contracts and complex data migration hurdles.

The key is choosing a platform that fits your current maturity, team size, and business needs. Let‘s look at some top options:

9 Best Open Source and Free Ticketing Systems for Business Support

1. HESK – Mature, Feature-Rich Help Desk System

HESK is one of the most mature and widely-used open source help desk systems with over 820,000 downloads. Prominent users include government agencies, universities, and businesses like FlavourArt.

Key Features

• Organize tickets with custom categories, priorities, and departments
• Role-based access control and activity logs for security
• Knowledge base to answer common support questions
• Robust ticket management with assignments, notes, and SLA tracking
• 100+ customizations – statuses, fields, forms, automation etc.
• Multi-lingual – 40+ languages available

Custom Reporting

HESK provides in-depth reporting on help desk performance:

Image: Sample HESK Admin Report (Source: HESK)

HESK is free and open source forever, even for commercial use. Paid cloud hosting plans are also available.

2. osTicket – Simple Yet Powerful Open Source Platform

osTicket is a hugely popular open source ticketing system used by Microsoft, Toyota, Uber, and over 200,000 organizations worldwide.

Key Features

• Intuitive web and mobile interfaces
• Robust ticket management workflows – assignments, collisions avoidance etc.
• Custom ticket forms, fields, lists – collect critical data
• Customer self-service portal and knowledge base
• Email piping converts emails into tickets automatically
• Active community with hundreds of addons and integrations

osTicket shines with its simple, easy-to-use UI and comprehensive features.

3. Freshdesk – Hosted Ticketing With Free Tier

Freshdesk is a leading paid help desk platform that also offers a free forever plan for small teams.

Key Capabilities

• Unified inbox to manage tickets across channels
• Team collaboration with internal notes and ticket comments
• Customer satisfaction scoring and NPS surveys
• Flexible SLA policies and reports
• Self-service knowledge base to deflect tickets
• Intuitive mobile apps for agents and customers

The free plan has some limitations in capabilities but provides sufficient features for nascent teams.

4. FluentSupport – WordPress Ticketing Plugin

FluentSupport integrates robust help desk capabilities into your WordPress site. With 300+ active installations, it is a leading open source WordPress ticketing option.

Notable Features

• Conditional logic and variable widgets for custom forms
• Internal agent communication without customer notifications
• Deep WordPress integration – orders, users etc.
• REST API and VueJS for speed and extensibility
• Prioritization matrix for SLA tracking
• Integrates with tools like Slack, Discord, WhatsApp

FluentSupport empowers WordPress sites with advanced help desk features.

5. OpenSupports – Modern Open Source Platform

OpenSupports is an emerging modern open source ticketing system built using React, NodeJS, and Redux.

Key Highlights

• Intuitive user interfaces with mobile responsiveness
• Role-based access control and permissions
• Integration with Telegram, Slack, WhatsApp etc.
• RESTful API for extensibility
• Multi-lingual – 10+ languages supported
• Article section for tutorials and documentation

OpenSupports focuses on usability, security, and integration capabilities. With active development, it‘s one to watch.

6. UVDesk – Enterprise-Grade PHP Ticketing

UVDesk is an enterprise-grade open source ticketing framework built on PHP Symfony.

Notable Capabilities

• Highly customizable workflows, forms, and fields
• Mailbox integration to convert emails into tickets
• Agent collaboration with internal notes
• Robust user portal and knowledge base
• Multi-brand support and white labeling
• REST API for integration
• Active community and marketplace for addons

UVDesk brings enterprise-level capability to open source ticketing.

7. SimpleHelp – Streamlined Lightweight System

As the name suggests, SimpleHelp is a streamlined, easy-to-use open source web-based ticketing system.

Key Features

• Simple, responsive user interfaces
• Email management with POP3/IMAP
• Custom data fields for forms
• Canned response templates
• Basic reports on tickets and activity
• Multi-language support
• PDF ticketing

While not as full-featured as other systems, SimpleHelp excels in its simplicity and lightweight nature.

8. OpenTickets – PHP/MySQL Ticketing Platform

OpenTickets is an open source support ticketing system built with PHP/MySQL. It simplifies customer communication tracking.

Notable Features

• Web-based intuitive interfaces
• Email piping and forwarding
• Custom ticket statuses
• Collision prevention
• Basic role-based access control
• Report exporting in CSV/PDF
• Modular codebase for customization

OpenTickets packs helpful core ticketing capabilities into a no-frills open source platform.

9. Vision Helpdesk – Hosted Free Option

While most solutions here are self-hosted, Vision Helpdesk is a cloud-based help desk with a free tier.

Key Features

• Email ticketing with customizable addresses
• Team collaboration and feedback flow
• Basic role management
• Custom ticket forms and fields
• SLAs and response time reports
• Web and mobile interfaces

The free plan supports 2 agents with core features. Paid upgrades available.

Key Factors to Evaluate Ticketing Systems

1. Features – Carefully assess if all must-have features like SLA tracking, reporting, mobile access, etc. are present. Audit feature depth.

2. User Interface – The UI plays a big role in user adoption. Evaluate interfaces for intuitive design and mobile readiness.

3. Customizability – Determine ease of customizing fields, forms, workflows, branding etc. Open source provides more flexibility.

4. Scalability – Review if the system can scale with more agents, customers and ticket volumes over time.

5. Security – Audit security practices, role management, data encryption etc. especially with self-hosted tools.

6. On-Premise vs SaaS – Hosted systems are easier to start with but limit control. Weigh trade-offs.

7. Ecosystem – Mature platforms have rich marketplaces for addons and integrations. Prioritize active communities.

8. Learning Curve – Complexity in UI, configuration, and usage will hinder adoption. Choose simple and intuitive.

Choosing the ideal platform depends on your business needs, team size, growth trajectory etc. Proprietary systems offer more polish while open source provides customization flexibility. Leverage free trials to evaluate thoroughly before deciding.

The Road Ahead – Paid vs Open Source Ticketing

Help desk ticketing is a mission-critical customer service capability in the digital age. While paid solutions provide great value, open source and free platforms empower early-stage startups and smaller teams with sufficient features and customizability without large licensing costs.

Here are some key considerations as your business grows:

• Expanding teams and ticket volumes may require more advanced enterprise features like custom branding/portals, complex automations, custom analytics etc. This is where commercial platforms shine.

• Paid tools invest heavily in user experience design and seamless mobile interfaces creating smoother workflows. Open source systems sometimes lack UI polish.

• Hosted systems simplify management vs maintaining on-premise servers with open source. But you lose some control and flexibility.

• Third-party support can be critical as the use of ticketing systems expands across the organization. Commercial providers offer expert assistance.

The bottom line – open source and free ticketing provides immense value for early-stage businesses. As needs mature, consider evolving to paid platforms. But a hybrid on-premise/SaaS approach can also work for larger businesses depending on needs.

The Final Word

An effective ticketing system paves the path to great customer service. As your friend and advisor, I hope this guide provides helpful insights into the top open source and free platforms available to empower your team.

Remember – the right software lays the foundation. But even the best technology cannot replace building a culture focused on customer satisfaction. Software and processes play a role, but a skilled, motivated team is truly the key driver of customer delight.

Wishing you the very best! Please don‘t hesitate to reach out if you need any guidance in your ticketing system selection journey. I‘m always happy to help.