📝 Open Source Help Desk Solutions: A Comprehensive Review
Are you tired of paying high fees for cloud-based help desk solutions? Do you want to have more control over your support system? Look no further than open source help desk solutions. In this article, we will review the top open source help desk solutions available, their features, and their pros and cons.
📋 Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. FreeScout
3. osTicket
4. Fabio
5. Avdesk
6. Zammad
7. Conclusion
1. Introduction
In the past, customer support was provided mostly by email or phone. However, today's customers prefer to contact businesses via convenient channels like Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, and more. Luckily, there are open source help desk solutions that allow businesses to serve all customer requests received via different channels in one place. Most businesses and organizations usually start with cloud-based help desk solutions as they are easy to start and only require a monthly fee. However, as your company grows, your expenses on the ticketing system also grow. Support systems usually charge per support agent or per ticket basis. At some point, it becomes obvious that using an open source help desk on your own server will be much cheaper and more secure than using online help desk software.
2. FreeScout
FreeScout is a super lightweight, free, open source help desk and shared inbox. Its distribution kit is just 10 megabytes and can be used even on a shared hosting. All you need to do to start using it is to connect it to your email address, and all incoming emails will be turned into support tickets. The interface of the help desk is very slick and neat, with design and usability that is simply the best among all the systems we've checked. Help desk provides free mobile apps for IOS and Android. It also has an excellent collection of extensions, allowing you to turn it into a top-level support solution and satisfy most of your needs, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram integration, LDAP, knowledge base, CRM, and user portal with the form for submitting tickets, kanban mode, live chat widget for the website, and more. Besides, you can also create your own modules, and they work just like plugins in WordPress. This help desk tool gave us a very good impression. It's fast and not bloated or overloaded with features that you never use. Support agents enjoyed using it, and it's very easy to switch to it and start processing tickets. Even visually impaired support agents are able to use it. The only thing we were missing is the ability to split one ticket into two, as sometimes it's really needed. But hopefully, FreeScout team with time will add this feature too.
3. osTicket
osTicket allows you to scale and streamline your customer service and, as a result, improve your customers' experience. It's one of the oldest open source support ticket systems, with its first release on GitHub in 2013. The average distribution kit size is 50 megabytes. The help desk has a bit old-fashioned interface, but it does what it's supposed to do and allows you to process support requests. Customers are able to create tickets via your website, email, or phone. Agents can be assigned to different departments and have different roles. osTicket provides a standard set of help desk features, including custom fields, autoresponder, agent collision avoidance, SLA, customer portal, and also allows you to add tasks to tickets. osTicket collects inquiries via email or web form. It does not provide official mobile apps, only third-party apps are available. Our overall impression of this tool was quite good. If you need an open source help desk and you are not focused on a super modern design and UI, osTicket is your choice.
4. Fabio
Fabio developers describe it as a customizable omni-channel open source help desk software built on Laravel framework. There are different editions of the help desk: Community Edition, Freelancer, Pro Edition, and Service Desk. We tried to check the online demo, but it just showed us an empty page. The open source Community Edition version distribution kit is quite heavy, about 95 megabytes. Apparently, Fabio team is trying to maintain free and paid versions of the help desk, but it looks like the free open source version is not very actively maintained, and the last release was in 2021. GitHub repo has about 4150 open issues, which is quite a lot. We also found it a bit difficult to navigate in Fabio's documentation, but finally, we managed to install it on Ubuntu within Jinx. While checking it, there was a bit of a feeling of clumsiness. The help desk has a lot of options, and sometimes it's not very easy to find what you need. It has approval workflows, priorities, ticket types, daily reports, etc. The free open source version of the help desk does not allow you to use it in the mobile app, so the free edition of the help desk lives its own life while the paid version has its own.
5. Avdesk
Avdesk is the multi-channel help desk system for eCommerce marketplace. The Avdesk team believes that in order to deliver the best customer service, you don't need a big or complicated help desk. Some of the features Avdesk boasts are workloads, saved replies, tags, email integration, and releases that appear not very often, two to three times a year. In some aspects, this open source ticketing system mimics the previous Fabio help desk. Avdesk's design is not super modern and sometimes looks and feels a bit primitive. The help desk probably would have benefited if some professional designer could do some work on it. Out of the box, it does not provide a possibility to separate tickets via departments or mailboxes. We also could not find Avdesk mobile apps. The positive side of this help desk is the ability to connect it to different CMS and e-commerce platforms, including Magento, PrestaShop, WooCommerce, Odoo, CRM, Amazon, Shopify, Joomla, WordPress, and more.
6. Zammad
Zammad is a product service support system, supporting wholesale, retail, or as IT service desk. It's based on many years of experience with ticketing systems, and it was created in 2016 by the developer of the OTRS. This is the only non-PHP open source help desk in our review, and it's using Ruby. Installing it was a bit of a challenging experience. Some of the features Zammad boasts are auto-saved for tickets, opening multiple tickets at the same time without having to switch between browser windows, ultra-ticket templates, etc. Its interface in many aspects copies Zendesk, with all its pros and cons. For example, when you are replying to the ticket, you don't see the customer to whom you are replying, which is quite inconvenient. So usability is not the strongest side of Zammad. There are two main ticket types here: phone tickets and email tickets. It may be difficult to use Zammad for multiple businesses, as all the tickets are located in one place, and there is no way to isolate them from each other. There is an Android app providing basic features, but we could not find an iOS app.
7. Conclusion
In conclusion, all of the reviewed help desks provide a REST API, as it's a must-have in today's IT world. Now you have a good overview of the available free support solutions and can easily choose one for your company. There are many criteria that need to be taken into account. The help desk should be convenient and easy to use, flexible, and have a good user interface. If your support system is fast and reliable, your support agents will be able to provide the best support experience to your customers, and your business will grow.
🌟 Highlights
- Open source help desk solutions are cheaper and more secure than cloud-based help desk solutions.
- FreeScout is a super lightweight, free, open source help desk and shared inbox with a slick and neat interface.
- osTicket is one of the oldest open source support ticket systems with a standard set of help desk features.
- Fabio is a customizable omni-channel open source help desk software built on Laravel framework.
- Avdesk is the multi-channel help desk system for eCommerce marketplace.
- Zammad is a product service support system, supporting wholesale, retail, or as IT service desk.
❓ FAQ
Q: What is a REST API?
A: A REST API is a type of web service that allows communication between different systems.
Q: Can I use open source help desk solutions for multiple businesses?
A: It depends on the help desk solution. Some help desks, like Zammad, may be difficult to use for multiple businesses, while others, like FreeScout, allow you to create your own modules.
Q: Do open source help desk solutions provide mobile apps?
A: It depends on the help desk solution. Some help desks, like FreeScout, provide free mobile apps for IOS and Android, while others, like osTicket, do not provide official mobile apps, only third-party apps are available.
Q: What are the pros and cons of using open source help desk solutions?
A: The pros of using open source help desk solutions are that they are cheaper and more secure than cloud-based help desk solutions. The cons are that they may not have as many features as cloud-based help desk solutions and may require more technical expertise to set up and maintain.
