Zammad

Zammad is an open source help desk and ticketing system built for teams that need to track and respond to customer inquiries without the bloat of enterprise suites. It pulls in requests from email, web forms, phone calls, chat widgets, and social media channels like Twitter and Facebook, then unifies them into a clear ticket thread. The system automates workflows with triggers, macros, and time-based escalation rules so nothing slips through the cracks.

It runs on Linux using a Ruby on Rails backend with PostgreSQL or MySQL, and it offers a REST API and webhooks for hooking into your billing or monitoring tools. Agents get a searchable interface with full-text search, collision detection to prevent double responses, and a kanban-style dashboard. The Zammad Foundation oversees development, and the project has gathered over 3,000 GitHub stars with a healthy plugin ecosystem.

Small to mid-sized support teams appreciate that Zammad offers real-time chat and a customer portal out of the box. It is free under the AGPLv3 with optional paid enterprise hosting and support plans. Notable users include public institutions and hosting providers that need a self-hosted ticketing system with strict data governance requirements.