Faveo Helpdesk vs Zammad (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Faveo Helpdesk and Zammad share a 2.8 GPA, both have a free plan, and Faveo Helpdesk starts cheaper, at $6 a month for each person against about $7.82 a month for each person.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Faveo Helpdesk grades higher on value for money. Zammad grades higher on features. They get the same grade on the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Faveo Helpdesk
Help desk and service desk, cloud-hosted or self-hosted
Zammad
Open-source help desk, hosted in Germany or run on your own server
Which one is for you
Pick Faveo Helpdesk if
- Fits if you have 1 or 2 agents and want SLAs and automation for free
- Works for teams that want the choice of cloud or their own server
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you have more than 2 agents on the free plan, since it stops at 2
- Skip it if you want the AI assistant on a normal plan, as it appears only on Enterprise, sold through sales
- Watch out: GST is shown as extra, and prices appear with a crossed-out higher figure the vendor gives no end date for
- Watch out: self-hosted source code access, a staging licence and an account manager are only on Enterprise Pro at custom prices
Pick Zammad if
- Fits if you want a help desk you can host yourself or rent hosted
- Works for a team that wants WhatsApp and Facebook channels on the top plan
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you grow: Starter stops at 5 agents and Professional at 35
- Watch out: prices exclude VAT, and AI features cost €0.03 per call on top
- Watch out: annual billing runs a full year and needs notice at least two months before it ends
- Watch out: self-hosting makes you responsible for updates, backups and uptime, and support subscriptions for it start at €2,999 a year
How we grade them
| 2.8GPAFaveo HelpdeskGood | 2.8GPAZammadGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AStartup is $6 an agent a month on annual billing, under 60% of the $19 where support tools' cheaper quarter starts. SME is $10, and a self-hosted Startup licence is $179 an agent, once. | BStarter is €7 per agent a month billed annually, under the $11.40 mark, but it stops at 5 agents, and chat and SLAs need Professional at €16. Prices exclude VAT. |
| Free plan and trial | BThe Freelancer plan is free for 2 agents with ticket forms, SLAs, workflow automation and reports, and a 14-day trial of the paid ones. The 2-agent cap is the edge. | BThe open-source software is free to run yourself and the hosted service has a 30-day Professional trial. Self-hosting means updates, backups and uptime are yours. |
| Features | CSLAs, workflow automation, reports, channels and a choice of cloud or self-hosted. The Elea AI assistant and chatbot are on Enterprise only. | BEmail, forms, SMS, chat, Telegram, Facebook and WhatsApp, with macros, triggers, SLAs and a knowledge base across the plans. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in core ticketing. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. Cloud signup is quick, but the self-hosted option needs a server. | CNo store rating on record, and channels, triggers and roles need setting up. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with 3 integrations on record. | BWeb only, with 6 listed integrations including GitHub and GitLab links. No phone or desktop app on record. |
| Best for | a tiny support team wanting a free help desk | an open-source help desk you can host or rent |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Faveo Helpdesk and Zammad. How we grade
Price against what you get
Faveo Helpdesk starts at $6 a month for each person and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Zammad starts at about $7.82 a month for each person and scores 2.7.
Zammad scores higher, and starts $1.82 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other help desk and live chat tools on the chart, none scores higher than Faveo Helpdesk for less, and 1 scores higher than Zammad for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Faveo Helpdesk also covers workflow automation, reports and ticketing.
- Zammad also covers shared inbox and live chat.
At a glance
| Faveo Helpdesk | Zammad | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $6 per agent / month, billed annually ($7 billed monthly) | €7 per agent / month, billed annually (€9 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | Freelancer plan: free for 2 agents, with ticket forms, SLAs, workflow automation and reports. | The open-source software is free to download and run on your own servers; you handle updates, backups and availability. |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial | 30-day free trial of the hosted service on the Professional plan |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Ladybird Web Solution Pvt Ltd | Zammad GmbH |
| Price read from | faveohelpdesk.com | zammad.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Faveo Helpdesk
- The free Freelancer plan stops at 2 agents.
- The Elea AI assistant and chatbot appear only on Enterprise, which is sold through sales.
- Pricing shows GST as extra, and prices appear with a crossed-out higher figure; the vendor gives no end date for it.
- Self-hosted source code access, staging license and account manager are only on Enterprise Pro, at custom prices.
Zammad
- Prices are in euros and exclude value-added tax; hosted plans cap agents at 5 on Starter and 35 on Professional.
- Annual billing runs for a full year and needs notice at least two months before the term ends.
- AI features are optional and cost €0.03 per AI call on top of the plan price.
- Self-hosting makes you responsible for updates, backups and availability.
Key features
Faveo Helpdesk
- SLA management
- SLA process management with reminders and escalation, alongside dynamic ticket forms and approval workflows.
- Workflow automation
- Automation rules, canned responses and automatic ticket assignment cut manual triage; round-robin and skill-based routing start on SME.
- Reports and dashboards
- In-depth reports, average handling time and custom dashboards come with every plan, and agent and group performance views are listed.
- Channels
- Startup adds a WhatsApp channel, and SME adds omni-channel integration for support across messaging channels.
- Elea AI assistant
- Elea AI and an AI-powered chatbot are listed on the Enterprise plan.
- Cloud or self-hosted
- Run it as the vendor's cloud service, or install it yourself with a perpetual per-agent license.
Zammad
- Multichannel tickets
- Email, web forms and SMS on every hosted plan, chat and Telegram from Professional, and Facebook and WhatsApp on Plus.
- Automation tools
- Text modules, macros, triggers, schedulers and business hours are in the Starter plan; SLAs and custom roles start at Professional.
- Knowledge base
- A monolingual knowledge base is included from Professional and a multilingual one from Plus.
- Hosted in Germany
- Hosted instances run in an ISO 27001-certified German data center with SSL encryption and two-factor authentication.
- Optional AI features
- Professional and Plus can switch on AI features such as ticket summaries, charged at €0.03 per AI call.
- Open source, self-hostable
- The full code is public under a GPL v3 licence, so a team can run it on its own servers.
Plans
Faveo Helpdesk
Freelancer$0
Free for 2 agents; the page shows a crossed-out $10 beside it. Includes SLAs, automation and reports.
Startup$6
per agent / month, billed annually ($7 billed monthly)
Adds WhatsApp channel, attachment scanner and auto ticket assignment; page shows a crossed-out $9.
SME$10
per agent / month, billed annually ($11 billed monthly)
Adds omni-channel, LDAP, Microsoft Entra ID, round-robin and skill-based routing; crossed-out $14 shown.
EnterpriseCustom
Unlimited agents, ad hoc approval, custom JavaScript, the Elea AI assistant and an AI chatbot.
Self-hosted Startup$179
per agent, one-time fee
Perpetual license for your own server; SME is $199 per agent. The page shows crossed-out $224 and $249.
Zammad
Starter v2€7
per agent / month, billed annually (€9 billed monthly)
Hosted. Up to 5 agents; email, web form and SMS channels, text modules, macros, triggers and 20 GB of disk space.
Professional v2€16
per agent / month, billed annually (€18 billed monthly)
Hosted. Up to 35 agents; adds chat and Telegram, SLAs, individual roles, a monolingual knowledge base and 50 GB of disk.
Plus v2€25
per agent / month, billed annually (€27 billed monthly)
Hosted. Unlimited agents; adds Facebook and WhatsApp, a multilingual knowledge base, GitHub/GitLab links and reporting.
Self-hosted€0
Download Zammad and host it yourself under its open-source licence, with no vendor support included.
Self-hosted support€2,999
per year (Business); Enterprise €5,999, Corporation €9,999
Support subscriptions for self-hosted installs, with response times of 6, 4 or 2 hours and 15, 45 or 95 service requests a year.
Ways to pay less
Faveo Helpdesk
- Annual discount
Lower per-agent rate on yearly billing
Yearly billing brings Startup from $7 to $6 and SME from $11 to $10 per agent a month on the cloud plans.
Zammad
- Annual discount
Save 10% with annual billing
The hosted pricing page offers a lower per-agent price on annual billing than on monthly billing, labeled as a 10% saving.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Faveo Helpdesk or Zammad?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Faveo Helpdesk is cheaper to start with: $6 a month for each person, against about $7.82 a month for each person for Zammad. Faveo Helpdesk starts at $6 per agent / month, billed annually ($7 billed monthly), and Zammad starts at €7 per agent / month, billed annually (€9 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, Faveo Helpdesk or Zammad?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Faveo Helpdesk and Zammad have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.