osTicket vs Zammad (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Zammad grades higher than osTicket: 2.8 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Zammad grades higher on features, ease of use and platforms. They get the same grade on value for money and the free plan.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
osTicket
Open-source support ticketing, self-hosted or as a cloud edition
Zammad
Open-source help desk, hosted in Germany or run on your own server
Which one is for you
Pick osTicket if
- Fits if you have a server and someone to run it and want no per-agent fee
- Works for an internal team that is happy with email, forms and an API
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you don't want to host, patch and back up your own server
- Not for you if you want chat or social channels, as the site lists email, forms and API
- Tight if you want vendor support, since the free edition has community support only
- Watch out: the cloud edition runs on a separate product, SupportSystem, and its $12 price shows no billing period
- Watch out: the virtual appliance has no published price
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
| 2.2GPAosTicketFair | 2.8GPAZammadGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BThe cloud edition is $12 per agent a month, inside the cheapest quarter ($19), but the page gives no billing period. The free edition needs your own server. | 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 full software is free to download and a 30-day cloud trial needs no card, though the free edition has community support only. | 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 | CEmail, web-form and API tickets routed to departments and agents. The listing's gap: chat and social channels aren't listed. | 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 | DNo store rating on record, and the free edition means a server, an installation, upgrades and backups of your own. | CNo store rating on record, and channels, triggers and roles need setting up. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb only, and the listing names no integrations or apps. | BWeb only, with 6 listed integrations including GitHub and GitLab links. No phone or desktop app on record. |
| Best for | a free ticket system you host yourself | 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: osTicket and Zammad. How we grade
Price against what you get
osTicket starts at $12 a month for each person and scores 1.7 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 $4.18 a month lower. Of the other help desk and live chat tools on the chart, 8 score higher than osTicket 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
- osTicket also covers workflow automation.
- Zammad also covers live chat.
At a glance
| osTicket | Zammad | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $12 per agent / month, for the cloud-hosted edition (billing basis not stated) | €7 per agent / month, billed annually (€9 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | Open Source edition: free to download and host yourself, with community support. | The open-source software is free to download and run on your own servers; you handle updates, backups and availability. |
| Free trial | 30-day free trial of the cloud-hosted edition | 30-day free trial of the hosted service on the Professional plan |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Enhancesoft | Zammad GmbH |
| Price read from | osticket.com | zammad.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
osTicket
- The free edition is self-hosted: you provide the server, installation, upgrades and backups, and support is community-only.
- The cloud-hosted edition runs on a separate product, SupportSystem, and its $12 per agent price is shown without a billing period.
- The site lists email, web forms and API as channels; chat and social channels are not listed.
- The virtual appliance has no published price.
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
osTicket
- Tickets from email, web forms and API
- Requests arrive by email, a customer support portal or an API and are turned into tickets.
- Ticket filters
- Rules route incoming tickets to a department or agent, and can reject a ticket or send an automatic canned response.
- Help topics and custom forms
- Web tickets are routed by help topic, and each topic can carry its own form. Custom fields and lists add more data to a ticket.
- Custom queues and columns
- Agents build their own ticket views by criteria and choose which columns show.
- Service level agreements
- Business hours and SLA plans are set up in the admin settings.
- Dashboard reports
- A dashboard shows help desk statistics. Agent collision avoidance is among the listed features.
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
osTicket
Open Source$0
The full software, which you host yourself. Community support only; the vendor says it has no feature tiers.
Cloud-hosted$12
per agent / month, billing basis not stated
Hosted by the vendor on its SupportSystem platform, with email and phone support, managed upgrades, daily backups and a free walk-through session.
Virtual ApplianceCustom
Customized to fit a business's needs, with the cloud edition's support and maintenance. Contact the vendor for pricing.
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
osTicket
No public discounts listed.
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, osTicket or Zammad?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Zammad is cheaper to start with: about $7.82 a month for each person, against $12 a month for each person for osTicket. osTicket starts at $12 per agent / month, for the cloud-hosted edition (billing basis not stated), and Zammad starts at €7 per agent / month, billed annually (€9 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, osTicket or Zammad?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both osTicket 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.