# osTicket review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Open-source support ticketing, self-hosted or as a cloud edition Checked Nov 12, 2026 ยท graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA. osTicket is an open-source ticketing system that turns email, web-form and API requests into tickets routed to departments and agents. The software is free to download and run on your own server, and the vendor also sells a cloud-hosted edition and a virtual appliance. - **Category:** Help Desks & Live Chat - **Made by:** Enhancesoft - **Website:** https://osticket.com - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you don't want to host, patch and back up your own server. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 12, 2026, osTicket has a free plan, and paid plans start at $12 per agent / month, for the cloud-hosted edition (billing basis not stated). - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** Open Source edition: free to download and host yourself, with community support. - **Free trial:** 30-day free trial of the cloud-hosted edition. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | 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 Appliance | Custom | Customized to fit a business's needs, with the cloud edition's support and maintenance. Contact the vendor for pricing. | Read from https://osticket.com/editions/ on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with osTicket before buying. ## Key features - **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. ## Good for - Teams with a server and an admin who want ticketing with no license fee - Organizations that need to control where ticket data is stored - Internal and customer support desks with email-based intake ## Worth knowing - 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.2 out of 4**, graded Nov 12, 2026. osTicket turns email, web-form and API requests into tickets routed to departments and agents, and the software is free to run on your own server. That means your own installation, upgrades and backups with community-only support, and the cloud edition is a separate product with an unstated billing period. - **Value for money: B.** The 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. - **Free plan and trial: B.** The full software is free to download and a 30-day cloud trial needs no card, though the free edition has community support only. - **Features: C.** Email, web-form and API tickets routed to departments and agents. The listing's gap: chat and social channels aren't listed. - **Ease of use: D.** No store rating on record, and the free edition means a server, an installation, upgrades and backups of your own. - **Platforms and integrations: C.** Web only, and the listing names no integrations or apps. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from osTicket's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among help desk and live chat tools - osTicket's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 25 of the 66 other help desk and live chat tools we grade, and level with 10. - It stands best on free plan and trial (B, above 53 of 66) and worst on ease of use (D, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $12 a month for each person, against a middle price of $29 for the category: 7 of the 57 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 1.7 out of 4. 8 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/customer-support ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace osTicket you would be making one mailbox that several people work at once. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It costs $144 a year. osTicket is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself. - You could make: Help desk: an app builder makes this well. - You could not: One mailbox that several people work at once. - You could not: Connections to other products, each kept working as those products change. - You could not: It is priced for each person, which means accounts and billing for a team. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. **Tags:** Help desk, Open source, Self-hostable, Shared inbox, Workflow automation, Public API ## Alternatives - [Zammad](https://toolgpa.com/tools/zammad): Open-source help desk, hosted in Germany or run on your own server. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/osticket-vs-zammad) - [FreeScout](https://toolgpa.com/tools/freescout): Free open-source help desk and shared mailbox you host yourself. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/freescout-vs-osticket) - [UVdesk](https://toolgpa.com/tools/uvdesk): Open-source help desk for online stores with hosted Pro and Enterprise. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/osticket-vs-uvdesk) - [Spiceworks Help Desk](https://toolgpa.com/tools/spiceworks-help-desk): Free cloud ticketing for IT teams, with a low-cost ad-free tier. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/osticket-vs-spiceworks-help-desk) - [HelpDesk](https://toolgpa.com/tools/helpdesk): Ticketing with an AI agent for email, chat, Messenger and SMS. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/helpdesk-vs-osticket) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026: - https://osticket.com/ - https://osticket.com/editions/ - https://osticket.com/features/ Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/osticket Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).