Zammad review (2026): is the free plan enough?
Open-source help desk, hosted in Germany or run on your own server
Black Friday: is there a Zammad sale?
Zammad report card
Good · out of 4.0 · graded Nov 12, 2026
Best for an open-source help desk you can host or rent
Zammad collects email, web forms, SMS, chat, Telegram, Facebook and WhatsApp requests in one place, as free self-hosted software or a hosted service from €7 an agent. Starter stops at 5 agents, prices exclude VAT, and self-hosting leaves updates and uptime to you.
Who Zammad is for
- 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
Who Zammad is not for
- 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
Why Zammad gets a 2.8
Five grades, each with its reason. The GPA is their average: an A is 4 points, an F is none.
- BValue for moneyStarter 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.
- BFree plan and trialThe 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.
- BFeaturesEmail, 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.
- CEase of useNo store rating on record, and channels, triggers and roles need setting up.
- BPlatforms and integrationsWeb only, with 6 listed integrations including GitHub and GitLab links. No phone or desktop app on record.
What these grades rest on. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Zammad's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. How we review and grade.
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<a href="https://toolgpa.com/tools/zammad#review"><img src="https://toolgpa.com/badge/zammad.svg" alt="Zammad: 2.8 GPA on ToolGPA" width="196" height="56"></a>Where Zammad stands among help desk and live chat tools
Zammad's GPA of 2.8 is higher than 59 of the 66 other help desk and live chat tools we grade, and level with 4.
It stands best on free plan and trial (B, above 53 of 66) and worst on ease of use (C, above 5).
Its paid plans start at about $7.82 a month for each person, against a middle price of $29 for the category: 4 of the 57 others that charge start lower.
On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. 1 tool scores higher and costs less.
Each grade against the category
Every bar is all 67 help desk and live chat tools we grade, cut by the letter each got. Zammad’s own letter is outlined.
- BValue for moneyAbove 44 of 66, level with 15
- BFree plan and trialAbove 53 of 66, level with 12
- BFeaturesAbove 46 of 66, level with 20
- CEase of useAbove 5 of 66, level with 56
- BPlatforms and integrationsAbove 6 of 66, level with 54
Price against what you get
Each dot is one of 59 help desk and live chat tools. Further left costs less, and higher up scores better on features, ease of use and platforms. Point at a dot to see which tool it is.
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
Keep Zammad, or make your own?
Keep it
To replace Zammad 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 is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.8 is higher than 59 of the 66 other help desk and live chat tools we grade. It costs $93.84 a year. Zammad is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself.
What you could make
- Help desk: an app builder makes this well.
What you could not
- One mailbox that several people work at once.
- A chat box on your site that reaches you the moment a customer types.
- It is priced for each person, which means accounts and billing for a team.
- It plugs into other products, Telegram, Facebook and WhatsApp among them.
- AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
- The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.
What this rests on. Zammad’s listing: what it does, where it runs, what it plugs into and what it costs. It is a judgement about the kind of software this is. We have not built a replacement for it, and making your own means looking after it too. How we decide, and every tool’s verdict.
What is Zammad?
Zammad is an open-source ticketing system that collects email, web forms, SMS, chat, Telegram, Facebook and WhatsApp requests in one place. It can be bought as a hosted service run in German data centers, or downloaded and self-hosted for free, with paid support subscriptions for self-hosted installs.
Worth knowing
- 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
- 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.
Zammad pricing
As of Nov 12, 2026, Zammad has a free plan, and paid plans start at €7 per agent / month, billed annually (€9 billed monthly).
- Starts at
- €7 per agent / month, billed annually (€9 billed monthly)
- Free plan
- 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 hosted service on the Professional plan
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Starter v2 | €7per 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 | €16per 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 | €25per 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 | €2,999per 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. |
Read from zammad.com on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Zammad before you buy.
Ways to pay less
- Annual discountSave 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.
Stated on zammad.com
Works with
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Common questions
Does Zammad have an Android app?
No Android app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 12, 2026. Zammad is listed for Web.
Does Zammad have an iPhone app?
No iPhone app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 12, 2026. Zammad is listed for Web.
Is Zammad open source?
Yes. Zammad is open source, according to its own site. It can also be run on a server of your own.
Sources for this page
The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026.