What is the best open source help ticket system? [closed]

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I know of osTicket, are there any other more compelling help ticket systems?
My company wants to use one and I am researching them now.

I forgot to mention, I will need to install it on our servers...so SaaS (software as a service) doesn't work.

Mistakable answered 2/6, 2009 at 19:18 Comment(3)

This depends strongly on your needs, there is no simple answer. – Cranston 2/6, 2009 at 19:26

Right now, my company uses Rational ClearQuest as ticket system...and wants to move on from this expensive choice. By the way, the company is pretty big with thousands of employees. – Mistakable 2/6, 2009 at 19:43

I guess this is a duplicate question. – Scoliosis 3/6, 2009 at 7:51

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There is good information on Wikipedia at

Comparison of Issue Tracking Systems

Personally, I'm fond of Trac, which has the capability of integrating with subversion, so when you check in a file, if you say something like...

$ svn ci -m "automatically fix any broken dates in the input.  fixes #87"

....then Trac will automatically add this comment and close bug #87 for you.

Gate answered 2/6, 2009 at 19:31 Comment(6)

Yeah, this seem to be a pretty compelling list...thanks. – Mistakable 2/6, 2009 at 19:45

-1: The question was asking about customer support ticket tracking, not source code management. – Arbalest 2/6, 2009 at 19:54

@Mark: You're right. I must've just been eager to vote for Trac. – Gate 2/6, 2009 at 20:13

It will be used internally, among departments (not externally in relationship with other clients). – Mistakable 2/6, 2009 at 20:15

The questioner asked for a Help ticket system, not a bug tracking solution. – Kong 13/7, 2009 at 0:55

There's a nice list here helpdeskreviews.com/open-source-helpdesks.php – Extinctive 8/7, 2014 at 13:30

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"Best" helpdesk system is very subjective, of course, but I recommend Request Tracker (aka RT).

It has a default workflow built in, but is easily configured for alternate workflows using the "Scrips" and templates. Very extensible if you want.

Ministrant answered 2/6, 2009 at 20:21 Comment(3)

+1, I've used this for a help desk. It offers transparency for the customers and if you have a staff willing to use the web interface to close the tickets, it works very well. I'm not very fond of Perl, but it works. – Selfindulgent 2/6, 2009 at 20:33

My company used this RT...it abandoned for Rational Clearquest. – Mistakable 2/6, 2009 at 22:51

What didn't your company like about RT? – Bastia 11/6, 2009 at 1:47

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OTRS, Cerberus

Latent answered 2/6, 2009 at 19:35 Comment(0)

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I like eTicket Support, is very simple to use and install.

Vocalize answered 2/6, 2009 at 19:44 Comment(0)

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It absolutely depens on what your goals are. The Bugzilla and Trac systems mentioned are nice but geared towards bug tracking, which is just very different from a tool you'd want to use in a helpdesk-type setup where end users would raise incidents.

If the latter is what you are looking for I'd suggest you take a look at OTRS which is a very capable trouble ticketing system. It also has ITSM extensions, which makes it able to support ITIL processes if you need to.

Sumach answered 3/6, 2009 at 7:18 Comment(1)

+1 Exactly right. Depends on what the goals are. I can recommend OTRS for end user helpdesk! – Rosy 3/6, 2009 at 7:43

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I recommend OTRS, its very easily customizable, and we also use it for hundreds of employees (University).

Kerbela answered 18/4, 2011 at 10:49 Comment(0)

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Howabout Bugzilla. Open source and what Mozilla uses.

Harlene answered 2/6, 2009 at 19:21 Comment(9)

bug tracking software != help desk system. – Whisky 2/6, 2009 at 19:23

Yes, I want a general help desk system, not a software bug tracking system... – Mistakable 2/6, 2009 at 19:25

Just because it has "bug" in the name it doesn't mean you can use it to track help desk issues. – Cranston 2/6, 2009 at 19:27

Whoever upvoted this should be ashamed. Shame on you. – Whisky 2/6, 2009 at 19:28

joel, joelonsoftware.com. has a number of blogs on using his bug tracker to manage help desk....and more. – Hoashis 2/6, 2009 at 19:36

The questioner asked for a Help ticket system, not a bug tracking solution. – Kong 13/7, 2009 at 0:55

bug tracking is functionally equivalent to ticket tracking – Stomatal 8/10, 2009 at 6:58

@Stomatal No it is not. Ticket tracking is essentially a public help desk. Bug tracking is internal bug tracking, not meant to be used for the public. – Sudatorium 26/11, 2013 at 7:27

@Sudatorium - conceptually, they are identical. Whether it's public or internal is irrelevant: it's the same concept :) – Stomatal 26/11, 2013 at 16:9

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Here are a couple that look pretty decent:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/smallhd/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/helpdeskcsharp/

Clavichord answered 2/6, 2009 at 19:23 Comment(2)

SmallHD is no longer under active development (as of 2005!) – Sawtelle 2/6, 2009 at 19:24

Still looks pretty good though :) – Clavichord 2/6, 2009 at 19:40

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TRAC. Open source, Python-based

Jambalaya answered 2/6, 2009 at 19:22 Comment(1)

It seems more oriented to software help desk system...I want a general one (which can be used for general things, not just software). – Mistakable 2/6, 2009 at 19:27

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