osTicket
Help desk software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
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$12 per agent per month
Free TrialFree version
Small
Medium
Large
- Information technology and software
- Education and training
- Public sector and nonprofit organizations
What is osTicket
osTicket is an open-source help desk and ticketing system used to manage customer support requests across email, web forms, and an end-user portal. It is typically deployed by small to mid-sized IT and customer service teams that want to self-host and control their support workflow. The product focuses on core ticket lifecycle management (queues, SLAs, assignments, canned responses) with a traditional web-based admin interface. It is commonly adopted where licensing cost sensitivity and on-premises deployment requirements are priorities.
Self-hosted, open-source option
osTicket can be deployed on an organization’s own infrastructure, which supports internal control over data residency and security configurations. The open-source model reduces recurring subscription costs compared with many commercial help desk suites. Teams can also modify the codebase to fit specific workflow or UI requirements. This is useful for organizations that cannot use multi-tenant SaaS for policy or compliance reasons.
Solid core ticketing features
The platform supports ticket intake from multiple channels such as email piping/IMAP/POP and web forms, plus an end-user portal. It includes common service desk functions like ticket queues, assignment and escalation rules, SLAs, canned responses, and internal notes. These capabilities cover many baseline help desk processes without requiring additional modules. For straightforward support operations, it can function as a primary ticket system.
Custom fields and workflows
osTicket provides configurable forms and custom fields to capture structured data at ticket creation and during updates. Admins can define departments, teams, and routing rules to align tickets with internal responsibilities. This supports consistent categorization and reporting inputs across agents. The configuration model is practical for organizations with multiple request types and approval or triage steps.
Limited modern omnichannel support
Out of the box, osTicket centers on email and web portal workflows rather than deeply integrated chat, social messaging, or voice. Organizations that need unified omnichannel routing and conversation history may require third-party integrations or custom development. This can increase implementation effort and ongoing maintenance. It may be less suitable for high-volume customer support teams that rely on real-time channels.
Reporting and analytics constraints
Built-in reporting is generally oriented toward operational ticket metrics and may not meet advanced analytics needs. Teams often need exports, custom queries, or external BI tooling for deeper trend analysis and executive dashboards. Compared with broader business suites, cross-functional reporting (e.g., tying support to sales or billing data) typically requires integration work. This can be a limitation for organizations standardizing on unified CRM/PSA reporting.
Administration and upgrades require effort
Because it is commonly self-hosted, the organization is responsible for server setup, backups, patching, and upgrades. Customizations can complicate version upgrades and increase regression testing needs. Operational ownership (monitoring, email deliverability, security hardening) usually falls on internal IT. This can be a barrier for teams that prefer fully managed SaaS operations.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| Open Source (self-hosted) | Free | Downloadable open-source edition (core osTicket); community support; self-managed (no managed upgrades/backups/support). |
| Cloud-hosted (hosted via SupportSystem) | Starting at $12 per agent/month | Managed hosting, daily backups, upgrade management, phone & email support; "Try it free for 30-days" advertised. |
| Virtual Appliance (on-premise appliance) | Contact for pricing (custom) | Pre-configured appliance for on-prem/VM deployments; tailored/security-hardened — request a quote. |
| Premium Business Support (commercial support) | $12,500 per year | Unlimited phone & email support (1:00 am–5:00 pm US Central), 12-hour guaranteed response. |
| Enterprise On-Call Support (commercial support) | $25,000 per year | 24/7 on-call developer support, hosting infrastructure support, 6-hour guaranteed response. |
Seller details
Enhancesoft
Los Angeles, California, United States
2003
Private
https://osticket.com/
https://x.com/osticket
https://www.linkedin.com/company/enhancesoft
