What is the best open source help ticket system?

Question

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.

This depends strongly on your needs, there is no simple answer. — Dirk Vollmar, Jun 02 '09 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. — , Jun 02 '09 at 19:43
I guess this is a [duplicate question](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/114007/free-supportticket-software). — fglez, Jun 03 '09 at 07:51

score 9 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 02 '09 at 19:32

9

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.

edited Jun 02 '09 at 19:32

Dirk Vollmar

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answered Jun 02 '09 at 19:31

krubo

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Yeah, this seem to be a pretty compelling list...thanks. – Jun 02 '09 at 19:45
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-1: The question was asking about customer support ticket tracking, not source code management. – Mark Renouf Jun 02 '09 at 19:54
@Mark: You're right. I must've just been eager to vote for Trac. – krubo Jun 02 '09 at 20:13
It will be used internally, among departments (not externally in relationship with other clients). – Jun 02 '09 at 20:15
The questioner asked for a Help ticket system, not a bug tracking solution. – Ibn Saeed Jul 13 '09 at 00:55
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There's a nice list here http://helpdeskreviews.com/open-source-helpdesks.php – Serge Shultz Jul 08 '14 at 13:30

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 02 '09 at 20:21

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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.

answered Jun 02 '09 at 20:21

freiheit

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+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. – Andrioid Jun 02 '09 at 20:33
My company used this RT...it abandoned for Rational Clearquest. – Jun 02 '09 at 22:51
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What didn't your company like about RT? – Joe Casadonte Jun 11 '09 at 01:47

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 02 '09 at 19:35

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OTRS, Cerberus

answered Jun 02 '09 at 19:35

yanchenko

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score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 02 '09 at 19:44

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

answered Jun 02 '09 at 19:44

Jorge Zuanon

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score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 03 '09 at 07:18

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.

+1 Exactly right. Depends on what the goals are. I can recommend OTRS for end user helpdesk! — Lennart Koopmann, Jun 03 '09 at 07:43

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 18 '11 at 10:49

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

answered Apr 18 '11 at 10:49

Cninroh

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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 02 '09 at 19:21

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Howabout Bugzilla. Open source and what Mozilla uses.

answered Jun 02 '09 at 19:21

CookieOfFortune

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bug tracking software != help desk system. – belgariontheking Jun 02 '09 at 19:23
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Yes, I want a general help desk system, not a software bug tracking system... – Jun 02 '09 at 19:25
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Just because it has "bug" in the name it doesn't mean you can use it to track help desk issues. – Dirk Vollmar Jun 02 '09 at 19:27
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Whoever upvoted this should be ashamed. Shame on you. – belgariontheking Jun 02 '09 at 19:28
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joel, joelonsoftware.com. has a number of blogs on using his bug tracker to manage help desk....and more. – kenny Jun 02 '09 at 19:36
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The questioner asked for a Help ticket system, not a bug tracking solution. – Ibn Saeed Jul 13 '09 at 00:55
bug tracking is functionally equivalent to ticket tracking – warren Oct 08 '09 at 06:58
@warren 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. – leetNightshade Nov 26 '13 at 07:27
@leetNightshade - *conceptually*, they **are** identical. Whether it's public or internal is irrelevant: it's the same concept :) – warren Nov 26 '13 at 16:09

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 02 '09 at 19:23

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Here are a couple that look pretty decent:

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

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

answered Jun 02 '09 at 19:23

jgallant

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SmallHD is no longer under active development (as of 2005!) – Brian Agnew Jun 02 '09 at 19:24
Still looks pretty good though :) – jgallant Jun 02 '09 at 19:40

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jun 02 '09 at 19:22

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TRAC. Open source, Python-based

answered Jun 02 '09 at 19:22

Dan McClain

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It seems more oriented to software help desk system...I want a general one (which can be used for general things, not just software). – Jun 02 '09 at 19:27

What is the best open source help ticket system?

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