Best open source help desk: Zendesk & Help Scout alternative

Features

FreeScout is the perfect help desk solution for those who need to provide a professional customer support, but who can not afford to pay for Zendesk or Help Scout. FreeScout is a pure open source PHP/MySQL application, so it can be easily deployed even on a shared hosting.

Unlimited support agents, tickets, mailboxes, etc.
100% Mobile-friendly.
Multilingual: English, Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian.
Seamless email integration.
Suppports modern Microsoft Exchange authentication.
Fully supports screen readers (for visually impaired).
Built with strong focus on security.
Web installer.
Starred conversations.
Push notifications.
Following a conversation.
Auto replies.
Internal notes.
Forwarding conversations.
Merging conversations.
Moving conversations between mailboxes.
Phone conversations.
Sending conversations to multiple recipients at once.
Collision detection – notice is shown when two agents open the same conversation.
Automatic refreshing of the conversations list without the need to reload the page.
Pasting screenshots from the clipboard into the reply area.
Flexible notifications for user agents.
Open tracking.
Search.
Saved replies.
Email commands.
Satisfaction Ratings.
Tags.
Spam filter.
LDAP integration.
Kanban boards.
Keyboard shortcuts.
Mentions.
Slack integration.
WhatsApp integration.
Facebook Integration.
Telegram Integration.
Translating tickets.
End-User Portal.
Knowledge Base.
Live chat.
SMS tickets via Twilio.
Time tracking.
Custom fields.
White-labeling.
Custom folders.
Workflows & SLA.
SMS notifications.
Telegram notifications.
Rocket.Chat Notifications.
Real-time reports.
CRM.
Customer Data Enrichment.
WooCommerce Integration.
Easy Digital Downloads Integration.
S/MIME & PGP.
GDPR ready.
API.
Webhooks.
Custom Homepage.
Export Conversations.
Out of Office.
SAML SSO.
User fields.
Jira Integration.
Auto login from email notificaitons.
Teams.
Snooze conversation.
Move or remove IMAP message.
Custom mailbox signatures.
Checklists.
Send reply & close ticket.
Embed images into outgoing emails.
Dark mode.
OAuth & social login for support agents.
Faster search using Meilisearch.
Mailbox icons.
Sticky notes.
IP restriction and reCAPTCHA.
Wallboards.

Connect FreeScout to anything using Zapier or Make.

Migrate to FreeScout from any help desk.

Mobile apps support the same functionality and modules as the web version of your FreeScout installation. Both support agents and administrators can use mobile apps.

MacOS Menu Bar App

Need anything else?

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FreeScout has been a game changer for my business, I am surprised so many businesses aren’t using it. Especially since it’s so easily expandable and customizable. I have a custom Twilio integrated support form now, no other platform was able to do this so easily.

August 28, 2025

Best Open Source Helpdesk & Shared Mailbox

Free self-hosted Zendesk & Help Scout alternative

FreeScout Help Desk

What People Say About FreeScout

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Pierrick Le Gall