Top pick · highest health
Chatwoot
Customer communication platform (alternative to Intercom and Zendesk).
DockerRubyK8S
Ticketing
Open source alternatives to Zendesk
Zendesk is a hosted help desk priced per agent; these tools put tickets, shared inboxes and customer messaging on your own server. FreeScout, Request Tracker, Zammad and UVDesk are help desk and ticketing systems, while Chatwoot and Tiledesk are broader customer communication platforms. Our data lists Chatwoot's licence as proprietary, so read its terms before you build on it.
Read the comparison: Chatwoot vs Zammad vs FreeScout: Help Desks for Small Teams
updated Oct 2026 6 alternatives best health 98 ★ 70k combined 1,904 commits / 90d 3 with Docker
Top picks to replace Zendesk
Showing 6 of 6 tools
All 6 Zendesk alternatives, ranked by health
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FreeScout
Email-based customer support application, help desk and shared mailbox (alternative to Zendesk and Help Scout).
DockerPHP -
Request Tracker
Enterprise-grade issue tracking system.
Perl -
Tiledesk
All-in-one customer engagement platform from lead-gen to post-sales, from WhatsApp to your website. With omni-channel live agents and AI-powered chatbots (alternative to Intercom, Zendesk, Tawk.to and Tidio).
DockerK8S -
Zammad
Easy to use but powerful support and ticketing system.
Rubydeb -
UVDesk
UVDesk community is a service oriented, event driven extensible opensource helpdesk system that can be used by your organization to provide efficient support to your clients effortlessly whichever way you imagine.
PHP
Zendesk alternatives compared
We track 6 open-source Zendesk alternatives, of which 4 currently score 70 or above on Repoly's GitHub health scale and 3 ship a Docker image. Chatwoot leads on health at 98/100 with 475 commits in the last 90 days; across all 6 projects you are choosing between AGPL-3.0, GPL-2.0, MIT and 1 other licences.
Chatwoot edges FreeScout 98 to 95, and most of the difference is stars: 39k stars against 4.6k stars.
The most recent release is Request Tracker rt-6.0.4, published yesterday. Zammad publishes no tagged releases, which costs up to 25 of the 100 points. None of the measured options scores under 40. By stack, PHP (2), Ruby (2) and Perl (1) are the most common. Tiledesk and UVDesk are permissively licensed; FreeScout, Request Tracker and Zammad are copyleft. Chatwoot is source-available rather than open source, which limits commercial reuse.
4 of these 6 also appear among the Intercom alternatives; Request Tracker and UVDesk are specific to Zendesk.
| Tool | Health | Stars | Last commit | Licence | Self-hosting | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chatwoot Steady at 98 since 11 Sep | 98 | 39k | today | ⊘ Proprietary | Docker image | Long-term use: health 98/100 |
| FreeScout Steady at 95 since 11 Sep | 95 | 4.6k | today | AGPL-3.0 | Docker image | Quick setup: ships a Docker image |
| Request Tracker Steady at 82 since 11 Sep | 82 | 1.2k | today | GPL-2.0 | Manual (Perl) | Fresh releases: rt-6.0.4, yesterday |
| Tiledesk Up 32 points since 11 Sep | 70 | 325 | 2 days ago | MIT | Docker image | Commercial reuse: MIT licence |
| Zammad Steady at 60 since 11 Sep, no tagged release | 60 | 6.1k | today | AGPL-3.0 | Manual (Ruby) | Fast development: 799 commits in 90 days |
| UVDesk | 49 | 20k | 23 days ago | MIT | Manual (PHP) | Community size: 20k stars |
How to choose a Zendesk alternative
- Want the project most likely to keep shipping? Start with Chatwoot: health 98/100 and 475 commits in the last 90 days.
- Building it into a commercial product? Chatwoot is listed as proprietary; Tiledesk (MIT, health 70) lets you modify and ship it without publishing your changes.
- Want the quickest install? Chatwoot, FreeScout and Tiledesk ship a Docker image; the others install by hand on their own stack.
- Planning to patch or extend it? Match your stack: PHP (FreeScout and UVDesk), Ruby (Chatwoot and Zammad), Perl (Request Tracker).
- The score measures maintenance, not features: shortlist two and try them with your own data before you migrate.
Zendesk alternatives: common questions
Is there an open source Zendesk alternative on GitHub?
Yes. 6 of the 6 Zendesk alternatives we track are on GitHub, led by Chatwoot (github.com/chatwoot/chatwoot, health 98/100, 39k stars) and FreeScout (github.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout, health 95/100). Each tool page links its repository and shows the health score we recompute from it every night.
What is the most maintained open source alternative to Zendesk?
Chatwoot scores highest at 98/100, with 475 commits in the last 90 days, 39k stars on GitHub and its latest release (v4.19.1) published 6 days ago. Zammad has the most raw commit activity at 799 commits in 90 days.
Which Zendesk alternatives run in Docker?
3 of 6 publish a Docker image or Compose file: Chatwoot, FreeScout, Tiledesk. Docker support contributes 10 of the 100 available health points, because it is the clearest signal that self-hosting is a supported path rather than an afterthought.
Is Chatwoot or FreeScout the better Zendesk alternative?
On measured health Chatwoot leads, 98 to 95. Chatwoot has 475 commits in 90 days, 39k stars and v4.19.1 from 6 days ago; FreeScout has 315 commits in 90 days, 4.6k stars and 1.8.248 from 13 days ago. Chatwoot is ahead or level on every term Repoly measures.
Which Zendesk alternatives use a permissive licence?
2 of 6 are permissively licensed (MIT, Apache, BSD or similar): Tiledesk (MIT), UVDesk (MIT). 3 use copyleft licences such as GPL or AGPL, which require you to publish changes if you distribute a modified version.
