FreeScout
Email-based customer support application, help desk and shared mailbox (alternative to Zendesk and Help Scout).
Description from awesome-selfhosted (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Still maintained? Yes: 315 commits in the last 90 days, latest release 1.8.248 (Oct 2026).
Also an alternative to Zendesk and Intercom.
Read the comparison: Chatwoot vs Zammad vs FreeScout: Help Desks for Small Teams
At a glance
FreeScout quick facts
- Health score
- 95/100 GOOD
- Stars
- 4,624
- Last commit
- today (Oct 2026)
- Latest release
- 1.8.248, Oct 2026
- Licence
- AGPL-3.0
Top alternatives to FreeScout
Full rankings: Zendesk alternatives, Intercom alternatives
In its own words
The project's README opens: "FreeScout is the super lightweight and powerful free open source help desk and shared inbox built with PHP (Laravel framework). Now you can enjoy free Zendesk & Help Scout without giving up privacy or locking yourself into a service you don't control. FreeScout has been developed from scratch and does not use any copyrighted Help Scout or Zendesk materials."
Why it ranks here
Health score explained
FreeScout scores 95/100, #2 of 22 in Ticketing: 315 commits in the last 90 days earn 35.0 of 35 points, the latest release (1.8.248, 13 days ago) earns 25.0 of 25, 4,624 stars add 14.7 of 20, an active, unarchived repository keeps 10 and Docker support adds the final 10. That places it in the good band (70 and above). The biggest shortfall is star count, worth 5.3 more points.
Recomputed nightly from the GitHub API. How the score is calculated.
- Commit activity 35.0 / 35
315 commits in 90 days (30+ scores full marks)
- Release recency 25.0 / 25
1.8.248 released 13 days ago
- Stars biggest shortfall 14.7 / 20
4.6k stars on GitHub (logarithmic)
- Not archived 10.0 / 10
Repository is active
- Docker support 10.0 / 10
Docker image or Compose file available
Commit activity
- 315
- Last 90 days
- 805
- Last 12 months
- today
- Last push
Ranked #2 of 22 tools in Ticketing by health , between Forgejo (#1) and Erxes (#3) .
Details
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 |
| Platforms | PHP, Docker |
| Latest release | 1.8.248 · 13 days ago |
| Stars | 4,624 |
| Open issues | 34 |
| Docker | Yes |
| Repository | freescout-help-desk/freescout ↗ |
FreeScout vs its top 5 alternatives
Active tools that share a comparison page or a category with FreeScout (Ticketing), scored on the same five terms.
| Tool | Health | Stars | Licence | Last commit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chatwoot | 98 | 39k | ⊘ Proprietary | today |
| FreeScout (this tool) | 95 | 4.6k | AGPL-3.0 | today |
| Erxes | 94 | 4.1k | AGPL-3.0 | today |
| Request Tracker | 82 | 1.2k | GPL-2.0 | today |
| Tiledesk | 70 | 325 | MIT | 2 days ago |
| Zammad | 60 | 6.1k | AGPL-3.0 | today |
FreeScout: common questions
What does FreeScout replace?
Repoly lists FreeScout as an open-source alternative to Zendesk and Intercom. Each comparison page ranks every alternative by the same health score, so you can see where FreeScout stands against the others.
Is FreeScout still maintained?
FreeScout had 315 commits in the last 90 days and its last push was today; the latest tagged release, 1.8.248, is from 13 days ago. Repoly recomputes this nightly.
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