What is Zammad used for?

Zammad is an open-source helpdesk for support teams that gathers email, chat, phone and social media requests into one ticket system. It is a good fit for customer support ticketing, internal IT helpdesk and shared team inbox for support.

Is Zammad open source?

Yes. Zammad is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at zammad/zammad and is written mainly in Ruby.

Yes. Zammad is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.

Can I self-host Zammad?

Yes. Zammad can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Zammad an alternative to?

Zammad is an open-source alternative to Zendesk, Help Scout, Freshservice and Freshdesk. Other open-source alternatives to Zendesk include Libredesk, Chatwoot and Frappe Helpdesk.

Is Zammad actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Zammad was on 2 October 2026. The project has 6k stars on GitHub.

Zammad: open-source alternative to Zendesk, Help Scout

About Zammad

Zammad is a browser-based helpdesk and customer support platform. Support teams use it to manage inquiries that arrive through email, chat, telephone and social media channels in a single ticket system, so conversations stay organized and the whole team can see what is happening.

The README stresses that the software is and will stay open source under the GNU AGPLv3. Ownership of the source code sits with the Zammad Foundation, an entity separate from commercial providers like Zammad GmbH, the company whose team does much of the development. The technology stack includes Ruby on Rails, GraphQL, TypeScript and Vue.

You can self-host Zammad on your own servers or buy hosting and support from the company behind it. It suits customer support, IT helpdesk and service teams that want an open-source ticketing system with multichannel support and control over where their data lives.

Key features

Multichannel tickets from email and chat
Telephone and social media channels
Web-based agent interface
GraphQL API and Vue front end
Independent Zammad Foundation owns the code
Self-hosted or vendor-hosted deployment

Good fit for

→Customer support ticketing
→Internal IT helpdesk
→Shared team inbox for support

Built with: Ruby; JavaScript; Rails; GraphQL; TypeScript; Vue
Tags: helpdesk; ticketing; customer-support; ruby-on-rails; self-hosted; agplv3; multichannel

Zammad: questions and answers

What is Zammad used for?: Zammad is an open-source helpdesk for support teams that gathers email, chat, phone and social media requests into one ticket system. It is a good fit for customer support ticketing, internal IT helpdesk and shared team inbox for support.
Is Zammad open source?: Yes. Zammad is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at zammad/zammad and is written mainly in Ruby.
Is Zammad free?: Yes. Zammad is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.
Can I self-host Zammad?: Yes. Zammad can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Zammad an alternative to?: Zammad is an open-source alternative to Zendesk, Help Scout, Freshservice and Freshdesk. Other open-source alternatives to Zendesk include Libredesk, Chatwoot and Frappe Helpdesk.
Is Zammad actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Zammad was on 2 October 2026. The project has 6k stars on GitHub.