Explore Zammad's open-source helpdesk platform: multichannel ticketing, automation, AI features, self-hosted vs cloud pricing, and how it stacks up.
Zammad is an open-source, web-based helpdesk and customer support ticketing system founded in Berlin in 2016 by Martin Edenhofer, previously a contributor to the OTRS ticketing project. Its name is Bavarian for together, reflecting its focus on collaborative support workflows across support agents, customers, and the open-source community.
The platform is available both as a free, self-hosted open-source edition and as a hosted cloud service run by Zammad GmbH from German data centers, giving organizations a choice between full infrastructure control and a managed, GDPR-friendly hosted option.
Zammad centers on unifying support requests from multiple channels, including email, web forms, SMS, chat, and social platforms, into a single ticketing interface with automation, SLAs, and reporting.
Zammad handles ticketing across email, web forms, SMS, and, on higher tiers, chat, Telegram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, giving support teams one interface for multichannel conversations. Triggers, macros, and schedulers automate routine ticket handling and routing.
Higher hosted tiers add SLA management, custom ticket objects, role-based permissions, and both monolingual and multilingual knowledge bases, along with Elasticsearch-powered search and reporting accessible via Grafana.
Optional AI features, including automatic language detection and AI-assisted reply suggestions, are available for an additional per-call fee, while a REST API and native integrations with Slack, GitHub, and GitLab support deeper workflow automation.
The self-hosted, open-source edition of Zammad is free to download and run on your own servers, with no license fee, though organizations are responsible for their own hosting, backups, and updates.
Hosted cloud plans start with Starter v2 at roughly EUR 7 per agent per month (annual billing) for up to five agents, scaling to Professional v2 at roughly EUR 16 to 18 per agent per month for up to 35 agents, and Plus v2 at roughly EUR 25 to 27 per agent per month for unlimited agents, each unlocking more channels and features.
Organizations that self-host but want vendor support can buy annual support contracts, Business, Enterprise, or Corporation, priced from about EUR 2,999 to EUR 9,999 per year, which include a set number of service requests and tiered response-time guarantees; optional AI features are billed separately per call.
Yes, the self-hosted, open-source edition of Zammad is free to download and run on your own servers.
Self-hosted Zammad runs on your own infrastructure at no license cost, while hosted Zammad is a paid subscription run on Zammad's German-based servers.
Zammad's hosted cloud plans store data exclusively in German data centers, which are ISO27001-certified.
Optional AI features are billed separately at roughly EUR 0.03 per AI call, in addition to the base subscription.
Yes, Zammad supports migration from other ticketing systems, including OTRS, and its open API supports custom data imports.
Email, web forms, SMS, chat, Telegram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, depending on the plan.
Yes, phone support is available starting with the Plus v2 hosted plan.
Hosted plans cap agents at 5 on Starter v2 and 35 on Professional v2, while Plus v2 and the self-hosted edition support unlimited agents.