head to head · open source
Frappe Helpdesk vs rt
Frappe Helpdesk has 3,382 GitHub stars, 944 forks, 159 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rt has 1,157 stars, 298 forks, 82 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Frappe Helpdesk leads on adoption by 192% (3,382 vs 1,157 stars). Frappe Helpdesk is written in Vue under AGPL-3.0; rt is written in Perl under GPL-2.0. Frappe Helpdesk has attracted 28% as many forks as stars, rt 26%. Frappe Helpdesk was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (customer-support, helpdesk, issue-tracker), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Frappe Helpdesk | rt | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.4K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Vue | Perl |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 944 | ⑂ 298 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Frappe Helpdesk if
- You weight community size — 3.4K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Vue
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick rt if
- You want the rt feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Perl
- You evaluated both and rt fits your workflow better
About Frappe Helpdesk
Frappe Helpdesk is an open source ticketing system for customer support. It lives in the Frappe ecosystem, using the Frappe Framework in Python and JavaScript, the Frappe UI library, and Vue3. The project is licensed under AGPL 3.0 and provides agent and customer portals, issue tracking, knowledge base articles, SLAs, assignment rules, and saved replies.
read the full Frappe Helpdesk overview →
About rt
Request Tracker (RT) is an open source, enterprise grade issue and ticket tracking system written in Perl for organizations that need to track what needs to get done, who is working on which tasks, what has already been done, and when tasks were or were not completed.
More in Business Software
Related comparisons
More Customer Support & Success projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Customer Support & Success field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Frappe Helpdesk or rt more popular?
Frappe Helpdesk has 3,382 GitHub stars and rt has 1,157. Frappe Helpdesk has the larger community by that measure.
Are Frappe Helpdesk and rt free?
Both are open source. Frappe Helpdesk is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and rt under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Frappe Helpdesk and rt?
Frappe Helpdesk is written in Vue and rt in Perl. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Frappe Helpdesk or rt?
Choose Frappe Helpdesk if you want the larger community (3,382 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose rt if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.