head to head · open source
Freescout vs Hyvor Relay
Freescout has 4,541 GitHub stars, 717 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Hyvor Relay has 897 stars, 63 forks, 56 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Freescout leads on adoption by 406% (4,541 vs 897 stars). Freescout is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0; Hyvor Relay is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0. Freescout has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, Hyvor Relay 7%. Hyvor Relay was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Freescout | Hyvor Relay | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 4.5K | ★ 897 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 717 | ⑂ 63 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Freescout if
- You weight community size — 4.5K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Hyvor Relay if
- You want the Hyvor Relay feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Hyvor Relay fits your workflow better
About Freescout
FreeScout is an open source helpdesk and shared inbox for customer support teams. It lives in the PHP and Laravel ecosystem and is licensed under AGPL 3.0. The project presents itself as a free self hosted alternative to Zendesk and Help Scout, and its topics place it among helpdesk ticketing systems and OSTicket alternatives.
read the full Freescout overview →
About Hyvor Relay
Hyvor Relay is an open source email API aimed at developers, written primarily in PHP with Symfony for the API backend and Go for the email workers, webhook handlers, DNS server, and incoming SMTP server. The frontend is built with SvelteKit and the Hyvor Design System, and PostgreSQL serves both as the database and as the queue. It lives in the PHP and Go ecosystems, is licensed under AGPL 3.0, and is positioned as a cloud and self hosted alternative to SES, Mailgun, and SendGrid.
read the full Hyvor Relay overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Freescout or Hyvor Relay more popular?
Freescout has 4,541 GitHub stars and Hyvor Relay has 897. Freescout has the larger community by that measure.
Are Freescout and Hyvor Relay free?
Both are open source. Freescout is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Hyvor Relay under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Freescout and Hyvor Relay?
Freescout is written in PHP and Hyvor Relay in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Freescout or Hyvor Relay?
Choose Freescout if you want the larger community (4,541 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Hyvor Relay if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.