head to head · open source
glpi vs Zammad
glpi has 6,357 GitHub stars, 1,817 forks, 458 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zammad has 5,924 stars, 1,056 forks, 451 open issues and last shipped yesterday. glpi leads on adoption by 7% (6,357 vs 5,924 stars). glpi is written in PHP under GPL-3.0; Zammad is written in Ruby under AGPL-3.0. glpi has attracted 29% as many forks as stars, Zammad 18%. Zammad was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (helpdesk), 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.
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Side by side
| glpi | Zammad | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.4K | ★ 5.9K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick glpi if
- You weight community size — 6.4K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Zammad if
- You want the Zammad feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and Zammad fits your workflow better
About glpi
GLPI stands for Gestionnaire Libre de Parc Informatique. It is a Free Asset and IT Management software package that provides ITIL Service Desk features, licenses tracking and software auditing. The project is written in PHP, distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL 3.0), and it lives in the IT asset management and ITIL service management ecosystem, alongside the CMDB, DCIM and ITAM tooling described in its topic list.
About Zammad
Zammad is a web based, open source helpdesk and customer support platform, released under the GNU AGPLv3 and written primarily in Ruby on the Rails framework. The source code lives on GitHub and is owned by the Zammad Foundation, an entity that the README describes as independent of commercial providers such as Zammad GmbH. Development is carried out by the team at Zammad GmbH together with the community, and the project states that the software is and will stay open source.
read the full Zammad overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is glpi or Zammad more popular?
glpi has 6,357 GitHub stars and Zammad has 5,924. glpi has the larger community by that measure.
Are glpi and Zammad free?
Both are open source. glpi is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Zammad under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between glpi and Zammad?
glpi is written in PHP and Zammad in Ruby. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, glpi or Zammad?
Choose glpi if you want the larger community (6,357 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Zammad if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.