head to head · open source
libredesk vs rt
libredesk has 2,982 GitHub stars, 289 forks, 87 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. rt has 1,162 stars, 298 forks, 82 open issues and last shipped yesterday. libredesk leads on adoption by 157% (2,982 vs 1,162 stars). libredesk is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; rt is written in Perl under GPL-2.0. libredesk has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, rt 26%. rt was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (customer-support, 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
| libredesk | rt | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.0K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Perl |
| Last push | 2026-09-28 | 2026-09-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 289 | ⑂ 298 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick libredesk if
- You weight community size — 3.0K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- 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 libredesk
Libredesk is an open source, self hosted customer support desk written in Go under AGPL 3.0. It is a lightweight alternative to Intercom, Zendesk, and Chatwoot, and it puts live chat, email, and support workflows into a single binary. It lives in the open source Go customer support ecosystem.
read the full libredesk 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.
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Frequently asked questions
Is libredesk or rt more popular?
libredesk has 2,982 GitHub stars and rt has 1,162. libredesk has the larger community by that measure.
Are libredesk and rt free?
Both are open source. libredesk is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and rt under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between libredesk and rt?
libredesk is written in Go 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, libredesk or rt?
Choose libredesk if you want the larger community (2,982 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.