head to head · open source
Zammad vs Chaskiq
Zammad has 5,924 GitHub stars, 1,056 forks, 451 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Chaskiq has 3,570 stars, 509 forks, 82 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Zammad leads on adoption by 66% (5,924 vs 3,570 stars). Zammad is written in Ruby under AGPL-3.0; Chaskiq is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. Zammad has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, Chaskiq 14%. Zammad was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (graphql, 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Zammad | Chaskiq | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 5.9K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-06-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 509 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Zammad if
- You weight community size — 5.9K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Chaskiq if
- You want the Chaskiq feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Chaskiq fits your workflow better
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 →
About Chaskiq
Chaskiq is an open source customer communication platform for live chat, support, marketing, and sales messaging. It provides a web messenger, agent conversations, bots, campaigns, help center articles, and integrations in one self hosted application. The project lives in the open source customer support and messenger ecosystem, and the README describes it as an alternative to Intercom, Drift, and Crisp.
read the full Chaskiq overview →
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 Zammad or Chaskiq more popular?
Zammad has 5,924 GitHub stars and Chaskiq has 3,570. Zammad has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zammad and Chaskiq free?
Both are open source. Zammad is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and Chaskiq has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Zammad and Chaskiq?
Zammad is written in Ruby and Chaskiq in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Zammad or Chaskiq?
Choose Zammad if you want the larger community (5,924 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Chaskiq if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.