head to head · open source
Zammad vs Frappe Helpdesk
Zammad has 5,924 GitHub stars, 1,056 forks, 451 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Frappe Helpdesk has 3,382 stars, 944 forks, 159 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zammad leads on adoption by 75% (5,924 vs 3,382 stars). Zammad is written in Ruby under AGPL-3.0; Frappe Helpdesk is written in Vue under AGPL-3.0. Zammad has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, Frappe Helpdesk 28%. Zammad was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 5 topic tags (customer-support, helpdesk, javascript, ticketing), 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
| Zammad | Frappe Helpdesk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 5.9K | ★ 3.4K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | Vue |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 944 |
| 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 Frappe Helpdesk if
- You want the Frappe Helpdesk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Vue
- You evaluated both and Frappe Helpdesk 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 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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zammad or Frappe Helpdesk more popular?
Zammad has 5,924 GitHub stars and Frappe Helpdesk has 3,382. Zammad has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zammad and Frappe Helpdesk free?
Both are open source. Zammad is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Frappe Helpdesk under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zammad and Frappe Helpdesk?
Zammad is written in Ruby and Frappe Helpdesk in Vue. 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 Frappe Helpdesk?
Choose Zammad if you want the larger community (5,924 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Frappe Helpdesk if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.