head to head · open source
Zammad vs iTop
Zammad has 6,067 GitHub stars, 1,093 forks, 451 open issues and last shipped yesterday. iTop has 1,215 stars, 304 forks, 63 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zammad leads on adoption by 399% (6,067 vs 1,215 stars). Zammad is written in Ruby under AGPL-3.0; iTop is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0. Zammad has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, iTop 25%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Zammad | iTop | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.1K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 304 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Zammad if
- You weight community size — 6.1K 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 iTop if
- You want the iTop 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 iTop fits your workflow better
About Zammad
Welcome to Zammad Are you juggling countless customer inquiries across multiple channels? Struggling to keep your support team on the same page? Or spending more time managing your helpdesk than delivering exceptional support to your customers? Zammad is your Swiss Army knife a web based, open source helpdesk and customer support platform packed with features to streamline customer communication across channels like email, chat, telephone and social media. The Software The Zammad software is and will stay open source. It is licensed under the GNU AGPLv3. The source code is available on GitHub and owned by the…
read the full Zammad overview →
About iTop
iTop stands for IT Operations Portal. It is a complete open source and web based IT service management platform, including a fully customizable CMDB, a helpdesk system, and a document management tool. It is ITIL compliant and easily customizable and extensible thanks to a high number of add ons and web services to integrate with your IT. iTop also offers mass import tools to help you become even more efficient. Features Fully configurable [Configuration Management (CMDB)][10] [HelpDesk][11] and Incident Management [Service and Contract Management][12] [Change][13] Management Configurable [SLA][14] Management…
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 iTop more popular?
Zammad has 6,067 GitHub stars and iTop has 1,215. Zammad has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zammad and iTop free?
Both are open source. Zammad is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and iTop under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zammad and iTop?
Zammad is written in Ruby and iTop 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, Zammad or iTop?
Choose Zammad if you want the larger community (6,067 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose iTop if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.