head to head · open source
Zammad vs libredesk
Zammad has 5,924 GitHub stars, 1,056 forks, 451 open issues and last shipped yesterday. libredesk has 2,940 stars, 277 forks, 87 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zammad leads on adoption by 101% (5,924 vs 2,940 stars). Zammad is written in Ruby under AGPL-3.0; libredesk is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. Zammad has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, libredesk 9%. libredesk 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
| Zammad | libredesk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 5.9K | ★ 2.9K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 277 |
| 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 libredesk if
- You want the libredesk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and libredesk 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 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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zammad or libredesk more popular?
Zammad has 5,924 GitHub stars and libredesk has 2,940. Zammad has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zammad and libredesk free?
Both are open source. Zammad is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and libredesk under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zammad and libredesk?
Zammad is written in Ruby and libredesk in Go. 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 libredesk?
Choose Zammad if you want the larger community (5,924 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose libredesk if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.