SHSelfHostIndex

Handesk vs OTOBO

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted helpdesk & ticketing options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
HA Handesk Laravel help desk and lead management application VS OT OTOBO Enterprise ticket system and service management
FeatureHandeskOTOBO
CategoryHelpdesk & TicketingHelpdesk & Ticketing
LicenseMITGPL-3.0
LanguagePHPPerl
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM512 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, sourcedocker, bare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 1,450★ 334
First released20182019
ReplacesZendesk, FreshdeskServiceNow, Zendesk

Why pick each one

Choose Handesk if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Active community (1.4k GitHub stars)
  • Written in PHP
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Handesk details

Choose OTOBO if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in Perl
OTOBO details

Frequently asked questions

Is Handesk or OTOBO better?

Handesk is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider OTOBO if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Handesk and OTOBO free and open-source?

Yes. Handesk is licensed under MIT and OTOBO under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Handesk and OTOBO with Docker?

Handesk: check the project docs for container support. OTOBO: yes.

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