OpenSupports vs Peppermint
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted helpdesk & ticketing options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Peppermint
Archived
Open-source ticket management and helpdesk
| Feature | OpenSupports | Peppermint |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 14 · At risk | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Helpdesk & Ticketing | Helpdesk & Ticketing |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,038 | ★ 3,162 |
| First released | 2016 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Zendesk, Freshdesk | Zendesk, Jira Service Management |
What are OpenSupports and Peppermint?
OpenSupports
OpenSupports is an open-source customer support ticket system that lets users submit and track support requests through a web portal. Staff manage tickets with departments, custom responses, and statistics.
- Customer support portal
- Department-based routing
- Custom responses
- Ticket statistics
Peppermint
Peppermint is an open-source ticket management system and helpdesk. It offers a modern interface for managing customer issues, internal tasks, and a knowledge base.
- Ticket and task management
- Email-to-ticket support
- Documentation and notebooks
- Modern responsive UI
OpenSupports vs Peppermint: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Peppermint's repository is archived and no longer developed, while OpenSupports is actively maintained. OpenSupports is written in JavaScript, while Peppermint is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for OpenSupports versus AGPL-3.0 for Peppermint. OpenSupports is the more established project (first released 2016), while Peppermint arrived in 2021. Peppermint has the considerably larger community, at 3,162 GitHub stars versus 1,038.
Why pick each one
Choose OpenSupports if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
Choose Peppermint if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenSupports or Peppermint better?
Neither is universally better. Peppermint has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are OpenSupports and Peppermint free and open-source?
Yes. OpenSupports is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Peppermint under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run OpenSupports and Peppermint with Docker?
OpenSupports: yes. Peppermint: yes.