Peppermint vs Trudesk
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
VS
Trudesk
Open-source helpdesk and ticketing for small teams
| Feature | Peppermint | Trudesk |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 15 · At risk | 55 · Fair |
| Status | Archived | Actively maintained |
| Category | Helpdesk & Ticketing | Helpdesk & Ticketing |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,162 | ★ 1,496 |
| First released | 2021 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Zendesk, Jira Service Management | Zendesk, Freshdesk |
What are Peppermint and Trudesk?
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
Trudesk
Trudesk is an open-source help desk and ticket management system. It provides a kanban-style ticket board, knowledge base, and real-time messaging built on Node.js.
- Kanban ticket board
- Built-in knowledge base
- Real-time chat and notices
- Mobile-friendly UI
Peppermint vs Trudesk: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Peppermint's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Trudesk is actively maintained. Peppermint is written in TypeScript, while Trudesk is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Peppermint versus Apache-2.0 for Trudesk. Trudesk 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 1,496.
Why pick each one
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
Choose Trudesk if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.5k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Peppermint or Trudesk 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 Peppermint and Trudesk free and open-source?
Yes. Peppermint is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Trudesk under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Peppermint and Trudesk with Docker?
Peppermint: yes. Trudesk: yes.