osTicket — Open Source Support Ticket System

Introduction

osTicket is one of the most widely deployed open-source support ticket systems. It seamlessly routes customer inquiries created via email, web forms, phone, and API into a centralized web-based help desk. Organizations use it to manage, organize, and archive support requests with a structured workflow of departments, agents, and SLA plans.

What osTicket Does

• Creates tickets from email, web portal forms, API calls, and manual agent entry
• Routes tickets to departments and assigns them to agents based on configurable rules
• Tracks SLA compliance with due dates and escalation triggers
• Provides a customer portal where end users view ticket status and add replies
• Supports custom forms, fields, and lists for capturing structured data per ticket type

Architecture Overview

osTicket is a PHP application backed by MySQL or MariaDB. The email piping system polls configured IMAP accounts (or receives via piped email) to create tickets automatically. The web frontend serves both the agent panel and the customer-facing portal. Ticket routing uses a filter engine that matches incoming ticket properties (email address, subject keywords, custom fields) to assignment and SLA rules. Plugins extend functionality through a hook-based API.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Deploy via Docker or install on any PHP 7.4+ / MySQL 5.5+ hosting environment
• Run the web-based installer to configure database connection and admin account
• Set up email fetching via IMAP or piped email for automatic ticket creation from inbound messages
• Configure departments, help topics, SLA plans, and agent assignments in the admin panel
• Schedule the cron job for background tasks (email fetching, SLA checks, auto-close rules)

Key Features

• Multi-channel ticket creation: email, web forms, API, and agent-created tickets
• Configurable SLA plans with grace periods, escalation, and overdue alerts
• Custom forms and fields for capturing structured information per help topic
• Agent collision detection prevents multiple agents from replying to the same ticket simultaneously
• Rich filter and auto-response rules for routing, tagging, and acknowledging tickets

Comparison with Similar Tools

• FreeScout — email-centric shared inbox; osTicket offers more structured ticketing with SLA and custom forms
• Zammad — modern multi-channel helpdesk; more feature-rich but heavier to deploy
• GLPI — IT asset and service management; osTicket is focused purely on support ticketing
• Request Tracker (RT) — Perl-based enterprise ticketing; osTicket has a simpler setup and PHP stack

FAQ

Q: Can osTicket handle multiple departments? A: Yes. Create departments for different teams (Sales, Support, Billing) with independent email addresses, SLA plans, and agent assignments.

Q: Does osTicket support LDAP or Active Directory authentication? A: Yes. The LDAP/AD plugin allows agent and user authentication against directory services.

Q: Can I customize the customer portal appearance? A: Yes. osTicket uses PHP-based templates that can be modified. Community themes and the built-in branding settings allow visual customization.

Q: Is there a mobile app? A: osTicket does not ship an official mobile app, but the web interface is responsive. Third-party mobile apps that connect via the API are available.

Sources

• https://github.com/osTicket/osTicket
• https://docs.osticket.com/