FreeScout is an open source help desk and shared inbox you can self-host — a free Zendesk and Help Scout alternative that turns a support mailbox into a team workflow with tickets, assignments, and a shared conversation history.

What is FreeScout?

FreeScout is a free, open source help desk and shared inbox built with PHP on the Laravel framework. It connects your support mailboxes and turns incoming email into assignable tickets that a team works from together — with internal notes, collision detection, forwarding, and a full conversation history — so requests stop disappearing into personal inboxes. It’s self-hosted and licensed under AGPL-3.0.

What is FreeScout best for?

FreeScout fits small and mid-sized teams that run support out of a shared email address and want Zendesk- or Help Scout-style organization without a per-agent SaaS bill. It’s a strong choice when you want to keep customer data on your own server, support unlimited agents and mailboxes, and start from a lightweight app that even runs on shared hosting.

What can FreeScout do?

Turn shared mailboxes into a ticketing workflow with unlimited agents, mailboxes, and tickets — no per-seat pricing
Collision detection so two agents don’t reply to the same conversation at once
Internal notes, @mentions, conversation assignment, merging, forwarding, and starring
Auto-replies, saved replies, and canned responses (via modules)
25+ interface languages and a 100% mobile-friendly UI
Push notifications, open tracking, and fast full-text search
Optional channels beyond email — live chat, WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, and Slack — added as modules
Extensible via a catalog of official modules (CRM, knowledge base, reports, workflows, API & webhooks, SSO)

Where does FreeScout fall short?

Many near-core features are paid modules. The free core is a shared-inbox help desk; a knowledge base, reports/analytics, API & webhooks, live chat, workflows/SLA, and SSO are separate paid add-ons. Building a full Zendesk-equivalent setup means buying and stacking several modules on top of the free app.
Email-first, not omnichannel out of the box. The core centers on email ticketing; social and chat channels like WhatsApp, Telegram, and live chat are individual modules. If you need omnichannel from day one, an omnichannel-native tool like Chatwoot covers more channels in its open core.
AGPL-3.0 licensing obligations. If you modify FreeScout and offer it to others as a network service, the AGPL requires you to publish your source changes. Removing FreeScout branding for a white-label deployment also requires the paid rebranding module.

Is FreeScout free?

Yes — the core application is free and open source under AGPL-3.0, with unlimited agents, mailboxes, and tickets and no per-seat fees. FreeScout earns money from optional modules that extend it (knowledge base, live chat, CRM, reports, API, and more). Modules are one-time purchases — lifetime licenses for a single instance, with updates included — rather than recurring subscriptions.

What does FreeScout replace?

FreeScout is positioned directly as a free alternative to Zendesk and Help Scout. It covers the shared-inbox and ticketing core those tools charge per agent for, and matches feature gaps (knowledge base, reports, live chat) through its module catalog. Among open source options it sits alongside Chatwoot, Zammad, and osTicket.

FAQ

Is FreeScout open source? Yes. FreeScout is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and its source is on GitHub. The core help desk is fully free to use; the company funds development by selling optional paid modules.

Can I self-host FreeScout for free? Yes. The core app is free to download and run on your own server, with no license fee and no cap on agents, mailboxes, or tickets. You only pay if you choose to buy add-on modules.

Is FreeScout a good Zendesk or Help Scout alternative? For teams that mainly need a shared inbox and email ticketing, yes — it delivers that core without per-agent fees. Just budget for modules if you need built-in reports, a knowledge base, live chat, or an API, which ship as standard in those hosted products.

What do I need to run FreeScout? A web server (Nginx, Apache, or IIS), PHP 7.1–8.x, a database (MySQL 5.0+, MariaDB, or PostgreSQL), and a cron job for background tasks. It’s lightweight enough to run on shared hosting, and a Docker image is available for containerized deployments.