FreeScout is the super lightweight and powerful free open source help desk and shared inbox built with PHP (Laravel framework). Now you can enjoy free Zendesk & Help Scout without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control. FreeScout is multichannel — it centralizes all customer conversations from various channels in one place.
This app has made it incredibly easy for me to manage my departments because it allows all email communication to run through a single platform. The added modules are well worth the price if you decide you need their features and are relatively easy to deploy. The community around the app is also active enough on their GitHub page, so if you are struggling, it won’t feel like you are the only one using the app. For what it costs and can do, I will forever recommend Free Scout…
When I started looking for an open-source alternative, FreeScout immediately turned out to be a very solid system that was also incredibly easy to install. There are a few benefits to self-hosting FreeScout that might not be immediately obvious. Of course, there are economic advantages… There are also legal advantages: all the data is on your premises. No need to tell users that you’re using a third-party service for support interactions. I think the biggest benefit for us as a company is the liberty to create more users and inboxes when we need them and not be bound by very restrictive account limitations or prohibitive costs. I’ll call this one a win. I hope it inspires companies to do the same.
