OTRS
Ticketing and service management platform for help desks, IT service management and security teams.
- Verified facts
- 4 of 4
- Alternatives ranked
- 6
- Approved reviews
- 0
- Visits sent from here
- 0
About OTRS
OTRS is a service management platform built around a ticketing system. Teams use it to run IT help desks, customer support queues, ITIL-style processes such as incident and change management, asset and CMDB tracking, and internal requests from HR or facilities. It also sells a security-focused edition called STORM for incident response. The product started life as a popular open-source ticketing tool; the open Community Edition was discontinued years ago and lives on in forks like Znuny, while today's OTRS is a commercial product sold as a managed cloud service or an on-premise install. Pricing is quote-based: you pick a number of licensed users and one of three packages (Starter, Advanced, Pro), then add extras like AI credits or premium support. There are mobile apps for agents on iOS and Android. It suits mid-sized and large organisations that want deep workflow customisation and are happy to work with a vendor or partner on setup.
Best for: Mid-sized and large organisations running ITSM or support desks that need heavily customised workflows.
Pros and cons
What works
- Covers help desk, ITSM, asset management and security incident handling in one system
- Available as managed cloud or on-premise
- Process automation and workflow tools are deep enough for complex ITIL setups
Why people leave
- No public prices; every plan goes through a sales quote
- The free Community Edition is gone; free self-hosting now means a fork like Znuny
- Setup and configuration usually need training or partner help
Top OTRS alternatives
See all 6- 1
Znuny66.5The open-source fork of the old OTRS Community Edition, so the data model and admin feel stay familiar and it's free.
- 2
Zammad64.8Open-source help desk with a more modern interface, self-hosted for free or as a hosted service.
- 3
Jira Service Management61.8ITSM service desk with published per-agent pricing and tight links to Jira for engineering teams.
- 4
osTicket59.4Simple, free open-source ticketing for teams that don't need full ITIL processes.
- 5
Freshdesk57.5Cloud help desk with a free tier and public pricing, quicker to set up than OTRS.
Why people left OTRS
In reviewers' own words, from reviews of the apps they moved to. These are their opinions, not ours.
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Reviews
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OTRS: common questions
Is OTRS free?
No, OTRS is a paid product.
Is OTRS open source?
No, OTRS is not open source. Open-source alternatives include Zammad and osTicket.
What platforms does OTRS run on?
OTRS is available for Web, Self-hosted, iOS and Android.
What are the best alternatives to OTRS?
The highest-ranked OTRS alternatives right now are Znuny, Zammad and Jira Service Management. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.