Private and open-source alternatives to Zendesk
5 customer support and live chat rated against the same public privacy criteria as Zendesk, with our picks first.
Why look for an alternative?
- Open source: no. Closed source.
- No trackers or telemetry: no. The privacy notice describes sharing identifiers and browsing data with advertising partners through cookies and tracking technologies.
- No ads or data sales: partial. Funded by subscriptions with no ads in the product, but website data is shared with advertising partners unless visitors opt out.
- Independent audit: partial. SOC 2 and ISO audits are done, but the reports are only available on request through the trust center.
- TLS configuration: partial. Grade A-
- Security headers: partial. Grade B (70/100+)
The alternatives
Zammad Grade C
Open source help desk and ticketing system that brings email, chat, phone, forms and social media into one web interface. It can be self-hosted, and Zammad GmbH in Germany also offers hosted instances.
Based in Germany (Fourteen Eyes). Zammad scores 65 out of 100 (grade C) on the customer support and live chat criteria. It meets 2 of 4 criteria: open source and no ads or data sales.
Chatwoot Grade D
Open source customer support platform with a shared inbox for website chat, email, social media and messaging apps, plus a help center and automations. It can be self-hosted or used through Chatwoot Cloud.
Based in the United States (Five Eyes). Chatwoot scores 53 out of 100 (grade D) on the customer support and live chat criteria. It meets 3 of 8 criteria: open source, no ads or data sales and TLS configuration.
FreeScout Grade D
Self-hosted help desk and shared mailbox written in PHP, with ticketing, customer profiles and optional modules for chat, knowledge base, workflows and more.
FreeScout scores 50 out of 100 (grade D) on the customer support and live chat criteria. It meets 2 of 4 criteria: open source and no ads or data sales.
Freshdesk Grade F
Help desk software from Freshworks with ticketing across email, chat, phone and social channels, a knowledge base, automations and AI assistants.
Based in the United States (Five Eyes). Freshdesk scores 28 out of 100 (grade F) on the customer support and live chat criteria. It meets 1 of 8 criteria: TLS configuration.
Help Scout Grade F
Customer support platform with a shared email inbox, live chat widget, knowledge base and customer profiles, run by Help Scout PBC in the United States.
Based in the United States (Five Eyes). Help Scout scores 19 out of 100 (grade F) on the customer support and live chat criteria. It meets 1 of 8 criteria: TLS configuration.