Free Open Source Ticketing System
Genius Support is a complete open-source support ticketing system built with Laravel and Laravel Reverb. Customers submit and reply to tickets without an account — via guest form, email, or secure portal link. Agent dashboard, knowledge base, SLA management, email-to-ticket automation, and real-time WebSocket updates. Self-hosted, MIT licensed, no per-agent fees, forever free.
MIT License · No account required · No credit card · No per-agent fees
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Trusted by developers and agencies worldwide for free, self-hosted support software.
7
Modules
3
User Roles
IMAP
Email-to-Ticket
WebSocket
Real-Time
PHP 8.2+
Backend
Free
Forever
See It in Action
Real screenshots from the application. Every screen shown is fully functional and included free.
What is Genius Support?
Genius Support is free, open-source support portal software built with Laravel. It provides a customer ticket portal, agent dashboard, admin panel, self-service knowledge base, and email-to-ticket automation: self-hosted on your own server, MIT licensed, with no per-agent fees.
Zendesk charges $19–$115 per agent per month. Freshdesk starts at $15 per agent per month and locks advanced features behind higher tiers. Genius Support is a one-time free download: full source code, deploy on any Linux VPS, no recurring cost regardless of team size.
The system ships with three distinct portals: a customer-facing ticket portal, an agent dashboard, and an admin panel, plus a self-service knowledge base and email-to-ticket automation via IMAP. Ticket updates are pushed in real time using Laravel Reverb, a self-hosted WebSocket server, with no Pusher subscription required.
Unlike osTicket, Zammad, and FreeScout — which require customers to register an account before submitting a ticket through the portal — Genius Support lets customers open tickets from a guest form and reply by email or a secure portal link. No registration wall, no password reset, no abandoned tickets. Every reply, whether by email or portal link, lands in the same ticket thread.
Because Genius Support is fully self-hosted, customer data never leaves your server. This makes it suitable for teams in healthcare, finance, and government with GDPR, HIPAA, or data-sovereignty requirements. No third-party SaaS vendor has access to your ticket data, email correspondence, or customer information.
If you are searching for an osTicket alternative, a FreeScout alternative, or a Zammad alternative, Genius Support combines the best of each: the lightweight PHP/Laravel deployability of FreeScout, the modern real-time UI of Zammad, and the classic reliability of osTicket — all under the permissive MIT license with no module paywalls. Learn more about issue tracking systems ↗.
Submit and Reply to Tickets Without an Account
Most helpdesk tools force customers to register before they can submit a ticket. Genius Support removes that friction entirely.
Guest Form Submission
Customers open a ticket from a simple web form. No account, no password, no registration friction. Just name, email, and message.
Reply by Email
Every agent reply is sent as an email from your domain. Customers hit reply and it lands in the ticket thread automatically. No portal visit needed.
Secure Portal Link
Each ticket email includes a magic link that opens the ticket in the customer portal. View the full thread and reply — no login screen, no password reset.
A customer can open a ticket and carry the entire conversation to resolution without ever registering. Agents never lose the thread — every reply, whether by email or portal link, lands in the same ticket. This means fewer abandoned tickets, higher response rates, and no password-reset friction between you and your customers.
7 Modules. Full Support Lifecycle.
From first customer email to resolved ticket: every support workflow is built in and ready to use out of the box.
Ticket Management
- Create, assign, and prioritize tickets with one click
- Status workflow: Open → In Progress → Resolved → Closed
- Priority levels: Low, Medium, High, Urgent
- Real-time status updates via WebSocket (Laravel Reverb)
- Department-based ticket routing and reassignment
- Custom SLA timers per department: first-response and resolution deadlines
Customer Portal
- Submit tickets via guest form — no account required
- Reply to tickets by email or secure portal link without logging in
- Self-service ticket submission and tracking
- Knowledge base search for instant self-help
- Resolution rating: customers rate every resolved ticket
- Profile management and ticket history
Agent Dashboard
- Unified ticket queue with filter and search
- Compose replies with rich text editor
- Internal notes visible only to agents
- Bulk actions: reassign, close, or change priority
- Real-time notifications for new and updated tickets
- Keyboard shortcuts: j/k to navigate, e to reply, x to close
- Dark mode for low-light and extended-session work
Admin Panel
- User management: customers, agents, and admins
- Department setup with dedicated agent assignment
- Custom email reply templates
- Branding: upload logo, set colour scheme, custom domain
- Analytics and reporting: ticket volume, response times, CSAT
- SLA policies with due-date tracking and overdue escalation alerts
- Role-based access control: agents see only their departments
- Optional two-factor authentication (2FA) for agents and admins
Knowledge Base
- Author and publish self-service articles
- Category and tag organisation
- Full-text search for customers
- Reduce ticket volume with proactive answers
- Manage draft and published states per article
Email-to-Ticket (IMAP)
- Connect any IMAP inbox to auto-create tickets from emails
- Preserve email threading: replies stay linked
- Agent replies sent as emails from your domain
- Configurable polling interval and department mapping
- Works with Gmail, Outlook, and any IMAP-compatible mailbox
Automation & Routing
- Auto-assign tickets by keyword, department, or sender domain
- Canned response templates for common replies
- Collision detection: see when another agent is typing
- Auto-responder with customizable placeholders
- Trigger-based escalation for overdue or urgent tickets
Genius Support vs Zendesk vs Freshdesk
Same core features. No per-agent fees. No SaaS contract. Your server.
| Feature | Genius SupportFree · Open Source | Zendesk | Freshdesk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free forever | $19–$115/agent/mo | $15–$79/agent/mo |
| Self-hosted | Yes: your server | No (SaaS only) | No (SaaS only) |
| Source code access | Full (MIT license) | No | No |
| Guest ticketing (no login) | Yes: form + email + magic link | No: account required | No: account required |
| SLA management | Built in | Higher tiers only | Higher tiers only |
| Email-to-ticket (IMAP) | Built in | Built in | Built in |
| Real-time updates | Self-hosted WebSocket | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Knowledge base | Built in | Built in | Built in |
| Agent limit | Unlimited | Per-seat pricing | Per-seat pricing |
| Data ownership | Your server, your data | Zendesk servers | Freshdesk servers |
| GDPR / data sovereignty | Full control | Vendor-controlled | Vendor-controlled |
| White-label / branding | Full control | Limited | Limited |
| Vendor lock-in | None | High | High |
Zendesk and Freshdesk pricing as of 2025. Per-agent costs scale with team size; Genius Support does not.
Genius Support vs osTicket vs FreeScout vs Zammad vs UVdesk
Looking for an osTicket alternative, a FreeScout alternative, or a Zammad alternative? Here is how Genius Support compares across license, features, and hosting.
| Feature | Genius SupportMIT · Free | osTicket | FreeScout | Zammad | UVdesk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| License | MIT (most permissive) | GPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 | OSL-3.0 |
| Framework | Laravel + PHP 8.2 | Plain PHP | Laravel | Ruby on Rails | Symfony |
| Guest ticketing (no login) | Yes: form + email + magic link | No | No | No | No |
| Email-to-ticket (IMAP) | Built in | Built in | Built in | Built in | Built in |
| Real-time updates | Self-hosted WebSocket (Reverb) | No | No | Proprietary | No |
| Knowledge base | Built in | Add-on | Paid module | Built in | Built in |
| Module paywall | None | None | $2.99–$29/module | None | Community only |
| Min server RAM | 2 GB | ~1 GB | ~1 GB | 4–6 GB | 3 GB |
| Modern UI | Yes | Dated | Gmail-like | Modern | Modern |
| Customer portal | Yes | Yes | No (shared inbox) | Yes | Yes |
License and feature data verified from each project's GitHub repository and documentation, September 2026. AGPL-3.0's network-use clause may require publishing modifications if you offer the software as a hosted service.
From Download to Live in 3 Steps
Install on Your Server
Download Genius Support and run the guided installer on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. The script configures PHP 8.2+, MySQL 8.0, Nginx, Node.js 20, and Supervisor automatically. Setup takes under 30 minutes.
Configure Email and Departments
Connect your IMAP inbox so incoming customer emails automatically create tickets. Create departments, assign agents, and set up reply email templates, all from the admin panel.
Go Live
Share the customer portal URL. Customers submit and track tickets; agents resolve them in real time. The WebSocket server (Laravel Reverb) delivers instant updates to every open browser tab: no polling, no page refresh.
Built for Teams That Own Their Support Stack
SaaS Startups
Stop paying $50–$200/month for Zendesk before you have the revenue to justify it. Self-host once, scale freely with no per-agent fees.
Web Agencies
Deploy per-client instances under custom domains. The MIT license lets you white-label and build client projects on top of it without copyleft obligations.
Hosting Providers & MSPs
Give every client their own ticket portal. Route tickets by department, assign dedicated agents, and brand each instance independently.
Ecommerce Stores
Email-to-ticket captures customer support emails automatically. The knowledge base deflects repeat questions and reduces ticket volume.
IT Teams
Internal helpdesk with SLA tracking, priority escalation, and department routing. Real-time WebSocket updates keep the whole team in sync.
Open-Source Communities
The MIT license means you can fork, customize, and redistribute freely. No AGPL network-use clause, no copyleft surprises.
Three Roles. Every Perspective Covered.
Customers, agents, and admins each get a tailored experience: no shared interface, no permission confusion.
Admin
Full access: users, departments, email settings, branding, analytics, and all tickets
Agent
Handle ticket queue, reply to customers, create internal notes, bulk actions
Customer
Submit tickets, track status, reply to agents, search knowledge base, rate resolutions
Built on a Modern, Battle-Tested Stack
No proprietary runtime. No SaaS dependencies. Runs on standard Linux hosting.
Laravel
PHP backend, routing, ORM, queues
PHP 8.2+ (8.4 tested)
Application runtime
MySQL 8.0
Primary relational database
Laravel Reverb
Real-time WebSocket server
Nginx
Web server and reverse proxy
Supervisor
Queue worker and WebSocket process management
Server Requirements
Any standard Linux VPS. No Docker required.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. MIT licensed. Every feature in the repository is included at no cost: no paid tier, no per-agent pricing, no feature locks. Deploy as many instances as you need.
Yes. Full source code is included. The MIT license places no restrictions on modification, redistribution, or commercial use. Fork it, customise it, build client projects on top of it.
Connect any IMAP mailbox (Gmail, Outlook, or a custom domain inbox) in the admin panel. Genius Support polls the inbox on a configurable interval and automatically creates a ticket for each new email. Agent replies are sent back as emails from your domain, so customers never need to log in if they prefer email.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with PHP 8.2+, MySQL 8.0, Node.js 20, and Nginx. A minimum of 2 GB RAM is recommended. Any standard VPS or cloud instance works: no managed services required. Supervisor manages background processes for queues and the WebSocket server.
Yes. You can create unlimited departments (for example, Billing, Technical Support, Sales). Each ticket is routed to a department, and each department has its own assigned agents. Tickets can be reassigned across departments at any time.
No. Genius Support uses Laravel Reverb, the official self-hosted WebSocket server from the Laravel team. Real-time ticket updates run entirely on your own server with no third-party WebSocket service required.
Zendesk and Freshdesk charge $19–$149 per agent per month. Genius Support is a one-time free download: self-hosted, MIT licensed, full source code, no per-agent fees and no monthly charges. Your data stays on your own server.
Yes. The MIT license permits commercial use including client deployments. You can replace the logo, set a custom colour scheme, and run it under your own domain. There is no "Powered by Genius Support" branding requirement.
Yes. Genius Support includes a guest ticket form — customers submit their name, email, and message without registering. They receive a confirmation email with a secure portal link to view and reply to their ticket. They can also reply by email directly. No account, no password, no login wall.
Yes, two ways. First, every agent reply is sent as an email from your domain — the customer just hits reply and the response lands in the ticket thread automatically. Second, the email includes a secure magic link that opens the ticket in the customer portal without a login screen. Both paths work without an account.
Yes. Admins can define SLA policies per department with first-response and resolution time targets. Overdue tickets trigger escalation alerts, and the admin dashboard reports on SLA compliance, response times, and CSAT ratings.
Genius Support is fully self-hosted, so customer data, ticket correspondence, and email never leave your server. There is no third-party SaaS vendor with access to your data. This makes it suitable for teams with GDPR, HIPAA, or data-sovereignty requirements. You control retention, backups, and deletion.
Export your ticket history as CSV from your current platform. Genius Support’s installer includes an import script that maps tickets, customers, and agents. For email-based migration, connect your existing IMAP inbox and new emails flow in automatically. The full transition — including departments, agents, and knowledge base articles — typically takes under a day.
MIT is the most permissive open-source license: no restrictions on commercial use, modification, or redistribution. AGPL-3.0 (used by FreeScout and Zammad) has a network-use clause that requires you to publish source code if you modify and offer the software as a hosted service to others. For teams that want to customize and deploy without copyleft obligations, MIT is the safer choice.
Still have questions?
Check the documentation or open a pre-sale ticket.
Download the Free Support Portal
No account. No credit card. No per-agent fees. MIT license. Enter your email and get the download link instantly.
Need help setting it up? Contact Xgenious for installation service