Freescout

Key Features

• Unlimited agents, tickets, and mailboxes
• 100% mobile-friendly and responsive UI
• Fully multilingual with support for 25+ languages
• Seamless email integration with modern Exchange support
• Built-in collision detection for agents
• Auto-replies, internal notes, and conversation forwarding
• Merging and moving conversations between mailboxes
• Real-time push notifications and automatic refresh
• Clipboard screenshot pasting directly into replies
• Flexible per-user notification settings
• Open tracking and thread editing
• Powerful search with optional Meilisearch support
• Saved replies and email commands
• Satisfaction ratings and tags
• Spam filtering and LDAP integration
• Kanban boards and keyboard shortcuts
• Mentions, starred conversations, and conversation following
• Integrations: Slack, WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram
• End-user portal and knowledge base
• Live chat and SMS ticketing via Twilio
• Time tracking and custom fields
• White-labeling and custom folders
• Workflow automations and SLA enforcement
• Real-time reporting and CRM features
• WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads integration
• End-to-end encryption (S/MIME & PGP), GDPR ready
• REST API, webhooks, and Zapier/Make integration
• Export conversations and custom homepage
• SAML SSO, OAuth, and social login for agents
• Dark mode, mailbox icons, sticky notes
• IP restriction, reCAPTCHA, and security-focused design

FreeScout, A Powerful Free Alternative to Zendesk & Help Scout

When it comes to customer support tools, many teams quickly find themselves boxed into expensive SaaS products that offer convenience but come with trade-offs, limited control, privacy concerns, and recurring costs. That’s where FreeScout steps in as a breath of fresh air: a lightweight, open source help desk and shared mailbox system built with PHP and Laravel.

FreeScout isn't just a clone or stripped-down version of the big names. It's a fully independent project, built from scratch and free of any proprietary code from Help Scout or Zendesk. Designed for those who want full ownership of their support platform, FreeScout delivers a professional-grade experience without any vendor lock-in.

Why FreeScout?

At its core, FreeScout is all about flexibility, affordability, and control. Whether you're running a small business, a startup, or a non-profit, FreeScout gives you a robust support system without licensing restrictions. There are no artificial limits on the number of agents, mailboxes, or tickets. If you’ve ever felt penalized for growing your team or customer base, FreeScout turns that model on its head.

Its intuitive interface is fully mobile-friendly and accessible, including comprehensive support for screen readers. The platform is also impressively multilingual, supporting over two dozen languages, from English and Spanish to Korean and Persian.

Built for the Real World

Email is still at the heart of most customer interactions, and FreeScout handles it gracefully. It integrates seamlessly with modern email systems and even supports Microsoft Exchange authentication. From there, it layers on powerful features like:

• Conversation merging and forwarding
• Internal notes and starred threads
• Auto-replies and collision detection to prevent agent overlap
• Real-time push notifications and automatic refresh
• Easy screenshot pasting, thread editing, and custom notifications

But it doesn’t stop at email. FreeScout has evolved into a true multi-channel support hub. You’ll find integrations for Slack, WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, and even SMS via Twilio. Agents can work across platforms without juggling logins or losing context.

More Than a Mailbox

FreeScout also includes a full knowledge base, live chat, CRM tools, kanban boards, time tracking, and powerful workflow automations. Need to enforce SLAs? Manage teams? Create custom fields or folders? It’s all there.

Data privacy and security are also central to FreeScout’s philosophy. You can host it on your own servers, enforce IP restrictions, enable two-factor authentication, use S/MIME or PGP for encryption, and integrate with enterprise SSO systems like SAML.

Easy to Deploy, Easy to Maintain

Thanks to its Laravel foundation, FreeScout runs reliably on PHP/MySQL stacks and is simple to deploy, even on shared hosting. A built-in web installer and updater make setup straightforward, and you can export conversations or migrate from other help desks with minimal hassle.

Community and Openness

As a true open source project, FreeScout thrives on community support. If you appreciate the software, starring the repository is a great way to contribute. It helps the project grow and lets others know it’s a valuable alternative in the support space.