Missive
osTicket
| Feature | Missive | osTicket |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $14/mo | Free / from $12/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.5 / 5 | 4 / 5 |
| Best For | agencies, startups, support-teams, remote-teams | small-businesses, budget-conscious-teams, self-hosted-advocates, it-departments |
| Founded | 2015 | 2003 |
| Shared Inboxes | ✓ | ✗ |
| Team Chat | ✓ | ✗ |
| Collaborative Writing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Assignments | ✓ | ✗ |
| Labels | ✓ | ✗ |
| Integrations | ✓ | ✗ |
| Ticket Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Email Piping | ✗ | ✓ |
| Custom Fields | ✗ | ✓ |
| Sla Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Agent Collision Avoidance | ✗ | ✓ |
| Knowledge Base | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Missive Pros
- Elegant interface
- Team collaboration
- Multi-channel
- Good integrations
✗ Missive Cons
- Learning curve
- Smaller ecosystem
- Limited automation
✓ osTicket Pros
- Completely free self-hosted version
- Active open-source community
- Highly customizable
- Supports multiple departments
✗ osTicket Cons
- Dated user interface
- Requires server management
- Limited automation compared to paid tools
The Verdict
Missive is built for agencies and startups, with a focus on shared-inboxes and team-chat. osTicket targets small businesses and budget conscious teams and leads with ticket-management and email-piping.
Pricing is close: osTicket starts at $12/mo versus $14/mo for Missive — not a deciding factor on its own.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
Missive edges out on user ratings (4.5 vs 4). While both are well-regarded, that gap reflects real differences in user satisfaction worth considering.
Bottom line: Missive has a slight overall edge — but if completely free self-hosted version matters most to you, osTicket may still be the right call.