osTicket
Rocket.Chat
| Feature | osTicket | Rocket.Chat |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $12/mo | Free / from $4/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4 / 5 | 4.1 / 5 |
| Best For | small-businesses, budget-conscious-teams, self-hosted-advocates, it-departments | security-conscious-organizations, government, self-hosters, enterprises |
| Founded | 2003 | 2015 |
| Ticket Management | ✓ | ✗ |
| Email Piping | ✓ | ✗ |
| Custom Fields | ✓ | ✗ |
| Sla Management | ✓ | ✗ |
| Agent Collision Avoidance | ✓ | ✗ |
| Knowledge Base | ✓ | ✗ |
| Channels | ✗ | ✓ |
| Direct Messaging | ✗ | ✓ |
| Video Calls | ✗ | ✓ |
| Federation | ✗ | ✓ |
| E2e Encryption | ✗ | ✓ |
| Marketplace | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ 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
✓ Rocket.Chat Pros
- Fully open-source and self-hostable
- End-to-end encryption
- Federation support between instances
- Highly customizable
✗ Rocket.Chat Cons
- Self-hosted requires maintenance
- Mobile apps less polished than Slack
- Smaller app ecosystem
The Verdict
osTicket is built for small businesses and budget conscious teams, with a focus on ticket-management and email-piping. Rocket.Chat targets security conscious organizations and government and leads with channels and direct-messaging.
On pricing, Rocket.Chat is the clear winner for budget-conscious users — starting at $4/mo compared to $12/mo for osTicket. That $8/mo difference adds up quickly for growing teams.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.