osTicket
tawk.to
| Feature | osTicket | tawk.to |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $12/mo | Free / from $19/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4 / 5 | 4.3 / 5 |
| Best For | small-businesses, budget-conscious-teams, self-hosted-advocates, it-departments | startups, small-businesses, freelancers, budget-conscious-teams |
| Founded | 2003 | 2013 |
| Ticket Management | ✓ | ✗ |
| Email Piping | ✓ | ✗ |
| Custom Fields | ✓ | ✗ |
| Sla Management | ✓ | ✗ |
| Agent Collision Avoidance | ✓ | ✗ |
| Knowledge Base | ✓ | ✓ |
| Live Chat | ✗ | ✓ |
| Ticketing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Video Chat | ✗ | ✓ |
| Screen Sharing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Chat Pages | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ 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
✓ tawk.to Pros
- 100% free
- No agent limits
- Feature-rich for free
- Good mobile app
✗ tawk.to Cons
- Branding on free plan
- Interface could be cleaner
- Limited integrations
The Verdict
osTicket is built for small businesses and budget conscious teams, with a focus on ticket-management and email-piping. tawk.to targets startups and small businesses and leads with live-chat and ticketing.
On pricing, osTicket is the clear winner for budget-conscious users — starting at $12/mo compared to $19/mo for tawk.to. That $7/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.
Both tools are a solid fit for small businesses, budget conscious teams — in those cases, the decision often comes down to workflow style and how your team prefers to organize work.
Bottom line: tawk.to has a slight overall edge — but if completely free self-hosted version matters most to you, osTicket may still be the right call.