OTOBO

OTOBO is an open-source service management platform from Rother OSS GmbH in Leiblfing, Bavaria, the maintainer of its source code. It covers a helpdesk for customer service, IT service management and enterprise service management on one codebase, released under GPL v3.0 and licence-free.

The customer service features include case management, a self-service portal with a knowledge base, process automation, escalations and requests by email, phone and portal. It is a service desk first and a chat product not at all, so it suits ticket-shaped support rather than a website widget.

Cost splits between free software and paid services. Running OTOBO yourself costs nothing in licences, but someone has to install, patch and back it up.

Rother OSS sells Managed OTOBO on a virtual server in a German data centre: Professional is €11,400 per year, Enterprise is €26,000 per year with 24/7 support, and each extra virtual server costs €1,500 per year. Concurrent agents are unlimited on every managed plan. These are prices for an operated system, not per-agent fees, and they are far above per-seat hosted tools for a small team.

The closest comparison is Znuny, the other open-source system in this category with an OTRS lineage.

OTOBO runs its own release line, offers a dedicated migration service from OTRS, and lets you connect up to ten authentication backends such as Active Directory, LDAP and Kerberos for single sign-on. Zammad has the more modern interface and the cheaper hosted route. OTOBO makes sense where process requirements, ITIL-style handling or an existing OTRS system decide the choice, and where a German vendor that both maintains and operates the software is worth the yearly price.

What OTOBO does well

• Open source under GPL v3.0 with no licence fee and unlimited concurrent agents on managed plans
• Customer service, IT service and enterprise service management in one platform
• Managed hosting in a German data centre, run by the maintainer
• Published managed-service prices with stated 99.9 percent availability
• Authentication against up to ten backends including Active Directory and LDAP

Where OTOBO falls short

• Managed plans start at €11,400 a year, which is steep for a small desk
• No live chat or messaging inbox; ticket and email shaped
• Self-hosting needs your own team to patch, upgrade and back up
• Patch updates and release upgrades cost extra on the Professional plan

Standout feature. An open-source service desk with an operated option: the maintainer itself runs it in a German data centre, at published yearly prices.