7 Great Free and Open Source Issue Tracking Software Options

Originally Published by The Capterra Customer Service Software Blog

There was once an innocent time when “issue tracking” referred to the invoice on your therapist bills. No longer. When comprehensive software like SalesForce includes issue tracking software as one of their offerings, you know that it’s become expected — even standard — to automate keeping tabs on any and all issues.

No issue tracking system should have the kind of issues that made you dump your ex — and anyone who’s ever made online sales know that if they’re going to stay in a long-term relationship with their customer, they’re going to have to keep their issues well in hand. Here are the free/freemium, free trial and open source issue tracking software options you need to accomplish just that:

Free/Freemium Issue Tracking

IT Help Desk & Asset Management

Whenever you have over two dozen reviews on Capterra with a 5/5 rating, you know you’re doing something right. That’s the case with IT Help Desk & Asset Management, which sometimes goes by its alter-ego Samanage, from which it’s sourced. Here, the comprehensive features, the easy setup, and the 24/7 customer support reign supreme — and so too does Samanage’s issue tracking software on our list.

Stand-Out Features

• Our reviewers found it very quick and easy to install, even for beginners to issue tracking
• The large online community of users and advanced customer support makes finding answers to problems easier
• Asset tagging is easy and works across multiple devices, including mobile, tablet, and desktop
• Feature-rich software makes for comprehensive, quick work of any and all issues

Cons

• We’re still working on it. Some users have asked for more customization in reports, and integration with Linux is a bit tricky, but on the whole our reviewers are thrilled with the software.

Overview

All software is going to have problems. It’s the software with answers to these problems that are easy to find that makes it especially attractive. Samanage’s IT Help Desk & Asset Management wins the day because of customer support, comprehensive training, and a free trial that essentially begs for you to give this issue tracking solution a shot.

SalesForce

If you use SalesForce, you should consider using their issue tracking system. However, what it will cost you depends on what you’re using. I reached out to Salesforce via their live chat and was thoroughly unimpressed with the help I got. I was told that how much the issue tracking component costs “depends.” When I asked what it depends on, I got this:

“Sorry Cathy, if you’re not evaluating for your company, I cannot help you. This is not a help or support line. Thanks for coming in, please check out the Salesforce Success Community for general research questions.”

Stand-Out Features

• Integrates easily with the overall Salesforce customer service cloud
• Plenty of customer support — including a 24/7 live rep — and customer training
• Checks off all of the boxes, from issue auditing and recurring issues management to simple task management

Cons

• After the free trial expires, the price for customer service cloud accelerates quickly to $135/year/user. Though my calculations tell me this adds up to a paltry amount per month, it would still be nice to have the option to bill monthly.

Overview

There’s an old saying in football — you have to “follow through” every tackle, otherwise it might be missed. As much as you’d like to tackle your customers sometimes, it helps to have a lighter touch. But SalesForce realizes that you also have to follow through each sale and provide issue tracking and support if you’re going to establish a worthy brand. If only there was a way to get rid of that annual billing, this might merit consideration for the top spot.

FreshService

FreshService is aimed at the “IT support” crowd, which is another way of saying that it takes on the enormous challenge of making IT support somehow fun and interesting. It’s a Herculean task, to be sure. And for it, FreshService has an average rating of four out of five stars among our reviewers.

Stand-Out Features

• Our reviewers found FreshService to be highly customizable, which helps smaller businesses run issue tracking with greater ease
• Fast and easy to use, FreshService offers very little in the way of downtime, which keeps your issue tracking flexible
• 24/7 live support with a rep includes access to thorough customer support

Cons

• Reporting options are a little on the simple side and don’t offer full functionality
• The licensing model is confusing and could stand for simplification

Overview

IT Support ain’t easy, but it’s necessary. FreshService is one of the best options to choose when IT support is a must-have in your business but you don’t want to inflexible issue tracking software.

TeamSupport

For raw value, we don’t know if there’s a better choice; hundreds of reviews with a 4.5/5 rating at Capterra don’t lie.

Stand-Out Features

• Comprehensive: assignment management, scheduling, task management, issue auditing — this vendor has it all
• Highly organized and “lightweight,” according to some users who like a low-maintenance dashboard as well as plenty of options
• Auto-responses are easy to implement and employ

Cons

• System downtime has been an issue for some users
• The email client is inconsistent, suffers from the downtime issues mentioned above, which slows down any “TeamSupport” you had intended

Overview

Though the customer service doesn’t feature a live 24/7 rep, the team at TeamSupport has handled their downtime issues well. That means that the rest of the positives here — including comprehensive and easy-to-use issue tracking features — still stand out and make TeamSupport as viable an option as anything on this list. It’s a little pricier than some when you upgrade out of the free trial, but in this case it seems that you get what you pay for.

Open Source Issue Tracking Software

Atlassian Jira (free trial)

A common-sense pricing model beyond the free trial, 24/7 live rep customer service, and a 5/5 out of 60+ reviews on Capterra? Sign us up.

Stand-Out Features

• The 24/7 live-rep customer support is among the best when it comes to open source issue tracking software — which sounds like it’s a “big fish in a small pond” feature, but customers genuinely enjoy it
• Attractive, intuitively-flowing dashboard makes for easy organization
• Simple user tier pricing keeps things easy and doesn’t require overpaying when using less of the software

Cons

• No issue auditing or escalation management
• Some people have a much better experiencing using the cloud version

Overview

JIRA by Atlassian featured both installed and web-based options, includes plenty of training and customer support, and the open source code is intuitive and makes sense. We don’t know what else you want from your issue tracking software, but if you’re still complaining, you need to lower your standards.

Planio

Based on Redmine, Planio is great for people who love lots of customization — but not as stellar if you’re a user who simply wants to set up and go.

Stand-Out Features

• High marks for effective and thorough customer support
• Customization is perfect for users who like to dig in and create their own experience
• Affordable pricing plans available beyond the free trial

Cons

• Plain text email notifications will require an additional layer of email encryption if you want full security. Planio’s solution, OpenPGP, is available but it will require additional work

Overview

Like JIRA, Planio checks off just about all of the boxes on my invisible mental checklist, which sounds a lot less credible than it is — but it includes everything from issue auditing to a broad knowledge base, and Planio has it all. And no, I’m not going to reveal the high-quality content of my secret mental checklist. Forget I said anything. Move along.

Sifter

Simple, effective, but a little on the pricier side once you upgrade from the free trial, Sifter is as viable an option as any you’ll see on this list.

Stand-Out Features

• High marks from Capterra reviewers for customer support features
• 24/7 live rep customer service
• Task management, issue auditing, and notifications all included

Cons

• Lack of knowledge base, recurring issues, and scheduling management makes automation and training more difficult
• Scaling as your company grows is a challenge, especially with adding/creating tags

Overview

Sifter is a prime example of why these lists are so dang hard to rank — if it weren’t for the pricier long-term options, it very well could find a spot higher on our list. There are some scaling problems as your company grows, but their customer service is thorough enough to handle it.

Conclusion

If we don’t live in the golden age of issue tracking software that’s available in free/freemium options, we’ve got to be pretty darn close. Roll the dice and pick any software off of this list and you’re likely to find a comprehensive solution with plenty of customer support to aid you along your journey to comprehensive issue covering. True, it would be nice if some of these options were even more free and didn’t rely on free trials to suck you in — but, hey, we’re not about to start complaining about capitalism. When it comes to free issue tracking software, it works.