I am very new to this kind of tools and in urgent need of a very good ticketing system which works smoothly on Unix and Php. Please suggest me system and If possible the cost of its total setup.

Thanks
Manoj

You can try Cerberus Helpdesk (http://www.cerberusweb.com/). They have a free version for one email address.

I would second the vote for Cerberus. Very nice system... though one could call it the 'ModernBill' of support desks. config config config... :D

Toss in my third vote for Cerberus, once you get it configured, it's like heaven, and a free version (including a month of support) to top it all off :)

Another vote for Cerberus here, you really can't get anything better for the price (whether you pay for it or use the free version).

I will throw in my vote for cerberus. :)

Ok, I'll be different :) My vote is for Kayako eSupport. We've been using it for a while and the new version is VERY impressive.

Another vote for Kayako. :)

I've used kayako extensivly and feel it has some usability issues... though i've hardly been handling any support on cerberus so i haven't found anything there, though cerberus's helpdesk is opensource except for the email parser... so cerberus I can fix :D

There are many available, and most will suggest what they are using....of course that is fine, that is what they have experience with.

I on the other hand would suggest having a look around at all of your options.

There is certainly no shortage of helpdesk systems.

A free solutions that I have found to be a nice little script was OSTicket.

I played around with it for a little while, and found it to be quite nice.

I know you said PHP, but what about PerlDesk.com?
It's simple, but cheap.

Originally posted by thomas7
I know you said PHP, but what about PerlDesk.com?


Ditto. We started using Perldesk many years ago and never switched away because it did everything that we needed it to do with little or no problems.

Kayako Essuport ...wait for a new version...

We switched away from PerlDesk because of their absolutely ABHORRANT support. Sometimes it would take months for tickets to get resolved (or even responded to), and other times the tickets would just disappear completely...

We now use SupportTrio from activecampaign, which has been absolutely amazing. Support and all, they have a solid product offering.

A free alternative to all of these other great tools is OTRS (http://www.otrs.org) - a bit on the challenging side to install and configure but still: it does the job.

For SupportTrio - I just couldn't get e-mail piping to work.

Roj

We also now use supporttrio and could not be happier. We made the switch from Kayako a few weeks back.

Originally posted by niyogi
A free alternative to all of these other great tools is OTRS (http://www.otrs.org) - a bit on the challenging side to install and configure but still: it does the job.

For SupportTrio - I just couldn't get e-mail piping to work.

Roj The email piping always has had some issues, although I hear they've fixed them with the last release... Anyway, POP3 always does the job of piping anyway...

I reported some security vulnerabilities in kayako esupport a short while ago. So at least stay away from that. They never responded to me with a fix, and some customers emailed me asking if they ever did, and I had to reply that I haven't heard back with a fix yet. I think they totally lost my ticket or something, which would be odd, since that's their market. Oh well, full-disclosure, right?

I'll add my vote for Cerberus. THOUGH if you're not going to be handling a lot of tickets, then Cerberus could be overkill.

Having finally gotten the POP cron stuff to work for SupportTrio (called in their staff), I can honestly say that I'm excited to work with this software. Cool filtering stuff they've got.

Roj

My vote still goes for building your own :)
I suppose this isn't an option for everyone, but you'd only need a few hours tutorial in php to do it.
Maybe time is an issue for some.

you'd only need a few hours tutorial in php to do it.


Actually, there are far too many variables involved in creating a "good" desk, for that to be accurate.

I will give you, that a few hours of PHP tutorials can get through a basic desk system, but nothing close to a nice one, with needed features.

Let's add to that, that you'll need quite a bit of time to actually develop it, and the design of it.

Originally posted by ANMMark
Actually, there are far too many variables involved in creating a "good" desk, for that to be accurate.

I will give you, that a few hours of PHP tutorials can get through a basic desk system, but nothing close to a nice one, with needed features.

Let's add to that, that you'll need quite a bit of time to actually develop it, and the design of it.

True, but all of those featured above don't have 'advanced' features.
My helpdesk for my company has all the features of those support desks, plus it grabs customers data straight from the database, avoiding having to use a control panel for billing, control panel for support etc. Mine only took my about 3 hours to make. Sure, it's not pretty to look at, and is a bit cumbersome, but it works.

I do have to agree with you however, that building your own, if you can, is the way to go.

You will know that you have what you need, and can add to it if necessary.

This is actually how our new helpdesk IntelloDesk was conceived. We needed something for ourselves that we could effectively intergrate with our entire system.

Since nothing we found fit our needs....we had to begin development of our own.

Originally posted by ANMMark
I do have to agree with you however, that building your own, if you can, is the way to go.

You will know that you have what you need, and can add to it if necessary.


This is actually how our new helpdesk IntelloDesk was conceived. We needed something for ourselves that we could effectively intergrate with our entire system.

Since nothing we found fit our needs....we had to begin development of our own.

Cool. That's the way to go.
Build it for yourself, then market it.
My only trouble is when i do something like that, i'm lazy, and don't make it customisable :)
I end up with code that will only work on my server. hehe

Try ExoPHPDesk: http://exoscripts.com

Try ExoPHPDesk


Yes, another nice one. When I had tested it, there was an issue with the piping. However, it's been a while, so it may be fixed now.

We have been using Cerberus since long back and have found it to be the best helpdesk till now.

I have tried the demo for supporttrio and find its looks to be quite appealing.