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IT ticketing system comparison for small IT teams

Which ticketing system fits depends less on feature lists than on three questions: do you have to self-host, do you need ITIL processes, and how many people work in IT compared with the whole company? Here you will find a selection guide and comparisons with six systems and the shared mailbox. It was written by the provider of 404desk, which you should know when reading.

Selection guide

Guidance from the provider of 404desk. It is no substitute for a test with your own tickets.
If this applies to youTake a look at
We have to host it ourselves.osTicket, Znuny, OTOBO or Zammad. 404desk is only available as a hosted service.
We need change and problem management.Freshservice or Jira Service Management. 404desk has neither.
We already use Jira and Confluence.Jira Service Management.
One person runs IT, with a few requests a week.The shared mailbox may be all you need.
One to five people in IT, 20 to 500 in the company, Microsoft 365, and you want a portal and device management.404desk is built for this. Still check the numbers against Zammad and Freshservice.

Per-agent or per-account pricing

Most ticketing systems charge for the people who work on tickets. 404desk charges for all activated accounts, IT included, but in a single core plan, and only AI costs extra. Prepared accounts do not count. With 100 activated accounts, two of them in IT, it looks like this:

Competitor prices are net, per month, with annual billing, according to the price pages of Zammad and Freshservice, retrieved on 11 November 2026.
System and planCalculationPer month
Zammad Cloud Professional2 × €16€32.00
Freshservice Growth2 × €40€80.00
Freshservice Pro2 × €84€168.00
404desk100 × €1.50€150.00

404desk: No VAT is charged under the small business scheme (§ 19 UStG).

The table compares licences, not scope. If you pay elsewhere for device management, a portal with QR labels or a monthly report, that belongs in the same calculation.

Five questions before any comparison

  1. Who reports?

    Only your own people, or customers too? For customers you need a customer service tool.

  2. Who handles them?

    How many people in IT, and how many accounts in total? That decides which pricing model is cheaper.

  3. Where must it run?

    Hosted, or in your own data centre?

  4. Which processes are mandatory?

    Are tickets, SLA deadlines and requests enough, or do you need change management?

  5. How do you get out again?

    Export, format, time frame. This is the question most often forgotten before buying.

All comparisons

How we prepare comparisons

Each page covers what speaks for the other system, when it fits better, when 404desk fits, a cost example and a checklist for switching. Details about other vendors come from their own pages, linked with the date retrieved. What we could not verify there is not on the page. We have not carried out our own comprehensive hands-on test of all the systems.

An automatic import into 404desk is not available yet. We say so on every comparison page, because for a switch it matters more than any feature. As of 11 November 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Is per-account pricing always cheaper than per-agent pricing?

No. With few people in IT and many employees, per-agent pricing is often cheaper. What matters is which plan you need for your must-have features.

How current are the competitor prices?

Retrieved on 11 November 2026, with the source on every page. Prices change, so check them with the vendor before you decide.

Is there an automatic import into 404desk?

Not yet. It is on the roadmap, without a date. Plan a switch with an export, an archive and a way back.

Further reading

404desk is launching soon. At launch, you can try it free for 14 days.In the end, the only way to know is to try it. 404desk gives you 14 days with no payment details.

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