Looking for a new Ticketing system

Posted by jrohrer@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 98 comments

I'm a system admin at a mid-size construction company. We have about 100 employees and two people in IT.

Currently we use Lansweeper for our help desk ticketing system. We don't really use the other features of Lansweeper.

We are looking for a new IT ticketing/helpdesk system.

Right now, all ticket creation is manual. We don't use automated workflows or end user communication through Lan Sweeper. We just use the AD integration of Lansweeper for users to assign tickets too.

We use the search feature to find old tickets for reference information. We are an Office 365 Business Premium shop.

We are looking for a simple ticketing system that can use Office 365 to pull user information for ticket assignment. We only have two agents and do less then 50 tickets a month.

In researching the systems out there, I can't see where automations and AI would help us. Most of our tickets are for user creation and device provisioning. There is no standard way that requests come to IT.

A simple searchable web-based database with O365 user integration would be perfect.

Does anyone have recommendations?

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Own_Piccolo5856@reddit

For 50 tickets a month and two agents, keep it dead simple. Freshdesk free tier or Zammad self-hosted. Both pull O365 users via SSO. Don't over-engineer it.

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gymrat505@reddit

cant suggest anything really but we decided on happyfox

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InformationFew973@reddit

~200 user org, HappyFox has been great for us. Really easy to use out of the box.

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Significant_Radish_1@reddit

We've been using this in our environment and it integrates easily into Teams:

https://cireson.com/tikit/

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fatalpuls3@reddit

I second this!

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RicePuddingForAll@reddit

InvGate is reasonable, allows users to submit tickets by email or Teams, and does a nice job hiding all the advanced features you don't need when you're a small company. More importantly, if a user goes into the portal instead of emailing for a ticket, the interface is dead simple, lessening the pushback by said users.

Of all the helpdesk systems I've used, that is my favorite.

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mattberan@reddit

I'll share this with the product team - thanks! 🫶

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boyrok@reddit

all are crap, i build one from 0 for my personal use, with python and flask,

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BrilliantVacation590@reddit

For your setup, keep it simple! A lightweight, decent ticketing system is enough. BoldDesk works well, is easy to use, and very affordable.

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R0B0t1C_Cucumber@reddit

RT was a relatively simple system , if it's still around give them a look , it's free.

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Pleasant-Seat9884@reddit

Problem with RT (aka Request Tracker), if the DB gets too big.,. the ticketing system becomes way too slow. We just moved off of RT a few years ago and went to SN (ServiceNow).

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cheesy123456789@reddit

Yeah, but he gets 50 tickets a MONTH. He could use a SQLite dev database for 10 years and never notice. (Don’t actually do this, but the point is that the OP will never have a scale problem.)

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R0B0t1C_Cucumber@reddit

Yeah, scale matters for sure here.

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R0B0t1C_Cucumber@reddit

Fair enough, it was ugly but functional for us for about 10 years and we have SN for certain teams these days and Jira for the rest - I just always try to put out open source products served me well where I can :).

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hihcadore@reddit

Couldn’t you just archive old tickets anyway?

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R0B0t1C_Cucumber@reddit

Yeah ideally. a year and change active on the database the rest to an archive environment for further retention.

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SilkBC_12345@reddit

Simple out of the box but highly customizable. Best Practical has always said that RT is more of a framework to have it do what you want.

If one has the inclination and time to do it (AI could do a lot of the heavy lifting here), RT could be made into a very robust ticketing/incident reaponse/change management/onboarding system.

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Familiar_While2900@reddit

Currently use freshservice and love it. Users send email to my helpdesk and it auto creates the ticket. Theres a lot of automatin and ad integration that we don’t use; but very versatile.

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LordGamer091@reddit

The platform is great, their support is God awful though

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NerdWhoLikesTrees@reddit

I’ve had really good experiences with their support tbh. Even very recently

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Small_Editor_3693@reddit

Fresh service every day

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Elensea@reddit

Lansweeper can do email to ticket too. I think fresh service is overkill for 50 tickets a month and 2 agents

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andycoates@reddit

Will fourth for Fresh, i'm pretty sure we aren't using it to it's fullest extent, but it's pretty good

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LegitTaco115@reddit

Also use Freshservice, similar size org as well. It’s good, i have no complaints. Comes with a good amount of extra features that are decent

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hughgwayne@reddit

Third for Freshservice.

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QuiteFatty@reddit

Seconded for Freshservice. Change records are nice and can be tied to tickets for tracking.

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AndenGaming@reddit

We are very happy with JitBit

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slocs1@reddit

Small Team? No developers? Dont do Jira!!!

Go for either OTRS (free opensource) or Halo ITSM (easy to understand and selfmanageable

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Supra_Mayro@reddit

Yeah you need a lot of free time to learn to use and set up Jira. It's probably good if you can get to that point but my small team of 3 has been trying to and we're hating it. Even putting all that aside, the interface is annoyingly sluggish.

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Then-Bison-625@reddit

I'm not sure I agree honestly, JSM was my second ticketing system I've set up and I was able to get the basic ticketing flow set up within an hour or so. No automation or anything at that point though.

There's quite a high ceiling that requires more of a time sink, without a doubt. It's been worth the learning curve for myself and our team, but I understand not everyone can or wants to spend that time

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Then-Bison-625@reddit

Why would you suggest against JSM for these reasons?

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slocs1@reddit

I had a 20 person infra team and jira is really not an out of the box infra ticket system. We switched after 1 year back to otrs.

In Halo/otrs you can use it basically out of the box

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Then-Bison-625@reddit

For a 20 person team - no I definitely wouldn't suggest it without the ability to comit to it

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slocs1@reddit

Reading this again: why not use a group mailbox in outlook?

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Atillion@reddit

Me over here limping along with on prem spiceworks 🤣

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TechGjod@reddit

We settled on GLPI but I like to self host and control :)

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Darkk_Knight@reddit

Same here. Then later moved to iTop.

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Dry_Dealer_3385@reddit

for a 2-person IT team at 100 users, honestly keep it simple. we use osticket at work and it does the job without all the bloat. freshdesk's free tier is decent too if you want something nicer looking. what's your budget like?

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HomeOfTheBRAAVE@reddit

Freshdesk free is going away.

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Dry_Dealer_3385@reddit

Oh, then ig if you have free time on hands, why not make your own system and integrate it, plussss you can actually deploy ai agents to filter out and lend a helping hand to sort things out. Make it MCP accessible and with API endpoints, leave the grunt task to a Hermes agent or an openclaw agent. I guess speaking from a little experience it will cost what a 100-200$ per month ig.

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bandit39201@reddit

We were using Solarwinds Web Helpdesk but they hacked the price for no additional features. Moved to Manage Engine Service desk plus and so far it has worked well. We use auto assign tickets and tickets are opened via email or portal. Portal has solutions so a user opens a ticket and a solution is there it is presented to user if they want to use it. We also used the remote control feature to connect to users

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Suitable-Hand-1059@reddit

We picked up NinjaOne RMM, which has a built-in ticketing system, hardware and software inventory, and remoting software. It has almost identical bells and whistles to more expensive products I’ve used in the past and I’m honestly happy with it.

Not a paid endorsement; this is actually a product I just love using.

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gardenlevel@reddit

We did too, and today they’re telling us we’re not paying for ticketing and it’s an additional charge.

It works ok, but for the cost I’m going to look at other options.

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Suitable-Hand-1059@reddit

Definitely do that! Connectwise is the only other show in town that does what Ninja does, and they quoted about 2-3k annually more than Ninja did. There are other options for endpoint protection which are better than SentinelOne, which is my only real gripe with the whole thing.

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SolutionGlobal9846@reddit

I don’t recommend Atera.

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nakkipappa@reddit

We used freshdesk when we were that small. Might also be worth having a look what vendors you already have in your infra and check their offerings.

Manage engine service desk plus also seems to have a free tier with included asset management, could be worth exploring.

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Phyber05@reddit

Desk365!

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almightyloaf666@reddit

GLPI

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PDQ_Brockstar@reddit

I've heard a lot of good things for both Jitbit and Freshservice

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markwms@reddit

Jitbit is pretty good and reasonably priced.

2 months free with this link. https://www.jitbit.com/hosted-helpdesk/trial/?utm_source=refer10348

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OregonTechHead@reddit

Although I agree with your recommendation, we really don't need referral link spam

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Elensea@reddit

Just do the free license of lansweeper with the helpdesk license total cost is what $240 a year for two agents. Turn off asset scanning.

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Giblet15@reddit

Have you considered just using a sharepoint list? You already own it, it is quick to set up, and very flexible.

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jrohrer@reddit (OP)

Interesting. Do you have any sites that can explain how this works?

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Virtual_Tune636@reddit

There's a pre-built SharePoint site template for it - I just stood it up a couple weeks ago and it works great. I added automations to send notifications via Teams and Email, and you can chat about the issue in the comments of the form

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loki2116@reddit

I second that. Thats what we do. I am the only tech but it seems to work quite well. I have power automate flows to email me when a new ticket is raised.

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Tr1pline@reddit

Just download the addon and test it. It's easy as Microsoft Word.

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Giblet15@reddit

Not really. I’m sure there is some stuff for sharepoint lists in Microsoft learn, but I’ve learned everything I know about them by poking at them. It’s straight forward and intuitive.

It has an integration with power automate in case you want to set up notifications or something. There are different style views if you want cards or kanban. You can really do pretty much whatever you want.

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BudTheGrey@reddit

Nearly anything but Jira

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s_muninx@reddit

i'd keep the search pretty boring for this setup. With 2 agents and low volume, the win is probably searchable history, easy assignment, and email-to-ticket without a bunch of workflow stuff getting in the way. The O365/Entra side is the part i'd optimize around first.

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Arudinne@reddit

For ticketing specifically we moved from Lansweeper to DeskPro

It doesn't really integrate with O365 in the way you're describing, but you can configure it to use SSO for users (both agents and regular users).

We have a handful of ticket types that are only visibile to HR on the use portal which they can use to submit tickets for creating and terminating users.

Creation isn't fully automated, but the helpdesk has scripts that pull the data in via the API when they create users.

Terminations are fully automated and we have a script that disables them in on-prem AD as well as remove them from Entra groups, among other things.

That said, Deskpro lacks an sort of Asset Mangagement, software deplyoyment, etc. For that stuff we use NinjaOne.

NinjaOne also has a ticket system option, which we demoed before Deskpro roughly couple of years ago. At that time it wasn't advanced enough for us - though that could have changed.

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StorminXX@reddit

I’m also a very happy Deskpro user/admin.

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spantosh@reddit

We are using osTicket in our company for internal support and service management. Users can create tickets through email or the web portal form, and tickets are automatically assigned to agents based on the subject category. So far, the system has been working very well for us, and we are satisfied with its performance.

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NirvanaFan01234@reddit

I implemented OSTicket at our small company. It works well for us.

The only thing I wish it did (and it may, but I haven't had time to figure it out), is reporting on SLAs that I set (24 hour response time and ticket open time based on priority).

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cached_and_confused@reddit

Would suggest you SupportPal migrated from OSTicket 4 months ago couldnt be happier dont know why it isnt mentioned more to be honest. pretty cheap and sekf hosted.

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Individual_Maize2511@reddit

desk365 -simple and affordable + easy to setup.

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Leading-Praline7927@reddit

desk365

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SiteMajestic2094@reddit

Jitbit

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hibbijibbies@reddit

Another recommendation for Invgate. https://invgate.com/

Same industry as you with about 400 users. They have both a helpdesk and an asset management platform.

You can use what you need and pricing is not too bad. You can also trial the software for free to see if it will fit your needs. SSO, mobile app, web portal, Teams, WhatsApp integration and email options for ticket logging. Easy to set up and use.

You obviously need to force users to use any helpdesk, or you are wasting your time. 😉

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Then-Bison-625@reddit

We currently us Jira Service Management for our ticketing system.
We also have MS365 Business Premium licensing.

I've combined JSM with Microsoft's Power Automate to automate some flows in to a few different intake points in our JSM helpdesk, then utilize Jira's automations to further automate some tasks and documentation. User submit tickets via email to our helpdesk.

Currently I'm working on implementing Atlassian's Assets and Confluence as well. I've got Assets set up to the point where when changes are documented within our JSM tickets to systems and services, we can tie the ticket directly to the asset which then centrally documents the changes in Jira Assets.

I'm hoping Confluence can be used to better our searching abilities for tickets for our techs, but currently we just have a crudely thrown-together MS One Note.

JSM is free for ?3? or less agents (I can't recall the exact threshold).
Assets is free.
Confluence is free, however you have to make sure once your trial is "up" you designate your Confluence license as the "Free" version.

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Y0U7H1N4514@reddit

we also use JSM for a similar sized org

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ThrowRAthisthingisvl@reddit

This! We are a team of 3(small msp) and Jira works great.

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hyzokaaa@reddit

Hey! This sounds like a great fit for Open Helpdesk. Two agents, \~50 tickets/month, and you just want something simple and searchable without paying for a bunch of AI and automation features you'll never use — that's exactly what we built for.

It's web-based, has ticket tracking with priorities and categories, search, assignments, and reports. No bloat, no features you have to configure and ignore. Takes about 15 minutes to set up.

$15/mo for 3 agents, everything included. 14-day free trial, no credit card. It's also open source if that matters to you.

I'm the founder, so if you need anything specific I'm the one building it.

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seanpmassey@reddit

This looks like it would be a good fit for my home lab. I don’t see any documentation for self-hosting besides standing up the containers. Is there a Discord or something where self-hosters can ask questions?

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hyzokaaa@reddit

Thanks! For self-hosting, the Docker setup is pretty straightforward but I know docs could be better, it's on my list. No Discord yet but that's a great idea, I'll set one up soon.

In the meantime feel free to DM me here or hit me up on Telegram user:@hyzokaaa you run into anything, happy to help.

And good call on r/selfhosted, I'll post there too!

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_haha_oh_wow_@reddit

My shop uses Fresh: Would recommend.

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Bubby_Mang@reddit

Jitbit is pretty cheap and easy to work with.

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wudwud-whisperer@reddit

Halo.

One of the areas AI can help is creating/updating documentation. It also has AI suggestions with confidence levels that you can apply or dismiss, might be as simple as 'send the user this KB' in an email from the generic support email and set the ticket to waiting for customer in a single click.

It syncs users from m365, can sync devices from Intune, lists inside Halo can also 2 way sync to sharepoint lists. Halo has it's own drag and drop automation platform, etc...

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subsvenhurt@reddit

been in almost the exact same situation, M365 shop, tiny IT team, ticket volume too low to justify anything heavy. we ended up going with Freshservice and the Microsoft Entra ID SSO integration was straightforward enough, users authenticate with, existing creds though you'll still need to do some initial directory sync configuration to get agent assignment working cleanly. for your scale the Starter tier should cover what you described, just verify current..

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Tr1pline@reddit

As part of O365 Microsoft List is free, simple, and easy.

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anmghstnet@reddit

Going to ask the question here, why isn't there a established way to put tickets in? Is your company growing? If so, NOW is the time to establish that.

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rcook55@reddit

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is free for up to 5 techs and unlimited endusers. I've been using it for years now and it works quite well. The free version doesn't include asset management but it does ticketing very well. Integrates into O365/AD/Entra and has several other integrations.

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simAlity@reddit

I think Zen desk is probably the easiest of the ticketing systems that I have used

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_bx2_@reddit

I'm using Manage Engine Service Desk Plus and like all Zoho products, its a half baked turd. Avoid Zoho crap if you can.

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plump-lamp@reddit

Servicedesk plus is excellent... We're 8 years in. It's by far the most feature packed offering for the price. Only turd part is zia

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PM-ME-BATMAN@reddit

Yeah we just moved off of ServiceDesk to Jira and I miss ServiceDesk every day

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STRXP@reddit

Check out Alloy Navigator. Basic AI integration, massive customization and automation possibilities with integrated Powershell, Intune integration, etc. etc. . We love it (same industry as you). Moved to it from JIRA/Lansweeper

https://www.alloysoftware.com/

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3DPrintedVoter@reddit

OSticket

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hkusp45css@reddit

We use ServiceDesk plus from ManageEngine. It's very nice, for the price, and ticks all of our boxes.

We're NFP so money matters, to us.

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I've used it for years and it's free

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