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It's a split decision.
Choose osTicket if free, self-hosted ticketing is the priority: its Open Source plan costs $0, and hosted plans start at $12 per agent/month. Choose GLPI if you need broader ITSM, including asset and inventory management, configuration data, and financial management. GLPI Public Cloud starts at €19 per IT agent/month; Private Cloud bills at least 25 agents. Its pricing page lists no free plan, and the review flags setup work.
01Side by side
| GLPI | osTicket | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | €19/IT agent/month Public Cloud; €100/month self-hosted Basic. | $0 self-hosted; hosted starts at $12/agent/month. |
| Free plan | No free plan listed; GLPI is open-source. | $0 self-hosted Open Source plan. |
| Best for | Teams needing helpdesk, assets, configuration, and IT operations. | Teams wanting straightforward customer support ticketing. |
| Core strength | ITSM across helpdesk, assets, configuration, and finance. | Ticket routing, filters, portal, and service agreements. |
| Learning curve | Review notes setup work; ease-of-use score is 5/10. | Review ease-of-use score is also 5/10. |
| Integrations/data | CMDB, inventory, network scans, SNMP reports, application deployment. | Routes email, web-form, and API inquiries into tickets. |
| Team/seat costs | Cloud per IT agent; minimums of 1 public, 25 private. | Hosted per agent; self-hosted seat limits not published. |
| Support | Paid self-hosted plans include unlimited N3 support. | Community support; paid support starts at $12,500/year. |
GLPI Choose GLPI if
- Choose GLPI if you need asset inventory and configuration management.
- Choose GLPI if helpdesk is part of wider IT operations.
- Choose GLPI if paid N3 support is a requirement.
osTicket Choose osTicket if
- Choose osTicket if you want free, self-hosted ticketing.
- Choose osTicket if hosted pricing per agent suits your team.
- Choose osTicket if email, web forms, and APIs cover your channels.
02Pricing compared
These prices cover different deployment models, so compare the hosting and support you need—not just the starting number. osTicket’s Open Source plan is $0 per month for self-hosting, with community support; seat limits are not published. Hosted plans cost $12, $16, or $24 per agent per month, with attachment limits of 2, 8, or 16 Mb. Annual prices are not published.
GLPI Public Cloud starts at €19 per IT agent per month, with a one-agent minimum. Private Cloud is €21 per agent per month but bills at least 25 agents. Both exclude VAT, and no annual prices are listed. Self-hosted GLPI Network plans start at €100 per month for up to 10 technical staff and 500 assets. The pricing page lists no free plan.
03Features and depth
osTicket is focused on support tickets. It routes inquiries from email, web forms, and APIs, and includes ticket filters, configurable help topics, a customer portal, dashboard reports, and business-hours settings for service agreements. Hosted plans list unlimited tickets, users, and email addresses, but cap attachment sizes by tier. The published feature information does not describe asset or inventory management.
GLPI covers a wider ITSM brief: incidents and requests, service catalog forms and SLAs, plus asset and inventory management, network scans, SNMP reports, and application deployment. It also includes a CMDB for configuration data and tools for financial management, data centers, monitoring, and security alerts. That breadth matters if the help desk needs to track equipment and operational data alongside tickets. It also means more scope to configure and maintain than a ticket-focused system. GLPI’s review assessment describes it as broad, while flagging setup work.
04Ease of use and learning curve
If the need is a basic support queue, osTicket’s narrower ticketing focus may be easier to scope: its listed tools cover routing, topics, reporting, and a customer portal. The review assessment still rates its ease of use at 5 out of 10 and describes its presentation as dated, so “simpler scope” does not guarantee a more polished experience.
GLPI covers more ground, from help desk workflows to inventory and configuration management. That gives teams more to set up and manage; the review assessment flags setup work and also rates ease of use at 5 out of 10. We’d compare the configuration effort against the value of keeping asset and service data together. Neither source provides a setup-time estimate.
Questions people ask
Is GLPI free?
GLPI is described as open-source ITSM, but the published pricing lists no free plan. Its listed GLPI Network options include paid cloud plans and self-hosted plans starting at €100 per month. The sources do not specify the cost or terms of running the open-source software without a Network plan.
Is osTicket really free?
The osTicket Open Source plan is listed at $0 per month for self-hosting and includes community support. Hosted plans are paid, starting at $12 per agent per month, and list attachment limits. Seat limits for the Open Source plan are not published.
Which product includes asset management?
GLPI. Its listed features include asset and inventory management, network scanning, SNMP reports, application deployment, and a CMDB. osTicket’s published feature list focuses on ticket handling, routing, reporting, service agreements, and its support portal; it does not list asset management.
What should we check before choosing GLPI Cloud?
Check agent minimums and VAT. Public Cloud starts at €19 per IT agent per month with a one-agent minimum; Private Cloud is €21 per agent per month and bills at least 25 agents. Prices are monthly, exclude VAT, and the published pricing lists no annual rate.