Community-skeleton vs FreeScout
Community-skeleton and FreeScout are both team inbox software. Community-skeleton is open source under OSL-3.0, with 20k GitHub stars. FreeScout is open source under AGPL-3.0, with 4.6k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick Community-skeleton when
- You want a free PHP helpdesk and can live with a slower release pace.
- Pick FreeScout when
- A small team wants Help Scout-style email support on cheap PHP hosting.
Side by side
UVdesk's open-source helpdesk: email ticketing, workflows, knowledge base and agent permissions on Symfony.
A shared inbox and helpdesk in PHP, modelled on Help Scout, with many add-on modules for channels and features.
Releases are infrequent, community support is thin, and the vendor pushes its paid SaaS; star count overstates activity.
Many useful features are paid modules, and the AGPL licence matters if you modify and expose it.
Usable
Production-ready
Self-hosted server and cloud service
Self-hosted server
PHP, Symfony and MySQL
PHP, Laravel and MySQL
Open source, OSL-3.0 (strong copyleft)
Open source, AGPL-3.0 (network copyleft)
Use inside your business is unrestricted, but anything you distribute that includes it must be released under the same license.
Use inside your business is unrestricted. If you change it and let customers use it over the internet, you must publish your changes.
20k GitHub stars
4.6k GitHub stars
Established: started 8 years ago, latest release v1.1.8.
Established: started 8 years ago, latest release 1.8.249.
Other comparisons
More team inboxes and shared inbox tools
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from each project's README and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.