Helpdesk and support inbox
What it costs to self-host Zammad
Zammad is a web based open source helpdesk/customer support system. Below is the server it needs at each team size, what that costs, and how long the 2 commercial products it replaces would take to cost more.
| Team size | Memory | Disk | Cheapest plan that fits | Server | With backups and your time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| solo | 5.0 GB | 30.3 GB | Starter 8 GB · VPSServer | $39.00 | $272 |
| 5 people | 5.2 GB | 31.5 GB | Starter 8 GB · VPSServer | $39.00 | $272 |
| 10 people | 5.4 GB | 33 GB | Starter 8 GB · VPSServer | $39.00 | $272 |
| 25 people | 6.1 GB | 37.5 GB | Starter 8 GB · VPSServer | $39.00 | $272 |
| 50 people | 7.1 GB | 45 GB | Starter 8 GB · VPSServer | $39.00 | $272 |
| 100 people | 9.3 GB | 60 GB | Starter 16 GB · VPSServer | $84.00 | $326 |
| 250 people | 15.7 GB | 105 GB | Starter 16 GB · VPSServer | $84.00 | $326 |
The sizing model for Zammad
Rails with PostgreSQL, Redis and Elasticsearch. Elasticsearch is what makes this the heaviest helpdesk here, and it is effectively required for usable search.
- 4 GB of memory for the whole stack at rest, every container the project ships included.
- 35 MB more per active user, then 25% on top so the box is not running at its ceiling.
- 30 GB of disk to begin with, growing 0.3 GB per user.
- 2 vCPU. Carried through from the project's baseline and not scaled with team size, because for this workload memory is what runs out first.
These base figures come from the project's own documented requirements. The per-user increments are ours in every case. They are deliberately generous rather than optimistic: a comparison that undersizes the server flatters self-hosting.
Time, not just money
Zammad is rated hard to operate, which in this model means about 16 hours to get it running properly the first time and 3 hours a month after that. At $75 an hour that is $1,200 once and $225 a month, which is usually the largest line in the whole calculation. This one is genuinely heavy: several stateful services, and an upgrade path where rushing can cost you data.
What it replaces
| Commercial product | Its cost at 10 people | Zammad at 10 people | Break-even | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zendesk Suite Team | $638 | $272 | 3 months | full breakdown |
| Freshdesk Growth | $190 | $272 | never | full breakdown |
Where to put Zammad
5.4 GB of memory and 33 GB of disk is what this needs at 10 people. The cheapest plan that fits, among the providers whose prices we have read ourselves, is the Starter 8 GB at VPSServer for $39.00 a month.
We are not claiming this is the cheapest server on the internet. It is the cheapest one we can honestly quote. Hetzner Cloud, Vultr and PikaPods publish prices we could not read programmatically, and Hetzner in particular is usually cheaper per gigabyte of memory than anything quoted above. Price them yourself before you commit.
The VPSServer link above is an affiliate link, run through the same programme as our Kamatera link; VPSServer and Kamatera belong to the same group. If you sign up through it we may earn a commission, but the programme does not state an amount for VPSServer. That never changes the computed costs, which server is chosen, or the conclusion of this page. The sizing model and every price source are published in full.
Project facts
| Licence | GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 |
|---|---|
| Written in | Ruby |
| GitHub stars | 5,905 |
| Open issues | 451 |
| Last commit | 2026-09-11 |
| Repository checked | 2026-09-12 |
| Project | zammad.org · zammad/zammad |
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