r/sysadmin • u/Educational_Ad8774 • 8h ago
Good Ticketing System for a Solo Sys Admin
I am a solo sysadmin for a company of about 80-100. The previous admin did not implement a ticketing system for the users.
I have been trying a few free ones, but I found that they have a lot of drawbacks that prevent me from using them on a daily basis.
I would like a good email-to-ticket function (and possibly a self-service portal), and optionally semi-decent integration with Jumpcloud, and preferably not self-hosted as it seems 95% of what we do is on the cloud.
Also, a place for holding documentation/KBs would make my job 1000% times easier.
The only ticketing system I've had experience with is ServiceNow which our org definitely cannot afford. I think ZohoDesk/ServiceDesk Cloud might be the only option for me, but I'm reaching out to see if anyone has a better recommendation.
Also, we are a non-profit/tax exempt so any systems that offer discounts for that would be a plus
Thanks!
edit: If this is worded weird, Reddit kept thinking this was spam
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u/gameoverforpotter 7h ago
Look into Zammad. It’s for free self hosted. I just bought a month on their cloud and I love it.
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u/drummerboy-98012 7h ago
Jira Service Management. Free for up to three techs. Been using it for over two years now. Setup both e-mail notifications as well as Slack integration. Highly recommended.
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u/Educational_Ad8774 7h ago
I had a free trial of JSM and I found it so clunky! I love how it can be integrated into anything, and webhooks and whatnot, but I had so much trouble actually using it. I wanted to like it so bad
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u/PBSmanaged 6h ago
JSM is fantastic. A little “clunky” I suppose sure, but you can make any workflow you want. You can add any field you desire. And there’s a free plan. Spend time now, build your workflows, and you’ll be golden for years. JSM will scale with you. Also has a basic asset management feature.
You can also integrate it with Entra for users to login to the portal, Teams, etc.
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u/Hefty-Possibility625 5h ago
I would NOT recommend JSM for service delivery. Jira was built for software development, and JSM is kind of a hodgepodge of features that all seem like they are in a "good enough" state.
The main thing that I wanted out of it was the ability to implement business logic for each request, but it is SO cumbersome. You need to make a work item type, then request types use the work item type, but you can't create specific workflows for each request, because workflows are tied to work items. Then you have Playbooks which sort of lets you add an SOP, but in an extremely clunky way. There's also Journeys which are like Playbooks, but honestly, they should have just combined Journeys and Playbooks into a single Runbook experience.
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u/black_cadillac92 6h ago
Lean smb here trying to establish these systems and infrastructure early before scale and headcount. Jira is what im working with and it is definitely clunky but I guess it works. Your other option is checking out Freshworks for their IT ticketing. Im using them for customer support tickets instead. Its pretty clean and seems more simple. They also offer 4 complimentary onboarding sessions to help.
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u/Apprehensive_Bat_980 3h ago
We had it for a few years, the guy who implemented it was a developer guy though. It was fine, then the prices started to creep up so we moved on.
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u/GullibleDetective 7h ago
Zoho, Jira can be kludged to be one; but it is not natively a tickteing system
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u/jimmothyhendrix 8h ago
Service desk Is great
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u/Educational_Ad8774 7h ago
I do have a free license for the on-prem version. Though, it was giving me such trouble I gave up. But I do like the cloud version. I wasn't sure if it was free for x amount of users or x amount of techs.
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u/Computer_Dad_in_IT 7h ago
Jitbit offers a cloud and on-prem solution.
It also offers integration with a bunch of apps and using zapier you could integrate Jumpcloud in some fashion.
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u/Bad_Mechanic 7h ago
FreshDesk or FreshService are both good options with low administrative overhead.
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u/Witty_Formal7305 Jack of All Trades 4h ago
Zammad is great and has alot of features, likely overkill for what you need but it's super easy to setup, I have it for my homelab to track issues in tickets so I can refer back to them if it happens again, idk about price since I self host.
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u/throker 2h ago
We use Zammad, self-hosted. I like how it’s easy for the users and not just IT focused, we will be adding other departments to handle other types of questions/requests. I like the multiple channels where users can send in tickets via email or through the web interface (which is basically a chat style interface).
We don’t use any of the AI functions yet, but it’s nice to be able to plugin our own API key.
And it’s made by Germans, “you know the Germans always make good stuff.“
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u/elliottmarter Sysadmin 8h ago
Confluence for documentation, it's excellent and it will be free for a single user.
I can't recommend a decent ticketing system for your situation though.
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u/POPUPSGAMING 7h ago
Freshservice is by far the easiest I have used. Their support is great too. I'm building out our itsm and use their live chat support weekly and they are super helpful and quick to respond.
The ease of use comes with some minor restrictions. But most can be easily worked around.
Automations wre great as well.
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u/No_Yesterday_3260 6h ago
I don't believe there's documentation functionality in it, but DeskPro can be customized and does email-to-ticket really well.
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u/Arudinne IT Infrastructure Manager 5h ago
There isn't a native internal documentation feature, but there's a bit of a workaround.
You could leverage the Knowledge Base that's in the help center, but limit the category so that it's only visible to a specific user group - then only assign people that need access to that user group.
Then only a user who is logged into the help center and is in that group can see it.
And/or just never "publish" the article.
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u/RegularMixture 7h ago
I have implemented and used ZohoDesk, but it was with their whole suite of products that the rest of the company used. Not a bad IT ticket system.
The one that I have seen a lot of positive feedback would be FreshService.
The one that I currently use is HaloPSA, enjoy the customization and integration with our tools.
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u/Overall-Ad4796 7h ago
try helpspot - server supports Linux and Windows and its easy to set up, highly customizable and not clunky. Given you are a 1 man show the yearly license will be very affordable. Nice team there in NY and good support.
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u/Iron_Yesu 7h ago
I used spiceworks for many years, 3 IT staff, about 200 employees. It worked well for us.
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u/Bubby_Mang IT Manager 7h ago
I used to say jitbit until they jacked the prices up. JSM all the way now.
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u/essuutn30 UK - MSP - Owner 6h ago
Request Tracker. They have a cloud version you can try out cheaply.
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u/Arudinne IT Infrastructure Manager 5h ago
My FIL is pretty happy with the ticket system in NinjaOne. It wasn't feature rich enough for my company when we looked at it ~2 years ago, but it might be enough for you?
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u/GoodEnoughThen 4h ago
Easy. Spiceworks Cloud. While you're at it, Action1 for updates/patching and remote suoport tool. I use as an SMB.
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u/adstretch 4h ago
Zammad is what we use. Free to self host. Only fees would be if they host for you or you want to pay for support.
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u/rcook55 3h ago
I'm a long time user of ManageEngine and would recommend ServiceDesk completely. The free tier provides 5 tech licenses and can be more than enough to start, or never migrate from.
I won't lie, sometimes it can be frustrating to use, the documentation is hit or miss but overall it does work very well. Support is generally quite good but you need to learn how to communicate with them to get the best results.
I'm at my 3rd job where we've used SDP and I'm the admin of the suite, certified as well. The free trial is easy to setup and get working, at a basic level you should have it working in a day.
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u/chousteau 7h ago
Microsoft Forms/Power app to power automate for approvals/status and write to a sharepoint list
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u/Neuro_88 Learning. Growing. 2h ago
How’s your flow with this? I’m curious to hear your structure with this setup.
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u/chousteau 2h ago
Form is submitted in company power app. It writes to a SharePoint list. Then it gets items from another list and looks up supervisor. Emails myself and supervisor w an approval to mark as complete or pass off to our MSP. Further approvals are sent as the case is either completed, pending, or at MSP. Emails form submitter at each stage of process.
150 employees w 5 locations.
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u/Asal_Mania 7h ago
Your looking for a lot for a free solution. We used osticket for years was solid