On Reddit, discussions around IT ticketing systems often reveal a common challenge: finding the right balance between simplicity, flexibility, and cost.
One sysadmin running IT operations solo at a small office said:
“I’m looking for the best open-source IT ticketing system to self-host for a SOHO. It needs to include asset management, LDAP integration for user population, and self-service ticket submission for customers. I’m the only operator.”
An IT team from an SME shared::
“We’re finally replacing our outdated ticketing system. We want something modern, easy to implement, and automation-friendly — but there are just too many options, and the pricing varies wildly. We don’t know where to start.”
Another team described their daily operational needs:
“We need email-to-ticket automation, notifications for clients and managers, and multi-level escalation workflows. Is there any free, open-source solution that can cover all these scenarios?”
These scattered discussions highlight the same underlying reality:
- For solo IT admins or small teams, many ticketing systems are too complex and expensive to set up and maintain.
- For growing companies, choosing the right solution is overwhelming due to the trade-offs between features, cost, and usability.
- For teams with well-defined business processes, existing tools often lack flexibility and can’t fully align with specific workflows.
While there are plenty of off-the-shelf ticketing systems, most fail to balance easy adoption with deep customization.
So, instead of compromising with prebuilt tools, why not build a fully customized ticketing system using an open-source no-code or low-code platform?
❤ If you think the existing ticketing system already meets your business needs, you can read: 6 Best Open-Source Ticketing Systems for 2025
💬 Hey, you’re reading the NocoBase blog. NocoBase is an open-source no-code/low-code development platform for building enterprise applications, internal tools, and workflow systems — fully self-hosted, plugin-based, and developer-friendly. → Explore NocoBase on GitHub
Top Open Source No-Code & Low-Code Platforms for Building a Ticketing System
NocoBase
- GitHub Star: 16.4k
- GitHub: https://github.com/nocobase/nocobase
- Website: https://www.nocobase.com/
Platform Overview
NocoBase is an open-source no-code/low-code platform built around a data-model-driven and plugin-based architecture. Unlike traditional ticketing systems, it focuses on flexible data modeling, workflow design, and plugin extensions, making it ideal for teams that want a highly customized ticketing system tailored to their unique business processes.
Why Build Your Ticketing System with NocoBase
NocoBase offers a ticketing system solution that can be used as a standalone module or integrated with a CRM. Highlights include:
- End-to-End Ticket Lifecycle Management: Handle everything from ticket creation, assignment, and processing to resolution, with full visibility across every stage.
- Smart Assignment & Progress Tracking: Automate ticket assignment based on issue type and team expertise, and track real-time status updates to improve collaboration.
- Unified Multi-Channel Communication: Integrate emails, calls, and live chat through APIs to consolidate all customer communication into one place.
- Plugins & Automated Workflows: Use the built-in automation engine to configure escalations, notifications, and data syncs. Extend functionality via plugins for asset management, reporting, or knowledge base integration.
Budibase
- GitHub Star: 25.3k
- GitHub: https://github.com/Budibase/budibase/
- Website: https://budibase.com/
Platform Overview
Budibase is an open-source low-code platform focused on rapidly building internal tools. Its strengths lie in form-driven app creation and data-source integration. You can design data structures using forms and seamlessly connect them with external databases, REST APIs, or Google Sheets.
Why Build Your Ticketing System with Budibase
Budibase offers an out-of-the-box ticket management template and powerful customization features:
- Customizable Ticket Templates: Prebuilt ticket and status tracking tables with support for custom fields, role-based permissions, and personalized views.
- Role-Based Interface Design: Separate UIs for end-users and agents: users submit and track tickets, while agents manage assignments, updates, and reporting.
- Automation & Workflow Management: Automate repetitive tasks such as ticket cancellations, status changes, or notifications with flexible triggers, branching, and loops.
- Cross-Device & Self-Hosting Support: Use the system seamlessly across desktop, tablet, and mobile, with private deployment and white-labeling for brand consistency and data security.
Appsmith
- GitHub Star: 37.7k
- GitHub: https://github.com/appsmithorg/appsmith
- Website: https://www.appsmith.com/
Platform Overview
Appsmith is an open-source low-code platform designed for developers who need more control over UI and data integration. With its rich set of prebuilt UI components and flexible JavaScript support, you can create custom dashboards, ticket-tracking interfaces, and customer support backends with ease.
Why Build Your Ticketing System with Appsmith
Appsmith offers ready-made customer support solutions, which are particularly suitable for service-oriented enterprises to launch quickly:
- Multi-Source Data Integration & Visual UI Builder: Combine data from multiple sources (databases, REST, or GraphQL APIs) into one interface using drag-and-drop components.
- Role-Based Access Control: Built-in permission layers for “Users,” “Agents,” and “Admins” with separate views, ensuring secure and efficient ticket management.
- Custom Components & Analytics Dashboards: Quickly create ticket-tracking dashboards with tables, charts, and custom widgets to monitor workloads and performance trends.
- Enterprise-Grade Deployment & Security: Includes Git integration, version control, RBAC, secure deployment, and self-hosting support for compliance-driven environments.
Refine
- GitHub Star: 32.2k
- GitHub: https://github.com/refinedev/refine
- Website: https://refine.dev/
Platform Overview
Refine is an open-source React meta-framework built for developers who prefer code-first customization. Unlike the above platforms, Refine doesn’t provide a ready-made ticketing module but offers the infrastructure to build complex CRUD-based internal tools from scratch.
Why Build Your Ticketing System with Refine
Although Refine lacks an official ticketing template, you can leverage its CRM example and core features to build a robust, fully customized system:
- Native React Experience: Build ticket lists, forms, Kanban boards, and analytics dashboards while retaining full control over React components.
- Powerful Data Layer: Out-of-the-box integration with REST, GraphQL, Supabase, and NestJS allows seamless connectivity with existing systems.
- RBAC & Role Management: Implement role-based views and permissions for customers, agents, and admins with fine-grained access control.
- UI Framework Flexibility: Supports Ant Design, Material UI, and Chakra UI, enabling professional-grade UI design and smooth user experiences.
Final Thoughts
The ticketing system landscape is crowded with prebuilt solutions, but they’re often too rigid, too complex, or too limited to fit your workflows perfectly.
Platforms like NocoBase, Budibase, Appsmith, and Refine provide the freedom to design your own process, integrate with your data sources, and build a ticketing system that truly works for your business.
😊 Found this article useful? Share it with your team or anyone searching for the perfect ticketing system solution!
Related reading:
- 6 Best Open-Source Ticketing Systems for 2025
- Top 8 Open-Source Tools for Web Application Development
- Top 5 All-in-One Business Software for 2025
- Top 8 Open Source IT Asset Management Software for 2025
- 6 Open-Source no-code Database Tools Like Airtable and Notion
- 8 No-Code Tools to Build a CRM(Open Source & SaaS Compared)