Free help desk software you install, not rent
The QuerySolv Free edition is a working ticketing system for two agents. It runs as one Windows service on a machine you already own, it takes requests by web form and e-mail from customers or colleagues, and the license does not expire. It is not a trial and it is not a cloud plan with a meter waiting at the end. If you searched for a free online ticketing system, this is the kind where "online" means your requesters use a browser and the server is yours.
- Two active agents, with the requester portal, e-mail intake, departments, permissions, predefined replies, reports and a knowledge base.
- Installs on Windows Server 2008 through 2025 or Windows 7 through 11. SQLite is built in, so there is nothing else to install.
- Free means free: no expiry, no per-agent meter, no feature that stops working after thirty days.
- Not in the Free edition: live chat, social channels, the SLA engine, the REST API, webhooks, Active Directory sign-in, AI drafting and custom branding. Those are on the Professional edition.
What "free help desk software" usually means, and what it means here
Most search results for a free ticketing system, a free online help desk or an open-source trouble ticket system are one of three things. It is worth knowing which one you are looking at before you spend an afternoon on it.
A free trial
Fourteen or thirty days, then the subscription starts. The desk you built is held until you pay per agent per month.
A free cloud plan
Free for a small team, with the data in the vendor's cloud and the useful features behind the next tier. The plan can be withdrawn, and has been.
An open-source ticketing system
Free to license, but it needs a web server, a PHP or Ruby runtime, a database server and someone to patch all three. The cost moved; it did not go away. The hidden costs of free are counted in the topic library.
The Free edition is a fourth kind: an installed help desk, licensed to you, that stays free because two agents is where it stops.
What is in the Free edition
Everything below is the same code as the Professional edition. The edition key switches features on; it does not change what the service is.
- Web request form and requester portal. Customers and colleagues raise a request and follow it from any browser, with no account and no password.
- E-mail intake, one mailbox per department, checked about once a minute over POP3 or IMAP, with replies threaded onto the right ticket.
- Mail screening rules and a review queue, so spam and auto-replies do not become tickets.
- The agent workspace and dashboard: what is waiting, what is late, what is due within the hour.
- Departments with per-agent permissions, four presets from Trainee to Senior.
- Predefined replies, personal and shared. Merge, link and split. Full-text search across every ticket.
- A knowledge base with public articles and internal ones, indexed by the service itself.
- Seven question-led reports over the last 7, 30 or 90 days, with CSV export and a print layout.
- Supervisor agent evaluation and 1-to-10 satisfaction ratings on resolved tickets.
- Your choice of SQLite, MySQL/MariaDB or Microsoft SQL Server. The default needs nothing installed.
What is not, and why
Professional edition only
- Live chat and social direct messages (X, Messenger, Instagram)
- The SLA engine: targets, schedules, countdowns and breach alerts
- REST API, signed webhooks and Active Directory sign-in
- AI drafting with your own provider or a local model
- Your own branding on the portal and the workspace; the Free edition wears a stock "Support Center" look
- More than two active agents
The honest reason
- The Free edition exists so that a two-person desk can run a proper ticketing system without a budget line. The features above are the ones a team outgrows into, and the Professional edition is bought once, not rented.
- Settings for the Professional features can be entered on the Free edition. They are kept, ignored, and start working the day a Professional key is installed. Nothing is reinstalled and no data moves.
Free edition and the trial are different things
The 30-day trial
The installer with no key runs every Professional feature with unlimited agents for thirty days, so you can judge the whole product with your own tickets. When the trial ends the service stops until a key is installed.
The Free edition
A Free edition key turns the same installation into the two-agent desk described above, for good. Every ticket, article and setting from the trial is kept; features the Free edition does not include are switched off and come back with a Professional key.
Who the Free edition suits
The two-person desk
An administrator and a colleague who share a support mailbox today and want a queue, a history and a knowledge base instead. See the one-person IT department. A charity with one administrator and one volunteer on the desk fits here too: see help desk software for nonprofits.
A Windows shop with a spare machine
The service runs on a retired desktop or a current server. One installer, one Windows service, a backup that is three things: the database, the configuration file and the certificates folder.
Anyone who was told "no cloud"
Tickets, attachments and customer e-mail stay on your own network. What the service sends us is short and listed on the security page.
Things to know before you rely on it
- The server side is Windows only. Requesters use any browser; agents use any current one.
- It is a help desk, not an ITSM suite: no asset inventory, CMDB or change management. The limits page lists everything it does not do.
- Choose the database before you take real tickets. There is no migration tool between SQLite, MySQL/MariaDB and SQL Server.
- Two active agents means two agent accounts. A third person who types the right password is told plainly that the license allows no more; disable an unused account or install a Professional key.
Start with the trial, keep the Free edition
Download the installer and start the service. It runs for 30 days with every Professional feature and unlimited agents; install a Free edition key afterwards and it carries on for two agents with no expiry.
Download Installer with Free Trial