What Is HESK? The Free PHP Help Desk, Its Limits and Real Costs (2026)

HESK is a free, self-hosted PHP help desk with a built-in knowledge base and no cap on staff or tickets, but it is proprietary rather than open source, and removing its "Powered by Hesk" link costs a one-time $49.99. We read every price and limit on HESK's own pages on September 20, 2026 and re-checked them on September 24.

What is HESK, and who maintains it?

HESK does three things: a web form and email turn into tickets, staff work those tickets in a queue with categories, priorities, statuses and canned replies, and customers search a knowledge base before they file. That is the whole product, and the narrowness is the design.

HESK's About page tells the history without much polish: Klemen Stirn wrote the first version in 2005 because he wanted simple free help desk software and could not find any, over 1,000,000 people have downloaded it since, and SysAid supported its development from 2011 through 2025. It is now operated by StyledWeb d.o.o., a company Stirn founded. That is a small, independent, long-lived operation, which is unusual in this category and shows in the release record: the download page lists version 3.7.12, released on September 3, 2026.

Requirements are the lowest of any desk we have looked at: PHP 5.6 through 8.5, and MySQL 5.0.7 through 9.x or MariaDB. A PHP 5.6 floor in 2026 means HESK installs on hosting that nothing else will run on, which is exactly why it turns up in school districts and small MSP shops.

Is HESK free and open source?

Hesk Free is the complete self-hosted application: help desk, built-in knowledge base, mobile-friendly interface, email-to-ticket, all of it. The licenses FAQ answers the seat question directly, saying one installation "can be used by unlimited users (support staff, end-customers)." You handle installation, updates, backups, SSL, cron jobs and email setup, which the download page states plainly.

Now the part people get wrong. HESK is frequently listed as open source, including in roundups we have published. Its EULA, effective December 26, 2020, says otherwise. You may install and use an unlimited number of copies and modify the software to fit your own needs. You may not do these things:

• Redistribute it without permission, over the internet or any other medium.
• Create derivative work from the source. The EULA's wording: "Using the Software source code, in part or full, to create derivative work, new software, or products is expressly forbidden."
• Remove the copyright headers from the source.
• Remove or modify the "Powered by Hesk" links without a valid License Key.

Free to use, yes. Open source, no, and the distinction matters if you were planning to fork it, resell it, or satisfy a procurement rule that asks for an OSI license. Compare that with osTicket's GPL-2.0 or FreeScout's AGPL-3.0, where forking is the point.

The incentive this creates is unusual and worth naming, because it is not the one SaaS trains you to expect. HESK earns nothing from your agent count, your ticket volume or your growth. It earns a one-time fee when the branding link becomes embarrassing enough to pay to remove, and a flat subscription when installing PHP becomes more expensive than not. Neither charge gets bigger as your team does.

How much does HESK cost when free stops working?

Three routes, and all three are priced flat.

Remove the branding, keep your server. The Hesk Website License is $49.99, a one-time fee for one self-hosted installation, and includes one year of support from the Hesk team and a 90-day money-back guarantee. The Hesk Advanced License is $199.99, covering five installations and five years of support. The page is blunt that a license buys nothing else: "The license will remove 'Powered by Hesk' branding from your help desk, but it will not activate any new features." Taxes are added on top.

One detail to plan around: a license covers the major version you bought it for. Per the FAQ, a license purchased for Hesk 3.7.0 works for every 3.x.x update, and a new major version may need a new license.

Let them host it. Hesk Cloud is flat-rate, and that is the whole pitch. The page's own line: "No. Hesk Cloud uses flat monthly and yearly plans."

All three include unlimited tickets, branding removal, daily off-site backups, HTTPS, instant setup, a choice of US, EU or Australian data centers, and a 90-day money-back guarantee. Per-agent, that works out at $2.49 a month on the yearly entry plan, $0.83 on Pro and $0.42 on MAX.

Two cloud caveats. Email-to-ticket fetching over POP3 or IMAP is turned off by default and enabled on request, which the page explains was a response to accidental imports of thousands of existing emails. And moving back to self-hosted later is supported, with a full export, except that cloud-only features cannot come with you.

Worked comparison. Ten agents on Hesk Cloud is $299 a year. Ten agents on Freshdesk Growth is $19 per agent a month billed annually, or $2,280 a year, on the US-served page as of September 24, 2026. That is a factor of about 7.6, and it buys you Freshdesk's automation, reporting, channels and AI add-ons, none of which HESK has. The comparison is only useful if what you need is a ticket queue and a knowledge base.

Who should use HESK?

It suits a small team that wants a ticket queue and a help center working this afternoon, has cheap PHP hosting or a cPanel account, and does not want a per-seat bill that grows with headcount. School IT departments, small MSPs, hosting companies and internal helpdesks are where it turns up. The Cloud plans suit the same profile once nobody wants to own the server: a ten-person team at $299 a year is hard to beat on price.

It is the wrong fit if you need live chat, social channels, WhatsApp or voice in the same inbox, if you need SLA automation and routing rules, if you want an open-source license you can fork, or if your reporting needs go past the Statistics module. It is also the wrong fit if you want to buy on the strength of peer reviews, because the sample is small.

Be honest about that evidence. On Capterra, HESK holds 4.4 out of 5 from 8 reviews, last updated August 26, 2026, with ease of use at 4.3 and customer service at 4.3 (read in a browser on September 20, 2026; Capterra blocks scripted requests). Eight reviews is not a sample you should lean on. The most useful one is also the most on-point: Ummar H., a hosting manager in telecommunications, rated it 5.0 on January 20, 2020 and listed as the con, "All features offered in hesk are not free. Prominent features are paid." That is the same observation this post makes about the modules and the branding, from someone who paid.

The community signal is thin but consistent. r/laravel carries a thread titled "Been using HESK for over a decade, is there something...", which tells you both that people run it for a very long time and that they eventually go looking.

How does HESK compare with osTicket, FreeScout and Freshdesk?

osTicket is the closer comparison on shape and the better one if you need SLA plans, departments and agent teams, all of which it ships free. It demands PHP 8.2 or newer, so it will not run where HESK will, and its hosted edition is per agent at $12 a month, which crosses above Hesk Cloud at about three agents.

FreeScout is the pick if your support is really a shared mailbox and you care about the interface. Its core is free and unlimited like HESK's, but tags, canned replies, SLA workflows and reports are separate one-time module purchases.

Freshdesk is the paid comparison, and worth naming because it no longer has a permanent free plan: Freshworks' pricing page lists only Growth, Pro and Enterprise at $19, $55 and $89 per agent a month billed annually, with a 14-day trial. A separate Free program covers up to 2 agents for 6 months, which buys time but is not a lasting free tier.

If you want the wider field, our free help desk software roundup covers the customer-support side, free IT ticketing systems covers internal IT, the open-source ticketing systems comparison covers the properly forkable options, and free knowledge base software covers the half of HESK most people actually use.

How did we research this?

We read hesk.com's homepage, download, licenses, cloud, demo, about and EULA pages on September 20, 2026 (re-checking the download, licenses and cloud prices on September 24), and captured the screenshots from those pages the same day; the two interface images are HESK's own demo screenshots. We pulled the Capterra rating in a real browser because Capterra blocks scripted requests. We did not install HESK, did not log into its shared public demo, and did not create any account, so nothing here is a first-hand test. Comparison prices for osTicket, FreeScout and Freshdesk come from those vendors' own live pages, checked the same day.

Frequently asked questions

Is HESK free? The self-hosted version is free to download and run, with no limit on staff or customers per its own licenses FAQ, and you handle hosting, updates and backups. Removing the "Powered by Hesk" branding costs $49.99 as a one-time license, and the hosted Hesk Cloud starts at $29.99 a month or $299 a year.

Is HESK open source? No. Its EULA lets you install unlimited copies and modify the software for your own needs, but it forbids creating derivative works from the source, forbids redistribution without permission, and forbids removing the copyright headers. If you need an OSI-approved license, osTicket (GPL-2.0) and FreeScout (AGPL-3.0) are the options.

How much does Hesk Cloud cost? Hesk Cloud is $29.99 a month or $299 a year for 10 support agents and 10 GB of upload space; Pro is $49.99 or $499 for 50 agents and 50 GB; MAX is $99.99 or $999 for 200 agents and 200 GB. All include unlimited tickets, branding removal, daily backups and a 90-day money-back guarantee, and HESK states the plans are flat rather than per agent.

What does a HESK license actually do? It removes the "Powered by Hesk" links and includes support from the Hesk team, and that is all. The buy page states the license "will not activate any new features". The Website License is $49.99 for one installation with one year of support; the Advanced License is $199.99 for five installations with five years.

What are HESK's system requirements? PHP 5.6 to 8.5 and MySQL 5.0.7 to 9.x or MariaDB, as published on the download page for version 3.7.12. That PHP floor is far lower than osTicket's 8.2, which is why HESK still runs on old shared hosting.

Is HESK still maintained? Yes. Version 3.7.12 shipped on September 3, 2026, and the About page describes HESK as run by StyledWeb d.o.o., the company founded by the original author, having previously been supported by SysAid from 2011 through 2025.

HESK vs osTicket: which should I pick? Pick osTicket if you need SLA plans, departments or agent teams free, and your server runs PHP 8.2 or newer. Pick HESK if you want the smaller, simpler product, a built-in knowledge base, very old PHP support, or a flat hosted price instead of a per-agent one. Both are free self-hosted with unlimited staff.

Sources: hesk.com · Download and requirements · Licenses · Hesk Cloud · EULA · About Hesk · Demo and screenshots · Capterra HESK reviews · osticket.com/editions · supportsystem.com/pricing · freescout.net/modules · freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing