UVdesk

What UVdesk does

UVdesk Community Edition is an email-based help desk from the UVdesk team at Webkul. It turns messages sent to any number of support mailboxes into tickets, which agents handle with internal notes, collaborators, saved replies, ticket types and tags. Automated workflows act on ticket events, and prepared responses apply a set of changes in one step. There are no limits on agents, groups, teams, customers or tickets.

Customers get a support center that you can brand, where they can log in, contact the support team and read the knowledge base. Articles are organized in folders and categories. Email templates control notification messages, and spam blocking and reCAPTCHA protect the forms.

How it is built

UVdesk is a Symfony application, and the open source distribution is assembled from separate bundles: the core framework, an extension framework, an automation bundle for workflows and prepared responses, a mailbox component that turns email into tickets, a support center bundle with the knowledge base, and a REST API bundle. PHP developers who know Symfony can extend it with their own bundles. The front end uses Backbone.js.

The README states that all libraries and bundles in the Community Edition are released under the Open Software License 3.0, an OSI-approved copyleft license.

Paid add-ons

Several features are not in the open source edition. Webkul sells add-on modules for it, including SLA management, custom fields, report insights, time tracking and WhatsApp and Telegram integrations. The hosted plans also list features such as eCommerce multichannel integration, agent performance, a form builder and data import. The repository does not state the license terms of the add-ons.

Self-hosting UVdesk

The documented requirements are Ubuntu 16.04 or later (or Windows with WAMP or XAMPP), Apache 2 or Nginx, PHP 8.1 with the IMAP and Mailparse extensions, MySQL 5.7.23 or later, Composer 2 and at least 4 GB of RAM. You can install it with composer create-project, from a zip archive with a web installer, with Docker or Vagrant, or as an Amazon Machine Image from the AWS Marketplace. Setup runs through the web installer or the uvdesk:configure-helpdesk console command.

Hosted version

Webkul offers hosted UVdesk Pro and Enterprise plans with a 30-day free trial. The free option on the pricing page is the self-hosted open source edition.

Limitations

SLA management, custom fields, reporting, time tracking and messaging channels are paid add-ons, and the hosted plans include features the open source edition lacks. The Backbone.js front end is older than the interfaces of newer projects, and the stated memory requirement is high for a PHP help desk.

Who it suits

UVdesk suits teams that want an email help desk with workflows, a knowledge base and a branded portal, and that have PHP or Symfony skills to adapt it. Check the list of paid add-ons against your needs first. For SLAs and reports in the open source code, compare it with osTicket or Zammad.