[OSS GAP] Shared Inbox / Ticketing #support #self-hosted #too-expensive #smb
Pain: Teams answering support from 2-3 channels do not want Zendesk pricing or complexity just to avoid replying from a shared Gmail login. “Devoted to discussion, recommendations and news around the open source group chat application, Mattermost. [link]” — reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/Mattermost/)
Why now: Small teams in 2026 are cutting tool spend and refusing extra platform debt. Zendesk, Help Scout, Front are strong products, but they are packaged for bigger companies than support team and other small teams. That makes a smaller, self-hosted wedge in shared inbox / ticketing unusually easy to explain.
Tiny wedge: Shared inbox for support team and other small teams without Zendesk-style pricing and platform weight.
Why this wins: Replaces recurring Zendesk spend with a boring self-hosted alternative for support team and other small teams.
Scope cut: Skip call center suite and AI support agent in v1.
Stack: Node.js + Express + SQLite.