Set up a support helpdesk with osTicket and Softaculous

osTicket turns emails and web form requests into tickets that your team can assign, answer and track. It is a free helpdesk that runs well on cPanel hosting. Softaculous installs it; then you connect a support mailbox so incoming mail automatically becomes tickets.

Before you start

• A subdomain such as support.example.com with a valid SSL certificate.
• A dedicated mailbox such as support@example.com; create it in cPanel.
• PHP with imap, mbstring, intl, gd, xml and apcu (optional) enabled in Select PHP Version.

Install osTicket

1. Open cPanel → Software → Softaculous Apps Installer, search osTicket (category Customer Support) and click Install.
2. Installation URL: https://, the support subdomain, empty directory.
3. Set the helpdesk name, the default system email (support@example.com), and the admin name, email, username and password.
4. Click Install. The customer portal is at https://support.example.com/, the staff panel at /scp/.

Connect the support mailbox

1. Log in to /scp and open Admin Panel → Emails → Emails; edit support@example.com.
2. Remote Mailbox (fetching): hostname = server hostname, port 993, protocol IMAP, encryption SSL, username = full email, password = mailbox password. Enable fetching, set the fetch frequency (e.g. every 5 minutes) and choose what to do with fetched messages (move to a folder or delete).
3. SMTP (sending): hostname = server hostname, port 465, SSL, authentication on with the same login.
4. Save and use Diagnostic to send a test email.

Server names and ports are explained in email server settings.

Schedule the fetch cron

osTicket fetches mail when its cron runs. Add a cPanel cron job every 5 minutes:

/usr/local/bin/php -q /home/cpuser/support.example.com/api/cron.php

Then in Admin Panel → Settings → Tickets/Emails, make sure Fetch emails uses the cron rather than staff activity. See cron troubleshooting if tickets do not appear.

Agents, departments and help topics

• Agents → Departments: create departments such as Sales, Billing and Technical.
• Agents → Agents → Add New Agent: add staff, give them a department and role.
• Manage → Help Topics: the options customers choose in the web form; route each to a department.
• Manage → Canned Responses: saved answers for common questions.

Troubleshooting

• Emails not becoming tickets: cron not running, wrong IMAP details, or imap extension missing.
• Replies land in spam: send via SMTP from the support address and check SPF/DKIM; see deliverability.
• Loops with auto-replies: osTicket ignores most auto-responders; avoid forwarding rules back into the support mailbox.

Next steps

• Back up the helpdesk
• Email filters