Allegra vs. OTRS: A Comparison

Allegra vs. OTRS — The Comparison

You know OTRS and are looking for a powerful service management software or project management tool as an alternative? Or are you looking to introduce a new helpdesk solution, came across OTRS, and are now searching for an affordable OTRS alternative?

We took a close look at both service management tools and compared them with each other. You’ll find the results clearly organized by category in the article below.

At a Glance: The Key Differences

From a bird’s-eye view, there are two fundamental differences between the OTRS alternative Allegra and OTRS, despite many similarities otherwise:

• OTRS is a pure service management solution. Allegra offers comparable functionality in this area, but additionally covers task management and project management as well.
• OTRS supports asset management.

While OTRS focuses on the service and support phase of the product lifecycle, Allegra covers the entire cycle. This specialization means OTRS is in some respects better tailored to its domain, but on the other hand makes collaboration with product management and development more difficult.

Cloud and Self Hosting

OTRS keeps its data on German servers and guarantees compliance with German data protection standards. For European customers, Allegra’s cloud servers are located in Frankfurt and Paris and therefore always comply with the strict European data protection regulations.

The German data centers where data for OTRS and Allegra is stored are certified to ISO / IEC 27001 and DIN EN ISO 9001 standards and approved for contract-based data processing. This guarantees the highest security standards for OTRS and Allegra users. Data transmission between the data centers and the respective end device is encrypted using the secure SSL method.

The GDPR and the rights of data subjects pursuant to Art. 12–22 GDPR have the highest priority when collecting personal data. In our blog post you will find detailed information on the topics of GDPR and data protection with Allegra.

OTRS and Allegra both provide security for your work — either through self hosting or alternatively with a German server location and a stable cloud.

Onboarding, Support, and Integration

Anyone can download Allegra and try it out for free. Alternatively, you can request your own test instance in the cloud from the vendor. The vendor also helps with customization and initial configuration of the tool — even during the trial phase — once a certain license volume is reached.

With OTRS, you can also get an impression of the software without any commitment or cost. The vendor accompanies the onboarding process with consulting services upon request.

Allegra’s German-speaking customer support advises you by phone, email, contact form, and via web conferences on configuration and usage questions. The introduction of the software is made significantly easier and faster by an onboarding package included in the license costs, covering several hours of guided setup.

Because every Allegra customer receives their own dedicated virtual server, the solution integrates well into existing IT infrastructure. Through the diverse APIs, customer-specific extensions can be added — for example, for integration with ERP, CRM, and CI/CD systems. There are a number of ready-to-use integrations for single sign-on as well as CI/CD systems such as GitLab and Jenkins.

Conclusion: Allegra vs. OTRS

OTRS is a proven and widely used service management tool. Allegra stands out as an OTRS alternative through:

• Coverage of the entire product lifecycle
• Support for agile ways of working
• Integrations with well-known development tools
• A powerful workflow engine and a very comprehensive task management feature set

Form your own opinion of the powerful service management software Allegra and book a free live demo.