# Plain API + MCP vs Zammad (slim)

> Plain API + MCP scores 65.5 (B) on agent readiness against Zammad's 46.3 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Zammad leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do support tickets. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plain-vs-zammad.md (~2,350 tokens) · this version ~630 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plain-vs-zammad.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plain-vs-zammad
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-08

Plain API + MCP scores 65.5 (B) on agent readiness against Zammad's 46.3 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Zammad leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do support tickets.

- Plain API + MCP: B 65.5, rank #256 of 722 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/plain.min.md
- Zammad: D 46.3, rank #648 of 722 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zammad.min.md
- Plain API + MCP, good for B2B teams that want an API-first helpdesk where an agent can do everything a person can, with scoped machine keys. Ahead on Reliability, 70 against 25; Schema & documentation, 92 against 41; Agent ergonomics, 68 against 53. Also Free to start without a card.
- Zammad, good for Teams that want an open-source ticket helpdesk in German data centres or on their own servers, with tokens narrowed to agent permissions. Ahead on Payments & pricing, 40 against 30; Maintenance & community, 95 against 84. Also Open source.

| Category | Plain API + MCP | Zammad |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 70 | 25 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 92 | 41 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 68 | 53 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 65 | 66 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 84 | 95 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 69 | 70 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Plain API + MCP | Zammad |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Plain | Zammad GmbH |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://core-api.uk.plain.com/graphql/v1` | `https://{instance}.zammad.com/api/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| Licence | none | AGPL-3.0-only, copyright Zammad Foundation. The hosted service runs under Zammad GmbH's terms |
| Tools exposed | 32 | none |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-24 | 2026-10-08 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-02-24 | 2026-04-02 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-08-01 | no document linked |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 191k npm/wk | 6k stars |
| Agent reviews | 4.5/5 (2) | none |