Keep the self-hosting and control you love from RT — add AI triage, Arabic/RTL, modern ITSM, omnichannel, and a UI your team will actually use.
RT is powerful, reliable, and self-hostable — but it was designed in the early 2000s and hasn't kept up with modern service management expectations.
RT's interface requires training weeks, not hours. New agents fight the UI instead of resolving tickets. Onboarding takes days. Modern teams expect Zendesk-level UX — RT delivers 2003-level UX.
For MENA teams, RT is a non-starter for Arabic-speaking agents and customers. No native RTL rendering, no Arabic date formatting, no Arabic email templates. Your team works around RT, not with it.
RT has no AI triage, no smart reply, no sentiment analysis, no auto-categorization. Every ticket is manually read and routed. In 2026, your competitors are triaging 40% of tickets automatically.
RT handles email. That's it. No WhatsApp, no Twitter/X, no Facebook, no live chat, no SMS. Multi-channel customer contact is impossible without bolting on external systems.
Enterprise SSO with SAML 2.0, SCIM user provisioning, and TOTP-based MFA are either absent or require heavy Perl module hacking. Enterprise IT teams hit procurement blockers immediately.
RT has no native Change Management, Problem Management, On-Call scheduling, Asset Management, or SLA calendars. ITIL-aligned teams must patch multiple systems together.
An honest look at what Maktab has that RT doesn't — and what they share.
| Feature | Maktab | Request Tracker |
|---|---|---|
| Core Ticketing | ||
| Email-to-ticket | ||
| Custom ticket fields | ||
| SLA management with calendars | ||
| Real-time updates (WebSocket) | ||
| Bulk ticket operations | Limited | |
| User Experience | ||
| Modern responsive UI | ||
| Arabic / RTL native support | ||
| Dark mode | ||
| Client self-service portal | Basic | |
| Channels & Integrations | ||
| WhatsApp integration | ||
| Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram | ||
| Live chat widget | ||
| REST API | ||
| Slack / Teams integration | ||
| ITSM Modules | ||
| Change Management (CAB workflow) | ||
| Problem Management | ||
| Asset Management (CMDB) | ||
| On-Call scheduling | ||
| Major Incident Management | ||
| Security & Compliance | ||
| SAML 2.0 SSO | ||
| SCIM provisioning | ||
| TOTP MFA | ||
| IP allowlist | ||
| GDPR erasure / data portability | ||
| AI & Automation | ||
| AI ticket triage & categorization | ||
| Smart reply suggestions | ||
| Sentiment analysis | ||
| Automation rules engine | Scrip-based | |
| Skill-based routing | ||
| Deployment | ||
| Self-hosted on-prem | ||
| Cloud-hosted SaaS | ||
| Modular on/off per feature | ||
| Docker / containerized | Possible | |
Migrating from RT takes 2–4 weeks depending on your data volume. The process is straightforward — RT's data model maps cleanly to Maktab.
RT's REST API or Perl CLI exports all tickets, users, queues, custom fields, and transaction history in JSON or CSV format. Maktab provides an import template.
RT queues map 1:1 to Maktab departments. Custom fields, priorities, and statuses map to Maktab equivalents. The Maktab import tool handles field mapping via a CSV/JSON transformer.
RT Privileged Users → Maktab Agents. RT Requestors → Maktab Client Users. Permission groups map to Maktab roles with an automated migration script.
Point your existing email ingest address to Maktab's webhook (SendGrid or Mailgun). RT's email routing rules are recreated as Maktab automation rules in under an hour.
New tickets come into Maktab. Historical RT tickets remain readable in RT. After 2 weeks with zero regression, decommission RT. Total downtime: zero.
Immediately after migration, without any additional setup:
Schedule a migration consultation. We'll map your RT queues, custom fields, and users in 30 minutes — and show you a working Maktab instance with your data.
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