# Trac

6 Hacker News commenters recommended Trac and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free, self-hosted issue tracker praised for its right-sized feature set, strong plugin system, and handling of email support tickets. Critics say it does too much.

## Why people recommend it

- Self-hosted with the right feature set (1 comments): "Self-hosted and just the right amount of features." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47947533))
- Strong plugin system (1 comments): "It had a great plugin system!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47941243))
- Works well for email support tickets (1 comments): "they worked pretty well for email first support tickets" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48377152))

## What people warn about

- Does too much, excels at nothing (1 comments): "doing too much and excelling at nothing as a result" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47941195))
- Spam tickets without required accounts (1 comments): "there were still several spam tickets if you didn't require an account" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47944091))
- Easy to miss items (1 comments): "I always miss stuff like this in trac" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47422275))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Linear](https://hackerapproved.com/p/linear.md): 148 recommend
- [Jira](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jira.md): 128 recommend
- [git-bug](https://hackerapproved.com/p/git-bug.md): 36 recommend
- [GitHub Issues](https://hackerapproved.com/p/github-issues.md): 29 recommend
- [Epiq](https://hackerapproved.com/p/epiq.md): 19 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Trac", https://hackerapproved.com/p/trac/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).