Trac
Ranked 8 of 9 issue trackers by recommenders
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.
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.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 60%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Self-hosted with the right feature set
“Self-hosted and just the right amount of features.”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Before GitHub” Strong plugin system
“It had a great plugin system!”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Before GitHub” Works well for email support tickets
“they worked pretty well for email first support tickets”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Microsoft Announces AI Autopilot”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Does too much, excels at nothing
“doing too much and excelling at nothing as a result”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Before GitHub” Spam tickets without required accounts
“there were still several spam tickets if you didn't require an account”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Before GitHub” Easy to miss items
“I always miss stuff like this in trac”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Give Django your time and money, not your tokens”
Other issue trackers people recommend
The four most recommended other issue trackers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linear | 148 | 66 | 69% | 12 | 4 yrs6 owners | Approved |
| Jira | 128 | 399 | 24% | 12 | 10 yrs7 owners | — |
| git-bug | 36 | 9 | 80% | 8 | — | Approved |
| GitHub Issues | 29 | 28 | 51% | 11 | — | — |
| TracThis page | 6 | 4 | 60% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
7 of the 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I also remember running into issues with Trac”
“they worked pretty well for email first support tickets”
“Self-hosted and just the right amount of features.”
“there were still several spam tickets if you didn't require an account”
“It had a great plugin system!”
“doing too much and excelling at nothing as a result”
“I always miss stuff like this in trac”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.