If you're looking for a an affordable alternative to UserVoice - that will let users publicly suggest new product features, report bugs and "vote" for these reports - check out our newest addition, the "Ideas forum".

The ideas forum lets authenticated users submit a new feature-suggestion so other users can "upvote" and/or add their input. The forum is tightly integrated with the core helpdesk functionality, so you can simply "convert" your existing support tickets into "ideas" so users can discuss them publicly.

You might also want to check the other ticketing systems price and feature comparisons.

Example workflow:

• User submits a ticket suggesting a new feature
• You're not sure if this feature is a benefit to all users
• You convert the ticket to an "idea" and it is posted to the self-service portal, under "Knowledge-base" - "Ideas forum"
• Other users upvote and comment on this feature
• You monitor the feedback and make your final decision

Possible idea statuses are "new", "considering", "implemented" and "closed". There's no special workflow here, an administrator can simply set the status explicitly.

This module is free and included with all hosted plans and on-premise licenses. If you don't need it - you can simply disable it in the administrator panel.

We've been using it ourselves for while now, to manage our product roadmap and it's been a fascinating experience. Actually, the whole decision to build a feature like this came from our own needs - we were about to install a 3rd party product (very similar to UserVoice). But then we realized, that a feature like that is a perfect candidate for our users - after all, we're building a customer service app! And our customers loved it. We hope you'll like it too.