Chatwoot — A fully open-source, self-hostable customer support platform positioned as an alternative to Intercom and Zendesk, free for up to 2 agents.
By Noahlast updated pricing verified
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Best for: teams wanting a self-hostable, MIT-licensed alternative to Intercom or Zendesk with full data ownership
Pricing: Free for up to 2 agents; Startups $19/agent/month; Business $39/agent/month; Enterprise $99/agent/month, all billed annually.
- Chatwoot's Hacker (Free) plan covers up to 2 agents and 500 conversations/month with live chat only.
- Chatwoot Startups costs $19/agent/month billed annually; Business costs $39/agent/month; Enterprise costs $99/agent/month.
- Chatwoot's code is MIT-licensed and self-hostable via its GitHub repository, which has roughly 36,000 stars.
- Chatwoot holds a 4.7/5 rating from 6 reviews on Product Hunt.
- Chatwoot offers its Startups-tier features free to qualifying open-source projects and nonprofits.
Limitations: Free Hacker plan is capped at 2 agents, 500 conversations/month, and live chat only.; Voice channel requires the pricier Business tier or above.; Self-hosting the full feature set still requires ongoing infrastructure maintenance.
Top alternatives: Intercom, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Help Scout, Crisp — full list
What is Chatwoot?
Chatwoot is an open-source, self-hostable customer support platform that unifies live chat, email, and social media channels into a single team inbox. It's explicitly positioned as "an open-source alternative to Intercom, Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud etc." The entire codebase is MIT-licensed and published on GitHub, so organizations can self-host their own instance for full data control instead of routing customer conversations through a third-party SaaS vendor, or use Chatwoot's own hosted cloud version. It includes a help center portal, team collaboration tools, an AI agent (Captain) that can auto-respond using credits included in each plan, and integrations with Slack and Shopify. Chatwoot offers its Startups-tier features free to qualifying open-source projects and nonprofits.
Chatwoot is an open-source, self-hostable customer support platform bundling live chat, email, and social channels into one omnichannel inbox, with its code published under the MIT license. The Hacker (free) plan covers up to 2 agents and 500 conversations/month with live chat only; Startups costs $19/agent/month billed annually and unlocks unlimited conversations across all channels except voice; Business runs $39/agent/month and adds voice channels, teams, and automation; Enterprise costs $99/agent/month with SSO/SAML and audit logs. All paid plans include the built-in Captain AI agent, with usage-based credits beyond the plan allowance billed at $20 per 1,000 credits. Chatwoot's core differentiator is that the full product is open source (MIT license) and self-hostable, letting organizations run their own support infrastructure with complete data ownership instead of depending on a closed-source SaaS vendor. Chatwoot offers the Startups plan free of charge to open-source projects and nonprofits on request, and holds a 4.7/5 rating from 6 reviews on Product Hunt.
Standout feature: Fully open-source and self-hostable (MIT license) omnichannel support platform with a built-in AI agent (Captain) included in the plan rather than sold as a separate bolt-on integration.
Biggest weakness: The free Hacker plan is capped at just 2 agents and 500 conversations/month with live chat only, no email or social channels, and self-hosting the full feature set (voice, SSO) still requires ongoing infrastructure upkeep on top of the software being free.
Pros
- Fully open-source (MIT license) and self-hostable for complete control over customer conversation data.
- Built-in Captain AI agent is included in plan pricing rather than a separate paid add-on.
- Free Startups-tier access for qualifying open-source projects and nonprofits.
- Unifies live chat, email, and social channels into one omnichannel inbox.
Cons
- Free Hacker plan is capped at 2 agents, 500 conversations/month, and live chat only.
- Voice channel support requires the pricier Business tier or above.
- Captain AI credit overages cost $20 per 1,000 credits on top of the per-agent subscription.
- Self-hosting the full feature set still requires ongoing server maintenance and updates.
Chatwoot pricing
Free tier · paid from $19/mo · verified from the vendor's pricing page
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hacker (Free) | Free | Per agent, up to 2 agents; up to 500 conversations/month, live chat only, 30-day data retention. |
| Startups | $19/mo | Per agent, billed annually; unlimited conversations across all channels except voice, 300 Captain AI credits, 1-year data retention. |
| Business | $39/mo | Per agent, billed annually; adds voice channel, teams and automation, 500 Captain AI credits, 2-year data retention. |
| Enterprise | $99/mo | Per agent, billed annually; adds SSO/SAML, audit logs, 800 Captain AI credits, 3-year data retention. |
What reviewers say
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