Chatwoot
An open-source shared inbox and live chat you can run on your own servers, with AI reply assistance built in.
What you'd use it for
Running a shared support inbox across live chat, email, WhatsApp and social channels, with the option to own the whole stack instead of paying per agent forever.
- Answer live chat, email, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, SMS and Telegram from one shared inbox
- Add a live chat widget to a website with a single script tag before the closing body tag
- Get AI-suggested replies and automated first responses from Captain, metered in credits
- Route and tag conversations automatically with automation rules on the Business tier and above
- Run the entire platform on your own servers from the open-source codebase, with no per-agent fee
The verdict
Chatwoot earns its place on channel breadth and cost rather than any single standout feature — WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS, voice and email in one inbox, for meaningfully less per agent than Intercom or Zendesk. Captain, the AI layer, is a genuine convenience but not the draw, since it ships as suggested replies and first-response automation, metered separately from conversation volume. The self-hosted option is the real differentiator, and it is a fair trade only for a team that already has someone willing to own uptime and patching rather than pay a vendor to. For most businesses the hosted plan is the sane default; self-hosting is a deliberate engineering decision, not a shortcut to free.
What it costs
| Tier | Price | For | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hacker | $0/agent/month | A very small team trying live chat before committing. | Up to 2 agents, 500 conversations/month, live chat only, 30-day data retention. |
| Startups | $19/agent/month | A small support team wanting every channel, not just live chat. | Unlimited conversations (fair use applies), email, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, SMS, Telegram and API channels, 300 Captain AI credits/month, 1-year data retention. |
| Business | $39/agent/month | A support team that needs automation rules and reporting, not just a shared inbox. | Everything in Startups, plus voice support, 500 Captain AI credits/month, teams, automation rules, custom attributes, campaigns, full reporting, SLAs. |
| Enterprise | $99/agent/month | Larger support orgs needing security controls and account management. | Everything in Business, plus SSO/SAML, audit logs, agent capacity management, white-labeling, dedicated account manager (20+ agents). |
Read from Chatwoot's own pricing page on 25 Sep 2026. Vendors change prices without notice.
What you need to start
- Cloud: only an email address to start the 15-day trial, no credit card needed
- Self-hosted: a Linux server (Ubuntu 20.04 recommended) with Docker, at least 4GB RAM and 2+ CPU cores
- Self-hosted: PostgreSQL and Redis 7+ running alongside the Rails and Sidekiq stack
- A domain or website to install the live-chat widget script on, either way
About five minutes to a working live chat widget on the cloud plan; a half-day or more to stand up, secure and patch the self-hosted Docker stack yourself.
Your first run Sign up, create a website inbox and paste the one-line widget script onto your site before the closing body tag; the live chat widget is working within minutes, though wiring up email or WhatsApp as well takes longer to verify.
Where it breaks
The per-plan Captain AI credit allowance (300-800 credits) is a hard cap on the AI features specifically — extra credits cost $20 per 1,000 as an add-on, separate from the base subscription.
Available as a self-hosted open-source deployment (free, run on your own infrastructure) or as Chatwoot's own hosted cloud service (the priced tiers above). Self-hosting trades the per-agent fee for the work of running and maintaining it yourself.
First entry in this reference. There is no previous check to compare it against.
When not to use it
Not for a team with no engineering capacity drawn in purely by the promise of free self-hosting — that free tier is free only on Chatwoot's own servers, and running it yourself costs real time in server maintenance and patching. Also not the pick for a team that wants heavy AI automation as the main feature, since Captain is additive and credit-metered rather than a dedicated AI support agent.
Chatwoot’s defining feature is not any single capability — it’s that you can run the entire thing on your own servers for free, source code included, rather than being locked into a vendor’s hosting and pricing forever. That makes it one of the most-starred open-source customer engagement projects on GitHub, and the reason a lot of technically capable teams choose it over Intercom or Zendesk regardless of feature parity.
Hosted or self-hosted
Most businesses reading this directory will want the hosted cloud version — the pricing above — rather than running their own servers. The self-hosted option exists and is genuinely free, but it shifts the cost from a monthly bill to engineering time spent on uptime, updates and security patching. Only worth it if you already have someone who’d rather own that than pay for it.
Captain AI
The AI layer, branded Captain, handles suggested replies and automated first responses, metered in credits separate from the conversation count. It’s additive to the shared-inbox core rather than the reason to choose Chatwoot — the reason is usually the channel breadth (WhatsApp, Instagram, voice, SMS, all in one inbox) and, for some buyers, the open-source option itself.
Against Intercom or Zendesk, Chatwoot is meaningfully cheaper per agent at every comparable tier, with the self-hosting option as a genuine structural difference neither of those offers.
Alternatives
Support & inboxAgentsIntercom Fin
A support agent that answers customer questions straight from your help docs, handing off to a human only what it cannot resolve.
Zendesk AI
Auto-resolves customer support tickets, drafts replies, and routes by intent inside the most widely used help desk.
Support & inboxAgentsHelp Scout
A shared support inbox that looks and feels like email, with AI drafting replies and summarising long threads, built for small teams who dislike ticket software.
Support & inboxAgentsCrisp
A live chat widget, shared inbox and knowledge base with an AI agent that answers from your docs, priced flat per workspace rather than per agent seat.
Get Chatwoot
Buying the tool is not the hard part.
The ebook is about what to hand over, in what order, and how you find out when it goes wrong. One payment, no subscription.