Overview

Chatwoot is a open-source customer engagement platform with live chat, email, social channels, and chatbots. It handles live chat, omnichannel, chatbots, and self-hosted, and it's best suited for teams wanting open-source customer engagement. It has been around since 2019, giving it a 7-year head start in building out integrations and refining the product.

The core product is entirely free. Since it's open-source, you can self-host for free with no user limits. It's designed for small teams, striking a balance between simplicity and collaboration features.

Strengths

  • Open source and transparent
  • Includes Live Chat as a core feature, purpose-built for customer support workflows
  • Fully open-source — you can self-host, audit the code, and avoid vendor lock-in
  • The core product is free with no paywalled essentials

Weaknesses

  • May lack some advanced features
  • Self-hosting is free but requires server maintenance and DevOps knowledge
  • Self-hosting requires Linux admin skills and ongoing server maintenance
  • Ticket volume can quickly overwhelm small teams without triage automation

Quick info

Category
Customer Support
Starting price
Free
Free tier
Fully free
Open source
Yes
Best for
Small teams
Founded
2019

Last updated 2026-04-12

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