Chatwoot Review
Open-source customer support platform with a website chat widget at its core
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Looking for a Chatwoot alternative? See our ranked comparison.→What is Chatwoot?
Chatwoot is an open-source customer support platform built around a website chat widget, with email, WhatsApp, Instagram, and other channels added on top. You can run it on Chatwoot's cloud or self-host it on your own server, which is the main reason teams pick it over closed SaaS tools like Intercom or Drift.
The product has grown past pure live chat: it now bundles help center articles, a shared team inbox, automation rules, and an AI agent called Captain that drafts replies and summarizes conversations. Captain runs on a credit system separate from your per-agent price, so heavy AI use adds to the bill.
Self-hosting the Community edition is free, but you lose Captain AI, voice calling, custom branding, and role-based permissions unless you pay for Premium Support or Enterprise on top of your own infrastructure.
Chatwoot screenshots
Who it's for
- ✓ Teams that want to self-host their support inbox instead of trusting a vendor's cloud
- ✓ Support teams that already run WhatsApp, Instagram, and email through one shared inbox and want live chat added to the mix
- ✓ Budget-conscious teams that don't need SSO or enterprise compliance features
Who should look elsewhere
- ✗ Teams that want SSO or SAML without jumping straight to the $99/agent Enterprise tier
- ✗ Anyone who wants a hosted install with zero DevOps: self-hosting needs a Linux server with PostgreSQL and Redis, and Chatwoot's own minimum spec is 4GB RAM and 2 CPU cores
Pros
- + Genuinely free, unlimited-agent self-hosted Community edition if you're willing to run the server yourself
- + One inbox covers live chat, email, WhatsApp, Instagram, and now voice
- + Open-source codebase means no vendor lock-in on your data
Cons
- – The free Hacker cloud plan caps out at 500 conversations a month, about 17 a day, too low for a real support queue
- – SSO/SAML and audit logs sit behind the Enterprise tier only, a roughly 2.5x per-seat jump from Business ($39 to $99/agent)
- – Captain AI credit costs per conversation aren't published, so you can't fully predict your AI spend before you start using it
- – Self-hosted teams still pay per agent for premium features (SLAs, audit logs, capacity limits), which cuts into the cost savings of running your own server
Chatwoot pricing
At about $19/month to start, it is one of the cheaper options in Website Chat & Chatbots.
| Plan | Price | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Hacker (free) | Free | Up to 2 agents · 500 conversations a month · Live chat only, no other channels · 30-day data retention |
| Startups | $19/seat/mo | Unlimited conversations · All channels except voice · 300 Captain AI credits a month · 1-year data retention |
| Business | $39/seat/mo | Everything in Startups plus voice channel · 500 Captain AI credits a month · Teams and automation rules · 2-year data retention |
| Enterprise | $99/seat/mo | SSO/SAML and audit logs · 800 Captain AI credits a month · 3-year data retention · Dedicated account manager at 20+ agents |
Prices are per agent per month, billed annually; the pricing page shows only the annual rate, with no monthly-billing toggle. A free self-hosted Community edition also exists: it runs on your own server for $0/agent but drops Captain AI, voice, custom branding, agent capacity management, and role-based permissions. Self-hosted Premium Support ($19/agent/mo, billed annually) adds Captain AI, voice, custom branding, capacity management, and roles/permissions, but not SSO/SAML or SLA policies. Self-hosted Enterprise ($99/agent/mo, billed annually) adds SSO/SAML and SLA policies on top of Premium Support. Captain AI credits beyond the monthly allowance cost $20 per 1,000.
Pricing verified July 7, 2026 · source
How Chatwoot's pricing compares
Chatwoot next to its closest alternatives on entry price, billing, and whether pricing is public.
| Tool | Starting price | Billing | Free option | Pricing disclosed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chatwoot | $19/seat/mo | per-seat | Yes | Public |
| Crisp | $45/seat/mo | flat | Yes | Partly public |
| Tidio | $29/mo | tiered | Yes | Partly public |
| Drift | Custom / quote | quote-only | No | Not disclosed |
| Zendesk | $19/seat/mo | per-seat | Trial (14 days (defaults to Suite Professional plan with Copilot access)) | Partly public |
| Intercom | $19/seat/mo | per-seat | Trial (14 days, no credit card required) | Public |
Is Chatwoot still actively developed?
Last significant update: June 2026. Launched voice calling in beta, letting agents receive and make calls over Twilio or WhatsApp with full customer context inside the same inbox
Top Chatwoot alternatives
Chatwoot FAQ
Is Chatwoot really free?+
Yes, two ways. The cloud Hacker plan is free for up to 2 agents and 500 conversations a month. The self-hosted Community edition is free with no agent cap, but you run the server yourself and skip Captain AI, voice, and role-based permissions.
How much does Chatwoot cost per agent?+
Cloud plans run $19/agent/month (Startups), $39/agent/month (Business), and $99/agent/month (Enterprise), all billed annually. Self-hosted Premium Support ($19/agent/mo) and Enterprise ($99/agent/mo) charge the same rates, though the feature list isn't identical to the matching cloud tier.
What are Captain AI credits and do they cost extra?+
Captain is Chatwoot's AI agent for reply suggestions and summaries. Each paid plan includes a monthly credit allowance (300 to 800 credits), and extra credits cost $20 per 1,000. Chatwoot doesn't publish what a single AI reply costs in credits, so usage is hard to estimate in advance.