Chatwoot
Open-source support with an MIT-licensed core, free for two agents and $19 after that.
- Support
- Development
- from $19/mo
Chatwoot is an open-source customer support platform covering live chat, email and social messaging, run either on your own infrastructure at no licence cost or on its managed cloud from $19 an agent a month. The cloud has a permanent free tier for two agents and 500 conversations a month.
Chatwoot: the short answer
Every line below is drawn from facts verified on 20 August 2026.
- What it is
- Open-source support with an MIT-licensed core, free for two agents and $19 after that
- Best for
- Teams who want open-source support software with a managed option
- Starts at
- Free self-hosted, or free for 2 agents on cloud; Startups $19 per agent/month billed annually
- Free option
- Free plan available, 15 days on paid cloud plans trial
- Biggest strength
- MIT-licensed core, which is open source rather than source-available
- Biggest drawback
- The free cloud tier is two agents, 500 conversations and live chat only
- Based on
- Primary-source research, not hands-on use
- Closest alternative
- FreeScout - Cheaper still, AGPL-3.0, unlimited agents free, with features as one-time modules and no AI
- True annual cost
- from $228 a year on Startups, cloud, the cheapest paid tier ($19 a month)
Chatwoot at a glance
| Best for | Teams who want open-source support software with a managed option, Startups with two agents, who pay nothing, Businesses needing customer conversations on their own infrastructure |
|---|---|
| Category | Support, Development |
| Starting price | Free self-hosted, or free for 2 agents on cloud; Startups $19 per agent/month billed annually |
| Free plan | Yes |
| Free trial | 15 days on paid cloud plans |
| Pricing model | freemium |
| Company | Chatwoot Inc. |
| Founded | Not disclosed |
| Headquarters | Not disclosed |
| Founders | Not disclosed |
| Platforms | Web, Self-hosted, iOS, Android |
| Public API | Yes |
| Browser extension | No |
| Mobile apps | iOS + Android |
| Self-hosting | Yes |
| Affiliate programme | No |
| Data source | Vendor pricing page and public records |
| Last checked | August 2026 |
Chatwoot pricing
Prices below were read from the vendor's own pricing page on 20 August 2026. Pricing model: freemium. Free trial: 15 days on paid cloud plans.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hacker, cloud | $0 | per month | Up to 2 agents - 500 conversations a month, live chat only, 30-day data retention. No help centre, no Captain AI, no teams and no automation rules |
| Startups, cloud | $19 | per month | per agent, billed annually - Unlimited conversations subject to fair use, all channels, help centre, 300 Captain AI credits and one-year data retention. No voice, teams, automation rules or SSO |
| Business, cloud | $39 | per month | per agent, billed annually - Adds voice calls, teams, automation rules and 500 Captain AI credits, with two-year data retention |
| Enterprise, cloud | $99 | per month | per agent, billed annually - Adds SSO and SAML, audit logs and SLA policies |
| Community Edition, self-hosted | $0 | per month | Unlimited agents - Free forever on your own infrastructure. Excludes Captain AI, voice calls, custom branding, agent capacity, roles and permissions, SSO, SLA policies and priority support |
| Premium Support, self-hosted | $19 | per month | per agent, billed annually - Adds custom branding and priority support to a self-hosted deployment |
| Enterprise Edition, self-hosted | $99 | per month | per agent, billed annually - The full self-hosted feature set, including SSO, SLA policies and audit logs |
What Chatwoot actually costs over a year
A monthly price is not the same thing as a monthly contract. These are the plans above resolved both ways, per seat or unit where the plan is charged that way. Where a vendor quotes only a yearly figure it is divided by twelve rather than left out, and the Quoted column says which figure the vendor actually publishes.
| Plan | Quoted | Monthly | Over 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Startups, cloudper agent, billed annually | per month | $19 | $228 |
| Business, cloudper agent, billed annually | per month | $39 | $468 |
| Enterprise, cloudper agent, billed annually | per month | $99 | $1,188 |
| Premium Support, self-hostedper agent, billed annually | per month | $19 | $228 |
| Enterprise Edition, self-hostedper agent, billed annually | per month | $99 | $1,188 |
Which Chatwoot plan should you buy?
| Your situation | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You will run your own infrastructure | Community Edition | Free forever with unlimited agents, MIT-licensed, minus Captain AI, voice, SSO and SLA policies. |
| A two-agent startup on the cloud | Hacker | Free, with 500 conversations a month, live chat only and 30-day data retention. |
| A small support team wanting all channels | Startups | $19 an agent a month billed annually with a help centre and 300 Captain AI credits, which is the cheapest comparable hosted tier in our support comparison. |
| You need voice, teams or automation rules | Business | $39 an agent a month billed annually. |
| You need SSO, audit logs or SLA policies | Enterprise | $99 an agent a month billed annually, on cloud or self-hosted. |
| You want unlimited agents and no per-seat bill at all | Consider FreeScout instead | AGPL-3.0, unlimited agents free, with features as one-time module purchases. |
Verdict by who you are
Startup with two agentsYes
Free permanently, and the upgrade path does not require a migration.
Small team wanting open source without operations workYes
$19 an agent a month for all channels and a help centre, with the option to move to your own servers later on the same codebase.
Team with data-residency requirementsYes
The Community Edition is MIT-licensed and free to self-host with unlimited agents.
Team needing SLAs and audit logsCompare first
Both are Enterprise-only at $99 an agent, which is where the cost advantage disappears.
Support organisation wanting an app marketplaceNo
The integration surface is an API and a set of channels, not a marketplace like Zendesk's.
Should you buy Chatwoot?
Buy Chatwoot if…
- Teams who want open-source support software with a managed option
- Startups with two agents, who pay nothing
- Businesses needing customer conversations on their own infrastructure
Do not buy Chatwoot if…
- Teams needing SLA policies or audit logs below the top tier
- Buyers who want voice support at the entry price
- Organisations wanting a large third-party app marketplace
Best Chatwoot alternative for each job
Chosen by what you are trying to do rather than by which product is closest overall, because the right replacement depends on the job.
| If you mainly need to… | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Never pay per agent | FreeScout | Unlimited agents free under AGPL-3.0, with one-time module purchases. |
| The most polished shared inbox | Help Scout | $25 a user a month billed annually, with live chat and knowledge bases included. |
| AI deflection priced per outcome | Intercom | Fin at $0.99 an outcome, and it can run on a desk you already have. |
| Included AI sessions at a low seat price | Freshdesk | 500 Freddy AI Agent sessions included on every plan, from $19 an agent for email-only. |
Key features
- Open-source core under the MIT licence, outside the enterprise directory
- Self-hosting at no licence cost, with a managed cloud as an alternative
- Live chat, email, and social messaging channels in one inbox
- A permanent free cloud tier for two agents
- Captain AI with credits included from the Startups plan
- Help centre and knowledge base from the Startups plan
- Voice calls from the Business plan
- Data retention stated per tier, from 30 days to two years
Integrations
- Chatwoot API and webhooks
- Website live-chat widget
- Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp channels
- Email channels and forwarding
- Self-hosted deployment on your own infrastructure
Chatwoot screenshots
Captured by us in August 2026 at 1440px, unedited. Interfaces change, so these show the product as it looked on the date we verified this profile. Pricing pages are captured from a US vantage point, so the currency shown matches the USD figures recorded above.
Our assessment
Chatwoot is the middle path in this category: genuinely open source, with a managed cloud so you are not obliged to run it. The licence is the part worth checking, and it holds up - everything outside the repository's enterprise directory is MIT, which is a real open-source licence rather than a source-available one, and the self-hosted Community Edition is free forever with unlimited agents. On the cloud, $19 an agent a month billed annually buys all channels, a help centre and 300 Captain AI credits, which undercuts every hosted rival here for a comparable tier. Two limits shape who it suits. The free tier is small - two agents, 500 conversations a month, live chat only, 30-day retention - so it is a trial with a permanent licence rather than a plan to run a business on. And the tier ladder puts things some teams treat as basic behind $39 or $99: voice and automation rules on Business, SLA policies and audit logs on Enterprise, none of them in the Community Edition at all. Nobody here has run it, and there is no test of whether the widget and the mobile apps hold up under volume.
What works in Chatwoot
- MIT-licensed core, which is open source rather than source-available
- Community Edition is free forever, self-hosted, with unlimited agents
- $19 an agent a month is the cheapest hosted tier with all channels and a help centre
- Captain AI credits are included from the entry paid tier
What doesn't
- The free cloud tier is two agents, 500 conversations and live chat only
- Voice and automation rules require the $39 Business plan
- SLA policies and audit logs are Enterprise-only, and absent from the Community Edition
- No published company location, founding date or funding
EveryAny Decision Score
3 of these 8 dimensions are calculated from verified facts; the rest are our judgement, shown as a band rather than a figure unless something specific sits behind them. How each score works.
- Cost position5/10
derivedentry tier at $19 a month against a category median of $25 a month across 6 comparable tools
- Portability9/10
derivedself-hostable, public API, open source
- Subscription flexibility9/10
derivedfree plan, free trial, freemium, monthly billing
- Feature depth6/10
editorialLive chat, email and social channels with a help centre from the entry paid tier, and voice, teams, automation rules, SSO, SLA policies and audit logs staged across the upper tiers.
- Ease of learningModerate
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
- CollaborationHigh
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
- AI capability6/10
editorialCaptain AI is included with a credit allowance - 300 a month on Startups, 500 on Business - and is excluded from the free Community Edition entirely.
- Professional adoption6/10
editorialThe pricing page states Chatwoot helps 15,000+ organisations, and the repository shows 36,001 GitHub stars. No agent or seat count is published.
What leaving Chatwoot would cost
low lock-in
Chatwoot scores on self-hostable, public API, open source. Portability 9/10 ; lock-in is the inverse. How this is calculated.
Chatwoot competitors and alternatives
| Alternative | Why you might pick it instead |
|---|---|
| FreeScout | Cheaper still, AGPL-3.0, unlimited agents free, with features as one-time modules and no AI. |
| Help Scout | Hosted only, $25 a user a month billed annually, with a more polished shared inbox. |
| Intercom | The strongest in-product messenger and AI agent, at $29 a seat plus $0.99 an outcome. |
Help Scout
Support
A shared inbox that never makes your customer feel like a ticket.
Checked Aug 2026
Freshdesk
Support
Zendesk's job at roughly a third of Zendesk's price.
Checked Aug 2026
Intercom
Support
Customer messaging that reinvented itself around an AI agent.
Checked Aug 2026
The licence is what it says
Support software has a habit of calling itself open source and shipping something else -
Akaunting does exactly that in the accounting category. Chatwoot’s licence file is
plain: everything outside the repository’s enterprise/ directory is under the MIT Expat licence, and
that directory carries its own terms.
MIT is an open-source licence with no user cap, no company cap and no field-of-use restriction. So the Community Edition really is free forever with unlimited agents, and the paid self-hosted tiers buy features and support rather than permission.
Two ladders, the same prices
| Plan | Cloud | Self-hosted |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Hacker, 2 agents | Community Edition, unlimited agents |
| Entry paid | Startups, $19 an agent a month | Premium Support, $19 an agent a month |
| Mid | Business, $39 an agent a month | - |
| Top | Enterprise, $99 an agent a month | Enterprise Edition, $99 an agent a month |
Both paid figures are billed annually. The interesting asymmetry is at the free end: the cloud’s free tier caps agents at two, and the self-hosted one does not cap them at all.
What the free cloud tier is not
Two agents, 500 conversations a month, live chat only, and 30-day data retention. No help centre, no Captain AI, no teams, no automation rules.
That is a working trial with no expiry rather than a plan to run a support desk on. Compare FreeScout, whose free tier has unlimited agents because it is a licence rather than a hosted plan, and Freshdesk, which has no free tier at all.
Where the cost advantage stops
At $19 an agent a month with all channels, a help centre and 300 Captain AI credits, Chatwoot Startups is the cheapest comparable hosted tier in our support comparison - under Help Scout at $25 a user a month and half Zendesk Suite Team at $55 an agent.
Then the ladder catches up with you:
- Voice calls, teams and automation rules need Business at $39 an agent a month.
- SSO, audit logs and SLA policies need Enterprise at $99 an agent a month, which is Zendesk territory.
- The Community Edition excludes Captain AI, voice, custom branding, roles and permissions, SSO, SLA policies and priority support - so free self-hosting is the basic product, not the whole one.
Price the tier that contains what you actually need, which is the same advice this category always deserves.
What we have not done
Nobody here has deployed Chatwoot, handled a conversation in it or spent a Captain AI credit. What is checked is both price ladders, the free tier’s caps, the data-retention figures and the licence file - read on 20 August 2026.
Chatwoot questions, answered
- Is Chatwoot worth it?
- Chatwoot is the middle path in this category: genuinely open source, with a managed cloud so you are not obliged to run it.
- How much does Chatwoot cost?
- Free self-hosted, or free for 2 agents on cloud; Startups $19 per agent/month billed annually. The cheapest paid tier we recorded is Startups, cloud, published at $19 a month, which works out at $19 a month or $228 over a year. Verified against the vendor's pricing page.
- Does Chatwoot have a free plan or free trial?
- Chatwoot has a free plan. A free trial is available: 15 days on paid cloud plans.
- What is the best Chatwoot alternative?
- It depends on the job. FreeScout: Cheaper still, AGPL-3.0, unlimited agents free, with features as one-time modules and no AI. Help Scout: Hosted only, $25 a user a month billed annually, with a more polished shared inbox. Intercom: The strongest in-product messenger and AI agent, at $29 a seat plus $0.99 an outcome.
- Can I self-host Chatwoot?
- Yes. Chatwoot can be run on your own infrastructure, so the data stays under your control.
What this profile is based on
Every claim below is about our work, not about Chatwoot. A "no" is recorded rather than omitted, because the difference between a tested review and careful desk research is the reader's to weigh. How we research a profile.
-
Prices read from the vendor : yes
Read from Chatwoot's own pricing page on 20 August 2026
-
Plans and terms recorded : yes
7 rows, each with its billing period
-
Original screenshots : yes
1 captured by us: pricing page
-
Sources cited and dated : yes
3 primary sources, each with the date it was read
-
Product used first-hand : no
Not tested. This profile is desk research from primary sources
-
Alternatives used first-hand : no
None, so comparisons here rest on published facts rather than use
-
Vendor contacted : no
Not contacted for this profile
Desk research from Chatwoot's own cloud and self-hosted pricing pages, read on 20 August 2026 through a United States egress, plus the licence file and star count from the GitHub repository. Nobody here has deployed Chatwoot or handled a conversation in it, and Captain AI was not tested.
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Provenance and freshness
When each fact was last checked
- Pricing ·
- Plans ·
- Free trial
- Features
- Platforms
- Integrations
- Affiliate programme
- Company details
Individually sourced claims
-
Cloud plans are Hacker free for 2 agents, Startups $19, Business $39 and Enterprise $99 an agent a month billed annually
Chatwoot cloud pricing ↗ · checked
-
The free Hacker tier covers 500 conversations a month, live chat only, with 30-day data retention and no help centre or Captain AI
Chatwoot cloud pricing ↗ · checked
-
The self-hosted Community Edition is free forever, with Premium Support at $19 and Enterprise Edition at $99 an agent a month billed annually
Chatwoot self-hosted plans ↗ · checked
-
Everything outside the repository's enterprise directory is licensed under the MIT Expat licence, with the enterprise directory under its own licence
LICENSE in chatwoot/chatwoot ↗ · checked
-
Chatwoot states it helps 15,000+ organisations, and the repository shows 36,001 stars
What has changed
-
August 2026
- First published, with cloud and self-hosted ladders read from the vendor's own two pricing pages
- Read the licence file rather than the marketing copy - the core is MIT outside the enterprise directory, which is open source rather than source-available
- Recorded the free tier's conversation cap and data-retention limit
Sources & verification
Facts on this page were read from the sources below on the dates shown. Where a vendor does not publish a figure, we record it as not disclosed rather than estimating it.
- Chatwoot cloud pricing - checked 20 August 2026
- Chatwoot self-hosted plans - checked 20 August 2026
- LICENSE in chatwoot/chatwoot - checked 20 August 2026
Spotted something out of date? Email [email protected] and we will re-check it. Corrections are logged on the page.
