Chatwoot

Chatwoot is an open-source customer support platform that gives teams a unified inbox for every customer conversation — live website chat, email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Twitter DMs, Instagram, and Telegram — all in one place. It's a fully self-hostable alternative to Intercom, Zendesk, and Freshdesk, without the per-seat pricing that makes those tools expensive at scale.

Market opportunity

The customer service software market exceeds $15B annually and is dominated by tools that charge aggressively per agent: Intercom starts at $74/seat/month, Zendesk at $55/seat/month, Freshdesk at $15–$79/seat/month. For a 10-agent support team, that's $6,000–$10,000/year in software alone — before integrations. For agencies managing support across multiple clients, the math gets brutal fast. Chatwoot's self-hosted option removes per-seat costs entirely, making it the most cost-effective omnichannel support platform available.

Technical overview

• Stack: Ruby on Rails backend, Vue.js frontend, PostgreSQL + Redis, deploy via Docker.
• Inbox channels: website widget, email, WhatsApp (Business API), Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, Line, and API-based custom channels.
• Features: shared team inbox, assignment and routing, canned responses, labels, private notes, conversation history, CSAT surveys, reports, and automation rules.
• Integrations: Slack, Dialogflow (chatbots), Shopify, and a REST API for custom integrations.
• Self-hostable: single Docker Compose command; runs on a $10–$20/month server for small teams.

Who's it for

E-commerce brands managing support across email and social, SaaS companies wanting Intercom without the pricing, agencies running customer support for multiple clients, and any team that needs omnichannel messaging in a single inbox.

Get started

Cloud (managed, free tier available): Sign up at app.chatwoot.com. Create your account, connect an inbox (start with the website widget or email), add your team members, and you're live.

Self-host:

git clone https://github.com/chatwoot/chatwoot
cd chatwoot
cp .env.example .env   # set DATABASE_URL, REDIS_URL, SECRET_KEY_BASE, and email settings
docker compose up -d
rails db:chatwoot_prepare  # or: docker compose exec rails bundle exec rails db:chatwoot_prepare

Visit http://localhost:3000, complete the setup wizard, and install the live chat widget on your site:

<script>
  window.chatwootSettings = { position: 'right', type: 'standard' };
  (function(d,t){/* Chatwoot loader */})(document,'script');
</script>

For production, deploy behind Nginx with SSL on a DigitalOcean Droplet or any VPS.