What is Chatwoot used for?

Chatwoot is an open-source omnichannel customer support desk with live chat, email and social inbox, an AI agent and a help center, positioned against Intercom and Zendesk. It is a good fit for replacing Intercom or Zendesk with a self-hosted desk, handling WhatsApp and social messages in one inbox, and publishing a customer help center.

Is Chatwoot open source?

Yes. Chatwoot is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at chatwoot/chatwoot and is written mainly in Ruby.

Yes. Chatwoot is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence. A managed cloud version is also available, with paid plans from $19 per seat per month.

Can I self-host Chatwoot?

Yes. Chatwoot can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Chatwoot an alternative to?

Chatwoot is an open-source alternative to Intercom, Zendesk, Help Scout and Front. Other open-source alternatives to Intercom include Libredesk and Live Helper Chat.

Is Chatwoot actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Chatwoot was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v4.18.0, published on 18 September 2026. The project has 37k stars on GitHub.

Chatwoot: open-source alternative to Intercom, Zendesk

About Chatwoot

Chatwoot is an open-source, self-hostable customer support platform that gathers all customer conversations into one inbox. It is presented as an alternative to Intercom, Zendesk and Salesforce Service Cloud, and aims to give businesses control over their customer data while managing conversations across channels.

The shared inbox takes in website live chat, email, SMS and messaging channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram and Line. An AI agent called Captain automates replies to common questions to reduce agent workload, and a built-in Help Center portal lets you publish articles and FAQs so customers can find answers themselves. Collaboration tools include private notes with mentions, labels, canned responses, auto-assignment based on availability, custom views and filters, a command bar and multi-language support.

Chatwoot is built with Ruby on Rails and Vue and can be run with Docker, with deployment guides on its help center. The repository license is listed as 'Other', so confirm which parts are open source. A hosted cloud version is also available for teams that prefer not to maintain their own server.

Key features

Shared inbox across chat, email and social channels
Captain AI agent for automated replies
Built-in Help Center portal
Private notes and @mentions
Canned responses and auto-assignment
Custom views and filters
Support for multiple languages

Good fit for

→Replacing Intercom or Zendesk with a self-hosted desk
→Handling WhatsApp and social messages in one inbox
→Publishing a customer help center

Built with: Ruby; Vue; Rails; JavaScript; Docker
Tags: customer-support; live-chat; helpdesk; omnichannel; intercom-alternative; zendesk-alternative; self-hosted; rails; ai

Chatwoot: questions and answers

What is Chatwoot used for?: Chatwoot is an open-source omnichannel customer support desk with live chat, email and social inbox, an AI agent and a help center, positioned against Intercom and Zendesk. It is a good fit for replacing Intercom or Zendesk with a self-hosted desk, handling WhatsApp and social messages in one inbox, and publishing a customer help center.
Is Chatwoot open source?: Yes. Chatwoot is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at chatwoot/chatwoot and is written mainly in Ruby.
Is Chatwoot free?: Yes. Chatwoot is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence. A managed cloud version is also available, with paid plans from $19 per seat per month.
Can I self-host Chatwoot?: Yes. Chatwoot can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Chatwoot an alternative to?: Chatwoot is an open-source alternative to Intercom, Zendesk, Help Scout and Front. Other open-source alternatives to Intercom include Libredesk and Live Helper Chat.
Is Chatwoot actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Chatwoot was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v4.18.0, published on 18 September 2026. The project has 37k stars on GitHub.