Chatwoot Review (2026)
The only genuinely open-source option here. Free if you self-host and value your own time at zero, $19 a seat if you do not.
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BEST FOR: TEAMS THAT CANNOT SEND CUSTOMER DATA TO A THIRD-PARTY CLOUD · LAST UPDATED 2026-07-28
Not rated, and not tested by us yet. Other directories print a score out of five for tools nobody measured. A number implies a measurement, so this page carries none until we have run our ticket set through Chatwoot. Everything below is sourced from published material and public reporting, cited at the bottom.
Pros & cons
What works
- Open-source community edition, free to self-host
- Cloud plans from $19 per agent, undercutting most competitors
- Full data control — nothing leaves your infrastructure
- Free Hacker tier covers up to two agents on cloud
- Captain AI included with credits on paid plans
- Frequently paired with n8n for custom automation
What does not
- Self-hosting is free in licence only — engineering time is the real cost
- Captain AI credits metered separately from seats
- Small company with estimated revenue under $1M
- AI capability trails the dedicated agent platforms
- Community edition lacks enterprise features and support
Features
- Open-source customer support platform, self-hostable
- Cloud-hosted option with per-agent pricing
- Captain AI for automated responses
- Live chat, email and social channels
- Shared inbox and conversation management
- Full data residency control when self-hosted
Chatwoot in depth
Chatwoot is the answer to a question nothing else in this directory addresses: what if you cannot send customer conversations to somebody else's cloud? Founded in 2020, it is an open-source support platform you can run on your own infrastructure, and the community edition is free.
There is also a hosted option, and it is competitively priced. Cloud plans run Hacker at $0 for up to two agents, Startups at $19 per agent per month including 300 Captain AI credits, Business at $39 and Enterprise at $99. Additional AI credits are billed around $20 per 1,000. At $19 a seat, Chatwoot Cloud undercuts Freshdesk's $18 Growth tier only marginally but comes in well below Zendesk's $25 entry and $69 Suite Team.
The company is small. Third-party estimates put revenue somewhere between $319,000 and $870,000, which is a fraction of the venture-funded platforms elsewhere in this directory. For an open-source project that is not necessarily a problem — the code outlives the company, which is much of the point — but it is relevant if you are buying the cloud product and expecting enterprise support.
In practice Chatwoot appears most often in discussions among teams pairing it with n8n to build a custom AI layer. That combination recurs across self-hosting communities and is the realistic shape of a Chatwoot deployment for anyone who wants serious automation.
Feature deep dive
Self-hosting and data control
The community edition runs on your infrastructure with no licence cost and no customer data leaving your environment. For teams under data residency rules, in regulated sectors, or simply unwilling to send conversations to a vendor cloud, this is the only option in this directory that qualifies.
Captain AI
Chatwoot's own AI layer, included with credit allowances on paid cloud plans — 300 monthly on Startups, with more at roughly $20 per 1,000. It is competent for knowledge-base answering and nowhere near Fin, Ada or Decagon on autonomous resolution. Chatwoot is not competing on agent quality.
The n8n pattern
Teams wanting stronger automation commonly pair Chatwoot with n8n, building their own pipeline rather than relying on Captain AI. This works and recurs frequently in self-hosting communities, but it means you are building and maintaining a system rather than buying one.
Cloud as the pragmatic middle
At $19 per agent, Chatwoot Cloud is a cheap conventional help desk with an AI layer attached. Most teams that investigate self-hosting and then price their own time end up here.
How it works
Self-hosted
Deploy the community edition on your own infrastructure, configure channels, and maintain it yourself. Many teams add n8n for AI automation beyond what Captain AI provides.
Cloud
Sign up, connect channels, and use Captain AI within your credit allowance. Functionally a conventional cheap help desk with AI attached, and considerably less work.
Who should use it
Teams that cannot use vendor clouds
Data residency requirements, regulated sectors, or policy constraints. This is the only option here that fully qualifies, and for those teams it is the answer regardless of the alternatives.
Teams with idle engineering capacity
If you already have the skills in-house and spare time, self-hosting genuinely is cheap. If you are hiring or diverting people to do it, it is not.
Cost-sensitive teams wanting a cheap cloud help desk
At $19 per agent with a free two-agent tier, Chatwoot Cloud is among the cheapest hosted options in this directory.
Who should not
Chatwoot is the wrong choice if autonomous resolution is your goal — Captain AI is competent but not competitive with Fin, Ada or Lyro, and the platform does not claim otherwise. It is also the wrong choice if you are attracted to self-hosting purely because it is free: price your own engineering time first, because that number usually exceeds several years of cloud subscription. And with estimated revenue under $1 million, teams needing enterprise vendor support should weigh that carefully.
Strengths in practice
Chatwoot is the only genuinely open-source, self-hostable option in this directory, and for teams under data residency constraints that makes it the answer regardless of how it compares on features. The community edition carries no licence cost and no customer data leaves your infrastructure. The cloud option is competitively cheap at $19 per agent with a free tier covering two agents, undercutting Zendesk substantially. Captain AI is included with credits on paid plans rather than gated behind a top tier, which compares favourably with Zoho holding Zia at $40. And the platform has an active pattern of being paired with n8n for custom automation, which means teams wanting to build rather than buy have a well-trodden path.
Weaknesses in practice
The free self-hosted edition is free in licence only, and the real cost — deployment, configuration, maintenance, upgrades, and building an n8n pipeline if you want serious automation — is realistically a week of engineering to start plus ongoing hours. For most teams that exceeds several years of cloud subscription, which makes self-hosting an expensive option that looks cheap. Captain AI is metered separately from seats at around $20 per 1,000 credits, so the $19 seat price is not the total. The AI itself trails the dedicated agent platforms and is not intended to compete with them. And the company is small, with third-party revenue estimates under $1 million, so teams expecting enterprise-grade vendor support should be realistic about what that buys.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Hacker (cloud) | $0 | Up to 2 agents |
| Startups (cloud) | $19/agent/mo | Includes 300 Captain AI credits/mo |
| Business (cloud) | $39/agent/mo | Most popular tier |
| Enterprise (cloud) | $99/agent/mo | Top cloud tier |
| Community (self-hosted) | $0 | Open source. Your infrastructure, your maintenance |
VERIFIED 2026-07-28 · SOURCE: CHATWOOT PRICING PAGES PLUS THIRD-PARTY ROUNDUPS
Vendor claim, not our measurement. Captain AI credits are metered separately from seats: 300 included monthly on Startups, additional credits billed around $20 per 1,000.
Two models. Self-hosted: the community edition is free, with paid tiers available for premium support and enterprise features. Cloud: Hacker at $0 for up to two agents, Startups at $19 per agent per month with 300 Captain AI credits, Business at $39, Enterprise at $99. Additional AI credits run about $20 per 1,000.
The free self-hosted option deserves an honest accounting, because free licence is not free software. Standing up Chatwoot, configuring channels, maintaining it, handling upgrades and — if you want real automation — building an n8n pipeline on top is realistically a week of competent engineering time to start and ongoing hours thereafter. At any reasonable contractor rate that first week exceeds a year of Chatwoot Cloud Startups for a five-agent team, which would be $1,140.
Self-hosting becomes correct in three situations: data residency rules genuinely prohibit vendor clouds, you have idle in-house engineering capacity, or you are at a scale where per-seat pricing has become punitive. Outside those, the cloud tier is almost always the cheaper real cost.
Note also that Captain AI credits are metered separately from seats, so the $19 does not cover unlimited AI usage. This is the same two-meter structure Tidio uses and it makes total cost less predictable than the seat price suggests.
- Up to 2 agents
- Evaluation without cost
- 300 Captain AI credits monthly
- Additional credits ~$20 per 1,000
- Most popular tier
- Expanded features
- Top cloud tier
- Open source licence
- Your infrastructure and maintenance
- Real cost is engineering time
INTEGRATIONS
Chatwoot vs the alternatives
Chatwoot vs Zoho Desk
Both are the value end of this directory. Zoho runs $7 to $40 per user but gates its Zia AI to the $40 Enterprise tier; Chatwoot Cloud runs $19 to $99 with Captain AI credits included from Startups. Zoho is a more mature product with a far larger review base; Chatwoot is the only one you can self-host. If data control matters at all, Chatwoot. Otherwise Zoho is the safer cheap choice.
Chatwoot vs Freshdesk
Freshdesk is the substantially better product with stronger AI in Freddy, at $18 to $95 per agent against Chatwoot's $19 to $99. On price they are close; on capability Freshdesk wins clearly. Chatwoot's only structural advantage is self-hosting, and if you do not need it Freshdesk is the better purchase.
Chatwoot vs Help Scout
Help Scout charges by contact with unlimited agents; Chatwoot charges per agent. A fifteen-agent B2B team pays $83 on Help Scout against $285 on Chatwoot Business. Help Scout is cheaper for that shape and simpler to run. Chatwoot wins on data control and on cost for small teams with many contacts.
Chatwoot vs building on n8n alone
Some teams skip Chatwoot and build support automation directly in n8n. That gives maximum control and no support platform at all — no shared inbox, no conversation management, no agent workspace. Chatwoot plus n8n is the more sensible version of that instinct, and it is the combination that recurs in self-hosting communities for good reason.
Our verdict
Chatwoot exists for teams that cannot put customer conversations in somebody else's cloud, and for them it is the only option here that qualifies. Everyone else should treat the free self-hosted edition sceptically and price their own engineering time before choosing it — that number usually exceeds several years of the $19 cloud tier. As a cheap hosted help desk it is competitive; as an AI agent it is not trying to compete with Fin or Ada, and does not pretend to.
Similar tools
Others in ai agents & chatbots.
Frequently asked
Is Chatwoot really free?
The self-hosted community edition carries no licence fee. It is not free in practice — deployment, maintenance and any custom AI pipeline is realistically a week of engineering to start plus ongoing time.
How much is Chatwoot Cloud?
Hacker $0 for up to two agents, Startups $19 per agent per month with 300 Captain AI credits, Business $39, Enterprise $99. Extra AI credits run about $20 per 1,000.
How good is Captain AI?
Competent for knowledge-base answering, and not competitive with Fin, Ada or Lyro on autonomous resolution. Chatwoot does not position it as such.
Should I self-host or use the cloud?
Self-host if data residency rules require it, you have idle engineering capacity, or per-seat pricing has become punitive at your scale. Otherwise the cloud tier is almost certainly cheaper in real terms.
Sources
Every external fact above traces to one of these.