Chatwoot Alternatives 2026

Chatwoot is an open-source customer engagement platform backed by Y Combinator (W21), with more than 36,000 stars on its GitHub repository (36,792 stars and 8,911 forks when we checked in September 2026). Chatwoot covers website live chat, email, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Voice, SMS, Telegram, LINE, and an API channel. The distinguishing factor is the self-hosted Community Edition, which teams can run on their own infrastructure with no licence fee. One detail worth reading before you treat that as "open source, full stop": the repository is not wholly MIT. Chatwoot's LICENSE file places everything under the enterprise/ directory under a separate commercial licence and leaves third-party components on their own terms — only the code outside those is MIT Expat, which is why GitHub's API reports the repository licence as "Other" rather than MIT. Cloud plans run from $0 (Hacker, 2 agents, live chat only) to $99/agent/month (Enterprise), all billed annually, with a 15-day free trial (Chatwoot pricing, checked September 2026). Captain AI — reply suggestions, summaries, and an assistant chatbot — runs on a credit system, with overages charged at $20 per 1,000 credits.

Converge is a cloud-only messaging inbox at $49/month flat for up to 15 team members. It covers nine channels: WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Instagram, Zalo OA, Facebook Messenger, X (Twitter), email through your own mailbox over IMAP/SMTP, and an embeddable chat widget with visitor tracking, UTM attribution, and lead capture. The core difference: Chatwoot offers self-hosting and a wider channel range (TikTok, LINE, SMS, Voice); Converge offers flat pricing, AI reply suggestions with no credit meter, and native Discord and Zalo — channels Chatwoot does not cover.

Chatwoot's feature set is broad for an open-source platform. The shared inbox centralizes website live chat, email, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, TikTok, LINE, SMS, Voice, and a custom API channel. Canned responses, private notes, @mentions, keyboard shortcuts, and a command bar are available on all plans including the free tier. The help center (knowledge base) ships on Startups ($19/agent/mo) and above, as do CSAT surveys, downloadable reports, custom views, business hours, and auto-responders.

Feature gating across tiers is where the plan choice actually gets decided. Teams and automation rules — two things most growing support teams need — require the Business plan at $39/agent/month, and so do SLA policies, custom attributes, pre-chat forms, CSAT review notes, Voice, and WhatsApp/SMS campaigns. Only SSO/SAML, audit logs, agent capacity, and branding removal sit behind Enterprise at $99/agent/month (Chatwoot pricing, checked September 2026). That distinction matters when you are budgeting: SLA tracking is frequently described as an enterprise feature, but on Chatwoot's cloud plans it arrives at $39, not $99. Captain AI ships with each paid plan at different credit allotments: 300 (Startups), 500 (Business), 800 (Enterprise). Those credits cover reply suggestions, conversation summaries, a customer-facing AI assistant chatbot, and a content gap analyzer for the help center (Chatwoot Captain, checked September 2026). Once they run out, further usage costs $20 per 1,000 credits — a variable line item that is hard to forecast when support volume moves week to week.

Converge includes all nine of its channels at $49/month with no tier gating: WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Instagram, Zalo OA, Facebook Messenger, X (Twitter), email through your own mailbox over IMAP/SMTP, and the embeddable widget. AI reply suggestions with tone configuration (professional/friendly/casual) and quick reply matching are included without a credit system — teams can also bring their own API key for AI features. The chat widget provides visitor tracking with beacon data (device, location, referrer), UTM attribution, session persistence, FAQ self-service, suggested messages, and CSAT collection. Converge includes auto-routing (round-robin or load-balanced), SLA policies, auto-reply with A/B testing, and customer lifecycle tracking at the base price. Converge does not offer a knowledge base, TikTok DMs, LINE, SMS, Slack integration, or self-hosting. For teams that need an all-in-one help desk with knowledge base and chatbot builder, Chatwoot covers more ground. For teams focused on messaging inbox efficiency with website visitor intelligence, Converge delivers more at a lower price.

What do Chatwoot's cloud plans cost?

Chatwoot cloud pricing, billed annually, per agent per month (Chatwoot pricing, checked September 2026). Chatwoot Cloud runs on AWS with servers in the US, and every paid tier starts with a 15-day free trial:

• Hacker (Free): $0 — up to 2 agents, 500 conversations/month, live chat only (no email, no social), no Captain AI, no help center, no teams, no automation, 30-day data retention
• Startups: $19/agent/month — unlimited conversations under fair use, every channel except Voice, 300 Captain AI credits/month, help center, 1-year retention. No teams, no automation rules, no custom attributes, no SLA
• Business: $39/agent/month, Chatwoot's own "most popular" pick — 500 AI credits, Voice, teams, automation rules, custom attributes, pre-chat forms, SLA policies, WhatsApp and SMS campaigns, CSAT review notes, 2-year retention
• Enterprise: $99/agent/month — 800 AI credits, SSO/SAML, audit logs, agent capacity, branding removal, 3-year retention. The dedicated account manager and video or voice support apply only to subscriptions of 20 agents or more

The Startups plan is free for open-source projects and registered nonprofits, which is worth asking about before you pay for it.

What does self-hosting Chatwoot cost?

Self-hosted pricing (Chatwoot self-hosted plans, checked September 2026):

• Community Edition (Free): free forever on your own infrastructure, no agent limits, no licence fee — but no Captain AI, no voice calls, no custom branding, no agent capacity, no roles and permissions, no SSO, no SLA, and support only through Discord and GitHub. Requires a Linux server (production minimum 4GB RAM and 2 CPU cores), PostgreSQL, Redis, and S3 or S3-compatible storage for uploads; Docker and Kubernetes deploy guides are published
• Premium Support: $19/agent/month — adds Captain AI, voice calls, custom branding, agent capacity, roles and permissions, and priority email support. It still has no SSO and no SLA policies, which is the detail most teams get wrong when they budget the self-hosted route
• Enterprise Edition: $99/agent/month — adds SSO/SAML and SLA policies, phone support, and developer office hours. Dedicated account management and video or voice support again require 20+ agents on an annual contract

Which Chatwoot costs are not on the pricing page?

Costs that sit outside the table: Captain AI overages at $20 per 1,000 credits; WhatsApp Business API per-conversation fees charged by Meta through your BSP; SMS delivery fees through Twilio or equivalent; and for self-hosting, the server, database backups, and monitoring ($20–$100+/month before anyone's time is counted). The Hacker plan's 30-day retention and 500-conversation cap make it an evaluation tier rather than a production one — most teams start at Startups, where a 5-agent team costs $95/month and a 10-agent team costs $190/month, still without automation or teams.

Converge: $49/month flat for up to 15 team members, all nine channels, AI reply suggestions with no credit meter, 7-day free trial with no credit card (against Chatwoot's 15 days, which is the fairer comparison to make). A 5-agent team on Chatwoot Startups pays $95/month without automation; on Business, where the automation and SLA policies actually live, $195/month. A 10-agent Business team pays $390/month. Converge includes auto-routing, auto-reply, SLA policies, and AI suggestions at $49/month — a 75–92% cost reduction against the equivalent Chatwoot cloud configurations.

Choose Chatwoot if:

• You have DevOps resources and want to self-host for data sovereignty — the Community Edition has no licence fee and no agent limits on your own infrastructure
• You need TikTok DMs, LINE, SMS, or Voice support — channels Converge does not cover
• You want a codebase you can fork and modify for custom workflows, and you have read the LICENSE file closely enough to know the MIT Expat grant stops at the enterprise/ directory, which is commercially licensed
• You need a built-in knowledge base (help center) tightly integrated with an AI chatbot assistant
• Your organization requires SSO/SAML and audit logs (Enterprise plan, $99/agent/month)
• You operate in a regulated environment where controlling the server stack and data residency is non-negotiable

Choose Converge if:

• You want all channels and AI reply suggestions at $49/month flat — no per-seat scaling, no AI credit caps
• You need native Discord or Zalo support (Chatwoot does not offer either channel)
• Your team is 5–15 agents, where Chatwoot's per-agent pricing runs from $195/month (5 agents on Business at $39) to $1,485/month (15 agents on Enterprise at $99)
• You need a chat widget with visitor tracking, UTM attribution, beacon data, and lead capture built in
• You want auto-routing, SLA policies, and auto-reply with A/B testing included without upgrading to a higher tier
• You prefer managed infrastructure with zero server maintenance over self-hosted control
• Predictable monthly billing matters — no credit overages, no per-agent multiplication, no annual lock-in surprises