How much does Chatwoot cost, and what do you really pay for?

Listed price: free (paid plans from €16.93/month/user). What the subscription covers and is hard to maintain yourself: The connections to messaging apps (WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger…).; The Captain AI assistant and the help centre.; Teams, automations and reports.; The mobile apps and managed hosting..

What free or open-source alternatives to Chatwoot exist?

Zammad (open source), FreeScout (open source). Options to compare before committing to a custom build.

Where do you start to build an equivalent of Chatwoot?

Copy this page’s prompt into Claude, Codex or Cursor to get a first prototype. Then plan for hosting, data backups and GDPR compliance: that is what costs the most to maintain over time.

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Chatwoot

Official website · chatwoot.com ↗Are you the publisher? Suggest a correction

Partly replaceableOur view: worth studying depending on your use.free (paid plans from €16.93/month/user)casevibecode verdict · 0 votesPage updated on October 23, 2026 · Published by North Studio

Customer engagement platform that brings website live chat, email and messaging apps into one inbox, with the Captain AI assistant, a help centre, teams and automations. Cloud (data hosted at AWS in the United States): free Hacker (2 agents, 500 conversations a month, chat only), Startups at $19 per agent per month, Business at $39, Enterprise at $99 with SSO and audit logs; the Startups plan is free for open-source projects. Self-hosting possible; the code is open apart from an «enterprise» folder under a commercial licence.

A chat bubble on a site, linked to an interface where a person replies, is a project you build for a small team. What gives Chatwoot its value is the connections: each messaging app (WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger…) has its own rules and interfaces, which have to be maintained. If you only receive emails and a chat on your site, an in-house tool is enough; for a team replying on five channels, the open-source tool is a better starting point than starting from zero.

What you lose

The connections to messaging apps (WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger…).
The Captain AI assistant and the help centre.
Teams, automations and reports.
The mobile apps and managed hosting.

Existing alternatives to Chatwoot

ZammadOpen source
Open-source ticketing system (AGPL-3.0) with email, chat, SLAs and knowledge base; a rather heavy self-hosting stack.
FreeScoutOpen source
Open-source team email inbox (AGPL-3.0) with assignment and notes; several add-ons are paid.

See all 2 alternatives

What a home-built tool costs once it exists

Hosting and database: a server cost, and automatic backups you actually test.
Security and GDPR: dependency updates, an HTTPS certificate, protection of your customers’ data.
Upkeep time: who fixes the tool on a Saturday night in the middle of service if the server goes down?

The prompt to build it yourself

Open in ClaudeOpen in Codex Open in Cursor

Build a small live chat for my website, replacing a customer engagement platform.

Context: a showcase site with about fifteen conversations a day during office hours.

To do:
- A light chat bubble to embed on my site, with an optional name and email address.
- An admin interface where a person sees conversations in real time, replies and assigns one to someone else.
- A queue of messages received outside opening hours, with a reply by email.
- Saved replies and internal notes.
- A history per visitor and a CSV export.

Out of scope: WhatsApp, Instagram and other messaging apps, AI assistant.

Stack: web app with WebSocket, PostgreSQL. README: how to run, backup, how long to keep conversations (GDPR).

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Frequently asked questions

How much does Chatwoot cost, and what do you really pay for?: Listed price: free (paid plans from €16.93/month/user). What the subscription covers and is hard to maintain yourself: The connections to messaging apps (WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger…).; The Captain AI assistant and the help centre.; Teams, automations and reports.; The mobile apps and managed hosting..
What free or open-source alternatives to Chatwoot exist?: Zammad (open source), FreeScout (open source). Options to compare before committing to a custom build.
Where do you start to build an equivalent of Chatwoot?: Copy this page’s prompt into Claude, Codex or Cursor to get a first prototype. Then plan for hosting, data backups and GDPR compliance: that is what costs the most to maintain over time.

How are our verdicts established? Read our detailed methodology ↗

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