Chatwoot

Growing businesses that need a self-hosted Intercom alternative with omnichannel customer support across live chat, email, WhatsApp, and social media

Customer Service ★★★★☆ 4.1/5 Free self-hosted (Cloud from $19/agent/mo) Visit Website

Omnichannel inbox unifies live chat, email, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs, WhatsApp, Telegram, and LINE into a single agent dashboard
Self-hosted version is free with unlimited agents and conversations, versus Intercom's $39/seat/mo Essential plan or Zendesk's $55/agent/mo Suite Team
Built-in chatbot builder with automation rules handles canned responses, auto-assignment, business hours routing, and SLA tracking without third-party bot tools
Full WhatsApp Business API integration allows businesses to handle support on WhatsApp natively, which Intercom only added recently as an add-on
Multi-brand and multi-language support with separate inboxes, portals, and knowledge bases per brand from a single Chatwoot installation

Reporting is limited to basic conversation metrics and agent performance; lacks the revenue attribution, custom funnels, and product tour analytics that Intercom provides
No native product tours, tooltips, or in-app messaging — Chatwoot is strictly a support tool, not a customer engagement platform like Intercom
Self-hosted deployment needs Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, Redis, and Sidekiq — a heavier stack than Go or Node.js-based alternatives
Knowledge base and help center features are functional but basic compared to Zendesk Guide or Intercom Articles in terms of theming and search quality

Key Features

Omnichannel inbox for live chat, email, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, and LINE
Automation rules for auto-assignment, canned responses, and SLA tracking
Shared team inbox with private notes, mentions, and agent collision detection
Knowledge base and help center portal with category organization and search
Customer satisfaction ratings (CSAT) and conversation labels for quality tracking
Pre-chat forms and custom attributes for capturing visitor information
REST and Websocket APIs with webhooks for integration with CRMs and ticketing tools