Zammad
95 · HealthyTicketing and helpdesk system with email, chat, phone and social channels in one view.
Open source Helpdesk & live chat
Chatwoot
89 · HealthyOmnichannel customer support inbox covering website chat, email, WhatsApp and social channels.
FreeScout
76 · StableShared-inbox helpdesk in PHP, close in spirit to Help Scout, extended through modules.
Helpdesk
76 · StableTicketing system with SLAs, a customer portal, canned responses and a knowledge base, built on the Frappe framework.
DeskcommCRM
70 · StableChat-first CRM for teams that sell over WhatsApp, with AI agents, sales pipelines and a shared inbox.
osTicket
54 · CautionVeteran PHP support-ticket system that routes inquiries from email, web forms and phone.
Papercups
15 · At riskLive chat widget and support inbox built with Elixir and React.
Source-available and unverified licenses
The code for these is public, but the license is not an OSI open source license, or we have not verified it yet. Check the license notes on each project before relying on it.
Chatwoot
Omnichannel customer support inbox covering website chat, email, WhatsApp and social channels.
Will it still be around?
Healthy
Score 89/100
Can a business use it freely?
Free core, paid extras
MIT · open source (permissive)
Features compared
has,doesn't2 features
9/13 Zendesk features free in Chatwoot
Zendesk has every feature Chatwoot has on this list.
✕ doesn't have it · ◐ partly · $ higher plan or paid editionBoth have 9
Headline Zendesk features on the Suite Professional plan, and whether Chatwoot has each in its free, self-hosted edition.
| Feature | ZendeskSuite Professional plan | Chatwoot9 of 13 free |
|---|---|---|
| Zendesk has, Chatwoot doesn't2 | ||
| SLA policies | Included | Paid editionEnterprise edition |
| Single sign-on | Included | Paid editionSAML is Enterprise |
| Both have9 | ||
| Shared inbox and ticketing | Included | YesConversations inbox |
| Email, social and messaging channels | Included | YesEmail, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, SMS |
| Live chat widget | Included | Yes |
| Help center and knowledge base | Included | Yes |
| Macros and canned replies | Included | Yes |
| Triggers and automations | Included | Yes |
| Satisfaction surveys | Included | Yes |
| Reports and dashboards | Included | Yes |
| API and webhooks | Included | Yes |
| Neither has fully2 | ||
| AI agents and copilot | Higher planAdvanced AI add-on | Paid editionCaptain is Enterprise |
| Custom agent roles | Higher planEnterprise plan | Paid editionEnterprise edition |
Sources
- Zendesk, checked 2026-10-09: zendesk.com
- Chatwoot, checked 2026-10-09: chatwoot.com, github.com
Flat Rate Deploy
A 25-seat team on Intercom Essential pays about $725 a month. Chatwoot on OpenTools costs $39 a month, setup included, so you save $686 a month, about $24,696 over three years.
Monthly cost
- Chatwoot on OpenTools
- $39
- Intercom
$725
You save each month
$686/mo
95% less than today
Saving from month one
You save
- Over 3 years
- $24,696
- In year one
- $8,232
List price checked 7 Oct 2026 · Source · Disclaimer
Health score: 89/100
Healthy · activity, bus factor and issue responsiveness, from GitHub
Score v2 · How it works
Activity
45% weight100/100
- Last commit yesterday (100/100).
- 1456 commits in the past 12 months (100/100).
- 24 releases in the past 12 months (100/100).
Bus factor
30% weight100/100
- Top contributor wrote 23% of the last 97 commits (past 12 months).
- 14 people authored those commits.
Responsiveness
25% weight55/100
- 82% of all issues are closed (1069 open, 4857 closed) (87/100).
- 10 of 30 recent issues got a reply or were closed (33/100).
License
Free core, paid extras
MIT · Open source (permissive)
What you need to do
The core is free to use. Enterprise features, kept in a separately licensed part of the code, need a paid license in production.
For Chatwoot
Everything outside enterprise/ is MIT. Enterprise code needs a paid license.
MIT (core) + separate license for enterprise/ · Open source (permissive). OSI-approved license with few conditions beyond keeping the copyright notice.
License text checked 2026-10-07 · Read it
GitHub activity
- Stars
- 38k
- Forks
- 9.2k
- Commits, 12 mo
- 1.5k
- last yesterday
- Releases, 12 mo
- 24
- last 22 days ago
- Contributors
- 383
- 14 in last 97 commits
- Open issues
- 1.1k
- 4.9k closed
Snapshot from 2026-10-08 · Funding: github, open collective
Top contributors
Points for pull requests merged into Chatwoot and reviews of them since 10 October 2025. Building something another user asked for earns more. 114 people have points on Chatwoot in all.
