Self-hosted customer support inbox with website live chat, email and social channels, a help center and an optional AI agent (Captain).
Open-source alternative toIntercom
Chatwoot at a glance
Checked 21 Oct 2026Chatwoot (v4.19.0, October 2026) is a Ruby on Rails customer support platform you can self-host or use as Chatwoot Cloud. One shared inbox gathers website live chat, email, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS and more, with a built-in help center, canned replies, automation and reports. Most code is MIT; the enterprise/ folder is under a commercial licence. The Captain AI agent is not in the free Community Edition: self-hosted, it needs a paid Premium or Enterprise licence plus your own OpenAI key. Servers need at least 2 cores and 4 GB RAM.
RepoQuarry. “Chatwoot.” Checked 21 Oct 2026. https://repoquarry.dev/projects/chatwootHow much of Intercom does it replace?
- Personal use
- Confirmed: Yes
- For a business
- Partial: Partly Commercial use with conditions: MIT core can be used commercially; enterprise/ code may only be used in production with a…
4 of 4 jobs. Inbox, live chat widget and help center are free to self-host; the Captain AI agent needs a paid Premium or Enterprise licence and your own OpenAI key.
Facts, with sources
Every answer links to where we found it. We read the documentation; we did not install it.
Data Privacy: Keep all customer data on your own serversdevelopers.chatwoot.com · self-hosted ↗ 1d ago
All content that resides under the "enterprise/" directory of this repository, if that directory exists, is licensed under the license defined in "enterprise/LICENSE".github.com · LICENSE ↗ 1d ago
This software and associated documentation files (the "Software") may only be used in production, if you (and any entity that you represent) have agreed to, and are in compliance with, the Chatwoot Subscription Terms of Servicegithub.com · LICENSE ↗ 1d ago
The Community Edition does not include Captain.chatwoot.com · 1755284287-how-to-enable-captain-on-self_hosted-installations ↗ 1d ago
OS: Ubuntu 20.04+ or compatible Linux distributiondevelopers.chatwoot.com · self-hosted ↗ 1d ago
Deploy directly on Ubuntu/Linux virtual machines with our automated installation script.developers.chatwoot.com · self-hosted ↗ 1d ago
We have prepared a deployment script for you to run.developers.chatwoot.com · linux-vm ↗ 1d ago
No licence changes since we started watching. Licence watch: follow Chatwoot and we email you if its licence terms change.
Growth and activity in detail
Is it popular, and is anyone still working on it? From GitHub.
- Actively maintained100+ people committing, active 12 of the last 12 weeks.
31+ people committing in the last 12 months · 155 pull requests merged in 30 days · 87 issues opened, 42 closed in 30 days
Stars over time
Building historyNot enough history for a 7-day gain.
The chart appears after a few nightly checks.
Commits per week, last 52 weeks
active 12 of the last 12 weeksUp 15% on the 12 weeks before.
Where these numbers come from
- Stars, forks, releases: GitHub's public API, fetched every night (last fetch today).
- Star history: counted every night since 22 Oct 2026.
- Commits and people committing: GitHub's repository statistics, counted weekly. Names are never stored.
- Pull requests and issues: counted from GitHub for the last 30 days.
- Stars show popularity, not quality. The facts below are checked separately, by reading the project's own documentation. How we check.