Chatwoot alternatives
Customer Support · chatwoot.com
Chatwoot is an open source, self-hostable customer support platform that consolidates live chat, email, social and messaging channels into a shared agent inbox with reporting and AI assistance.
Switching to JivoChat saves $228 / year and covers 57% of the compared capabilities.
Find my alternative
Way less money.
Top Chatwoot alternatives
We compared 17 products and found 8 cheaper options (4 of them cover at least half the compared features) · vs Chatwoot Startups at $19/mo · scenario: single user, monthly billing, USD.
Chatwoot’s own free plan covers this scenario. If you’re paying for features you don’t use, downgrading beats switching. The paid comparison below is for when you’ve outgrown free tiers — the “Free plans” view shows alternatives if you want free with different limits.
Chatwoot costs $19/mo on the Startups plan at single user, monthly billing. We found 8 assessed alternatives that are cheaper in this scenario; 1 of them covers at least 75% of the 7 compared capabilities. Chatwoot's own free plan covers this scenario, so downgrading may beat switching.
| Product | Match | Price | Annual savings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
TOP PICK Helply Per-ticket pricing plan · missing: Canned responses / macros | 86% | $1/mo how? ⓘ | $216 / year 95% cheaper | |
Smartsupp Solo plan · missing: Knowledge base / help center, AI agents | 71% | $17/mo how? ⓘ | $24 / year 11% cheaper |
Which Chatwoot alternative for which situation
Picked by the numbers in this scenario — same subtype unless stated, assessed products only.
- Best free plan
- JivoChat — $0/mo (Free plan) · covers 57%
- Best paid drop-in
- Helply — $1/mo (Per-ticket pricing plan) · covers 86%
- Need omnichannel inbox, AI copilot, live chat & messaging or AI agents?
- JivoChat — from $0/mo (Free plan)
- Need CSAT surveys or canned responses / macros?
- Smartsupp — from $0/mo (Free plan)
- Need knowledge base / help center?
- Help Scout — from $0/mo (Free plan)
What you give up
Capabilities Chatwoot has that the top alternatives lack.
- Omnichannel inbox — Manage messages from multiple channels in one inbox.Missing from Help Scout.
- CSAT surveys — Survey customers on satisfaction after a support interaction.Missing from JivoChat, Tidio, Help Scout.
- Canned responses / macros — Reuse saved reply templates for common questions.Missing from JivoChat, Tidio.
- Knowledge base / help center — Publish a self-serve help center for customers.Missing from JivoChat, Smartsupp, Tidio.
- AI copilot — Get AI-drafted reply suggestions for support agents.Missing from Smartsupp, Help Scout.
- Live chat & messaging — Chat with customers in real time on your site or app.Missing from Help Scout.
- AI agents — Let an AI agent resolve support requests automatically.Missing from Smartsupp, Help Scout.
Feature comparison
Chatwoot vs the top alternatives, on the 7 compared capabilities.
| Capability | Chatwoot | JivoChat | Smartsupp | Tidio | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Omnichannel inbox from Startups | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| CSAT surveys from Startups | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Canned responses / macros | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Knowledge base / help center from Startups | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| AI copilot from Startups | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Live chat & messaging | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| AI agents from Startups | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Scenario price cheapest qualifying plan | $19/mo Startups | $0/mo Free | $0/mo Free | $0/mo Free | $0/mo Free |
✓ means the product offers the capability — possibly only on a higher tier than the plan priced below it. The price row shows the cheapest plan that qualifies for our comparison scenario, with its plan name; a $0 free plan may not include every checked capability.
What Chatwoot covers
The capability set used for comparison. Grey entries are not available on self-serve plans.
- ✓ Omnichannel inbox — from Startups
- ✓ CSAT surveys — from Startups
- ✓ Canned responses / macros
- ✓ Knowledge base / help center — from Startups
- ✓ AI copilot — from Startups
- ✓ Live chat & messaging
- ✓ AI agents — from Startups
- ↑ SLA management — only from Business, not compared
- ↑ Voice / telephony — only from Business, not compared
- ↑ Support automations — only from Business, not compared
- ✗ Guest & external collaboration
Price ladder
Observed prices from the official pricing page.
Who switched
Anonymous: no account, no email, no IP stored. Reports are shown once a switch has 3 or more and never change ranking or order — alternatives are computed from prices and capabilities only.
Sources
Every claim traces to an official source and a check date.
- https://chatwoot.com/pricing (official_pricing, checked 2026-10-29)
Frequently asked
How much does Chatwoot cost?
Chatwoot's Startups plan costs $19/mo in our scenario (single user, monthly billing). A free plan exists.
Is there a free Chatwoot alternative?
Yes. JivoChat has a free plan that covers 57% of the 7 capabilities we compared against Chatwoot.
What is the cheapest Chatwoot alternative?
In our scenario (single user, monthly billing), JivoChat is the cheapest assessed alternative at $0/mo (Free plan).
What is the cheapest Chatwoot alternative with CSAT surveys?
Smartsupp covers CSAT surveys and costs $0/mo (Free plan) in our scenario.
Does Chatwoot have a free plan?
Yes. Chatwoot's free plan is limited to 2 seats.
When were these prices checked?
Between 2026-10-26 and 2026-10-29, on the vendors' official pricing pages.