Chatwoot vs Featurebase (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Chatwoot and Featurebase share a 2.4 GPA, both have a free plan, and Chatwoot starts cheaper, at $19 a month for each person against $29 a month for each person.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Chatwoot grades higher on features. Featurebase grades higher on the free plan. They get the same grade on value for money, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Chatwoot
Open-source support inbox you can self-host or use in the cloud
Featurebase
Help desk, chat and feedback boards with a per-resolution AI agent
Which one is for you
Pick Chatwoot if
- Fits if you want to run your support inbox on your own servers
- Works for developers who want an open API and code they can change
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you stay on the free cloud plan: 2 agents, 500 conversations a month, chat only and 30 days of history
- Skip it if nobody on your team can look after a server and you want it free
- Pricey if you need voice or automation rules, as both start on Business at $39 an agent
- Watch out: the pricing page doesn't say if per-agent prices are monthly or yearly, and extra AI credits are $20 per 1,000
- Watch out: the free Community Edition has no Captain AI, voice, branding or SSO, and help comes through Discord and GitHub
Pick Featurebase if
- Fits if you want support and feedback in one product
- Works for small teams starting on a single free seat
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you stay free: one seat, and the email channel starts at Growth
- Watch out: the AI agent costs $0.49 per resolution on top of seats
- Watch out: Slack and workflows need Professional at $59, and SSO needs Enterprise at $99
- Watch out: unlimited Copilot is $19 a seat beyond 10 free conversations
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAChatwootFair | 2.4GPAFeaturebaseFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CStartups is $19 an agent a month, a little under this category's middle, with all channels and 300 AI credits. The page doesn't say if that's monthly or yearly. The free self-hosted edition needs your own server, so it doesn't lift the grade. | C$29 a seat a month billed yearly on Growth, in the category's middle, plus $0.49 per AI resolution. |
| Free plan and trial | CThe free cloud plan is 2 agents and 500 conversations a month, but live chat only, with 30 days of history. The self-hosted Community Edition is free forever if you can run a server. Paid cloud plans have a 15-day trial. | BA free plan with 1 seat, live chat, inbox, ticketing, unlimited conversations and a help centre, plus a 10-day trial with no card. |
| Features | BOne queue for chat, email, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, the Captain AI agent, a help center, voice calls on Business, an open API and webhooks. It covers the job, and you can read and change the source code. | CInbox, tickets, chat, help centre, feedback boards and workflows. Discord, WhatsApp and Teams are listed as coming soon. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. The cloud version means connecting each channel and training Captain on your help center. Self-hosting is real work: PostgreSQL, Redis and Docker or Kubernetes. | CNo store rating on record. Channels, workflows and an AI agent to set up. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, iPhone and Android, with an open API, webhooks and Slack, Shopify, Stripe, HubSpot, Linear and Dialogflow. There's no desktop app, so it stops at a B. | BWeb, with Slack, HubSpot, Salesforce, Linear, Jira and Azure DevOps, plus an API and MCP. |
| Best for | an open-source support inbox you can host | support and feedback boards in one product |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Chatwoot and Featurebase. How we grade
Price against what you get
Chatwoot starts at $19 a month for each person and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Featurebase starts at $29 a month for each person and scores 2.3.
Chatwoot scores higher and starts $10 a month lower. Of the other help desk and live chat tools on the chart, 1 scores higher than Chatwoot for less, and 16 score higher than Featurebase for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Chatwoot is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Featurebase also covers help desk.
At a glance
| Chatwoot | Featurebase | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $19 per agent / month, billing term not stated | $29 per seat / month, billed yearly ($37 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | Hacker cloud plan: up to 2 agents and 500 conversations a month, live chat only, 30 days of history. The self-hosted Community Edition is also free. | 1 seat with live chat, inbox and ticketing, unlimited conversations, a help center and the mobile app. |
| Free trial | 15-day free trial of the cloud plans | 10-day free trial of the paid plans, no credit card required |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Chatwoot Inc | Featurebase |
| Price read from | chatwoot.com | featurebase.app |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Chatwoot
- The free Hacker plan is limited to 2 agents, 500 conversations a month, live chat only and 30 days of history.
- Captain AI credits are 300, 500 or 800 a month by plan; more cost $20 per 1,000, and Captain is not in Hacker or the Community Edition.
- Voice, teams and automation rules need Business at $39 per agent; SSO and audit logs need Enterprise at $99.
- The pricing page does not say whether per-agent prices are billed monthly or annually.
Featurebase
- The free plan has one seat; the AI agent and the email channel start at Growth.
- Fibi is billed at $0.49 per resolution on top of seat prices, so cost follows ticket volume.
- Slack and workflows need Professional; SSO needs Enterprise. Discord, WhatsApp and Microsoft Teams are listed as coming soon.
- Unlimited AI Copilot use costs $19 per seat a month beyond 10 free conversations.
Key features
Chatwoot
- One queue for every channel
- Website chat, email from Gmail, Outlook or any IMAP inbox, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger are threaded into a single conversation queue.
- Captain AI agent
- Learns from your help center, PDFs and website, answers routine questions, hands off to a person, and drafts replies for agents.
- Help center
- A public knowledge base on paid plans that Captain also draws on, with suggestions for questions the articles do not yet answer.
- Self-hosting
- Runs on a Linux server with PostgreSQL and Redis, with guides for Docker and Kubernetes. Paid self-hosted plans add AI and support.
- Open API and webhooks
- Send messages, create channels and listen to events through the API, and export conversations and contacts at any time.
- Voice calls
- Voice calls are included on the Business and Enterprise cloud plans and on paid self-hosted plans.
Featurebase
- Inbox, tickets and live chat
- One inbox for conversations with assigning, snoozing and internal notes; live chat and ticketing are on every plan including the free one.
- Fibi AI agent
- Answers customers in live chat and email on paid plans. It costs $0.49 per resolution, counted once per conversation, and human handovers are free.
- AI Copilot and macros
- Drafts replies for human agents. Each seat gets 10 free Copilot conversations a month; unlimited use is $19 a seat.
- Help center
- A public help center is on every plan; the Professional plan adds a private, multilingual one with AI translations.
- Feedback boards
- Collects and prioritizes customer feedback, and syncs posts with Linear and Jira so users hear when an issue ships.
- Workflows and SLAs
- Professional adds workflows, SLA timers and round-robin assignment for teams that share a queue.
Plans
Chatwoot
Hacker$0
Cloud plan for up to 2 agents and 500 conversations a month, live chat only, with 30 days of data retention. No AI, help center or automation.
Community Edition$0
The open-source edition you host yourself, free forever. No Captain AI, voice calls, custom branding or SSO; help comes through Discord and GitHub.
Startups$19
per agent / month, billing term not stated
Cloud plan with all channels, unlimited conversations under fair use, a help center, 300 Captain AI credits a month and 1 year of history.
Premium Support$19
per agent / month, billing term not stated
Self-hosted plan adding Captain AI, voice calls, custom branding, agent capacity, roles and permissions, and priority email support.
Business$39
per agent / month, billing term not stated
Cloud plan adding voice, teams and automation rules, with 500 Captain AI credits a month and 2 years of history.
Enterprise$99
per agent / month, billing term not stated
Cloud plan adding SSO and SAML, audit logs, 800 AI credits and 3 years of history. The self-hosted Enterprise Edition costs the same and adds SLA policies.
Featurebase
Free$0
1 seat with live chat, inbox and ticketing, unlimited conversations, a help center and the mobile app.
Growth$29
per seat / month, billed yearly ($37 billed monthly)
Adds the Fibi AI agent, email channel, AI Copilot and macros, reports, API, MCP, webhooks and integrations.
Professional$59
per seat / month, billed yearly ($75 billed monthly)
Adds Slack, workflows and SLAs, round-robin assignment, a multilingual help center, CRM links and 20 free Lite seats.
Enterprise$99
per seat / month, billed yearly ($129 billed monthly)
Adds multi-brand workspaces, SAML SSO and SCIM, custom admin roles and 50 free Lite seats.
Ways to pay less
Chatwoot
- Other savings
Startups plan free for open-source projects
Chatwoot gives open-source projects the Startups plan free of charge and asks open-source projects and nonprofits to email it to arrange this.
Featurebase
- Annual discount
20% off with yearly billing
The pricing page lists a 20% saving when seats are billed yearly; Growth is $29 yearly against $37 monthly.
- Startups
Startups get 86% off
The pricing page says startups get 86% off; eligibility terms are not shown there.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Chatwoot or Featurebase?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Chatwoot is cheaper to start with: $19 a month for each person, against $29 a month for each person for Featurebase. Chatwoot starts at $19 per agent / month, billing term not stated, and Featurebase starts at $29 per seat / month, billed yearly ($37 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, Chatwoot or Featurebase?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Chatwoot and Featurebase have a free plan.
Which platforms do Chatwoot and Featurebase run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Chatwoot lists iOS and Android apps. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.