Chatwoot vs tawk.to
We give Chatwoot a 2.4 GPA and tawk.to a 3.0, out of 4.0. Chatwoot grades higher on features. tawk.to grades higher on value for money and the free plan. They get the same grade on 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
tawk.to
Free live chat, ticketing and help center, with paid add-ons
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAChatwootFair | 3.0GPAtawk.toVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | AThe whole platform is free, chat, inbox, tickets, help center and CRM, with no seat charges, which is free and substantial. You'd pay only for add-ons: $29 a month for the AI agent or for removing the badge. |
| 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. | AFree outright for every seat, with no cap on chats in the listing. The catch is the "Powered by tawk.to" badge on your widget, chat page and help center, which costs $29 a month per site to remove. |
| 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. | CWebsite chat, chat pages for businesses without a site, an inbox for chat, email and forms, tickets, a help center, a CRM, and people you can hire to answer for $1 an hour. The gap: no phone, as voice agents were still waitlist-only. |
| 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. It's free to start, but you still paste the chat box into your site, set up the help center and, if you want it, teach the AI agent. |
| 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, Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android apps, so every device is covered. What keeps it off an A is the connections: the listing names just Shopify and WordPress, and no API. |
| Best for | an open-source support inbox you can host | free website chat for any size of team |
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 tawk.to. 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. tawk.to starts at $29 a month 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 10 score higher than tawk.to 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 starts at $19 per agent / month, billing term not stated. tawk.to starts at $29 per month for the AI Assist or Whitelabel add-on.
- Only tawk.to lists Windows and macOS apps.
- Chatwoot is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Chatwoot also covers shared inbox.
- tawk.to also covers help desk.
At a glance
| Chatwoot | tawk.to | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $19 per agent / month, billing term not stated | $29 per month for the AI Assist or Whitelabel add-on |
| 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. | The whole platform is free: live chat, inbox, ticketing, knowledge base, chat pages and CRM, with no seat charges. A "Powered by tawk.to" badge stays unless removed for a fee. |
| Free trial | 15-day free trial of the cloud plans | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Chatwoot Inc | tawk.to |
| Price read from | chatwoot.com | tawk.to |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Chatwoot
- Teams that want to run their support inbox on their own servers
- Small teams starting free with website chat
- Developers who want an open API and source code they can change
tawk.to
- Small businesses that want website chat without paying per seat
- Teams that need chat, tickets and a help center on one free account
- Businesses that would rather pay someone else to staff the chat
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.
tawk.to
- Removing the "Powered by tawk.to" badge from the widget, chat page and knowledge base costs $29 a month per property.
- AI Assist is free only for limited volume; paid plans start at $29 a month.
- Hired chat agents cost $1 an hour and dedicated virtual assistants from $7 an hour.
- Voice Agents (from $49 a month plus usage) and Data Enrichment (from $59 a month) were waitlist-only when read.
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.
tawk.to
- Live chat widget
- A chat box for websites that can be styled to match a brand, plus chat pages that turn a link into a conversation for businesses without a site.
- Inbox and ticketing
- Chat, email, form and messaging conversations arrive in one dashboard, with free ticketing for issues that need follow-up.
- Knowledge base
- A free hosted help center where customers can look up answers, which the AI Assist add-on also draws on.
- AI Assist
- AI agents and workflows that answer routine questions and hand off to a person with the conversation's history attached.
- Hired chat agents
- Trained human agents who answer chats on your behalf around the clock for $1 an hour, offered as a paid service.
- CRM and pipeline
- Contact records built from conversations, segments and tags, a deal pipeline and booking activities in the same dashboard.
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.
tawk.to
Free$0
Live chat widget, shared inbox, ticketing, a hosted knowledge base, chat pages and contacts, with the tawk.to badge shown. AI Assist has a free tier for limited volume.
AI Assist$29
per month and up
Add-on: AI agents that answer from your knowledge base and AI workflows that route and follow up, handing off to a person when needed.
Whitelabel$29
per property / month
Add-on: removes the tawk.to badge and puts the chat page, knowledge base and ticketing emails on your own domain and address.
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.
tawk.to
No public discounts listed.
