Chatwoot vs Zammad (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Zammad grades higher than Chatwoot: 2.8 against 2.4 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Zammad grades higher on value for money and the free plan. They get the same grade on features, 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
Zammad
Open-source help desk, hosted in Germany or run on your own server
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 Zammad if
- Fits if you want a help desk you can host yourself or rent hosted
- Works for a team that wants WhatsApp and Facebook channels on the top plan
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you grow: Starter stops at 5 agents and Professional at 35
- Watch out: prices exclude VAT, and AI features cost €0.03 per call on top
- Watch out: annual billing runs a full year and needs notice at least two months before it ends
- Watch out: self-hosting makes you responsible for updates, backups and uptime, and support subscriptions for it start at €2,999 a year
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAChatwootFair | 2.8GPAZammadGood | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | BStarter is €7 per agent a month billed annually, under the $11.40 mark, but it stops at 5 agents, and chat and SLAs need Professional at €16. Prices exclude VAT. |
| 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. | BThe open-source software is free to run yourself and the hosted service has a 30-day Professional trial. Self-hosting means updates, backups and uptime are yours. |
| 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. | BEmail, forms, SMS, chat, Telegram, Facebook and WhatsApp, with macros, triggers, SLAs and a knowledge base across the plans. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in core ticketing. |
| 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, and channels, triggers and roles need setting 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 only, with 6 listed integrations including GitHub and GitLab links. No phone or desktop app on record. |
| Best for | an open-source support inbox you can host | an open-source help desk you can host or rent |
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 Zammad. 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. Zammad starts at about $7.82 a month for each person and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and Zammad starts $11.18 a month lower. Of the other help desk and live chat tools on the chart, 1 scores higher than Chatwoot for less, and 1 scores higher than Zammad 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 also covers help center and AI support agent.
- Zammad also covers help desk.
At a glance
| Chatwoot | Zammad | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $19 per agent / month, billing term not stated | €7 per agent / month, billed annually (€9 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. | The open-source software is free to download and run on your own servers; you handle updates, backups and availability. |
| Free trial | 15-day free trial of the cloud plans | 30-day free trial of the hosted service on the Professional plan |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Chatwoot Inc | Zammad GmbH |
| Price read from | chatwoot.com | zammad.com |
| 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.
Zammad
- Prices are in euros and exclude value-added tax; hosted plans cap agents at 5 on Starter and 35 on Professional.
- Annual billing runs for a full year and needs notice at least two months before the term ends.
- AI features are optional and cost €0.03 per AI call on top of the plan price.
- Self-hosting makes you responsible for updates, backups and availability.
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.
Zammad
- Multichannel tickets
- Email, web forms and SMS on every hosted plan, chat and Telegram from Professional, and Facebook and WhatsApp on Plus.
- Automation tools
- Text modules, macros, triggers, schedulers and business hours are in the Starter plan; SLAs and custom roles start at Professional.
- Knowledge base
- A monolingual knowledge base is included from Professional and a multilingual one from Plus.
- Hosted in Germany
- Hosted instances run in an ISO 27001-certified German data center with SSL encryption and two-factor authentication.
- Optional AI features
- Professional and Plus can switch on AI features such as ticket summaries, charged at €0.03 per AI call.
- Open source, self-hostable
- The full code is public under a GPL v3 licence, so a team can run it on its own servers.
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.
Zammad
Starter v2€7
per agent / month, billed annually (€9 billed monthly)
Hosted. Up to 5 agents; email, web form and SMS channels, text modules, macros, triggers and 20 GB of disk space.
Professional v2€16
per agent / month, billed annually (€18 billed monthly)
Hosted. Up to 35 agents; adds chat and Telegram, SLAs, individual roles, a monolingual knowledge base and 50 GB of disk.
Plus v2€25
per agent / month, billed annually (€27 billed monthly)
Hosted. Unlimited agents; adds Facebook and WhatsApp, a multilingual knowledge base, GitHub/GitLab links and reporting.
Self-hosted€0
Download Zammad and host it yourself under its open-source licence, with no vendor support included.
Self-hosted support€2,999
per year (Business); Enterprise €5,999, Corporation €9,999
Support subscriptions for self-hosted installs, with response times of 6, 4 or 2 hours and 15, 45 or 95 service requests a year.
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.
Zammad
- Annual discount
Save 10% with annual billing
The hosted pricing page offers a lower per-agent price on annual billing than on monthly billing, labeled as a 10% saving.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Chatwoot or Zammad?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Zammad is cheaper to start with: about $7.82 a month for each person, against $19 a month for each person for Chatwoot. Chatwoot starts at $19 per agent / month, billing term not stated, and Zammad starts at €7 per agent / month, billed annually (€9 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, Chatwoot or Zammad?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Chatwoot and Zammad have a free plan.
Which platforms do Chatwoot and Zammad 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.