chatwoot

An open source live chat, email, and omni channel desk positioned against Intercom, Zendesk, and Salesforce Service Cloud, with an AI agent called Captain.

Chatwoot is an open source live chat, email support, and omni channel desk. The README calls it modern, open source, and self hosted, built for scale and flexibility with full control over customer data. It is positioned as an alternative to commercial support desks like Intercom, Zendesk, and Salesforce Service Cloud. Self hosting is the privacy argument, since customer data stays on infrastructure the business controls. Ruby is the primary language.

Captain is described as the Chatwoot AI agent for support. It automates responses, handles common queries, and reduces agent workload, so customers get instant accurate answers while the team concentrates on complex conversations. Routine questions resolve automatically, which is the README's central claim for the feature. The README positions Captain as a feature of the platform, not a separate product.

All customer conversations land in a single inbox. Supported channels include live chat on a website, email, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, Line, and SMS. The result is one view of every conversation, no matter where it started.

A built in help center portal publishes help articles, FAQs, and guides. Customers can find answers on their own, which cuts down repetitive queries and leaves the support team for more complex issues. The self service angle completes the platform pitch.

The README makes two moves: compare against the commercial desks, then push Captain as the answer to routine tickets. The channel list and the built in help center fill out the rest of the pitch.

• Source 1 · Project repository
• Source 2 · README