Deskwhale vs Chatwoot
Chatwoot’s unlimited free plan is the self-hosted one: your server, your Docker, your backups. The cloud free tier is two agents and 500 conversations.
Everything below was checked against Chatwoot’s own pages on 1 October 2026. Prices change — if you are reading this much later, check the links at the bottom.
| Chatwoot | Deskwhale | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Cloud: 2 agents, 500 conversations per month, live chat only, no AI, 30 days of history. Self-hosted Community Edition: free forever under MIT, on your own infrastructure. | Free to start, no credit card. Add operators as you need them. |
| Paid from | Startups is $19 per agent per month with unlimited conversations. | — |
| AI | Captain AI comes with paid plans and runs on credits — 300 a month on Startups, then $20 per additional 1,000. | Included. Answers strictly from the knowledge base you write, and hands off to a person when the answer is not in it. |
When Chatwoot is the better choice
Genuinely — these are not softened weaknesses, they are things Chatwoot does that Deskwhale does not do at all.
- Chatwoot is open source. If you need to own the data and run it yourself, Deskwhale does not offer that at all.
- It has a help centre, ticketing with SLAs, telephony through Twilio, mobile apps, and channels from WhatsApp to TikTok.
- Unlimited conversations on a paid plan at $19 per agent — Deskwhale does not compete on raw scale.
When Deskwhale is the better choice
- No server to run. Chatwoot’s free unlimited plan means Docker, PostgreSQL, Redis, upgrades and backups are yours; Deskwhale is a snippet.
- AI without credits. Captain AI is metered in credits on top of the plan.
- The cloud free tier at Chatwoot caps at 2 agents and 500 conversations with no AI at all.
The short version
Deskwhale is a live chat widget with an AI bot that answers from your own knowledge base, and stops when it runs out of it. It has no mobile apps, no WhatsApp or Instagram, no ticketing and no CRM integrations — if you need those, take Chatwoot and do not look back. If you want a chat on your site and a bot that will not invent your refund policy, this is the simpler trade.
Try it on your own site
One snippet, free to start. You will know within a day whether it fits.
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