Chatfuel SDK vs Chatwoot
Chatwoot is an open-source support desk you host yourself or rent by the agent: Chatwoot pricing is $19, $39 or $99 an agent a month. Chatfuel SDK writes an MIT app you own, with no seat charge.
Side by side
| Feature | Chatwoot | Chatfuel SDK |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | ||
What it is | A support desk, on their cloud or on a server you run | The application itself, handed over |
Source you can read and change | ||
Licence | MIT, with the enterprise folder under their own licence | MIT |
Built with | Ruby on Rails and Vue | React, Vite and TypeScript |
The platform behind it | Theirs on Cloud; yours when self-hosted | Chatfuel’s: the channels, the messages and the AI |
| What you host | ||
What you run | Nothing on Cloud. Self-hosted: web servers, workers, PostgreSQL, Redis, email and object storage | One Node process, or a Vercel function |
Database | PostgreSQL with pgvector, and Redis | None; Supabase once clients sign in to you |
Where it deploys | Docker, Kubernetes, a Linux VM, Heroku and the large clouds | Vercel, your own server or Docker |
Upgrades | A release about once a month, most with database migrations | Re-run the wizard, or apply the diff yourself |
Backups | Yours when self-hosted: database, storage, configuration | The repository is the backup |
Where conversations are stored | Your server, or AWS in the United States on Cloud | On Chatfuel’s platform |
| Channels and Meta | ||
Connecting a WhatsApp number | Meta’s embedded signup on Cloud; your own Meta app when self-hosted | Meta’s embedded signup, through Chatfuel — an official Meta partner and WhatsApp BSP |
Instagram and Facebook | Self-hosted: “create a Facebook app” and “get it verified by Facebook” | Connected through Chatfuel, with no Meta app of your own |
On top of Meta’s per-message rate | “No markup from Chatwoot” | 10%, from 1 October 2026 |
Where a conversation can come in | Website, email, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Telegram, LINE, SMS, voice and an API channel | Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok and the web widget |
Email, Telegram, LINE, SMS and voice | ||
| What a month costs | ||
Published price | Cloud: $0, $19, $39 or $99 an agent a month | $20 for one bot, $100 to $2,050 for an agency |
Running it yourself | Community Edition free; Premium Support $19, Enterprise $99 an agent a month | The app is free under MIT |
People answering the inbox | Every agent is billed; two are free on Hacker | No seat charge |
A team of three | Startups: 3 × $19 = $57 | Business, $20 |
A team of five | Startups: 5 × $19 = $95 | Business, $20 |
A team of ten | Startups: 10 × $19 = $190 | Business, $20 |
Trying it first | 15 days free; Hacker stays free for two agents on website chat | A trial the wizard opens, and promo code SDK worth $100 of credits |
What is metered | Agents and Captain credits | AI tokens, and a cent a conversion event, from the plan’s balance |
| The inbox | ||
Shared inbox with human takeover | ||
Assigning a conversation | To an agent or a team, by hand or automatically | To a person, to the AI, or to nobody |
Private notes | ||
Saved replies | Canned responses, shared, by slash command | Kept per person |
WhatsApp’s 24-hour window | Approved templates only after it closes | Checked before you type; an approved template is the way back |
Teams and automation rules | On Business and Enterprise | Flows and AI settings, on every plan |
Labels on a conversation | ||
Reports on agents and teams | ||
A mobile app for the inbox | ||
| Automation and AI | ||
An AI agent that answers customers | Captain, on paid plans: 300, 500 or 800 credits a month | On every plan and all five channels; tokens come off the balance |
What more AI costs | $20 per 1,000 credits | $2.75 in and $16.50 out, per 1M tokens |
Whose AI key | Theirs on Cloud; your own OpenAI key when self-hosted | None: the AI runs on the workspace balance |
The AI when you host it | Premium Support and Enterprise; not in the Community Edition | On every plan |
What the AI answers from | Your help center, FAQs and past conversations | A knowledge base: profile, FAQ, products, and gaps found in handed-over chats |
Handing over to a person | ||
A visual flow builder | Bring your own bot, through the Agent Bot API or Dialogflow | |
A bookings calendar the AI books into | ||
| The API | ||
What you build against | REST: application, client and platform APIs | A typed GraphQL client, in your repository |
Creating accounts from code | Platform APIs, self-hosted only | A bot for every account that signs up, made by your server |
| Your brand | ||
Removing their branding | Enterprise on Cloud, Premium Support self-hosted, or edit the Community source | Nothing of ours to remove |
Reselling it | The Community Edition, under MIT; paid features need a licence per seat | The app is yours to sell, at the price you set |
Your own sign-up | Accounts on your own installation | The auth module, on any plan |
Running several clients | An account each; paid features bill every agent | Client bots in one workspace, on one balance |
When to choose which
Choose Chatwoot if
- Conversations must sit on servers you control. Self-hosted, the database is yours; here they live on Chatfuel’s platform.
- Email, Telegram, LINE, SMS or voice is a channel you need. We have five channels, and not those.
- Your team answers from a phone, or you want CSAT surveys and a public help center. They ship all three; we do not.
- You are one or two people on website chat. Hacker is free, and one agent on Startups is $19 to our $20.
- You have someone to run Rails, PostgreSQL and Redis, and the free Community Edition covers what you need.
Choose Chatfuel SDK if
- The app your clients sign in to should carry your name, on your domain, down to the source.
- The team is growing. A tenth person in the inbox costs nothing here, and $19 to $99 a month there.
- You want WhatsApp and Instagram live without a Meta app of your own in review.
- You would rather deploy one Node process than patch, migrate and back up a server stack every month.
- The AI agent should come with the plan: no licence tier to buy and no OpenAI key to bring.
Move an inbox over
One command scaffolds the app and writes only the modules you pick. The inbox, the AI agent and the knowledge base arrive connected to your Chatfuel workspace.
- Run the wizard, pick the modules, give it your name and your logo.
- Connect WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok from inside your app, through Chatfuel.
- Fill the knowledge base and set when the AI hands a conversation to a person.
- Deploy on Vercel, your own server or Docker, and add the auth module when clients sign in to you.
Questions
Chatwoot pricing on 21 September 2026, on Cloud: Hacker is $0 for up to 2 agents on website chat with 500 conversations a month, then $19, $39 or $99 an agent a month on Startups, Business and Enterprise. Self-hosted, the Community Edition is free, and Premium Support and Enterprise Edition are $19 and $99 an agent a month. They publish no annual price. Captain AI credits past a plan’s allowance are $20 per 1,000 credits.
Pricing