CRM & Supportdocker-ready1-click-deploypermissive-license

Chatwoot: the best Open Source alternative to Intercom in 2026

Chatwoot centralizes live chat, email, social media and WhatsApp into a single customer support inbox, with automations and reporting, as a direct alternative to Intercom or Zendesk.

License MIT 36.3k stars liveUpdated hoyWebsite GitHub Repository

Technical profile

License: MIT
Category: CRM & Support
Replaces: Intercom, Zendesk
Tech stack: Ruby on RailsVue.jsPostgreSQLRedis

Key features

Multichannel shared inbox (web, email, WhatsApp, Instagram)
Chatbots and automated replies
SLA and satisfaction reports

Chatwoot vs. Intercom

Pros

MIT license
Very lightweight chat widget for your website

Things to consider

Some AI integrations are cloud-plan only

Quick Docker installation guide

Copy this docker-compose.yml, adjust the example passwords and run docker compose up -d on your server. See the full step-by-step guide →

docker-compose.yml

version: "3.9"
services:
  chatwoot:
    image: chatwoot/chatwoot:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      - SECRET_KEY_BASE=change-me-super-secret
      - POSTGRES_HOST=chatwoot-db
      - POSTGRES_USERNAME=chatwoot
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=chatwoot
      - REDIS_URL=redis://chatwoot-redis:6379
    depends_on:
      - chatwoot-db
      - chatwoot-redis
  chatwoot-db:
    image: postgres:15-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=chatwoot
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=chatwoot
    volumes:
      - chatwoot_pg_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
  chatwoot-redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
volumes:
  chatwoot_pg_data: