3CX versus Chatwoot

3CX is the developer of an open-standards communications solution which innovates business connectivity and collaboration, replacing proprietary PBXs. The award-winning software enables companies of all sizes to cut telco costs, boost employee productivity, and enhance the customer experience.

With integrated video conferencing, apps for Android and iOS, website live chat, SMS, and WhatsApp Messaging Integration, 3CX offers companies a complete communications package out of the box.

More than 600,000 customers worldwide use 3CX. Maintaining its global presence, 3CX has offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, South Africa, Russia, and Australia.

Chatwoot is an Free Open Source Software and SaaS chat platform. You can choose to have your chat hosted by them or opt for self-hosting.

Installation is easy with their one-click install guides for cloud providers like AWS, DigitalOcean, and Heroku or with deployment options like Docker, Linux VM(Ubuntu 20.04 LTS), or the Chatwoot CTL.

Chatwoot’s Commuunity Edition is published under the MIT license. You can find SDK implementations, review the code or contribute to the projects in the Chatwoot repository. The Enterprise Edition is available under a proprietary license, you can still audit the source code. However, modification is not allowed.

Free plans are available for the hosted as well as self-hosted deployment.

Hosted cloud solutions The free Hacker plan gets you 2 seats, limited features, and only the website live chat widget as channel. More features, as well as all channels, come with the annual Startups subscription starting from $19 per seat per month.

Self-hosted solutions The free Community Edition plan gives you more control but lacks in features and does not receive support from Chatwoot. The Premium Support plan starts from $19 per seat per month and offers you custom branding and priority email support. A dedicated account manager, phone support, and advanced security features like access management are only included in the Enterprise Edition starting from $99 per seat per month.