Chatwoot versus POWR

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.

POWR offers a complete suite of no-code eCommerce solutions with more than 60 apps and plugins, mostly aimed at platforms like WordPress, Squarespace, and Shopify.

Their live chat plugin connects through Facebook Messenger. Meaning, POWR may not be a good choice for businesses that have concerns about Facebook’s policies and reputation.

The customization tool for the chat widget is easy to use but constrained, even with their more expensive plans.

POWR’s commercial approach is different from their competitors’. They have a dual pricing system for their products that may seem simple at first but can get complicated and costly quickly.

Firstly, they offer complete suites that are billed by a maximum amount of traffic on your website. The plugins will stop working if this amount is exceeded. A free suite with a restricted number of apps is available for sites with traffic up to 250 views per month.

Secondly, they offer subscriptions per app or plugin for a set price. This applies to their live chat plugin as well. A free plan with limited features is available. Their paid plans starts at $5.49 per month. There are no free trials available.

Customers of POWR are mostly small businesses. A few of them share their success stories on the POWR.io website.