Chatwoot versus Tawk.to

Chatwoot is a Free Open Source Software and SaaS live chat platform. You can choose to have your live chat hosted by them or opt for self-hosting. The installation process of a self-hosted live chat has been simplified 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.

Open Source

Chatwoot’s Community 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.

Tawk.To is different. It offers the full app for free. Yes, there is no bullsh*t, a free chat widget.

Tawk.to is the centipede among the chatwidget providers. They offer many features and add-ons. Their Agent software runs on mobile phones as well ask native desktop applications.

The level of supoort on Tawk.to’s website is excellent, especially considering the app is free. For most questions the Help Center will cover you and you can find extensive documentation and code snippets for developers who want to leverage Tawk.to’s JavaScript API and Webhooks.

Free comes often at the price of performance, although this is not necessarily noticeable when top-notch developers integrate the widget.

The few paid add-ons are Video + Voice Chat for $29 per month and to remove the “Powered by tawk.to” branding. The white label will set you back $19 per month.

Tawk.to also has Chat Agents for hire to man your chat for $1 per hour. You can try this service for 7 days for free.