LiveChat versus Chatwoot

LiveChat, originally from Poland, has been in the online customer service software business since 2002, being one the first companies to provide a live chat function to websites. Much like Google, Limousine, and Xerox, their brand name has become a synonym for the product.

As one of the largest liver chat providers, they offer a large number of app integrations and customization possibilities, ranging from CRM to e-commerce and help desk software. LiveChat has a substantial customer base of more than 37,000 companies worldwide.

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.