POWR versus Chatwoot

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. They have apps for social media tools, form builders, surveys, popups, payment buttons, website media, and of course, live chat.

Their live chat app connects through Facebook Messenger. A Facebook page and Messenger are required for the live chat app to function. Meaning, POWR live chat is not a suitable option for businesses that do not use Facebook or have compliance requirements that conflict with Meta’s policies and reputation.

The POWR website can be difficult to navigate and find all information you need, especially regarding the live chat and its features. The customization tool for the chat widget is easy to use and offers a lot of options. However, most options are only available in the more expensive plans.

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

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.