The Chatwoot alternative that does not meter the AI
Chatwoot is open source and you can host it yourself at no cost, with unlimited agents. Their cloud is a separate product: $19 an agent monthly, plus AI on top in credits. miniDesk is a single fixed cost per workspace with AI already bundled.
- Free plan, no card
- AI on every plan
- One flat price per workspace
TL;DR
Begin with the element that settles it for many: the self-hosted Community edition is free with no agent cap and its core is MIT licensed. If you want to own your data and have someone to operate a server, accept it. Nothing on this page alters that, though note it excludes Captain AI. The comparison is against Chatwoot Cloud, which charges $19 an agent on Startups and meters Captain AI in credits: 300 bundled, then $20 per 1,000, where every AI action costs a credit per message. So the bill climbs with the team and again with AI. Ours is flat per workspace with AI bundled on every plan, free one included.
If you can self-host, Chatwoot is free, and we will not pretend otherwise
The Community edition has no agent cap and its core is MIT licensed, though the repository is dual-licensed and everything beneath its enterprise directory is not. A team that already operates its own infrastructure can deploy fifty agents for the cost of a server, and no feature table alters that math. What you are absorbing is the upgrades, the backups, the deliverability, and the on-call, plus the fact that Captain AI is absent from that build entirely. That is a genuine cost and it does not appear on an invoice, which is precisely why it is easy to undervalue. The comparison below targets their cloud, because that is the version you purchase rather than operate.
The full comparison
Arranged in four groups, following the sequence a buyer follows. Capabilities come before costs, because cheaper than what is the first question a pricing comparison must settle.
Channels
Live chat widget on your site
- miniDesk
- Included
- Chatwoot
- Included
Shared email inbox
- miniDesk
- Included
- Chatwoot
- Included
Web form, separate from the chat widget
- miniDesk
- Included
- Chatwoot
- Not available
AI
AI that answers customers on its own
- miniDesk
- Included
- Chatwoot
- Included
Answers drawn from your own documents
- miniDesk
- Included
- Chatwoot
- Included
Agent-assist copilot in the inbox
- miniDesk
- Included
- Chatwoot
- Included, then billed by usebilled by use
Developer
REST API
- miniDesk
- Included
- Chatwoot
- Included
MCP server, published and supported
- miniDesk
- Included
- Chatwoot
- Not available
What the price covers
The AI costs nothing beyond the plan price
- miniDesk
- Included
- Chatwoot
- Included, then billed by usebilled by use
A free plan with the AI on it
- miniDesk
- Included
- Chatwoot
- Not available
Unlimited free conversations
- miniDesk
- Included
- Chatwoot
- Included, on a higher planhigher plan
Adding a teammate costs nothing
- miniDesk
- Included
- Chatwoot
- Not available
Checked against each vendor's own published documentation, September 2026.
What you actually pay at scale
Three actual teams, priced from each vendor's own published page. Chatwoot is quoted on Startups, the cheapest tier carrying Captain AI, and their credits are counted at three per conversation: their own documentation prices an AI action at one credit per message, so a credit purchases one reply rather than one thread. Drag the sliders to plug in your own figures.
Your numbers
miniDesk Starter, one flat price per workspace, sized by the 375 AI conversations you set above. Chatwoot is priced on the cheapest tier that fits these seats and has an AI agent answering customers, at their month-to-month rate wherever they publish one, because we sell no annual plan to hold an annual rate against. Chatwoot spends one credit per AI message, not per conversation. This counts 3 messages in each of them, which is our assumption rather than a rate they publish, and it is most of what their column is. Their copilot, summaries, reply suggestions, label suggestions and transcription draw on the same credits and are counted at nothing. The tier is the cheapest one that keeps conversations as long as the plan on the left, because their $19 Startups tier keeps them for a year. The seat half is their annual rate, because they publish no monthly one.
Three real teams
Startup
5 seats, 375 AI conversations a month
- miniDesk Starter, all in
- $39
- Chatwoot
- ~$208
- +435%
Growing team
8 seats, 2,250 AI conversations a month
- miniDesk Growth, all in
- $99
- Chatwoot
- ~$437
- +340%
Large support team
25 seats, 12,000 AI conversations a month
- miniDesk Scale, all in
- $349
- Chatwoot
- ~$3,179
- +810%
Each vendor's own list prices, September 2026, in USD, on the cheapest plan that fits the seats and includes an AI agent. Monthly rates where published, so no annual discount. Volumes count the conversations the AI handles. Chatwoot publishes no monthly rate, so theirs is annual. Credits are counted at three a conversation, our assumption. Check their pricing pages before you decide.
Which one should you actually buy?
You want to own the data and you can operate a server
The Community edition self-hosts free with no agent cap and its core is MIT licensed. If that is the requirement, it is the answer, and the two factors to weigh are whether you would rather spend the money or the maintenance, and that Captain AI is absent from that build. We do not provide a self-hosted build.
Pick Chatwoot
Two of you want a shared inbox with no AI
Chatwoot's free Hacker tier admits two agents and 500 conversations monthly, with no Captain AI. Ours is one seat, unlimited conversations, and AI responding from day one. So a pair splitting an inbox manually is better off there, and a founder wanting AI replies is better off here. It is a genuine split and it hinges on whether you want the AI, not on the cost.
Pick Chatwoot
The AI is handling meaningful volume
Captain AI is metered in credits and one credit equals one message, so a conversation the AI handles in four turns costs four. Copilot lookups, summaries, label suggestions, and transcription all consume the same pool. Startups bundles 300 monthly, then it is $20 per 1,000. We count a conversation once regardless of how many times the AI speaks within it, and it is bundled in the plan.
Pick miniDesk
Your team is growing and you want the bill to hold steady
Chatwoot Cloud charges for every agent, so the bill shifts each time you hire. Ours is per workspace with seats in the plan, so twenty-five people on Scale is $349 whether they handle one ticket or a thousand. Chatwoot at twenty-five agents is $475 monthly before the first AI credit.
Pick miniDesk
Questions, answered honestly
Other comparisons we have written
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