head to head · open source
Chatwoot vs bytedesk
Chatwoot has 37,381 GitHub stars, 9,096 forks, 1,377 open issues and last shipped today. bytedesk has 500 stars, 141 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Chatwoot leads on adoption by 7,376% (37,381 vs 500 stars). Chatwoot is written in Ruby under a custom or non-standard licence; bytedesk is written in Java under AGPL-3.0. Chatwoot has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, bytedesk 28%. Chatwoot was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (chat-widget, customer-support, intercom, livechat), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Chatwoot | bytedesk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 500 |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | Java |
| Last push | 2026-10-01 | 2026-09-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.1K | ⑂ 141 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Chatwoot if
- You weight community size — 37K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick bytedesk if
- You want the bytedesk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and bytedesk fits your workflow better
About Chatwoot
Chatwoot is a Ruby based, open source, self hosted customer support platform that consolidates live chat, email, and social messaging into one omnichannel inbox, positioned as an open alternative to Intercom, Twilio, Zendesk, and Salesforce Service Cloud.
read the full Chatwoot overview →
About bytedesk
Bytedesk is an open source, AI powered omnichannel customer service and team messaging platform written in Java, aimed at organizations that want to self host their own live chat, ticketing, and internal IM stack.
read the full bytedesk overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Chatwoot or bytedesk more popular?
Chatwoot has 37,381 GitHub stars and bytedesk has 500. Chatwoot has the larger community by that measure.
Are Chatwoot and bytedesk free?
Both are open source. Chatwoot has no licence declared in this registry, and bytedesk is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Chatwoot and bytedesk?
Chatwoot is written in Ruby and bytedesk in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Chatwoot or bytedesk?
Choose Chatwoot if you want the larger community (37,381 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose bytedesk if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.