head to head · open source
Chatwoot vs libredesk
Chatwoot has 38,722 GitHub stars, 9,423 forks, 1,377 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. libredesk has 3,108 stars, 329 forks, 87 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Chatwoot leads on adoption by 1,146% (38,722 vs 3,108 stars). Chatwoot is written in Ruby under a custom or non-standard licence; libredesk is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. Chatwoot has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, libredesk 11%. libredesk 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 | libredesk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.4K | ⑂ 329 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Chatwoot if
- You weight community size — 39K 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 libredesk if
- You want the libredesk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and libredesk fits your workflow better
About Chatwoot
Chatwoot The modern customer support platform, an open source alternative to Intercom, Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud etc. Chatwoot is the modern, open source, and self hosted customer support platform designed to help businesses deliver exceptional customer support experience. Built for scale and flexibility, Chatwoot gives you full control over your customer data while providing powerful tools to manage conversations across channels. ✨ Captain – AI Agent for Support Supercharge your support with Captain, Chatwoot’s AI agent. Captain helps automate responses, handle common queries, and reduce agent…
read the full Chatwoot overview →
About libredesk
Modern, open source, self hosted omnichannel customer support desk. Live chat, email, and more in a single binary. Visit libredesk.io for more info. Check out the live demo . Features Omnichannel inbox Live chat and email in one inbox. Every conversation lands in the same place, whichever channel it came from. Live chat widget Embed a real time chat widget on your website. Replies go out from the same inbox your team already works in. Help center Publish a searchable knowledge base with collections, articles in multiple languages, and customize it however you want. AI assistant Answer live chat conversations…
read the full libredesk overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Chatwoot or libredesk more popular?
Chatwoot has 38,722 GitHub stars and libredesk has 3,108. Chatwoot has the larger community by that measure.
Are Chatwoot and libredesk free?
Both are open source. Chatwoot has no licence declared in this registry, and libredesk is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Chatwoot and libredesk?
Chatwoot is written in Ruby and libredesk in Go. 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 libredesk?
Choose Chatwoot if you want the larger community (38,722 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose libredesk if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.