head to head · open source
Chatwoot vs libredesk
Chatwoot has 37,381 GitHub stars, 9,096 forks, 1,377 open issues and last shipped today. libredesk has 2,982 stars, 289 forks, 87 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Chatwoot leads on adoption by 1,154% (37,381 vs 2,982 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 10%. 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 | libredesk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 3.0K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-01 | 2026-09-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.1K | ⑂ 289 |
| 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 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 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 libredesk
Libredesk is an open source, self hosted customer support desk written in Go under AGPL 3.0. It is a lightweight alternative to Intercom, Zendesk, and Chatwoot, and it puts live chat, email, and support workflows into a single binary. It lives in the open source Go customer support ecosystem.
read the full libredesk overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Chatwoot or libredesk more popular?
Chatwoot has 37,381 GitHub stars and libredesk has 2,982. 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 (37,381 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.