head to head · open source
libredesk vs goflylivechat
libredesk has 2,982 GitHub stars, 289 forks, 87 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. goflylivechat has 2,591 stars, 729 forks, 39 open issues and last shipped 1.1 years ago. libredesk leads on adoption by 15% (2,982 vs 2,591 stars). libredesk is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; goflylivechat is written in HTML under Apache-2.0. libredesk has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, goflylivechat 28%. libredesk was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (customer-service, customer-support, golang, 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
| libredesk | goflylivechat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.0K | ★ 2.6K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-09-28 | 2025-09-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 289 | ⑂ 729 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick libredesk if
- You weight community size — 3.0K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick goflylivechat if
- You want the goflylivechat feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and goflylivechat fits your workflow better
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 →
About goflylivechat
GOFLY LIVE CHAT is an open source live chat support system written in Go for self hosted customer service workloads. It belongs to the Go web application ecosystem and targets private cloud deployments where an organization runs its own messaging backend, database, and web frontend instead of relying on a hosted support platform.
read the full goflylivechat overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is libredesk or goflylivechat more popular?
libredesk has 2,982 GitHub stars and goflylivechat has 2,591. libredesk has the larger community by that measure.
Are libredesk and goflylivechat free?
Both are open source. libredesk is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and goflylivechat under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between libredesk and goflylivechat?
libredesk is written in Go and goflylivechat in HTML. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, libredesk or goflylivechat?
Choose libredesk if you want the larger community (2,982 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose goflylivechat if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.