Bonfire vs Chatwoot
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted chat & communication options
— licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one
replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Compare Bonfire with
choose an app… SimpleX Chat Etherpad Element Web Spectrum Centrifugo Screego Typebot Berty Mumble The Lounge Papercups Dendrite Synapse Cinny Ergo Revolt Tox Nheko Conduit Spacebar gomuks Elgg InspIRCd Syphon KiwiIRC Dendrite Lite Fractal Mumble Web Continuwuity Miaou Buddycloud
Compare Chatwoot with
choose an app… Plane Focalboard Super Productivity Wekan UVdesk SimpleX Chat Etherpad OpenProject Habitica Self-Hosted Planka Leantime Centrifugo Screego Typebot git-bug Kanboard Berty Mumble Kaneo The Lounge GLPI Papercups Taskwarrior Zammad WorkAdventure Soketi Remark42 Isso FreeSWITCH qTox MiroTalk Ferdium FreeScout Telegram Bot API Server Rustpad Erxes osTicket Asterisk WeeChat Frappe Helpdesk Ergo Peppermint irssi Quicksy Bridge Kamailio Cusdis Libredesk Tox Stoat Helpy AnyCable Chitchatter Live Helper Chat Spacebar Nextcloud Talk Indico RetroShare SIPCAPTURE Homer Peer-calls mautrix-telegram Routr GlobaLeaks openSIPS mautrix Trudesk Databag Handesk Galène InspIRCd Candy Toxic Faveo Helpdesk Hyphanet Request Tracker FusionPBX OpenSupports soju KiwiIRC Glowing Bear Pretalx Delta Chat Notifo Ticketit SimpleX Briar Quassel IRC OTS matrix-commander Mumble Web Comentario BitlBee Znuny ngIRCd Miaou Session Nextcloud Talk Signaling Server UnrealIRCd MiroTalk C2C matrix-appservice-irc Linphone Chatmail Relay Hookshot Atheme IRC Services Maunium Sticker Picker Spectrum 2 Shhh Gamja Jami Server Bridge Mollysocket Anope PushBits OTOBO Comm Tiledesk Heisenbridge Slixmpp Ferdium Server Solanum Wesh Network Draupnir baibot matrix-media-repo Charybdis IRCd Zusam Cactus Comments ircd-hybrid Scuttlebutt Room Robust IRC Flexisip FlowInquiry SAMA Biboumi Hebbot ircu2 Libervia Jami TicketsBot YunoHost Mail Relay 3CX ARN-Messager Freepbx GNUnet Groupboard MailBag Mailman3 Mailing List Manager Mlmmj Web Peachpub PrivMX WebMail SIP3 TrueConf Wazo Yeti-Switch
Feature Bonfire Chatwoot Category Chat & Communication Chat & Communication License AGPL-3.0 MIT Language Elixir Ruby Setup difficulty Hard Medium Min. RAM 1,024 MB 2,048 MB Deployment docker, source docker, kubernetes, bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 930 ★ 35,596 First released 2020 2019 Replaces Facebook Groups, Discord Intercom, Zendesk, Drift
Why pick each one
Choose Bonfire if… Released under the AGPL-3.0 license First-class Docker support for quick deployment Written in Elixir Bonfire details Choose Chatwoot if… Polished customer support workflow Active development Chatwoot details
Frequently asked questions Is Bonfire or Chatwoot better? Chatwoot is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Bonfire if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Bonfire and Chatwoot free and open-source? Yes. Bonfire is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Chatwoot under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Bonfire and Chatwoot with Docker? Bonfire: yes. Chatwoot: yes.