Ferdium 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?
FeatureFerdiumChatwoot
CategoryChat & CommunicationChat & Communication
LicenseApache-2.0MIT
LanguageTypeScriptRuby
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM512 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, sourcedocker, kubernetes, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 4,478★ 35,596
First released20212019
ReplacesRambox, StationIntercom, Zendesk, Drift

Why pick each one

Choose Ferdium if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (4.5k GitHub stars)
Ferdium details

Choose Chatwoot if…

  • Polished customer support workflow
  • Active development
Chatwoot details

Frequently asked questions

Is Ferdium or Chatwoot better?

Neither is universally better. Chatwoot has the larger community, while Ferdium is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Ferdium and Chatwoot free and open-source?

Yes. Ferdium is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Chatwoot under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Ferdium and Chatwoot with Docker?

Ferdium: yes. Chatwoot: yes.

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