Chatwoot vs SimpleX Chat

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?
FeatureChatwootSimpleX Chat
CategoryChat & CommunicationChat & Communication
LicenseMITAGPL-3.0
LanguageRubyHaskell
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM2,048 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, bare-metaldocker, binary, source
GitHub stars★ 35,596★ 19,211
First released20192021
ReplacesIntercom, Zendesk, DriftSignal, WhatsApp, Telegram

Why pick each one

Choose Chatwoot if…

  • Polished customer support workflow
  • Active development
Chatwoot details

Choose SimpleX Chat if…

  • Best-in-class metadata privacy
  • Run your own relays
SimpleX Chat details

Frequently asked questions

Is Chatwoot or SimpleX Chat better?

Neither is universally better. Chatwoot has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Chatwoot and SimpleX Chat free and open-source?

Yes. Chatwoot is licensed under MIT and SimpleX Chat under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Chatwoot and SimpleX Chat with Docker?

Chatwoot: yes. SimpleX Chat: yes.

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