Chatwoot vs Libredesk

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureChatwootLibredesk
CategoryChat & CommunicationHelpdesk & Ticketing
LicenseMITAGPL-3.0
LanguageRubyGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM2,048 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, bare-metaldocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 35,596★ 2,685
First released20192024
ReplacesIntercom, Zendesk, DriftZendesk, Intercom

Why pick each one

Choose Chatwoot if…

  • Polished customer support workflow
  • Active development
Chatwoot details

Choose Libredesk if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (2.7k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Go
Libredesk details

Frequently asked questions

Is Chatwoot or Libredesk 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 Libredesk free and open-source?

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

Can I run Chatwoot and Libredesk with Docker?

Chatwoot: yes. Libredesk: yes.

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