Chatwoot vs Zoho Desk

Chatwoot is an open-source customer support platform that combines an omnichannel inbox with a knowledge base. The inbox brings website chat, email, WhatsApp, social and messaging services, voice, SMS, and API conversations together. Teams can use private notes, assignments, labels, canned replies, mentions, and activity logs to coordinate support. Captain, its built-in AI agent, can answer customer questions, suggest replies, summarize conversations, and draw on help-center content. The customizable knowledge base supports multiple portals, multilingual content, and AI-powered search. APIs, webhooks, and bot connections provide options for custom workflows, and Chatwoot can run in the cloud or on a customer’s own infrastructure. Its free Hacker plan allows up to two agents and 500 conversations per month, with 30-day data retention. Cloud plans start at $19 a month per agent, billed annually. Community Edition is free to self-host but does not include Captain AI, voice calls, or SSO/SAML. Chatwoot states that it is SOC 2 Type II certified and GDPR compliant.

Zoho Desk is customer support software with a shared inbox, customer portal, and help center. Its listed tools also include SLA management, ticket automation, and API access, giving teams ways to organize support conversations and service workflows. The Free plan includes three users and is listed at free. Paid plans are billed annually: Express is ₹420 a month for 5 users; Standard is ₹800 a month for unlimited users; Professional is ₹1,400 a month for unlimited users; and Enterprise is ₹2,400 a month for unlimited users. The pricing note lists a 15-day trial and paid access from ₹420/user/mo (annual). Zoho Desk is freemium, with an API listed as its platform. The maker is identified as Zoho Desk, and 1996 is listed as its founding year.