--- title: "wacrm vs Chatwoot: an honest open-source comparison" description: "Both are MIT and free to self-host. Chatwoot is a multichannel support desk; wacrm is a WhatsApp CRM with deal pipelines. An honest side-by-side comparison." canonical: https://wacrm.tech/blog/wacrm-vs-chatwoot datePublished: 2026-10-16 dateModified: 2026-10-16 author: "Arnas Donauskas" license: "content © wacrm; product is MIT-licensed" --- # wacrm vs Chatwoot: an honest open-source comparison Chatwoot is the best-known open-source customer-support platform, and the first name most people find when they search for a self-hosted WhatsApp inbox. wacrm is an open-source WhatsApp CRM. Both are MIT-licensed, both run on the official WhatsApp Business API, and both can be self-hosted for free, so the usual "open source vs SaaS" argument doesn't apply here. The real difference is what each tool is *for*. Chatwoot is a **support desk** that treats WhatsApp as one channel among many. wacrm is a **sales CRM** built around WhatsApp, with deal pipelines in the box. This comparison is about which of those two shapes fits your team. ## TL;DR — which should you pick? - **Pick wacrm** if WhatsApp is your main channel and your conversations turn into deals: you want a shared inbox *and* a kanban pipeline in one app, on a light stack (Next.js and Supabase), with no per-agent bill. - **Pick Chatwoot** if you run customer support across several channels (live chat, email, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, SMS and WhatsApp), want a help center and mobile apps, and don't need deal pipelines — or are happy to pair it with a separate CRM. ## wacrm vs Chatwoot at a glance | | wacrm | Chatwoot | | --- | --- | --- | | **What it is** | WhatsApp sales CRM | Omnichannel support desk | | **License** | MIT | MIT core; `enterprise/` folder licensed separately | | **Self-hosted cost** | **Free, no per-agent fee** | **Free (Community Edition), no per-agent fee** | | **Hosted cloud** | No — you host it | $19 / $39 / $99 per agent/mo | | **Channels** | WhatsApp (focused) | Live chat, email, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, SMS and more | | **Sales pipelines** | **Yes (kanban deals)** | No native deal pipelines | | **Shared inbox** | Yes | Yes | | **WhatsApp broadcasts** | Yes | Yes (campaigns, Business plan and up on Cloud) | | **No-code automations** | Yes, plus branching flows | Yes (Business plan and up on Cloud) | | **AI** | Bring your own OpenAI or Anthropic key, at cost | Captain AI, with credits per plan | | **Help center / knowledge base** | No | Yes | | **Mobile apps** | No (responsive web) | Yes (iOS and Android) | | **Self-host stack** | Next.js + Supabase (Postgres) | Rails + PostgreSQL + Redis + Sidekiq | | **Maturity** | Young, fast-moving | Since 2017, 37,000+ GitHub stars | Chatwoot Cloud prices are from its pricing page in October 2026 and change over time — check the current plans before you commit. Meta's WhatsApp Business API messaging fees apply to **both** tools and are billed by Meta. > Comparing hosted tools too? See [wacrm vs Trengo](https://wacrm.tech/blog/wacrm-vs-trengo) for > a hosted support desk, and the full > [open-source WhatsApp CRM roundup](https://wacrm.tech/blog/best-open-source-whatsapp-crm). ## Why teams compare wacrm and Chatwoot Most teams that land here started with Chatwoot, connected their WhatsApp number, and then hit one of two walls. **There is nowhere to put the deal.** Chatwoot is excellent at answering conversations: assignment, labels, canned responses, internal notes, reports. But it has no deal pipeline, so once a WhatsApp chat turns into a quote, an order or a booking, the sales side lives somewhere else. The common fix in 2026 is to pair Chatwoot with a separate open-source CRM such as Twenty, which works but means two apps, two databases and an integration to keep in sync. **The stack is heavier than the job.** Self-hosting Chatwoot means running a Rails app, PostgreSQL, Redis and a Sidekiq background worker. That is a real server with real upkeep, which is the right trade for a support team running seven channels and less obviously right for a small team that only uses WhatsApp. wacrm exists for the second shape: WhatsApp-first teams whose conversations end in a sale. ## wacrm vs Chatwoot, feature by feature ### Pricing Self-hosted, both are free: no license fee and no per-agent charge. You pay for hosting and for Meta's messaging either way. The difference only appears if you want someone else to run it. Chatwoot Cloud is billed per agent — $19 on Startups, $39 on Business (where automations, teams and WhatsApp campaigns unlock) and $99 on Enterprise — so five agents on Business is $195 a month. wacrm has no hosted edition, but it runs comfortably on a [managed Node.js plan](https://wacrm.tech/docs/deployment-hostinger) with one flat price for the whole team. ### Sales pipelines and contacts This is wacrm's clearest win. [Pipelines](https://wacrm.tech/docs/pipelines) are kanban boards of deals with your own stages, deal values, and total pipeline value and won % at a glance, and every deal is one click from its WhatsApp thread. [Contacts](https://wacrm.tech/docs/contacts) carry tags, custom fields and CSV import. Chatwoot has contacts with custom attributes, but no deals and no pipeline view. ### Channels This is Chatwoot's clearest win. It brings live chat, email, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, SMS and more into one inbox, with a website chat widget and a help center on top. **wacrm is WhatsApp-only** and does not pull in other channels. If your customers reach you everywhere, Chatwoot fits better. ### Inbox and automations Both have a shared team inbox with assignment and internal notes. wacrm adds WhatsApp-specific depth — [templates](https://wacrm.tech/docs/templates) managed in-app with Meta's approval status, reactions and quote-replies — plus [automations](https://wacrm.tech/docs/automations) and button-driven [flows](https://wacrm.tech/docs/flows) for no-code chatbots with human handoff. Chatwoot's automation rules and its WhatsApp campaigns are solid, and on Chatwoot Cloud both sit on the Business plan and above. ### AI Chatwoot ships Captain, its own AI agent, with a monthly allowance of credits on each Cloud plan and extra credits at $20 per 1,000. wacrm's [AI assistant](https://wacrm.tech/docs/ai-assistant) uses your own OpenAI or Anthropic key: it drafts replies, can run an auto-reply bot with handoff, and answers from your own knowledge base, and you pay the provider at cost. See [free AI WhatsApp CRM](https://wacrm.tech/blog/free-ai-whatsapp-crm) for how that model works. ### Self-hosting and customisation wacrm runs on Next.js with a [Supabase](https://wacrm.tech/docs/supabase-setup) project as its database and auth, so the moving parts are one Node app and one managed Postgres. Chatwoot needs more pieces but rewards you with a mature, heavily deployed codebase. Both are MIT, so both can be forked; wacrm is small enough that forking it to rebrand per client is a normal way to use it. ## Where Chatwoot is still the better choice - **You need many channels in one inbox** — live chat, email, social and SMS, not just WhatsApp. - **You run a support desk**, with a help center, CSAT and reporting built for support teams rather than sales. - **You want mobile apps** for agents on the move. - **You value maturity**: Chatwoot has been in production since 2017, with a large community and a long record of fixes. - **You want it hosted for you** without managing any infrastructure — Chatwoot Cloud is an option wacrm does not offer. If that describes your team, Chatwoot is the better choice. wacrm is for the team that lives in WhatsApp and needs the inbox and the pipeline in one place. ## Running both, or moving from Chatwoot to wacrm Some teams keep Chatwoot for support across channels and run wacrm for the WhatsApp sales number. If you are moving entirely: 1. **Export your contacts from Chatwoot** as a CSV. 2. **Fork and deploy wacrm** — see [Getting started](https://wacrm.tech/docs/getting-started) and [Deploy on Hostinger](https://wacrm.tech/docs/deployment-hostinger). 3. **Import the CSV** into wacrm's [contact hub](https://wacrm.tech/docs/contacts) and set up your [pipeline stages](https://wacrm.tech/docs/pipelines). 4. **Point your WhatsApp Business API number** at wacrm — see [WhatsApp setup](https://wacrm.tech/docs/whatsapp-setup). Pointing the webhook at wacrm moves incoming messages over, so plan the switch for a quiet hour. Conversation history does not transfer between the two systems. You carry your contacts and templates (templates live in your Meta account, not in either app) and start fresh on threads.