Is Chatwoot or Plain better?

Neither clearly leads. Chatwoot starts at Free and Plain at $35/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Chatwoot or Plain?

Chatwoot has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Chatwoot and $35/month for Plain.

Does Chatwoot or Plain run on more platforms?

Chatwoot runs on Web, Cloud, Self-hosted. Plain runs on Web, API.

Can I use Chatwoot for free?

Yes. Chatwoot has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Plain starts at $35/month.

What is Chatwoot best used for?

Chatwoot is most often used for self-hosted support, privacy-first chat, multi-channel support. Of those, self-hosted support and privacy-first chat are not what Plain is typically brought in for.

What can Chatwoot do that Plain cannot?

Chatwoot covers Live chat, Email inbox, Social channels, Knowledge base. Plain covers Multi-channel consolidation, AI agents, Workflow automation, Sidekick assistant.

Customer Support · head to head

Chatwoot vs Plain

Chatwoot

Customer Support

Open-source customer engagement platform

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Plain

Customer Support

AI support infrastructure built for B2B teams

From: $35/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only Chatwoot has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: Chatwoot free plan limited to 2 agents and 500 conversations per month; Plain foundation plan limited to 2,000 credits per month may be restrictive for high-volume teams
They diverge on capability: Chatwoot covers Live chat, Plain covers Multi-channel consolidation.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Chatwoot and Plain actually diverge.

Attributes where Chatwoot and Plain differ
Attribute	Chatwoot	Plain
Starting price	Free	$35/month
Pricing model	Unknown	Tiered pricing per seat with credit system
Free tier	Yes	No
Platforms	Web, Cloud, Self-hosted	Web, API
Founded	2017	Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Customer Support).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Chatwoot

Live chat
Email inbox
Social channels
Knowledge base
Chatbots
Reports
Slack
WhatsApp

Only in Plain

Multi-channel consolidation
AI agents
Workflow automation
Sidekick assistant
Insights engine
Linear and Jira integration
Help Center and Knowledge Base
API-first extensibility

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Chatwoot

Self-hosted supportnot Plain
Privacy-first chatnot Plain
Multi-channel supportnot Plain

Plain

Consolidating support from multiple channels into one inboxnot Chatwoot
Automating support workflows with AI agentsnot Chatwoot
Extracting insights and trends from customer conversationsnot Chatwoot
Building custom support solutions with API accessnot Chatwoot
Implementing AI-assisted customer support at scalenot Chatwoot

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Chatwoot

Free plan limited to 2 agents and 500 conversations per month
Self-hosted option requires managing infrastructure, updates, and external messaging costs
Smaller ecosystem and community compared to Zendesk or Intercom
AI features require credit consumption and additional configuration

Plain

Foundation plan limited to 2,000 credits per month may be restrictive for high-volume teams
Pricing increases significantly from Foundation to Horizon ($35 to $299 per month)
No published pricing for Frontier (custom) plan
Additional seat costs ($99 per seat) add up for larger teams
Credit-based system requires monitoring usage to avoid overages

Pricing, plan by plan

Chatwoot

Free

HackerFree
- 2 agents
- 500 conversations per month
- 1 live chat channel
Startups$19/month
- Unlimited agents
- Unlimited conversations

Plain

$35/month

Foundation$35/month
- 2,000 credits per month
- Slack and email channels
- Ari AI agent
Horizon$299/month
- 15,000 credits per month
- All Foundation features
- Microsoft Teams integration
Frontier$null/custom
- Custom credit allowance
- All Horizon features
- Discord channels

Which should you pick?

Choose Chatwoot if

You need live chat.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Web, Cloud, Self-hosted.
You also want email inbox.

Chatwoot review

Choose Plain if

You need multi-channel consolidation.
You work on Web, API.
You also want ai agents.

Plain review

Questions people ask

Is Chatwoot or Plain better?: Neither clearly leads. Chatwoot starts at Free and Plain at $35/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Chatwoot or Plain?: Chatwoot has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Chatwoot and $35/month for Plain.
Does Chatwoot or Plain run on more platforms?: Chatwoot runs on Web, Cloud, Self-hosted. Plain runs on Web, API.
Can I use Chatwoot for free?: Yes. Chatwoot has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Plain starts at $35/month.
What is Chatwoot best used for?: Chatwoot is most often used for self-hosted support, privacy-first chat, multi-channel support. Of those, self-hosted support and privacy-first chat are not what Plain is typically brought in for.
What can Chatwoot do that Plain cannot?: Chatwoot covers Live chat, Email inbox, Social channels, Knowledge base. Plain covers Multi-channel consolidation, AI agents, Workflow automation, Sidekick assistant.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Chatwoot: Does Chatwoot offer a self-hosted option?

Yes. Chatwoot provides both cloud-hosted and self-hosted versions. Self-hosting is free with the open-source version, though you handle infrastructure, maintenance, and external messaging costs.

Source

Plain: What is included in the Foundation plan?

The Foundation plan ($35/month per seat) includes 2,000 credits per month, support for Slack and email, Ari AI agent, Linear and Jira integrations, and Help Center access. Up to 5 seats are included.

Source

Chatwoot: What communication channels does Chatwoot support?

Chatwoot supports email, live chat, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media channels consolidated into a single inbox.

Source

Plain: Can I use Plain with Microsoft Teams?

Yes, Microsoft Teams integration is available on the Horizon plan ($299/month) and higher.

Source

Chatwoot: Is there a free plan for Chatwoot?

Yes. Chatwoot offers a free Hacker plan supporting up to 2 agents, 500 conversations per month, and one live chat channel.

Source

Plain: Is there a free trial for Plain?

Yes, Plain offers a 7-day free trial with no credit card required. You can also get 50% discount through their startup program.

Source

Chatwoot: What AI features does Chatwoot include?

Chatwoot includes Captain AI agent for automated responses, Copilot for smart reply suggestions, and live translation features.

Source

Chatwoot vs Plain

Chatwoot

Plain

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Chatwoot

Only in Plain

What people use each for

Chatwoot

Plain

Where each one falls short

Chatwoot

Plain

Pricing, plan by plan

Chatwoot

Plain

Which should you pick?

Choose Chatwoot if

Choose Plain if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Chatwoot

More on Plain

Keep looking

Other head to heads