Chatwoot vs FreeScout
Chatwoot and FreeScout are both team inbox software. Chatwoot is open source under a license set out in its repository, with 39k GitHub stars. FreeScout is open source under AGPL-3.0, with 4.6k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick Chatwoot when
- You want to self-host a shared inbox, especially one that handles WhatsApp or chat beside email.
- Pick FreeScout when
- A small team wants Help Scout-style email support on cheap PHP hosting.
Side by side
A customer messaging inbox for email, website chat, WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS and social, with assignment, private notes, collision warnings, canned responses, rules, reports, contact profiles and mobile apps.
A shared inbox and helpdesk in PHP, modelled on Help Scout, with many add-on modules for channels and features.
Reply-time policies are in the paid Enterprise edition, and the chat-style screen handles long email threads less naturally than an email client.
Many useful features are paid modules, and the AGPL licence matters if you modify and expose it.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server, cloud service and mobile app
Self-hosted server
Ruby, Rails, Vue, PostgreSQL and Redis
PHP, Laravel and MySQL
Open source, license unclear on GitHub
Open source, AGPL-3.0 (network copyleft)
GitHub could not read the license. Check it in the repository before reusing any code.
Use inside your business is unrestricted. If you change it and let customers use it over the internet, you must publish your changes.
39k GitHub stars
4.6k GitHub stars
Established: started 7 years ago, latest release v4.19.1.
Established: started 8 years ago, latest release 1.8.249.
Other comparisons
More team inboxes and shared inbox tools
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-06 from each project's README and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.