# Chatwoot

> Chatwoot is an open-source customer engagement platform that lets businesses manage support conversations across live chat, email, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram and more from a single inbox. Built as a self-hosted alternative to Intercom and Zendesk, it gives companies data ownership plus AI features through its Captain agent and copilot. Founded in 2017 and open-sourced in 2019, the company went through Y Combinator's W21 batch and is used by more than 15,000 businesses.

- **Founded:** 2017
- **Headquarters:** San Francisco, California, USA (distributed team across US and India)
- **Founders:** Pranav Raj S (Co-Founder & CEO), Sojan Jose (Co-Founder & CTO), Nithin David Thomas (Co-Founder)
- **Team size:** Approximately 30-50 employees (distributed, growing)
- **Products:** Omnichannel Support Desk, Live Chat Widget, Captain AI Assistant, Captain Copilot, Help Center / Knowledge Base
- **Notable:** Grew the open-source project to 35,000+ GitHub stars, Accepted into Y Combinator's Winter 2021 batch, Adopted by 15,000+ businesses worldwide

## Products & services

- **Omnichannel Support Desk** — A shared inbox that consolidates conversations from live chat, email, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, Line, SMS and more into one dashboard.
- **Live Chat Widget** — A customizable website chat widget teams can brand and embed to talk to visitors in real time.
- **Captain AI Assistant** — An AI agent that answers common customer questions using the company's own content, resolving routine queries before they reach a human agent.
- **Captain Copilot** — An AI helper for human agents that drafts replies, translates messages, and summarizes long conversation threads inside the reply editor.
- **Help Center / Knowledge Base** — A public help center portal with AI-powered search and personalized content.
- **Voice Calls** — A voice channel added to the platform so teams can handle calls alongside text channels.
- **API & Integrations** — Developer APIs and integrations for building custom workflows and connecting external tools.
- **Mobile Apps** — iOS and Android apps so agents can manage conversations on the go.

## Achievements

- Grew the open-source project to 35,000+ GitHub stars
- Accepted into Y Combinator's Winter 2021 batch
- Adopted by 15,000+ businesses worldwide
- Built one of the most popular open-source alternatives to Intercom and Zendesk
- Shipped a full AI agent (Captain) while keeping the core open source

## Latest updates

- **2026-02** — Captain AI added directly inside the reply editor, letting agents draft and refine responses in one flow, alongside WhatsApp and reporting fixes.
- **2025-05** — Captain AI gained custom instructions and improved auto-resolve capabilities.
- **2025** — Voice calls introduced as a new communication channel on the platform.

## Links

- Website: https://www.chatwoot.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chatwoot
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/chatwootapp
- GitHub: https://github.com/chatwoot/chatwoot
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/chatwoot
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chatwoot/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chatwootapp

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/chatwoot
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-05