Chatwoot alternative
Odly, a Chatwoot alternative for agencies & MSPs
Chatwoot is an open-source, self-hosted inbox you run and extend yourself. Odly is a managed request hub for agencies and MSPs that drafts replies from your resolved conversations. Here is how to tell which one fits.
Start here
When Chatwoot is the better choice
You want to own the code and the infrastructure. Chatwoot is open source with a large, active community and a mature multichannel inbox. If having the source, self-hosting on your own terms, and avoiding any per-seat license cost matters more than anything else, that is exactly what it is built for.
You have the engineering capacity to run it. Someone on your side is comfortable provisioning, deploying, upgrading and patching a production service. If that is already how your team works, the ongoing maintenance is a known cost rather than a blocker, and you get full control in return.
You want an open-source inbox with optional AI. If your immediate need is a solid shared inbox, Chatwoot covers it well, and its Captain AI agent is there when you want it on a paid plan. Paying for an autonomy engine you would not use yet makes little sense.
The other side
When Odly is the better choice
Replies drafted from your resolved conversations
Odly learns from your best resolved threads and drafts in your team's voice — not generic AI text, and not a blank box you fill in every time.
Autonomy you control, with an approval gate
Three levels — manual, balanced, aggressive. Nothing sends without approval until you decide a given client is ready for it. You move the dial; it never moves itself.
A workspace per client, plus a transparency link
Every client gets their own workspace, and end clients can track their request status through a link with no login. Owners see the whole picture without digging.
Flat pricing with an agent allowance
Flat per workspace: 5 agents on Starter (€150/mo), 20 on Pro (€500/mo), 50 on Enterprise Cloud (€1,000/mo), €3,000/mo self-hosted. Never per resolution, and no per-seat fee inside the allowance — or start on Free with your own AI key.
Managed hosting, guided setup
Cloud plans are hosted and patched by us, with a setup wizard that walks you through AI, database, storage, channels and team. Enterprise Cloud adds an onboarding session within 5 business days where we import your KB and tune routing with you. Bring your own model and storage, or self-host if you prefer.
Telegram run like a support channel
Direct messages, group chats, photos and documents come in through your own bot, get an owner and a ticket, and can be acknowledged instantly. If a lot of your client work lives in Telegram, it is a core channel here — here is how shared Telegram accounts leak leads.
Side by side
Odly and Chatwoot, feature by feature
| Feature | Odly | Chatwoot |
|---|---|---|
| Channels | Email, Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack and website chat in one hub, with one workspace per client. | Mature multichannel inbox: email, live chat, social, WhatsApp, Telegram and more. |
| Telegram | A core channel run through your own bot — direct messages and group chats, photos and documents, instant acknowledgement, routing and ownership. | Telegram is one of its many supported channels. |
| Pricing model | Flat per workspace with an agent allowance — 2 agents on Free, 5 agents on Starter (€150/mo), 20 on Pro (€500/mo), 50 on Enterprise Cloud (€1,000/mo). Never per resolution, no per-seat fee inside the allowance. | Per agent. Cloud: Hacker $0 (2 agents), Startups $19, Business $39, Enterprise $99 per agent/mo. Self-host: Community free, Premium $19 and Enterprise $99 per agent/mo. |
| Cost for a 5-person team | €150/mo flat on Starter — one workspace, 5 agents, managed AI included. Growing past 5 agents means Pro at €500/mo (20 agents); there is no per-seat fee inside a plan's allowance. Free (€0) covers 2 agents on your own AI key; self-hosted is €3,000/mo. | No license fee to self-host — the real cost is the hosting, upgrades, patching and engineering time you take on. Cloud plans are priced per agent. |
| AI / drafting approach | Learns from your best resolved conversations and drafts replies in your team's voice. Three autonomy levels; nothing sends without approval until you allow it (autonomous sending on Pro and above). | Captain, its AI agent — credit-based on Chatwoot Cloud (300–800 credits/mo by plan, then $20 per 1,000), and on self-host only in the paid Premium and Enterprise editions. |
| Setup effort | Self-serve setup wizard on every cloud plan — channels live in an afternoon, with nothing to host or patch. Enterprise Cloud adds an onboarding session where we import your KB and tune routing with you. | Self-host means you provision, deploy, upgrade and patch it. Cloud is faster to start, but you still build your own workflows. |
| Hosting options | Fully managed, or self-host on your own infrastructure in your region. Bring your own AI model and your own storage (S3/MinIO). | Self-host anywhere (Docker, Kubernetes, cloud VMs) or use Chatwoot Cloud. Fully in your control on self-host. |
| Data isolation | Per-organization isolation, encrypted in transit, with credentials encrypted at rest, TOTP 2FA. | On self-host, isolation and encryption are whatever you configure and maintain; on cloud, standard multi-tenant accounts. |
| SSO & user provisioning | Single sign-on via OpenID Connect (Google, Microsoft Entra, Okta, Auth0 or any OIDC provider) with just-in-time user creation, plus SCIM 2.0 for automated user and group provisioning — on Enterprise Cloud and self-hosted. | SAML SSO on the Enterprise plan only; SCIM provisioning is not listed. |
| Onboarding support | Self-serve on every cloud plan with a 14-day free trial (no card); a hands-on onboarding session on Enterprise Cloud to prove it on your own data. | Community docs and forum; direct support on higher cloud tiers and enterprise plans. |
Competitor prices and features verified on 23 September 2026 from their own pages (list prices in USD, before tax): Chatwoot pricing · Chatwoot self-hosted plans
Switching
What migrating from Chatwoot involves
- Connect your channels. Reconnect Gmail, Telegram, Slack and website chat to Odly via OAuth and channel tokens. Plan for roughly an afternoon.
- Point inbound traffic over. Redirect the addresses, bots and widgets that currently feed Chatwoot so new requests land in Odly. Run both in parallel for a few days if you want a safety net.
- Seed the drafting engine. Odly learns from your resolved conversations, so the more history your connected mailbox brings in, the better the first drafts. Chatwoot conversations, labels and macros do not transfer — history comes from the mailbox itself. Drafts improve over the first couple of weeks.
- Set autonomy per client. Start every client in draft-only mode, review the suggestions, and raise the autonomy level only where you are comfortable.
Realistic estimate: channels can be live in a day. Useful, in-voice drafts arrive within the 14-day free trial as your resolved conversations build up. On Enterprise Cloud we run an onboarding session with you — see pricing.
Questions
Odly vs Chatwoot — FAQ
Is Chatwoot cheaper than Odly?
On the community edition there is no license fee, so on paper it can be. But you carry the hosting, upgrades, security patching and support yourself. Odly's flat fee includes managed hosting and managed AI (Starter: 5 agents for €150/mo). Which is cheaper depends on whether you would rather pay in euros or in engineering time.
Can I self-host Odly the way I self-host Chatwoot?
Yes. Self-hosted Odly is €3,000/mo, runs on your own infrastructure, and lets you bring your own AI model and your own storage. If you would rather not run infrastructure, start free or go fully managed from €150/mo.
Does Odly send replies automatically?
Not unless you allow it. There are three autonomy levels: manual (drafts only), balanced, and aggressive. The default is draft-only with human approval, and nothing sends autonomously until you explicitly turn that on for a given client.
Chatwoot already does Telegram — why would I switch for that?
Both support Telegram. The difference is what happens after a message lands: in Odly every Telegram message — direct or from a group — is routed, given an owner and turned into a ticket, and replies are drafted from your resolved conversations. That matters if a large share of your client requests happen in Telegram.
See it on your own conversations
Start free — no card — and watch Odly draft from your real resolved threads. Prefer a walkthrough first? Book a demo. Pricing is flat and public.
Want the technical detail first? Read how Odly handles security.
Chatwoot and other product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Odly is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by them. This comparison reflects publicly available information and our own product as of 23 September 2026; features and pricing change, so verify current details on each vendor's own site. If you believe something here is inaccurate, let us know and we'll correct it.