What changes when you host Chatwoot yourself?
Chatwoot Cloud runs the support application for you. A self-hosted installation puts your team in charge of keeping the application, its database and uploaded files available.
The inbox serves the same immediate job in either setup. If someone reports two payment entries after an error, a support teammate needs to find the thread, take ownership and explain what will happen next. The deployment choice matters when the inbox is down or you need a copy of the records.
How does a report get to someone who can reply?
Give each supported channel its own inbox and add the agents who should handle it. An ordinary Agent can work in the inboxes they belong to. An Administrator can see all conversations and manage settings and people.
For an email inbox, choose how new messages reach Chatwoot and how replies leave it. Depending on the setup, Chatwoot can read from the mailbox or receive forwarded messages. Set up and verify sending separately. For self-hosted Chatwoot, the right connection depends on your mail provider and your server.
Keep an internal finding in a private note, separate from the customer reply. A mention in a note can notify a teammate, including by email if enabled. Share only the details they need and avoid putting card details or account secrets in either message.
What would you check before relying on the inbox?
Use one fictional payment report and a paper copy of the inbox. Decide who should be able to find that conversation and what you would need to recover if the inbox went down.
- Route the questionGive case A-17 to one support Agent who belongs to the payment inbox. Write a customer reply with a next update time. Put the pretend investigation finding in a separate internal note.
- Check who can see itMark which person can read the note and which person receives the reply. Give a second pretend agent who belongs only to another inbox no access to the payment thread.
- Decide what to recoverImagine the inbox is unavailable. Write down who would restore it or contact the hosting service. In a disposable restore, the team should be able to find the conversation, open a sample attachment and confirm which agents still have access.
What do the managed and self-hosted plans charge for?
Cloud paid plans list a price per agent per month. The self-hosted Community Edition has no Chatwoot subscription charge. You still pay for the infrastructure and the work to keep it running.
| Setup | What the public plan covers | What you still need |
|---|---|---|
| Chatwoot Cloud | The free Hacker plan lists one website chat inbox, up to two agents, 500 conversations per month and 30 days of retained history. The Startups paid plan includes email. | Check the agent count, retention and channels you need. Cloud’s email and fair-use rules still apply. |
| Self-hosted Chatwoot | Community Edition runs on your infrastructure. Chatwoot separately lists paid self-hosted editions by agent. | Keep the server, PostgreSQL database and Redis service running. Budget for storage, email delivery, backups and upgrades. |
On a small screen, scroll the table sideways to read every column.
What can you keep if you switch or restore service?
Chatwoot documents a way for another program to read messages for one conversation using an authorized account connection. Chatwoot Cloud requires a paid plan for API access and webhooks. Test a selected export before assuming it includes everything you want to keep.
For self-hosting, keep a backup of the database, the storage that holds attachments, and the settings you need to restore. Protect those copies as you would the inbox. For a practice restore, use fictional records and attachments or a sample with private data removed. Before restoring anything or starting the test app, verify that it uses a separate test database and test attachment storage. Disable outgoing email and webhooks, which send updates to other apps, or verify they go only to test destinations. Use the paper exercise if you cannot confirm these settings. If you use Cloud, check how long the plan keeps records and verify the exact export you can use before you switch.