Krispy vs Chatwoot: which open-source live chat fits you?
Krispy and Chatwoot are both MIT-licensed. Chatwoot self-hosting costs $60–120/mo in infra. Krispy runs on Cloudflare Workers for $0, with AI built in.
Buttr studied the competition, counted the Sidekiq workers, and quietly deployed to the edge.
🥐 Buttr: no shade — Chatwoot's legit. i'm just free, serverless, and already answering the chat. you do you.
Krispy and Chatwoot are both MIT-licensed, open-source live chat tools you can self-host without paying a vendor. The meaningful difference is the stack: Chatwoot needs Rails, Postgres, Redis, and Sidekiq on a VPS; Krispy deploys to Cloudflare Workers in one command and runs AI-first by default, pinging you on Telegram when a visitor needs a human.
What is Chatwoot, and who is it for?
Chatwoot is a mature, multi-channel support platform with a shared team inbox that routes email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Twitter DMs, and web chat into a single web dashboard. Labels, canned responses, SLAs, CSAT surveys — the full support-team toolkit. It has been in production for years and the community is active. The self-hosted MIT version is genuinely free.
If you're running a five-person support team that lives in a browser tab and handles volume across multiple channels, Chatwoot is a serious option. The breadth is real, and Krispy doesn't come close on that dimension.
What does Chatwoot cost to self-host in 2026?
Self-hosting Chatwoot means running a full application stack:
- Ruby on Rails app
- Sidekiq workers (background jobs)
- Redis
- PostgreSQL
Chatwoot's own deployment requirements specify a minimum of 2 GB RAM to run the stack comfortably. A production-grade setup on a $40/mo VPS is workable for light traffic, but add managed Postgres ($15–25/mo) and headroom for growth and you're realistically at $60–120/mo in infrastructure before any support tier. Chatwoot Cloud starts at $19 per seat per month — five agents is $95/mo (see the Chatwoot pricing page).
Krispy self-hosted on Cloudflare Workers costs $0. Cloudflare's free tier includes 100,000 Worker requests per day and Workers AI inference at no additional charge. You deploy once:
npx wrangler deploy
No server to patch. No Redis to babysit. No Sidekiq queue to monitor.
🥐 Buttr: $60–120 a month for a chat widget is a lot of croissants. just saying.
For the full infrastructure walkthrough, see how to self-host live chat on Cloudflare Workers for free.
Does Krispy have AI built in, and how does the Telegram handoff work?
Chatwoot does not ship with AI. There are community integrations and webhook patterns you can wire to OpenAI yourself, but it is not built in — you are assembling pieces.
Krispy's bot runs on Cloudflare Workers AI — no OpenAI API key, no third-party model bill, no cold-start Lambda. The model runs at the edge, collocated with your Worker. When the bot hits its limit — a question it cannot answer, or a visitor who explicitly asks for a person — it sends a Telegram notification. You reply from your phone and the response shows up live in the chat widget. That handoff is native, not a webhook you wire yourself.
This is a narrower feature surface than Chatwoot's shared inbox. It is designed for a solo founder or a small team where one person is the support function. If you need five agents triaging queues in a web dashboard, Chatwoot is the right pick.
Krispy vs Chatwoot: side-by-side comparison
| Krispy | Chatwoot | |
|---|---|---|
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Self-host infrastructure | Cloudflare Workers (serverless) | Rails + Postgres + Redis + Sidekiq |
| AI assistant built in | Yes — Workers AI, no API key needed | No — wire your own integration |
| Human handoff to your phone | Telegram, native | Web inbox; mobile app available |
| Multi-channel (email, social DMs) | No — web chat only | Yes |
| Per-seat cloud cost | Free tier on Krispy Cloud | $19/seat/month |
| Self-hosted infra cost | $0 | ~$60–120/month |
| Minimum RAM to self-host | None (serverless) | 2 GB RAM |
Chatwoot is best for: A dedicated support team handling volume across email, WhatsApp, and social — comfortable running a backend and willing to pay for the infrastructure or the cloud seats.
Krispy is best for: A solo founder or small team that wants AI handling first contact automatically, no server to manage, and a Telegram ping when a conversation needs a human.
When should you pick Chatwoot?
Pick Chatwoot when you need to centralize email, social, and chat into one team inbox, your support load justifies dedicated agents, and you are comfortable running a small backend. The self-hosted MIT version is genuinely usable and the community is large. The multi-channel breadth is a real advantage Krispy cannot match.
When should you pick Krispy?
Pick Krispy when you want AI handling first contact automatically, you do not want to manage a server, and you or a small team are the humans behind the chat. The whole premise is: let the bot cook until it cannot, then Telegram you.
If you are also evaluating hosted support platforms, the cost and lock-in gap widens further — the Krispy vs Intercom comparison covers that ground. For the full field, the best open-source live chat alternatives in 2026 lays out every meaningful option.
🥐 Buttr: took me one command to deploy. and i'm a croissant. you'll be fine.
Self-host Krispy by starring the Krispy open-source repo on GitHub — the README covers the Cloudflare deploy in under ten minutes. If you would rather skip the infra entirely, Krispy Cloud has a 14-day free trial at $19/month flat, no credit card required.
FAQ
Is Krispy a drop-in replacement for Chatwoot?
No. Krispy covers a narrower surface: web chat only, no email or social channels, and human handoff goes to Telegram rather than a web inbox. If you rely on Chatwoot's multi-channel routing or shared team queues, you would lose those. If you mainly use Chatwoot for a website chat widget and want AI answering first contact, Krispy covers that ground with significantly less infrastructure overhead.
Can I self-host Krispy without a paid cloud account?
You need a Cloudflare account, but the free plan is enough for most sites. Workers, KV, and Workers AI inference all fall within Cloudflare's free tier limits — no credit card required to deploy. Compare that to Chatwoot, which needs a VPS with at least 2 GB RAM to run Rails and Sidekiq comfortably, plus Postgres.
Does Chatwoot run on Cloudflare Workers?
No. Chatwoot is a Ruby on Rails application and requires a traditional server environment — VPS or container — with Postgres, Redis, and Sidekiq. It is not designed for serverless edge runtimes. Krispy is built specifically for Cloudflare Workers from the ground up.
What AI model does Krispy use, and can I swap it?
Krispy defaults to a text model available on Cloudflare Workers AI. You do not configure an API key or pay a third-party provider — the model runs at the edge alongside your Worker. You can swap the model by changing one config value; the full list of supported models is in the Cloudflare Workers AI model catalog.
What if I already use Chatwoot and just want an AI layer on top?
Krispy is not a plugin for Chatwoot — it is a separate widget. If your team is already set up in Chatwoot's inbox and you just want AI on top, the easier path is wiring Chatwoot's agent bot webhooks to an LLM. Krispy makes more sense as a replacement if you are starting fresh, or if the Chatwoot infrastructure feels heavier than your use case justifies.