If you’re in the market for a customer messaging and support tool but want to avoid expensive proprietary platforms like Intercom, open-source software provides powerful, flexible, and privacy-respecting alternatives. Two of the leading open-source options are Chatwoot and Papercups. Both offer core features like live chat, messaging integrations, and multi-channel support — but they differ in philosophy, use cases, and scalability.
In this post, we’ll explore what makes Chatwoot and Papercups stand out, compare their strengths, and help you decide which is the best choice for your business.
Why Choose an Open-Source Intercom Alternative?
Choosing an open-source solution has multiple advantages:
- Cost-effective: Avoid expensive SaaS pricing models.
- Self-hosting & Data Privacy: Keep control of customer data.
- Customizability: Modify features and integrations as needed.
- Community Support: Leverage a growing community of developers and users.
🔍 Chatwoot: A Full-Featured Customer Engagement Platform
Chatwoot is an open-source customer engagement platform that offers live chat, email, social messaging, and CRM capabilities — all in one dashboard.
✨ Key Features:
- Live chat widget with support for custom branding
- Multi-channel support: Email, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, Telegram, and more
- Conversation tagging, assignment, and notes
- Built-in CRM and customer profiles
- Slack, Zapier, and webhook integrations
- Mobile apps for Android and iOS
- Multilingual support
- Automation rules and canned responses
✅ Best For:
- Customer support teams handling multiple channels
- Businesses needing multi-agent and team collaboration features
- Companies that want a plug-and-play Intercom alternative with UI and automation
- Startups and mid-sized enterprises
🔧 Deployment Options:
- Self-host via Docker or Linux server
- SaaS offering by Chatwoot (chatwoot.com)
- Can be deployed through OctaByte with managed updates, backups, and SSL
🔍 Papercups: Lightweight & Developer-Centric Chat Tool
Papercups is a minimalist, developer-first live chat tool focused on simplicity, speed, and integrations with modern web apps.
✨ Key Features:
- Lightweight React-based chat widget
- Slack integration for real-time messaging
- Email capture and automated follow-up
- Zapier and webhook support
- Postgres-based backend
- Hosted and self-hosted options
- REST and GraphQL APIs
✅ Best For:
- Startups looking to integrate live chat into custom apps
- Developers wanting to extend or customize backend logic
- Teams that primarily use Slack for communication
- SaaS businesses with simple support requirements
🔧 Deployment Options:
- Self-host via Docker
- Cloud-hosted version available
- Deployable on OctaByte for hassle-free maintenance
🆚 Chatwoot vs Papercups: Feature Comparison
| Feature | Chatwoot | Papercups |
|---|---|---|
| Live Chat | ✅ Full-featured | ✅ Lightweight |
| Omnichannel Messaging | ✅ Yes (WhatsApp, IG, etc.) | ❌ No |
| Slack Integration | ✅ | ✅ Real-time chat via Slack |
| CRM Functionality | ✅ Built-in | ❌ Requires customization |
| Automation & Rules | ✅ Yes | ❌ Limited |
| UI Customization | ✅ Extensive | ✅ Simple via React |
| APIs & Webhooks | ✅ | ✅ GraphQL + REST |
| Ideal for | Support & Sales Teams | Developers & Startups |
| Hosting Options | Self-hosted / SaaS | Self-hosted / SaaS |
💡 Use Cases: Which One to Choose?
🧑💼 Choose Chatwoot if:
- You want a full Intercom replacement with multi-channel messaging
- You run a support team that needs collaboration tools
- You need an out-of-the-box solution with minimal configuration
- You value CRM integration and agent assignments
👨💻 Choose Papercups if:
- You’re a developer looking for a customizable, lightweight chat tool
- You want to handle support through Slack
- You’re building a SaaS product with minimal support requirements
- You need tight integration with your existing backend
🚀 OctaByte: The Easiest Way to Deploy Chatwoot or Papercups
At OctaByte, we make it incredibly easy to deploy and manage open-source software like Chatwoot and Papercups. With our fully managed infrastructure, you get:
- One-click deployment
- Free SSL and domain setup
- Daily backups
- No server management
- 7-day free trial
Whether you’re a startup or a growing business, OctaByte ensures that your support platform is always up and running.
📌 Conclusion
Both Chatwoot and Papercups are excellent open-source alternatives to Intercom, but they cater to different needs. Chatwoot is feature-rich and ideal for multi-agent customer support teams, while Papercups is minimal, API-driven, and perfect for developers.
If you’re looking to own your customer messaging stack without the cost or vendor lock-in, either of these tools — hosted on OctaByte — can give your team the edge.
🔗 Ready to Get Started?
Deploy Chatwoot or Papercups today with OctaByte’s managed hosting platform and simplify your customer engagement workflow.
👉 Explore Chatwoot on OctaByte
👉 Explore Papercups on OctaByte