6 self-hosted options
Open-source alternatives to Intercom
The best self-hosted alternatives to Intercom are Chatwoot, Erxes and Tiledesk.
About Intercom: A customer messaging platform for live chat, support and onboarding.
Every option below is free to self-host and ranked by GitHub stars, so you can move off Intercom without giving up the features you rely on.
Top picks
- Rank 1:
Chatwoot
chatwoot/chatwoot
Customer communication platform (alternative to Intercom and Zendesk).
Team ChatRubyDocker - Rank 2:
Erxes
erxes/erxes
Marketing, sales, and customer service platform designed to help businesses attract more engaged customers.
Source-availableHelpdesk & TicketingTypeScriptDocker - Rank 3:
Tiledesk
Tiledesk/tiledesk
All-in-one customer engagement platform from lead-gen to post-sales, from WhatsApp to your website. With omni-channel live agents and AI-powered chatbots (alternative to Intercom, Zendesk, Tawk.to…
Team ChatMustacheDocker
Why switch
Why teams move off Intercom
Self-hosting is not only about saving money. These are the reasons people make the switch.
Own your data
Your data lives on a server you control, not on Intercom's infrastructure. No surprise policy changes and no lock-in.
No per-seat pricing
Most self-hosted alternatives to Intercom are free to run for as many users as your server can handle; source-available ones may cap usage, so check each license. A small VPS often costs less than a single subscription.
Customize and extend
Read the code, add plugins, connect it to your own tools and automate it through open APIs. When you need a feature, you can build it or fund it.
Full ranking
All 6 Intercom alternatives
Ranked by GitHub stars. Open any app for live stats, license details and a deploy option.
- 1
Chatwoot
Customer communication platform (alternative to Intercom and Zendesk).
Team ChatDocker - 2
Erxes
Marketing, sales, and customer service platform designed to help businesses attract more engaged customers.
Source-availableHelpdesk & TicketingDocker - 3
Tiledesk
All-in-one customer engagement platform from lead-gen to post-sales, from WhatsApp to your website. With omni-channel live agents and AI-powered chatbots (alternative to Intercom, Zendesk, Tawk.to…
Team ChatDocker - 4
Live Helper Chat
Live Support chat for your website.
Team Chat - 5
Zammad
Easy to use but powerful support and ticketing system.
Helpdesk & Ticketing - 6
FreeScout
Email-based customer support application, help desk and shared mailbox (alternative to Zendesk and Help Scout).
Helpdesk & TicketingDocker
What is the best open-source alternative to Intercom?
Chatwoot is the most popular open-source alternative to Intercom, with 37,569 GitHub stars. Tiledesk and Live Helper Chat are also strong choices. Compare features, license and recent activity to find the best fit for your team.
Is there a free alternative to Intercom?
Yes. 5 of the 6 apps on this page are open source; 1 is source-available. The open-source ones are free to self-host without per-user fees; source-available licenses add conditions such as user caps, limits on hosted use or a paid license for production, so read them before you commit. You only pay for the server, and a small VPS is usually enough for personal use or a small team.
Can I self-host an alternative to Intercom?
Yes. Chatwoot, Erxes and Tiledesk ship a Docker image, so you can run them on a home server or VPS with Docker Compose in a few minutes. Your data then stays on hardware you control.
How do I migrate from Intercom?
Start by exporting your data from Intercom, then check the import options of the app you pick, since many projects ship importers for popular formats. Run both side by side for a week before you switch so nothing is lost.