Crisp is a powerful tool, but what if you're looking for something open source, transparent, and flexible enough to make it truly your own? There’s a growing ecosystem of self-hosted alternatives that deliver modern customer support capabilities without the vendor lock-in. Whether you're looking to scale support, drive engagement, or own your data from end to end, these platforms are worth a closer look.
chatwoot
Chatwoot reimagines customer support as a transparent, AI-augmented collaboration hub. It brings every conversation, live chat, email, Twitter, WhatsApp, into one shared inbox. That means agents stop bouncing between tabs and start engaging customers with clarity and speed.
But it goes deeper: Chatwoot gives you full control over your support stack. A built-in AI assistant, Captain, lightens your team’s workload by handling routine questions. Meanwhile, private notes, mentions, labels, and canned responses make internal collaboration seamless.
You also get a customizable Help Center, rich customer profiles, powerful automation, and detailed analytics. Integration is smooth too, from Slack and Shopify to real-time language translation. All wrapped in a platform designed to scale, not restrict.
Papercups
Papercups offers a quieter, more minimal approach, but don't mistake simplicity for weakness. Built in Elixir, it's fast, real-time, and highly reliable. It's for teams that care about control, speed, and seamless integration with existing tools like Slack, Twilio, or email.
Setup is quick, with support for React, React Native, even Flutter. You get markdown-friendly messaging, team inboxes, and the power to self-host everything, because not every team wants to trust third parties with their customer data.
Papercups does less, but does it well: chat widgets, team collaboration, and a focus on privacy-first communication infrastructure. And if you’d rather not self-host, there's a managed version ready to go.
Chaskiq
Chaskiq is what happens when live chat meets campaign automation, team workflows, and customizability at every level. It’s not just a chat tool, it’s a messaging platform built for the full customer journey. Embed rich, multimedia experiences right inside the chat: videos, code snippets, or custom blocks. Launch bots or campaigns triggered by user behavior. Send onboarding flows, promos, or follow-ups, all with fine-grained targeting.
Support documentation lives inside the widget or on your domain, and the dashboard is fully extensible, letting you bring in third-party data or build new tools. With GDPR support, role-based access, and native plugins, Chaskiq gives you the power of enterprise software without the lock-in. It’s built to scale with your product, and your imagination.
These aren’t just clones of the big players, they’re rethinking what customer messaging can be when you put ownership and openness first.