In short
- Built-in Chatwoot importer: a self-serve wizard with an access token, or a database or pg_dump import for very large accounts.
- Chatwoot is open source; Kommio is not. Choose Chatwoot if source access is a hard requirement.
- Kommio Cloud is free with no seat pricing; Chatwoot Cloud is free for up to two agents and priced per agent above that.
- Kommio adds per-role field masking, SLA policies by inbox and priority, and reports from maintained rollups.
What Chatwoot costs, and what Kommio costs
Chatwoot Cloud is priced per agent per month: Hacker is free for up to 2 agents and 500 conversations a month (live chat only, 30-day data retention), Startups is $19, Business $39 and Enterprise $99 per agent per month. Self-hosted, the Community Edition is free and the Enterprise Edition is $99 per agent per month. (Chatwoot's cloud and self-hosted pricing pages, checked 20 October 2026.)
Kommio Cloud is free: no seat pricing, no plan tiers, every feature and every channel, under the fair-use limits. The limits enforced today are request rates (600 API requests a minute per key) and file rules (25 MB per attachment); the published reference levels, such as 50,000 new conversations a month or 20 GB of files per workspace, are where Kommio would talk to you, not cut you off. Sign-up is self-serve at app.kommio.io.
Where Chatwoot is stronger
- Open source with an active community, and a free self-hosted Community Edition anyone can download today.
- LINE and a few other messaging channels Kommio does not connect, and WhatsApp through providers other than Meta's Cloud API.
- Voice on its Business plan; Kommio has no voice calls.
- Captain, an AI assistant for agents and customers, included in the cloud plans as credits.
Where Kommio is different
Less to run
Kommio is one Go binary on one Postgres database. Chatwoot runs Rails, Sidekiq and Redis. Kommio's job queue, event outbox, schedules and live updates all go through Postgres, so there is nothing else to back up or upgrade.
Who sees which field
Roles in Kommio decide which conversations a person sees and whether emails, phones, payment details and custom attributes you tag as personal data are shown, masked or hidden. Revealing a masked value is its own audited permission, and the Access page shows who sees what.
SLA policies and assignment
First-response and resolution targets by inbox and priority, on the wall clock or in business hours with holidays, with a breach trigger for rules. Assignment works per team or per inbox, round robin or by load, with skills and per-agent capacity.
Reports a support lead trusts
Medians and p90 instead of averages, backlog by age, SLA attainment, staffing and satisfaction drivers, from maintained rollups rather than live counts over the conversation table, with saved views, CSV and Excel exports and a Reports API.
Choose Chatwoot when
- Open source is a requirement, or you want to read and patch the code yourself.
- You need LINE, voice, or a WhatsApp provider other than Meta's Cloud API.
- You want to self-host today without asking anyone for access.
Choose Kommio when
- You run Chatwoot now and want field-level access control, SLA policies and reports without an enterprise licence.
- You want a free cloud with every feature and no per-agent price.
- You want to move with your history and keep working in Chatwoot until the switch.
Kommio and Chatwoot, feature by feature
Checked against Chatwoot's public documentation and pricing page on 20 October 2026; Chatwoot is a trademark of its owner and Kommio is not affiliated with it. Plans change, so check their site before you decide, and tell [email protected] if a mark is out of date.
| Feature | Kommio | Chatwoot |
|---|---|---|
| Core | ||
| Conversation model | One conversation model with data-driven statuses (chat speed plus ticket states) | Conversations |
| Channels | ||
| Shared email inboxKommio: IMAP and SMTP, or Microsoft 365 and Google sign-in | ✓ | ✓ |
| Website live chat | ✓ | ✓ |
| WhatsAppKommio: your number on the WhatsApp Business Cloud API, through your own Meta app | ✓ | ✓ |
| Messenger, Instagram, TelegramKommio: Messenger and Instagram through your own Meta app, Telegram through a bot; Slack channels shared with business customers too | ✓ | ✓ |
| Two-way SMSKommio: through your own Twilio account, with MMS and STOP opt-outs | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deployment | ||
| Self-hosted option | ✓ | ✓ |
| Choice of data regionKommio: cloud region or your own infrastructure | ✓ | ✓ |
| Access control | ||
| Custom roles and permissions | ✓ | ◐ |
| Conversation visibility by team, inbox or assignment | ✓ | ◐ |
| Per-role field masking (show, mask or hide an email, phone or payment field)Kommio: also on custom attributes you tag as ID, payment or other personal data | ✓ | — |
| Audit trail with before and after values | ✓ | ◐ |
| Productivity | ||
| Automation rules and macros | ✓ | ✓ |
| SLA policies and business hoursKommio: first-response and resolution targets by inbox and priority, wall clock or business hours with holidays, attainment in reports and a breach trigger | ✓ | ✓ |
| Visual chatbot flow builder with hand-off to a personKommio: several bots and flows per inbox, in order, with conditions | ✓ | ◐ |
| Full-text search across every message | ✓ | ✓ |
| Knowledge | ||
| AI reply suggestions and summaries for agentsKommio: on your own Anthropic or OpenAI-compatible key | ✓ | ✓ |
| Help center and knowledge baseKommio: versioned articles in your languages, public or internal, and a Help tab in the chat | ✓ | ✓ |
| Developers | ||
| No-code data pulls from your own systems into the conversationKommio: data connectors with recipes for Stripe, Shopify and HubSpot | ✓ | ◐ |
| Public REST API and webhooks | ✓ | ✓ |
| Versioned OpenAPI contract with a generated client | ✓ | ◐ |
| Plugins or apps inside the agent screen | ✓ | ◐ |
| Reporting | ||
| Reporting with medians and p90Kommio: backlog, SLA attainment, staffing and channel mix too, with saved views, CSV and Excel exports and a Reports API for BI tools | ✓ | ✓ |
| Customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys with reportsKommio: by agent, team, inbox, tag and channel, with the responses and comments behind every number | ✓ | ✓ |
| Branding | ||
| Brand theming by tokens across the chat widget and the agent app | ✓ | ◐ |
✓ Included◐ Partial, add-on or higher plans— Not offered◷ On the Kommio roadmap
What Kommio does not do yet
- Kommio is not open source, and its self-hosted edition is available on request rather than as a public download.
- No LINE, no voice calls, and WhatsApp only through Meta's Cloud API with your own Meta app; WhatsApp template messages are planned.
- The WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and Slack channels are built against the documented APIs and verified live as workspaces connect their apps.
- Imported WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and LINE inboxes arrive as read-only history; you connect the live Meta channels yourself at the switch.
Moving from Chatwoot to Kommio
The importer reads a whole Chatwoot account and sends nothing while it runs: no emails, replies, webhooks, rules or bots.
- Connect. An administrator opens Settings › Import › Import from Chatwoot and connects with a Chatwoot access token. It works with Chatwoot Cloud and any Chatwoot Kommio can reach. For a Chatwoot on a private network or a very large account, the same importer reads a copy of the database or a pg_dump file, and can carry each agent's current password.
- Dry run. A report lists what will move and anything that cannot be mapped, before anything is written. "Only contacts who contacted you" leaves out contacts with no conversation and no label.
- Import. Agents, teams, inboxes, contacts and their attributes, conversations with messages, private notes and attachments, labels as tags, canned responses, CSAT ratings, business hours, the help center, and the macros and rules that map. People arrive disabled, rules off and webhooks paused.
- Catch up, then switch. Chatwoot stays the source of truth until you switch: each catch-up applies what changed there, deletions included. Swap the widget snippet and setUser for Kommio.identify, and signed-in visitors keep their history.
The full migration guide: what moves, what does not, and the database import
Frequently asked questions
Is Kommio open source like Chatwoot?
No. Chatwoot is open source; Kommio is not. Kommio Cloud is free to use, and a self-hosted edition of the same product is available on request.
Can I import my Chatwoot account into Kommio?
Yes. Settings › Import › Import from Chatwoot moves agents, inboxes, contacts, conversations with notes and attachments, labels, canned responses, CSAT, business hours, the help center and the rules and macros that map, after a dry run. Very large accounts can be imported from a database copy or a pg_dump file.
Can my team keep working in Chatwoot during the move?
Yes. Catch-up runs apply everything that changed in Chatwoot since the last run, deletions included, with Chatwoot as the source of truth until you switch. Once your team works in Kommio, a plain catch-up refuses to overwrite that work unless you allow it.
Do agents need new passwords?
With the database import and its agent-passwords option, agents sign in with their current Chatwoot password. Chatwoot's API does not expose passwords, so after a wizard import they use an invitation or "Forgot password".
Do signed-in website visitors keep their history?
Yes. Chatwoot and Kommio sign a visitor's identity the same way, so after you swap the snippet and replace setUser with Kommio.identify, returning customers see their past conversations.
Facts on this page describe Kommio as it is on the date above; anything marked planned is on the roadmap, not shipped. Corrections to [email protected].