Chatwoot vs Zendesk
Which one do AI engines recommend, and how do they differ on price, fit and features?
The short answer
Zendesk is the stronger AI pick in Live Chat & AI Support: it has a visibility score of 49.3 versus 2.4 for Chatwoot, and ranks ahead in 75% of the answers that name both.
Choose Chatwoot if…
- You want a free plan to start
- You need GDPR coverage
- Free self-hosted option
- Best open-source option
Choose Zendesk if…
- You want the brand AI engines rank higher (49.3 vs 2.4)
- AI answers describe it more positively (34% vs 22% positive)
- You need ISO 27001:2022 or ISO 27018:2019 or ISO 27701:2019 or ISO 27017:2015 or ISO 42001:2023 or FedRAMP LI-SaaS or Cyber Essentials Plus coverage
- You prefer a larger, established vendor (5,000+ employees)
AI visibility side by side
Latest weekly run · Nov 3
| Metric | Chatwoot | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility score | 2.4% | 49.3% |
| Change vs last week | up+0.5% | up+0.3% |
| Rank in Live Chat & AI Support | #19 | #1 |
| Share of voice | 1% | 11.2% |
| Mentions this run | 5 | 53 |
| Positive in AI answers | 22% | 34% |
The stronger value in each row is marked with a ✓.
Visibility score trend
Weekly runs over the last 60 days
Chatwoot +0.5pp · Zendesk +0.29999999999999716pp over 1 weekly runs.
Engine by engine
Zendesk leads on 3 of 3 engines
Head to head in AI answers
4 engine answers name both brands
| Prompt | Engine | Chatwoot | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alternatives to the most popular live chat tool | ChatGPT | #9 | #7 |
| How much does a live chat tool cost per month? | AI Mode | #3 | #5 |
| Official website of the top live chat tool vendors | ChatGPT | #15 | #2 |
| Official website of the top live chat tool vendors | Perplexity | #15 | #3 |
Features, pricing & fit
| Dimension | Chatwoot | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per seat | Per seat |
| Entry price | Free; paid from $19 per seat / mo | $19 per seat / mo |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Deployment | Self-hosted or Chatwoot Cloud | Cloud (SaaS) |
| Integrations | — | 1800+ |
| Compliance | SOC 2 Type II, GDPR | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001:2022, ISO 27018:2019, ISO 27701:2019, ISO 27017:2015, ISO 42001:2023, FedRAMP LI-SaaS, Cyber Essentials Plus |
| Support | Live chat on the website, Email hello@chatwoot.com | Help Center, Community, Partners |
| Founded | 2020 | 2007 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, United States | San Francisco, California, United States |
| Employees | 11–50 | 5,000+ |
| Funding | Seed · $2M raised | Take-private (Hellman & Friedman, Permira) |
| Best for | Support teams that want one inbox for chat, email and messaging, with the option to self-host. | Support teams from startups to enterprises that need omnichannel ticketing with AI automation |
Plans side by side
Chatwoot
Zendesk
Pros and cons
Themes from the AI answers that mention each brand
Chatwoot
- Free self-hosted option
- Best open-source option
- Robust free plan with basic chat widgets
- Hosted free tier has usage limits
- Free plan limits agents, chat history, and advanced automations
Zendesk
- Industry leader in omnichannel customer support
- Scalable platform for large enterprise teams
- Mature ticketing operations and SLA management
- Extensive marketplace and broad integrations
- Free trial available for 14 days
- Heavy, slow deployment compared with lighter tools
- High per-agent costs
- AI add-ons billed separately on top of base fee
Data collected ·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 98.8%·next run
Cite as: SlateIndex, “Chatwoot vs Zendesk”, https://slateindex.ai/compare/chatwoot-vs-zendesk, data of Nov 3, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.