Looking for a Chatwoot alternative? Compare WACRM's price and markup
WACRM is a WhatsApp CRM alternative to Chatwoot for online shops: Growth is $75/month flat for 5 seats. Chatwoot's cloud Hacker plan is $0/agent/month for up to 2 agents, and its most popular paid cloud plan, Business, is $39/agent/month with unlimited conversations (subject to its fair-use policy).
By Huy Nguyen (David), Founder & CEO of Netbase JSC Updated
WACRM Growth is $75/month flat for 5 seats; Chatwoot's cloud Hacker plan is $0/agent/month for up to 2 agents (500 conversations/month), and its "Most popular" paid cloud plan, Business, is $39/agent/month with "Unlimited *" conversations under its fair-use policy, checked 2026-11-03 on Chatwoot's own pricing page.
WACRM is 0% markup, paid directly to Meta; Chatwoot's pricing page states no Meta pass-through fee or per-message markup for the WhatsApp channel — it caps usage instead with a "Conversations" limit per plan and a separate "Captain AI" credit allowance, with extra AI credits "billed at $20 per 1,000."
Chatwoot's pricing page never mentions coexistence with the WhatsApp Business app; WACRM includes it from the Starter plan up.
Chatwoot is not WhatsApp only: its comparison table shows "Live chat" only on the free Hacker plan, with "All" channels (including WhatsApp, per Chatwoot's own homepage) from the $19/agent/month Startups plan up. WACRM is WhatsApp only on every plan.
WACRM vs Chatwoot: price, markup and coexistence
| WACRM | Chatwoot | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per tier | Starter: $29/month · Growth: $75/month · Pro: $179/month · Agency: $299/month | Hacker (cloud): $0/agent/month, up to 2 agents, "Get started free." Conversations capped at "500/month." Channels: "Live chat" only — the page states Voice, Captain AI, Help center, Teams, Automation rules, SSO/SAML and Audit logs are all "Not included in Hacker." Data retention 30 days. · Startups (cloud): $19/agent/month. Conversations "Unlimited *" (the page's footnote: "Unlimited usage is subject to the fair use policy"). Channels: "All." Captain AI: 300 credits included; Help center included. The page states Voice, Teams, Automation rules, SSO/SAML and Audit logs are "Not included in Startups." Data retention 1 year. · Business (cloud): $39/agent/month, marked "Most popular" on the page. Conversations "Unlimited *" (same fair-use footnote). Channels: "All", with Voice, Teams and Automation rules all included. Captain AI: 500 credits included. The page states SSO/SAML and Audit logs are "Not included in Business." Data retention 2 years. · Enterprise (cloud): $99/agent/month. Conversations "Unlimited *" (same fair-use footnote). Channels: "All", with Voice, Teams, Automation rules, SSO/SAML and Audit logs all included. Captain AI: 800 credits included. Data retention 3 years. |
| WhatsApp message markup | Paid directly to Meta, at Meta’s own price — 0% markup | Not stated: the page publishes no Meta pass-through fee or per-message markup for the WhatsApp channel. Usage is capped instead by the plan's own "Conversations" limit (500/month on Hacker; "Unlimited *" on the three paid cloud plans, subject to the page's fair-use policy) and by a separate "Captain AI" credit allowance (300/500/800 credits/month on Startups/Business/Enterprise; not included on Hacker). The FAQ states additional Captain AI credits beyond the plan's allowance are "billed at $20 per 1,000." |
| Free tier / trial | 14-day free trial, no card required. No free-forever plan. | A genuine Hacker plan exists at $0/agent/month (up to 2 agents, 500 conversations/month) on the cloud pricing page itself, which separately says "Sign up for your 15-day free trial, and experience the full power of Chatwoot." without naming the plans it covers. Chatwoot also publishes a second, separate self-hosted pricing page (https://www.chatwoot.com/pricing/self-hosted-plans, checked 2026-11-03) with its own free-forever plan: a "Community Edition" at $0/agent/month, labelled "Free forever", run on the customer's own infrastructure — stated there as a different plan from the cloud Hacker plan, with Captain AI, Voice calls, custom branding, agent capacity limits, roles & permissions, SSO/SAML, SLA policies and priority support all listed as "Not included in Community Edition." That same self-hosted page lists two paid self-hosted tiers: "Premium Support" at $19/agent/month and "Enterprise Edition" at $99/agent/month. |
| Coexistence (WhatsApp app keeps working on the phone) | Yes, on every plan. | Not stated on the pricing page. |
| Channels | WhatsApp only. | Not WhatsApp only: the pricing page's own comparison table shows a "Channels" row valued "Live chat" on Hacker and "All" on the three paid cloud plans, without naming each channel in that row itself. Chatwoot's own homepage (https://www.chatwoot.com/, checked 2026-11-03) says "Website, email, social and messaging, all threaded into one queue" and names WhatsApp (templates and calls), Instagram, Messenger, email and the website chat widget. |
Chatwoot prices checked 2026-11-03 on Chatwoot's own pricing page. WACRM prices from wacrm.ai/pricing.
Talk to an expert
Huy Nguyen (David), Founder & CEO
Ask how switching from Chatwoot to WACRM would work for your own number and contacts.
When Chatwoot is the better choice
- You want one inbox across more than WhatsApp: Chatwoot's homepage names Messenger, Instagram, email and a website chat widget alongside WhatsApp, on its "All" channels plans (from Startups, $19/agent/month); WACRM is WhatsApp only on every plan.
- You want a genuine free-forever plan to start on: Chatwoot's cloud Hacker plan is $0/agent/month (2 agents, 500 conversations/month, Live chat only), and it separately publishes a self-hosted "Community Edition" at $0/agent/month, "Free forever", on your own infrastructure; WACRM has no free-forever plan, only a 14-day trial.
- You want a built-in AI teammate bundled into a paid plan: Chatwoot's Startups, Business and Enterprise plans include a "Captain AI" credit allowance (300/500/800 credits/month); WACRM's AI replies are plan-specific reply/summary counts, not a named AI-agent product.
Frequently asked questions
Is WACRM cheaper than Chatwoot?
It depends on team size and channels needed: WACRM Growth is $75/month flat for 5 seats. Chatwoot's own comparable multi-channel tier, Business, is priced per agent at $39/agent/month, while its cloud Hacker plan is $0/agent/month for up to 2 agents but only the "Live chat" channel, not WhatsApp, checked 2026-11-03 on Chatwoot's own pricing page.
Does WACRM include Chatwoot's other channels and AI agent?
No, by design: WACRM is WhatsApp only on every plan. Chatwoot's homepage names Messenger, Instagram, email and a website chat widget alongside WhatsApp, available on its "All" channels plans, plus a "Captain AI" credit allowance (300/500/800 credits/month on Startups/Business/Enterprise), checked 2026-11-03.
When is Chatwoot the better choice?
If you need one inbox across WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, email and website chat, want a genuine free-forever plan to start on (its Hacker cloud plan, or a self-hosted Community Edition you run yourself), or want an AI teammate (Captain AI) bundled into a paid plan, Chatwoot already has all of that, checked 2026-11-03 on Chatwoot's own pricing pages.
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