A self-hosted alternative built for Windows and SQL Server

Chatwoot is an open-source support platform you can self-host, and if you are comfortable operating it, it is a solid choice. DChat is for teams that want the same data control on a Microsoft stack: install on Windows and IIS with SQL Server as the store, run live chat free with no seat limit, and get support from the vendor who wrote the code.

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A Microsoft-stack install

Run the server on Windows behind IIS with SQL Server as the database, or on Linux with Nginx, or in Docker. If your team already administers Windows and SQL Server, there is no new runtime to learn.

A native desktop console

Agents get a real Windows desktop application alongside the browser dashboard, with native notifications for incoming chats rather than a tab that has to stay open.

Simple tiers, vendor support

Live chat is free with no seat limit. Premium is $19 and Enterprise $49 per agent per month, billed only for the agents you choose to cover, with support from the team that builds it.

DChat vs Chatwoot, at a glance

Tier by tier: Community against Community at $0, Premium against Premium Support at $19, Enterprise at $49 against $99.

Compare	DChat	Chatwoot
Hosting model	Self-hosted (Windows/IIS, Linux/Nginx, Docker)	Self-hosted (open source) or paid cloud
Free edition	Community Edition - live chat with unlimited agents and unlimited domains, free forever	Community Edition - free to self-host, unlimited agents
Licensing	Free Community, then Premium at $19 and Enterprise at $49 per agent per month, billed only for the agents you cover	Open source Community, then Premium Support at $19 and Enterprise at $99 per agent per month
Database	SQL Server	PostgreSQL
Agent console	Browser dashboard + native Windows desktop	Browser dashboard
Support	Vendor support included	Community (paid tiers for support)
SLA policies	First-response target included free, respecting your operating hours. Next-response and resolution targets with breach alerts on Enterprise, $49 per agent per month	Enterprise plan, $99 per agent per month
Audit logs	Included free. Agent, department, settings, privacy and webhook changes	Enterprise plan, $99 per agent per month
Roles and permissions	Custom roles on Premium, $19 per agent per month. Community has administrator and agent	Custom roles and permissions on Premium Support, $19 per agent per month (not in the Community Edition)
Widget branding	“Powered by DChat” can be removed on Premium, $19 per agent per month	Custom branding on Premium Support, $19 per agent per month
Automation rules and macros	Premium, $19 per agent per month	Chatwoot wins here - included in the free Community Edition
Single sign-on	Enterprise, $49 per agent per month. OpenID Connect or SAML 2.0 (Entra ID, Okta, Google, Keycloak, ADFS)	Enterprise, $99 per agent per month, including SAML
Two-factor sign-in	Included free in the ASP.NET Core edition, enforced at sign-in. Not yet in the Web Forms edition	Available on all accounts, including the Community Edition
AI chatbot and agent copilot	Premium, $19 per agent per month on the agents you choose. The chatbot, plus AI Copilot since 2.0.6: rewrite, tone and translation in the reply box, live translation, help-center drafts from resolved conversations, a content gaps report, HTTP tools the bot can call, and a usage page; since 2.0.8, knowledge sources (website crawl, PDF, DOCX, CSV) with cited answers, a bot test bench and AI resolution metrics; since 2.0.9, AI actions with agent approval or visitor confirmation, AI triage (labels, sentiment, priority, routing) and AI steps in visual bot flows - the flows themselves are free. Local Ollama or your own OpenAI/Anthropic keys. Never metered per conversation	Captain AI, including its copilot, is not part of the free Community Edition; self-hosted plans with Captain start at $19 per agent per month
Agent bots (your own bot by webhook)	Premium, $19 per agent per month, since 2.0.6. Signed webhooks, replies with text, buttons, forms or cards, and handover to a person	Chatwoot wins here - agent bots are in the free Community Edition
Buttons, forms and cards in chat	Free since 2.0.6, from agents, the REST API or agent bots	Interactive messages, sent through the API
Business hours and away replies	Free. Business hours per inbox, with an automatic away reply on every channel, since 2.0.6	Business hours and an auto-responder per inbox
Email continuity from the widget	Free since 2.0.6. Asks a waiting visitor for an email, emails missed replies with a link back, and threads email answers into the chat	Continue conversations through email
Command palette, shortcuts and saved views	Free since 2.0.6. Ctrl/Cmd+K palette, single-key shortcuts, saved personal and team views, and a Participating view	Command bar, keyboard shortcuts and saved conversation filters
Conversation merge	Free since 2.0.6. Messages, notes, labels and attributes move into the kept conversation	Merges duplicate contacts; we did not find a way to merge two conversations in its user guide
Server footprint	1 GB RAM minimum, 2 GB recommended. .NET 8 plus SQL Server	4 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended. PostgreSQL and Redis, plus Ruby and Node
Channels	Website widget and email free. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, LINE, SMS and API inboxes on Premium	Chatwoot wins here - the same kinds of social channels in the free Community Edition
Voice calls	Premium, $19 per agent per month. Phone calls through your own Twilio number: ring agents in the browser or forward to a phone, voicemail with transcription, click-to-call	Voice calls on Premium Support, $19 per agent per month
Agent mobile app	Browser dashboard, installable to a phone home screen. No native app	Chatwoot wins here - native iOS and Android apps

The gap is not $19. It is the tier above.

Both are free to self-host with no seat limit, and both sell a $19 per agent per month tier with AI, voice calls, custom roles and branding removal - we are not going to pretend there is a gap where there is not one. Chatwoot's free edition is more generous in places: automation rules, macros, agent bots and social channels cost nothing there and are Premium here. The difference that costs real money is higher up. SLA policies and audit logs are in Chatwoot's Enterprise plan at $99 per agent per month. Here the audit log and a first-response SLA target are free, and DChat Enterprise - single sign-on plus next-response and resolution targets - is $49. Five agents who need first-reply targets and an audit trail is $5,940 a year there, and nothing here; five agents on DChat Enterprise is $2,940 a year.

SLA and audit logs cost nothing here

First-reply SLA targets that respect your operating hours, and an audit trail across agents, departments, settings, privacy and webhooks. Chatwoot reserves both for its $99 Enterprise tier. For anyone answering to an auditor or a first-reply target in a contract, that is the whole comparison. On the paid tiers you pay only for the agents you choose to cover, rather than every agent on the account.

A lapse stops the paid features and nothing else

If your subscription runs out, the paid features switch off and the settings they created stay stored. Live chat carries on with unlimited agents, your database and transcripts are untouched, and nothing is held back pending payment. That is a deliberate design decision, not a grace period.

The model can run on your own hardware

Point DChat at a local Ollama install and no conversation ever leaves your server, and no per-message cost is charged by anyone. Or bring your own OpenAI or Anthropic key and pay that provider directly at cost. We never meter your conversations either way.

A Microsoft stack, supported by the people who wrote it

Windows, IIS and SQL Server, with a Windows desktop console for agents. If that is the stack you already run and staff, it is a shorter path than operating a Rails and Postgres deployment - and support comes from the vendor rather than a forum.

Chatwoot figures are its published self-hosted plans, checked 25 September 2026: Community Edition free (it no longer includes roles and permissions), Premium Support $19 per agent per month billed annually (the tier that first includes Captain AI, voice calls, custom branding, agent capacity and roles), Enterprise $99 for SSO and SAML, SLA policies and audit logs. DChat figures are for version 2.0.8, ASP.NET Core edition. Prices change; check theirs before deciding. Live chat itself is free on both sides.

If you need only live chat, both are free. Choose on the comparison above instead - channels, automation, mobile apps, which stack you want to run - because on price there is genuinely nothing in it.

And Chatwoot is open source while DChat is not. You can read, fork and audit their code; with DChat you take the binaries on trust. Chatwoot also has native iOS and Android apps, where DChat has an installable web dashboard. If either matters to you it should probably decide this, and we would rather you weigh it now than discover it later.

Is DChat open source?

No. DChat is commercial software you install and run on your own servers. Live chat is free with no seat limit; Premium and Enterprise are per-agent subscriptions. Self-hosting and open source are different things: with DChat you control the deployment and keep the data, and the vendor maintains the code. If reading and forking the source matters to you, Chatwoot is the better fit.

Where does my chat data live?

In your own SQL Server database, on infrastructure you control and in the region you choose. Transcripts, visitor records, and ratings are queryable directly, exportable to CSV, and covered by built-in GDPR access and erasure plus an audit log of privileged actions.

Does it have an AI chatbot?

Yes, and you choose the model. Point it at a local Ollama model to keep inference on your own hardware, or use your own OpenAI or Anthropic keys. It answers from your knowledge base and hands off to a human with the transcript attached. Since 2.0.9 it can also call your own systems through AI actions, with agent approval or visitor confirmation for anything that changes data. The bot is optional and off by default.

Chatwoot is free to self-host. So what do I pay DChat for?

Nothing, for live chat. Both Community editions are free to self-host with no seat limit, and DChat's includes an audit log and a first-response SLA target, which Chatwoot keeps for its $99 Enterprise plan. Chatwoot's free edition includes things DChat charges for: automation rules, macros, agent bots and social channels such as WhatsApp are Premium here. Both sell a $19 per agent per month tier with AI, voice calls, custom roles and branding removal. At the top, DChat Enterprise is $49 per agent per month for single sign-on (OpenID Connect or SAML) and advanced SLA policies; Chatwoot's is $99. With DChat you pay only for the agents you choose to cover, and if a subscription lapses the paid features switch off while live chat keeps running unlimited, with your database untouched.

How do I try it?

The download is the real product, free with unlimited agents and domains: server, dashboard, widget and SQL scripts. One command provisions the demo database and opens the dashboard, so you can rehearse the whole rollout before it goes live.

Run it on your server

Self-hosted, without running a platform.

Keep every conversation inside your own network and let someone else maintain the software. Install it on the stack you already run and try the whole thing free on localhost first.

Download DChat On-premise overview

Self-hosted customer support software

Deploy live chat on your own terms, not on someone else's pricing model.

DChat gives you the installable server, web dashboard, website widget, and desktop agent tools in one self-hosted product, with live chat free to run, and an AI agent that answers, acts with the approvals you set and hands off to your team when you want one. Run it on infrastructure you trust, on the model you choose.

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Deployment

Install on Windows or Linux, behind IIS or Nginx, in a VM, or in Docker if that fits your stack.

Commercial model

Live chat is free with unlimited agents. Premium, with the AI agent, is billed per agent per month, never per conversation.

AI Flexibility

Run the AI agent on a local Ollama model, or connect OpenAI and Anthropic with your own provider accounts.