tawk.to alternative

A tawk.to alternative you host yourself, with data that stays yours

tawk.to is free, but it is a hosted service: your conversations live on their servers and the widget carries their branding unless you pay to remove it. DChat flips that model. DChat is free too, but you run it on your own server and keep every transcript in your own database.

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Hosted-and-free vs free-and-self-hosted

tawk.to removes the upfront cost by keeping your data on their platform. DChat removes the dependency instead.

Decision	DChat	tawk.to
Where data lives	Your own SQL Server database	Vendor-hosted cloud
Widget branding	A small “Powered by DChat” link; removing it is part of Premium, $19 per agent per month	Branding shown unless you pay to remove it
Cost model	Live chat free; Premium (AI and more) at $19/agent/month	Free, with paid add-ons and hired agents
AI chatbot	Bring your own: local Ollama, OpenAI, or Anthropic	Vendor-defined AI add-on
Desktop agent	Native Windows console included	Web and mobile apps
Compliance posture	GDPR export and erasure built in; data stays in your region	Governed by the vendor's cloud and terms

Your data, not theirs

Every transcript, visitor record, and rating lives in your own SQL Server database with CSV export and built-in GDPR access and erasure tools. With a local AI model, no conversation goes to an AI provider; with OpenAI or Anthropic keys, the assistant's prompts go to that provider, and WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and SMS messages pass through Meta or Twilio.

Your look, on the free edition

The embeddable widget takes your colours, greeting and wording on every edition. It carries a small “Powered by DChat” link; hiding it is a Premium feature, at $19 per agent per month on the agents you choose to cover.

AI without lock-in

Run the chatbot on a local Ollama model so conversations never leave your network, or connect your own OpenAI or Anthropic keys. Turn the chatbot on and it answers from your knowledge base and hands off to a human with the transcript intact.

DChat vs tawk.to, at a glance

How free self-hosted live chat compares with a typical hosted plan.

Compare	DChat	tawk.to
Hosting model	Self-hosted on your own server	Hosted SaaS (tawk.to's cloud)
Pricing	Live chat free; Premium (AI and more) $19/agent/month	Monthly subscription
Where conversations live	Your own SQL Server database	The vendor cloud
AI chatbot	Built in - local Ollama or your OpenAI/Anthropic keys	Varies by plan
Remove vendor branding	Premium, $19/agent/month	Varies by plan

Is DChat free like tawk.to?

DChat is free to run in production, with no time limit and no seat limit, so there is nothing to evaluate around - you simply install it. You trade "free but hosted by someone else" for "free and hosted by you", and pay only if you want Premium features such as the AI assistant.

Why move off a free hosted tool?

Common reasons: keeping customer conversations on infrastructure you control, meeting data-residency or GDPR requirements, and avoiding a dependency whose terms, pricing, or availability can change. If those matter more than a zero upfront cost, self-hosting is the trade you want.

How hard is it to switch?

On the visitor side it is one script tag: replace the hosted snippet with the DChat widget snippet. On the back end you install the server, run the included SQL scripts, and invite your agents. The free edition runs on localhost too, so you can rehearse the whole rollout first.

Run it on your server

Try the full product free on localhost.

The download is the real product: server, dashboard, widget and SQL scripts, with no licence file because live chat is free. One command sets up the demo database and opens the dashboard.

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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.