Zendesk Chat alternative

A free Zendesk Chat alternative, not per seat

Zendesk is a capable hosted suite priced per agent, per month. If what your team needs is live chat with an AI assistant and full control of customer data, DChat delivers that as self-hosted software on your own server, with live chat free for every agent.

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No per-agent meter

Hosted suites bill for every seat, so the cost climbs as your team grows. DChat's live chat is free with unlimited agents; adding people to your support team does not add to any invoice.

Data on your infrastructure

Conversations, visitor records, ratings, and analytics live in your own SQL Server database. GDPR export and erasure are built in, and an audit log records privileged admin actions.

AI you control

Connect a local Ollama model or your own OpenAI or Anthropic keys. Turn the chatbot on and it answers from your knowledge base and hands off to a human agent with the full transcript, and there is no per-resolution fee from DChat.

Honest scoping

Is DChat the right Zendesk replacement for you?

Zendesk bundles a full ticketing suite, help center, and a large marketplace. DChat is a focused live chat and AI-assist product. If your Zendesk usage is mostly the chat channel and the invoice keeps growing anyway, that focus is the point. If you depend on the full ticketing suite, keep it and use DChat for self-hosted chat alongside.

Great fit

Live visitor chat, AI first response with human handoff, departments and routing, transcripts, CSAT ratings, and webhooks into your existing CRM or ticketing.

Keep a full suite if you need

A complete ticketing system, a public help center product, or a large third-party app marketplace as core requirements.

DChat vs Zendesk Chat, at a glance

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

Compare	DChat	Zendesk Chat
Hosting model	Self-hosted on your own server	Hosted SaaS (Zendesk'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

Can DChat integrate with my ticketing system?

Yes. HMAC-signed webhooks fire on conversation events with automatic retries and a durable outbox, with ready-made formatting for Slack, Teams, and Discord. Public widget APIs, admin APIs, and direct SQL access let you push chat data into a CRM or ticketing tool you already run.

What does migration involve?

Install the server on Windows or Linux, run the included SQL scripts, sign in to the dashboard, and swap the chat snippet on your site for the DChat widget. Most teams validate everything on localhost first with the free download.

Is there really no recurring fee?

Live chat has no subscription: it is free with unlimited agents and never expires. Premium, which includes the AI assistant, is $19 per agent per month on the agents you choose to cover; stop paying and the paid features stop while live chat keeps running.

Simple pricing

Live chat free, AI when you want it

Live chat, unlimited agents and domainsFree

Premium: AI assistant and more, per agent per month$19

Live chat is free in production with no seat limit. No AI usage fees from DChat - Premium is billed only for the agents you choose to cover, and Enterprise adds single sign-on at $49.

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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.