Chatwoot vs Request Tracker
A shared inbox for site chat and email. Enterprise-grade issue and ticket tracking driven by email queues. Compare the capabilities you need, then check hosting, licensing and maintenance. This pair is shown for browsing but is not indexed (no written verdict yet).
| Attribute | Chatwoot | Request Tracker |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | A shared inbox for site chat and email. | Enterprise-grade issue and ticket tracking driven by email queues. |
| Documented capabilities | Shared inbox, Website live chat, Help center | Email queues and a self-service portal, Scrips for condition and action automation, SLAs with business hours, Articles for canned answers, Dashboards with scheduled email reports, Time tracking and assets |
| Best-fit workflow | Support teams that want live chat and a shared inbox on infrastructure they control. | IT and operations teams that run support through email queues and want deep workflow control. |
| Check before choosing | Check channel coverage and which features belong to the community or enterprise edition. | The built-in rt-server is not for production, and the default root password must be changed after install. Full-text search is off by default. |
| Deployment options | Docker Compose, Kubernetes | Source install, FastCGI or mod_perl |
| GitHub stars | 38,364 | 1,163 |
| License | Custom | GPL-2.0 |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Docker noted | Yes | Not recorded |
| Cloud / hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Primary language | Ruby | Perl |
| Last commit | 2026-10-26 | 2026-10-26 |
| Difficulty | Moderate | Advanced |
| Content source | Editorial catalog entry | Editorial catalog entry |
| Metadata checked | 2026-10-27 | Check the current repository |
| Forks | 9.3k | 296 |
| Star growth | +980 (2026-10-01 to 2026-10-27) | Not recorded |
| Alternative to | Intercom | Zendesk |
This comparison uses recorded capabilities, not hands-on performance tests. A capability missing from one record does not mean that product lacks it. Confirm edition, version and current pricing in the official documentation.
When to consider Chatwoot
Support teams that want live chat and a shared inbox on infrastructure they control.
Check channel coverage and which features belong to the community or enterprise edition.
Chatwoot documentation and sourceWhen to consider Request Tracker
IT and operations teams that run support through email queues and want deep workflow control.
The built-in rt-server is not for production, and the default root password must be changed after install. Full-text search is off by default.
Request Tracker documentation and sourceChatwoot vs Request Tracker questions
- What is Chatwoot?
- A shared inbox for site chat and email.
- What is Request Tracker?
- Enterprise-grade issue and ticket tracking driven by email queues.
- Can you self-host Chatwoot and Request Tracker?
- Both can be self-hosted.
- What licenses do Chatwoot and Request Tracker use?
- Chatwoot uses a custom license. Request Tracker uses the GPL-2.0 license.
- Which has more GitHub stars, Chatwoot or Request Tracker?
- Chatwoot has 38k stars and Request Tracker has 1.2k. Stars show attention; check recent commits and releases for maintenance.
- What languages are Chatwoot and Request Tracker written in?
- Chatwoot is mainly written in Ruby. Request Tracker is mainly written in Perl.