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Show HN: Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Drift, Zendesk, FreshChat

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Re: Show HN: Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Drift, Zendesk, FreshChat

#41

Post by dominotw »

pranavrajs wrote: post #2

Founder here, Chatwoot is a customer support tool for instant messaging channels which can help businesses provide exceptional customer support through their websites or social media channels. This was a product we started building in 2017. It failed due to a couple of obvious reasons. We built on Vue.js and Rails. It was in an inactive mode for around 1 and a half years. Recently we thought of putting it out instead…

> It failed due to a couple of obvious reasons. We built on Vue.js and Rails

I read it with a comma instead of fullstop between the sentences :D

Re: Show HN: Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Drift, Zendesk, FreshChat

#42

Post by codegladiator »

randomb_1979 wrote: post #40
xnyan wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand what you are saying. There has always existed straightforward methods of preventing “freeloaders” as you call them from accessing your content. If you don’t believe me, go to wsj.com and report back. TV Broadcasters don’t get to force you to watch their ads, in fact skipping ads on broadcast tv is a big and legal market. Furthermore, today’s ad blocking detection can be very good at detention, so t…

>>I am more than happy to leave their shitty website and never come back. Unfortunately, if this is actually true, then you are the exception which proves the rule. That's precisely why I call these people "freeloaders". If they actually stopped visiting my website and wasting my site's resources based on such principles, I would be ecstatic to see them leave. >>TV Broadcasters don’t get to force you to watch their a…

> Freeloaders exist only because they are being subsidized by those who actually pay

Freeloaders exist because someone wanted to give something for free.

If someone put something online to be viewed freely and then expects some kind of return on it is hypocritical in my opinion. Just trying to make freeloaders look bad for their own lack of action to put it behind a paywall.

>>TV Broadcasters don’t get to force you to watch their ads, in fact skipping ads on broadcast tv is a big and legal market.

> That's because you already paid for it

Freeloaders already paid for the internet connection.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Drift, Zendesk, FreshChat

#43

Post by sojanofficial »

mkohlmyr wrote: post #22

Having worked in this field for a while, you should look at tiered and tagged assignment. E.g. escalation tiers / priority assignment and assignment by browser language / geo up. From what I recall these were important as you look at supporting large organisations. Customisability (design) and pre-chat forms were also headline features.

Co-Founder here: These are all great suggestions. We are reworking our roadmap based on the feedback from HN. Thanks a lot for these.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Drift, Zendesk, FreshChat

#44

Post by sojanofficial »

stanislavb wrote: post #18
pranavrajs wrote: post #2

Founder here, Chatwoot is a customer support tool for instant messaging channels which can help businesses provide exceptional customer support through their websites or social media channels. This was a product we started building in 2017. It failed due to a couple of obvious reasons. We built on Vue.js and Rails. It was in an inactive mode for around 1 and a half years. Recently we thought of putting it out instead…

Good job. I hope it gets traction. I've scheduled it to be featured on the homepage of SaaSHub for next Monday.

Chatwoot Co-Founder here: Just saw that its up on SaasHub. thanks a lot for featuring.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Drift, Zendesk, FreshChat

#45

Post by izolate »

pranavrajs wrote: post #2

Founder here, Chatwoot is a customer support tool for instant messaging channels which can help businesses provide exceptional customer support through their websites or social media channels. This was a product we started building in 2017. It failed due to a couple of obvious reasons. We built on Vue.js and Rails. It was in an inactive mode for around 1 and a half years. Recently we thought of putting it out instead…

> It failed due to a couple of obvious reasons.

Would you mind elaborating? Would love to hear why. Seems like a good chat-focused alternative. Was the competition from Freskdesk too stiff (assuming you're based in Bangalore)?

Anyway congrats on breathing new life into the project!

Re: Show HN: Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Drift, Zendesk, FreshChat

#46

Post by sojanofficial »

gremlinsinc wrote: post #27
pranavrajs wrote: post #2

Founder here, Chatwoot is a customer support tool for instant messaging channels which can help businesses provide exceptional customer support through their websites or social media channels. This was a product we started building in 2017. It failed due to a couple of obvious reasons. We built on Vue.js and Rails. It was in an inactive mode for around 1 and a half years. Recently we thought of putting it out instead…

A full demo or feature list would be nice. For comparison to other options out there.

Chatwoot Co-Founder here: We are working on the feature comparison and roadmap pages. It will be up on the website in a day or two.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Drift, Zendesk, FreshChat

#47

Post by sojanofficial »

scrollaway wrote: post #16
pranavrajs wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the kind words. Please see my response below. > do you have a way to author FAQs Right now, we don't support it. We have FAQs and a documentation website in the pipeline. > is email an accepted channel? Honestly speaking, it is not completely done yet. Emails from support desk mail can be seen in the dashboard, but you cannot respond to it now from our dashboard. Hopefully, we would be able to complete it…

Congratulations on the release. Wish you all the best with it, and will not hesitate to recommend it … but first, email 100% has to be supported. Should be as good as Intercom's user-facing email flow. Email and twitter DMs are IMO more important for people looking for a support channel than "live agent" chat boxes. Live agent boxes are often adblocked and can't ever be the sole point of contact for a company that ca…

Chatwoot Co-Founder here: Thanks a lot for the support.

Totally agree. email is currently our top priority item and the development is halfway through. We are also actively working on twitter DM as a channel.

Stay posted for updates.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Drift, Zendesk, FreshChat

#48

Post by stanislavb »

sojanofficial wrote: post #44
stanislavb wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good job. I hope it gets traction. I've scheduled it to be featured on the homepage of SaaSHub for next Monday.

Chatwoot Co-Founder here: Just saw that its up on SaasHub. thanks a lot for featuring.

No worries. Just keep up the good work.

I'd also suggest, asking some of your users to leave you a review on SH.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Drift, Zendesk, FreshChat

#49

Post by sojanofficial »

ron22 wrote: post #7
pranavrajs wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no other organizations which are using the project other than us. We use it on our homepage chatwoot.com and for our Facebook pages.

That will change soon. :) Awesome project!

Chatwoot Co-founder here: Do let us know if you face any issues. Will be glad to help.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Drift, Zendesk, FreshChat

#50

Post by sojanofficial »

cvg wrote: post #21
pranavrajs wrote: post #2

Founder here, Chatwoot is a customer support tool for instant messaging channels which can help businesses provide exceptional customer support through their websites or social media channels. This was a product we started building in 2017. It failed due to a couple of obvious reasons. We built on Vue.js and Rails. It was in an inactive mode for around 1 and a half years. Recently we thought of putting it out instead…

Nice job! Have you done any load testing on it? Curious how much server to buy to run an instance with some usage.

Chatwoot Co-founder here: We haven't done a full-scale load testing yet. But we were able to handle the HN traffic using Heroku's free tier.
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