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Launch HN: Chatwoot (YC W21) – Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Zendesk

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Re: Launch HN: Chatwoot (YC W21) – Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Zendesk

#101

Post by fblp »

pranav_rajs wrote: post #46
hnarn wrote: post #40

Thank you for licensing this under a proper open source license. Out of curiosity, how would you feel about a company selling this as a service? It's obviously legal per the license, but I'm wondering what your perspective is. If you encourage it, do you have any plans for how to ensure everybody are happy and turns a profit from it? I have grown cynical over the years with these kinds of open source challengers as i…

There are people who have built custom solutions on top of Chatwoot and selling it. There are people who are selling it in their country without changing the code and making profit out it. I'm happy to help those people out (not for free, would charge something obiviously). There are different markets where we might not be able to cater. Since the solution is flexible enough to build custom channels, I've seen people…

I'm wondering if you've considered an additional option - "donation subscriptions". For people who are deriving a lot of value from a fork, and want to support you!

Re: Launch HN: Chatwoot (YC W21) – Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Zendesk

#102

Post by pranav_rajs »

fblp wrote: post #101
pranav_rajs wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are people who have built custom solutions on top of Chatwoot and selling it. There are people who are selling it in their country without changing the code and making profit out it. I'm happy to help those people out (not for free, would charge something obiviously). There are different markets where we might not be able to cater. Since the solution is flexible enough to build custom channels, I've seen people…

I'm wondering if you've considered an additional option - "donation subscriptions". For people who are deriving a lot of value from a fork, and want to support you!

Github sponsors work that way!

Re: Launch HN: Chatwoot (YC W21) – Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Zendesk

#106

Post by valtism »

areichert wrote: post #98
ron22 wrote: post #94

YC backs another open source alternative to intercom with papercups: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24133719 That was backed last year. Isn't there some conflict from the investor when the companies are so similar?

Alex from Papercups here :) My guess is partially what vardaro mentioned (to hedge their bets), and partially because the space is really, really "wide" (not sure if that's the right word) in the sense that products like this could go in a million different directions... for example: email marketing, CRM, session reply, chatbots, etc. etc. That's to say, even though Papercups and Chatwoot seem pretty similar at the m…

Hey Alex, we use and love Papercups. Very nice to use and a refreshingly simple experience.

Re: Launch HN: Chatwoot (YC W21) – Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Zendesk

#107

Post by daniellarusso »

_xnmw wrote: post #81

You know what I don't get about website live chat buttons like Intercom? The fact that you need to stay on the website to continue the conversation. Why not just provide a link to open a conversation in existing channels, like email, Twitter, Telegram, WhatsApp, etc.? That way the customer can choose whichever channel they already have or prefer, and the conversation continues seamlessly after they've left your websi…

It is not a good experience from the support side either.

In my experience, if the internal employee on the Intercom chat escalates the issue to Zendesk via their integration, the setup treats it as though the initial employee has no further need or relationship with the customer.

To the Zendesk agent, the ticket is created ‘from’ the customer, not the employee that initiated the ticket.

The agent has to manually add the employee back to the ticket, so they can also be in the loop.

Not to mention the ticket is mostly just the chat transcript.

Not good.

Re: Launch HN: Chatwoot (YC W21) – Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Zendesk

#108

Post by hnarn »

daniellarusso wrote: post #107
_xnmw wrote: post #81

You know what I don't get about website live chat buttons like Intercom? The fact that you need to stay on the website to continue the conversation. Why not just provide a link to open a conversation in existing channels, like email, Twitter, Telegram, WhatsApp, etc.? That way the customer can choose whichever channel they already have or prefer, and the conversation continues seamlessly after they've left your websi…

It is not a good experience from the support side either. In my experience, if the internal employee on the Intercom chat escalates the issue to Zendesk via their integration, the setup treats it as though the initial employee has no further need or relationship with the customer. To the Zendesk agent, the ticket is created ‘from’ the customer, not the employee that initiated the ticket. The agent has to manually add…

This might be a naive question but why would you use Intercom with a Zendesk integration when Zendesk already has a chat functionality?

I would assume one either uses Zendesk as a suite for a larger setup or just Intercom for a smaller setup?

Re: Launch HN: Chatwoot (YC W21) – Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Zendesk

#109

Post by daniellarusso »

hnarn wrote: post #108
daniellarusso wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not a good experience from the support side either. In my experience, if the internal employee on the Intercom chat escalates the issue to Zendesk via their integration, the setup treats it as though the initial employee has no further need or relationship with the customer. To the Zendesk agent, the ticket is created ‘from’ the customer, not the employee that initiated the ticket. The agent has to manually add…

This might be a naive question but why would you use Intercom with a Zendesk integration when Zendesk already has a chat functionality? I would assume one either uses Zendesk as a suite for a larger setup or just Intercom for a smaller setup?

Sales-team likes the shiny of Intercom, and also having Intercom on your public-facing site is a bit of a status-thing.

But, also, Zendesk pricing is per agent, whereas Intercom is tiered for a number of users.

Then, to upgrade to the Talk, not the full Suite, is an additional per agent cost.

So, basically, sales can function as Tier 1 support, since they should have basic knowledge of the product they are selling.

We don’t need a Zendesk agent license for each salesperson, only each support person.

Zendesk is pretty powerful between its well documented API and native ‘triggers’, and also its new reporting and dashboard tool, but it is pricey for enabling extras.

I was attempting to write an integration with our phone system, basically having a screen pop-up with the call info inside Zendesk, and could show all prior and open tickets if their is a caller ID match.

I need to pay for Talk just to access the pop-up API.

Also, having multiple forms for a ticket, that costs extra, too.

Re: Launch HN: Chatwoot (YC W21) – Open-Source Alternative to Intercom, Zendesk

#110

Post by realquadrant »

@pranav_rajs I work with a bunch of open source projects via a foundation and wanted been working on a side project to help build ecosystems around complimentary open source technologies for both users and contributors. Would be interested in chatting more around how you’ve been growing? I am offering free use of webinar, events, and cross-community tools to open source projects to try out my ideas.
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