papercups

Open-source live customer chat

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Quick Overview

Papercups is an open-source live customer chat application designed for businesses. It provides a customizable widget that can be embedded into websites, allowing companies to engage with their customers in real-time. Papercups offers features like team inbox, Slack integration, and analytics, making it a versatile solution for customer support and engagement.

Pros

Open-source and self-hostable, providing full control over data and customization
Integrates with popular platforms like Slack for seamless team communication
Offers a user-friendly interface for both customers and support agents
Includes analytics and reporting features to track customer interactions

Cons

May require technical expertise for setup and self-hosting
Limited third-party integrations compared to some commercial alternatives
Community support might be less robust than paid solutions
Ongoing maintenance and updates may be necessary for self-hosted instances

Code Examples

# Creating a new customer in Papercups
customer = %{
  name: "John Doe",
  email: "john@example.com",
  external_id: "123456"
}
{:ok, created_customer} = Papercups.Customers.create_customer(customer)

# Sending a message through the Papercups API
message = %{
  body: "Hello! How can I help you today?",
  conversation_id: conversation.id,
  account_id: account.id,
  user_id: user.id
}
{:ok, sent_message} = Papercups.Messages.create_message(message)

# Retrieving conversation history
{:ok, conversations} = Papercups.Conversations.list_conversations(%{
  account_id: account.id,
  status: "closed",
  limit: 10,
  offset: 0
})

Getting Started

To get started with Papercups, follow these steps:

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/papercups-io/papercups.git
cd papercups

Set up the environment:

mix deps.get
npm install --prefix assets

Create and migrate the database:
```
mix ecto.setup
```
Start the Phoenix server:
```
mix phx.server
```
Visit http://localhost:4000 in your browser to access the Papercups dashboard.

For more detailed instructions and configuration options, refer to the project's documentation on GitHub.

Competitor Comparisons

chatwoot

23,365

Open-source live-chat, email support, omni-channel desk. An alternative to Intercom, Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud etc. 🔥💬

Pros of Chatwoot

More comprehensive feature set, including multi-channel support (email, WhatsApp, etc.)
Larger and more active community, with frequent updates and contributions
Better documentation and easier setup process for beginners

Cons of Chatwoot

Higher resource requirements due to its more extensive feature set
Steeper learning curve for developers looking to customize or extend functionality
Less focus on developer-friendly integrations compared to Papercups

Code Comparison

Chatwoot (Ruby on Rails):

class ConversationsController < ApplicationController
  def index
    @conversations = Current.account.conversations.includes(
      :assignee, :contact, :taggings
    ).page(params[:page])
  end
end

Papercups (Elixir/Phoenix):

defmodule PapercupsWeb.ConversationController do
  use PapercupsWeb, :controller

  def index(conn, params) do
    conversations = Conversations.list_conversations(params)
    render(conn, "index.json", conversations: conversations)
  end
end

Both projects use modern web frameworks, but Chatwoot's Ruby on Rails codebase may be more familiar to a wider range of developers. Papercups' Elixir/Phoenix stack offers potential performance benefits for high-concurrency scenarios. Chatwoot's controller includes more eager loading, which could improve performance for complex queries, while Papercups' approach is more straightforward.

chaskiq

3,312

A full featured Live Chat, Support & Marketing platform, alternative to Intercom, Drift, Crisp, etc from cience.com

Pros of Chaskiq

More comprehensive feature set, including email campaigns and automation
Supports multiple languages out of the box
Offers a visual conversation builder for complex workflows

Cons of Chaskiq

Steeper learning curve due to more complex architecture
Requires more resources to run and maintain
Less focused on simplicity compared to Papercups

Code Comparison

Chaskiq (Ruby on Rails):

class ConversationsController < ApplicationController
  def create
    @conversation = Conversation.new(conversation_params)
    if @conversation.save
      render json: @conversation, status: :created
    else
      render json: @conversation.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity
    end
  end
end

Papercups (Elixir):

defmodule PapercupsWeb.ConversationController do
  use PapercupsWeb, :controller

  def create(conn, %{"conversation" => conversation_params}) do
    with {:ok, %Conversation{} = conversation} <- Conversations.create_conversation(conversation_params) do
      conn
      |> put_status(:created)
      |> render("show.json", conversation: conversation)
    end
  end
end

Both projects use a similar MVC structure, but Chaskiq uses Ruby on Rails while Papercups is built with Elixir and Phoenix. Chaskiq's codebase is more extensive due to its broader feature set, while Papercups maintains a simpler and more focused approach to customer messaging.

erxes

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Pros of erxes

More comprehensive CRM features, including sales, marketing, and customer support tools
Larger community and more frequent updates
Supports multiple languages and has a more extensive plugin ecosystem

Cons of erxes

Steeper learning curve due to its broader feature set
Potentially higher resource requirements for hosting and maintenance
Less focused on live chat functionality compared to Papercups

Code Comparison

Papercups (Elixir):

defmodule Papercups.Conversation do
  use Ecto.Schema
  import Ecto.Changeset

  schema "conversations" do
    field :status, :string, default: "open"
    field :read, :boolean, default: false

    timestamps()
  end
end

erxes (TypeScript):

export interface IConversation {
  _id: string;
  content: string;
  customerId: string;
  integrationId: string;
  status: string;
  readUserIds: string[];
  createdAt: Date;
  updatedAt: Date;
}

Both projects use different programming languages and have distinct approaches to handling conversations. Papercups uses Elixir with Ecto for schema definition, while erxes employs TypeScript with interfaces. The erxes implementation includes more fields and appears to have a more complex data structure, reflecting its broader feature set.

posthog

26,126

🦔 PostHog provides open-source web & product analytics, session recording, feature flagging and A/B testing that you can self-host. Get started - free.

Pros of PostHog

More comprehensive analytics platform with features like session recording, feature flags, and A/B testing
Larger and more active community, with more frequent updates and contributions
Supports multiple data storage options, including ClickHouse for high-performance analytics

Cons of PostHog

More complex setup and configuration compared to Papercups
Higher resource requirements due to its broader feature set
Steeper learning curve for new users

Code Comparison

PostHog (Python):

from posthog import Posthog

posthog = Posthog(project_api_key='your_project_api_key', host='https://app.posthog.com')
posthog.capture('distinct_id', 'event_name', {'property1': 'value1'})

Papercups (Elixir):

alias Papercups.{Conversations, Messages}

{:ok, conversation} = Conversations.create_conversation(%{account_id: account_id})
{:ok, message} = Messages.create_message(%{conversation_id: conversation.id, body: "Hello!"})

Both repositories offer customer engagement solutions, but PostHog focuses on product analytics and experimentation, while Papercups is primarily a customer support chat platform. PostHog provides a more extensive set of features for tracking user behavior and improving product performance, whereas Papercups offers a simpler, more focused solution for customer communication.

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README

:warning: Maintenance Mode

Papercups is in maintenance mode. This means there won't be any major new features in the near future. We will still accept pull requests and conduct major bug fixes. Read more here

Papercups

Papercups is an open source live customer support tool web app written in Elixir. We offer a hosted version at app.papercups.io.

You can check out how our chat widget looks and play around with customizing it on our demo page. The chat widget component is also open sourced at github.com/papercups-io/chat-widget.

Watch how easy it is to get set up with our Slack integration ð : slack-setup

One click Heroku deployment

The fastest way to get started is one click deploy on Heroku with:

Philosophy

We wanted to make a self-hosted customer support tool like Zendesk and Intercom for companies that have privacy and security concerns about having customer data going to third party services.

Features

Reply from email - use Papercups to answer support tickets via email
Reply from SMS - forward Twilio conversations and respond to SMS requests from Papercups
Custom chat widget - a customizable chat widget you can embed on your website to talk to your customers
React support - embed the chat widget as a React component, or a simple HTML snippet
React Native support - embed the chat widget in your React Native app
Flutter support - embed the chat widget in your Flutter app (courtesy of @aguilaair :heart:)
Slack integration - connect with Slack, so you can view and reply to messages directly from a Slack channel
Mattermost integration - connect with Mattermost, so you can view and reply to messages directly from Mattermost
Markdown and emoji support - use markdown and emoji to add character to your messages!
Invite your team - send invite links to your teammates to join your account
Conversation management - close, assign, and prioritize conversations
Built on Elixir - optimized for responsiveness, fault-tolerance, and support for realtime updates