Guide

How to migrate from hosted live chat to self-hosted

Moving off a hosted live chat subscription is mostly a swap, not a rebuild. Export what you have, stand up your own server, recreate your setup, and change one snippet on your site. This guide covers the five steps to switch to ZChat with your history intact and no gap in coverage.

Download Free Evaluation Compare Tools

Step 1. Export from your current tool

Most hosted providers let you export transcripts, contacts, and canned responses. Pull those out first so you have a clean copy of your history before you change anything. This is also a good moment to note which departments and routing rules you rely on.

Step 2. Install ZChat

Install the server on the platform you run, Windows with IIS, Linux with Nginx, or Docker, and run the included SQL scripts against your own SQL Server. From here on, your conversations live in a database you control.

Step 3. Rebuild your setup

Recreate your departments, canned responses, operating hours, and knowledge base in the dashboard. Rehearse the whole thing on the free localhost evaluation so your agents are comfortable before any customer sees the new widget.

Step 4. Swap the widget snippet

When you are ready, replace the old provider's chat snippet on your site with the ZChat one. It is a single change to your site template, and because you rehearsed on localhost, there are no surprises when it goes live.

Step 5. Retire the old tool

Watch live chats arrive in ZChat, confirm transcripts and ratings are stored in your database, and keep the old tool for a short overlap if you like. Once you are confident, cancel the old subscription and stop paying per seat.

No-risk switch

Rehearse the whole move for free

The localhost evaluation lets you install the server, rebuild your setup, and test a chat end to end before you touch your live site or cancel anything. The switch itself is a single snippet change.

Download ZChat Widget setup guide

Owned customer support software

Deploy live chat on your own terms, not on someone else's pricing model.

ZChat gives you the installable server, web dashboard, website widget, and desktop agent tools in one self-hosted product you buy once and keep. Run it on infrastructure you trust and connect AI only if and how you want it.

Download ZChat See Product Demo

Deployment

Install on Windows or Linux, behind IIS or Nginx, in a VM, or in Docker if that fits your stack.

Commercial model

One-time purchase, perpetual license, and no monthly per-agent bill attached to growth.

AI Flexibility

Use Ollama locally or connect OpenAI and Anthropic with your own provider accounts.