Formbricks
Formbricks 6.0 RC cycle reveals commercial hardening: lower self-hosted cap, MCP OAuth, and Act as Beta
Comparison · Support
Chatway vs Richpanel
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Chatway and Richpanel — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:integrations
Chatway vs Richpanel: at a glance
| Feature | Chatway | Richpanel |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Support | Support |
| Velocity score | 6.3 | 5.0 |
| Sparks · 30d | 0 | 0 |
| Top themes | live-chat, ai-agents, ecommerce, woocommerce | integrations, voice channel, ai agent context, call summaries |
| Last editorial update | 15d ago | 1mo ago |
| Website | Visit → | — |
What is Chatway?
Chatway's bot learned to read the store; now the store can listen back
Chatway is a live chat widget for small e-commerce sites, weighted toward WooCommerce and Shopify, with an AI support agent attached. The last three weeks added the two things that decide when and where the agent operates: webhooks that push conversation, contact, assignment and resolution events out to external tools from the existing Developer Tools panel, with per-event subscriptions and delivery logs; and AI Availability settings that schedule the agent by weekly time range, timezone and special dates rather than leaving it always on. Underneath, self-service and routing shipped earlier in August.
What is Richpanel?
A third phone provider lands, and voice keeps arriving pre-summarized rather than as audio.
Telebroad joins RingCentral and Consio as a connectable phone and SMS channel, with call recording, an AI transcript, and a summary attached to every call and SMS threading into the same ticket. It follows the Medusa.js headless-commerce connector and the Onward, Rivo, and Klaviyo integrations before it — the same sidebar contract applied to one more source each time.
Chatway vs Richpanel: editorial side-by-side
Chatway
6.3SUPPORT
Chatway's bot learned to read the store; now the store can listen back
◆ Current state
Chatway is a live chat widget for small e-commerce sites, weighted toward WooCommerce and Shopify, with an AI support agent attached. The last three weeks added the two things that decide when and where the agent operates: webhooks that push conversation, contact, assignment and resolution events out to external tools from the existing Developer Tools panel, with per-event subscriptions and delivery logs; and AI Availability settings that schedule the agent by weekly time range, timezone and special dates rather than leaving it always on. Underneath, self-service and routing shipped earlier in August.
◆ Where it's heading
The product keeps widening from a widget into a support stack, and the recent work is about control and connection rather than new answering ability. The August spark grounded the AI agent in live store data; since then Chatway has added the Help Center it can point to, routing that decides who takes a conversation, an outbound event stream so other systems can react, and now a schedule that says when the AI is allowed to be the one responding. The consistent thread is that merchants are being given switches over an agent they were first given a reason to trust.
◆ Prediction
With events flowing out and a schedule governing the agent, the obvious next gap is inbound control — triggering Chatway actions from outside, or handing off to a human on a rule rather than a reply. The entries do not indicate which, and no API beyond webhooks is mentioned.
Richpanel
5.0SUPPORT
A third phone provider lands, and voice keeps arriving pre-summarized rather than as audio.
◆ Current state
Telebroad joins RingCentral and Consio as a connectable phone and SMS channel, with call recording, an AI transcript, and a summary attached to every call and SMS threading into the same ticket. It follows the Medusa.js headless-commerce connector and the Onward, Rivo, and Klaviyo integrations before it — the same sidebar contract applied to one more source each time.
◆ Where it's heading
Richpanel is building a support inbox whose value is the context already sitting next to the conversation, and voice is being normalized into that model rather than treated as a separate medium: agents read a summary instead of replaying a recording. The integration cadence is steady and the shape never varies, which makes breadth the strategy — every new provider is another set of merchants who can adopt without changing their stack.
◆ Prediction
Expect further phone and commerce providers on the same template, since nothing in these releases suggests a change in what the sidebar or the AI agent does with the context once it arrives.
Alternatives to Chatway and Richpanel
Other Support products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Chatway or Richpanel.
SolarWinds Service Desk
SolarWinds Service Desk is loading its Labs pipeline with native Entra ID automation, IT asset tracking, and compliance-ready task management.
Freshchat
Freshchat keeps product moves off the public record — changelog offers nothing to track.
Freshdesk
Freshdesk's changelog feed contains only marketing copy — no substantive release data available.
TeamViewer
TeamViewer's scraped feed contains only community marketing fragments—no actual release data.
LiveAgent
LiveAgent launches Svelte 5 frontend migration and multi-model AI simultaneously.
See all Chatway alternatives → · See all Richpanel alternatives →
Recent activity from Chatway and Richpanel
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 16d agoChatwayConnect Chatway to other tools with Webhooks
- 19d agoChatwayMore control over AI agent availability
- 23d agoChatwayIntroducing the Chatway Affiliate Program
- 27d agoChatwayRoute chats based on visitor replies
- 1mo agoRichpanel📞 Telebroad Phone & SMS Integration with Richpanel
- 1mo agoChatwayCreate your own Help Center
- 1mo agoChatwayYour AI agent can now access WordPress & WooCommerce data ⚡
- 1mo agoRichpanel🧩 Connect Your Medusa.js Store to Richpanel
- 1mo agoRichpanel📞 Consio Phone + SMS Channel in Richpanel
- 1mo agoRichpanel🛡️ Onward Shipping Protection in Richpanel
- 1mo agoRichpanelNew integration: Rivo Loyalty & Referrals
- 2mo agoRichpanel📱New Integration: Klaviyo SMS
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Chatway and Richpanel?
Both compete on the same themes — integrations — within Support. Chatway is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Chatway better than Richpanel?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Chatway is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Support products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Chatway?
Top Chatway alternatives in Support are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Chatway alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/chatway for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Richpanel?
Top Richpanel alternatives in Support are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Richpanel alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/richpanel for the full list with editorial commentary on each.