Open WebUI vs a hosted team chat plan
a hosted team chat plan charges per-seat, per-month. Open WebUI is open source and self-hosted.
The short answer
Open WebUI turns your own API keys into a private team chat with document upload and accounts. You trade a per-seat subscription for an API bill plus hosting — which is cheaper only above a certain headcount.
Pick Open WebUI when
- Staff need to ask questions about documents you should not paste into a public tool.
- You are paying per seat for people who use it lightly.
- You want to switch models without switching product.
Stay with a hosted team chat plan when
- You are a handful of heavy users — per-seat will be cheaper than metered tokens.
- Nobody wants to own auth, hosting and upgrades for an internal tool.
The migration cost nobody mentions
The hosting is the easy part. The real cost is becoming the support desk for your own AI tool, plus reading the licence before you rebrand it.
We deliberately do not quote a hosted team chat plan's prices — third-party pricing changes without notice and a stale number is worse than none. The pricing model is what determines whether self-hosting wins, and that is stated above. Check current pricing with the vendor.