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10 top picks · 2 audience rankings

Best open source team chat apps

The best open source team chat app is Rocket.Chat, with 46,213 GitHub stars, the MIT license and a Docker image; Novu and Mattermost are strong alternatives. This page also breaks the picks down by team size and use: Rocket.Chat leads for startups, small business and enterprise. The overall ranking weighs GitHub stars, commits in the last year, Docker images, open-source licenses and recent commits across the 38 apps in the team chat category of the appsgit catalog.

Updated · data from GitHub, refreshed nightly

Top picks

  1. Rank 1:

    Rocket.Chat

    RocketChat/Rocket.Chat

    Communications platform that puts data protection first (alternative to Gitter.im and Slack).

    Team ChatTypeScriptDocker

    Rocket.Chat has 46,213 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 2,155 commits in the last year; it replaces Slack and Discord.

  2. Rank 2:

    Novu

    novuhq/novu

    Notification infrastructure for developers.

    Team ChatTypeScriptDocker

    Novu has 40,118 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 2,234 commits in the last year; it replaces Twilio SendGrid.

  3. Rank 3:

    Mattermost

    mattermost/mattermost

    Platform for secure collaboration across the entire software development lifecycle, can be integrated with Gitlab (alternative to Slack).

    Team ChatTypeScriptDocker

    Mattermost has 39,271 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 1,913 commits in the last year; it replaces Slack.

1 of 3 · 10 picks

Top picks

10 of the 38 apps in the team chat category, ranked on GitHub stars, commits in the last year, Docker images, open-source licenses and recent commits.

  1. 1

    Rocket.Chat

    Communications platform that puts data protection first (alternative to Gitter.im and Slack).

    Rocket.Chat has 46,213 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 2,155 commits in the last year; it replaces Slack and Discord.

  2. 2

    Novu

    Notification infrastructure for developers.

    Novu has 40,118 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 2,234 commits in the last year; it replaces Twilio SendGrid.

  3. 3

    Mattermost

    Platform for secure collaboration across the entire software development lifecycle, can be integrated with Gitlab (alternative to Slack).

    Mattermost has 39,271 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 1,913 commits in the last year; it replaces Slack.

  4. 4

    Chatwoot

    Customer communication platform (alternative to Intercom and Zendesk).

    Chatwoot has 37,569 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 1,379 commits in the last year; it replaces Zendesk and Intercom.

  5. 5

    ntfy

    Push notifications to phone or desktop using HTTP PUT/POST, with Android app, CLI and web app, similar to Pushover and Gotify.

    ntfy has 34,644 GitHub stars, uses the Apache-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 832 commits in the last year.

  6. 6

    OpenWA

    WhatsApp API gateway exposing messaging as REST endpoints, with a web dashboard, multi-account sessions, and webhook events (alternative to WhatsApp Business API providers).

    OpenWA has 15,071 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 3,139 commits in the last year.

  7. 7

    Zulip

    Zulip is a powerful, open source group chat application.

    Zulip has 25,998 GitHub stars, uses the Apache-2.0 license and had 4,853 commits in the last year; it replaces Slack and Discord.

  8. 8

    Apprise

    Apprise allows you to send a notification to almost all of the most popular notification services available to us today such as: Telegram, Discord, Slack, Amazon SNS, Gotify, etc.

    Apprise has 17,531 GitHub stars, uses the BSD-2-Clause license, ships a Docker image and had 231 commits in the last year.

  9. 9

    Fluxer

    Instant messaging and VoIP platform built for friends, groups, and communities (alternative to Discord).

    Fluxer has 10,488 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 1,394 commits in the last year; it replaces Discord.

  10. 10

    Gotify

    Notification server with Android and CLI clients (alternative to PushBullet).

    Gotify has 16,036 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 247 commits in the last year.

2 of 3 · 5 picks

Best for startups

Ranked for startups on GitHub stars, commits in the last year, Docker images, open-source licenses, project websites and recent commits.

  1. 1

    Rocket.Chat

    Communications platform that puts data protection first (alternative to Gitter.im and Slack).

    Rocket.Chat has 46,213 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 2,155 commits in the last year; it replaces Slack and Discord. For startups it also scores on a Docker image, a permissive license (MIT), a project website and a commit in the last 90 days.

  2. 2

    Novu

    Notification infrastructure for developers.

    Novu has 40,118 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 2,234 commits in the last year; it replaces Twilio SendGrid. For startups it also scores on a Docker image, a permissive license (MIT), a project website and a commit in the last 90 days.

  3. 3

    Chatwoot

    Customer communication platform (alternative to Intercom and Zendesk).

    Chatwoot has 37,569 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 1,379 commits in the last year; it replaces Zendesk and Intercom. For startups it also scores on a Docker image, a permissive license (MIT), a project website and a commit in the last 90 days.

  4. 4

    ntfy

    Push notifications to phone or desktop using HTTP PUT/POST, with Android app, CLI and web app, similar to Pushover and Gotify.

    ntfy has 34,644 GitHub stars, uses the Apache-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 832 commits in the last year. For startups it also scores on a Docker image, a permissive license (Apache-2.0), a project website and a commit in the last 90 days.

  5. 5

    Mattermost

    Platform for secure collaboration across the entire software development lifecycle, can be integrated with Gitlab (alternative to Slack).

    Mattermost has 39,271 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 1,913 commits in the last year; it replaces Slack. For startups it also scores on a Docker image, an open-source license, a project website and a commit in the last 90 days.

3 of 3 · 5 picks

Best for small business and enterprise

Ranked for small business and enterprise (the same order for each) on GitHub stars, commits in the last year, open-source licenses and recent commits.

  1. 1

    Rocket.Chat

    Communications platform that puts data protection first (alternative to Gitter.im and Slack).

    Rocket.Chat has 46,213 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 2,155 commits in the last year; it replaces Slack and Discord. For small business it also scores on a Docker image, an open-source license, a project website and a commit in the last 90 days.

  2. 2

    Novu

    Notification infrastructure for developers.

    Novu has 40,118 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 2,234 commits in the last year; it replaces Twilio SendGrid. For small business it also scores on a Docker image, an open-source license, a project website and a commit in the last 90 days.

  3. 3

    Mattermost

    Platform for secure collaboration across the entire software development lifecycle, can be integrated with Gitlab (alternative to Slack).

    Mattermost has 39,271 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 1,913 commits in the last year; it replaces Slack. For small business it also scores on a Docker image, an open-source license, a project website and a commit in the last 90 days.

  4. 4

    Chatwoot

    Customer communication platform (alternative to Intercom and Zendesk).

    Chatwoot has 37,569 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 1,379 commits in the last year; it replaces Zendesk and Intercom. For small business it also scores on a Docker image, an open-source license, a project website and a commit in the last 90 days.

  5. 5

    ntfy

    Push notifications to phone or desktop using HTTP PUT/POST, with Android app, CLI and web app, similar to Pushover and Gotify.

    ntfy has 34,644 GitHub stars, uses the Apache-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 832 commits in the last year. For small business it also scores on a Docker image, an open-source license, a project website and a commit in the last 90 days.

FAQ

Questions and answers

Still curious? Email info@appsgit.com.

What is the best open source team chat app?

The best open source team chat app is Rocket.Chat, with 46,213 GitHub stars, the MIT license and a Docker image; Novu and Mattermost are strong alternatives. This page also breaks the picks down by team size and use: Rocket.Chat leads for startups, small business and enterprise. The overall ranking weighs GitHub stars, commits in the last year, Docker images, open-source licenses and recent commits across the 38 apps in the team chat category of the appsgit catalog.

Is Rocket.Chat free?

Yes. Rocket.Chat is open-source software released under the MIT license, so you can self-host it at no cost. You only pay for the server it runs on, and some projects also offer an optional paid cloud plan.

Which open source team chat app is best for a startup?

Rocket.Chat ranks first for startups, with 46,213 GitHub stars, the MIT license and a Docker image; Novu and Chatwoot follow. The startups ranking adds points for Docker images, permissive licenses, project websites and recent commits on top of stars and activity.

Which open source team chat app is best for a small business?

Rocket.Chat ranks first for small business, with 46,213 GitHub stars, the MIT license and a Docker image; Novu and Mattermost follow. The small business ranking adds points for Docker images, open-source licenses, project websites, recent commits and deploy guides on top of stars and activity.

Can I self-host these team chat apps with Docker?

Yes, 9 of the 10 picks. Rocket.Chat, Novu and Mattermost publish Docker images, so you can run them on a VPS or home server with Docker Compose. The others install from their own packages or source; follow each project's install guide.

Are all of these team chat apps open source?

All 10 apps on this list are open source. You can self-host and modify each one under its license.

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