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38 open-source chat apps

Open Source Chat & Video Call Apps

The most popular open-source chat apps for Windows, macOS and Linux on GitHub are Tdesktop, Zulip and Signal Desktop. appsgit lists 38, including free alternatives to WhatsApp, TeamSpeak and Discord, each with its platforms, license and install commands.

Updated Oct 28, 2026

Open Source Chat & Video Call Apps

All desktop apps A to Z · JSON API

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What are the best open-source chat apps?

By GitHub stars, Tdesktop is the most popular (33,380 stars), followed by Zulip and Signal Desktop. People often use these instead of WhatsApp, TeamSpeak and Discord. Each page lists the platforms, license and last commit.

Which of these run on Windows, Mac and Linux?

29 of the 38 open-source chat apps listed here run on Windows, 29 on macOS and 32 on Linux; on a Mac, the most starred is Tdesktop. 19 can be installed with a package manager such as Flathub, Homebrew, winget or Chocolatey.

Are these open-source chat apps free?

Yes. All 38 use an open-source license (OSI-approved or FSF-free), so you can use, copy and change them for free.

How are these open-source chat apps chosen?

Apps come from desktop awesome lists (Awesome Linux Software, awesome-mac, awesome-windows, awesome-electron and the media and file sections of awesome-cli-apps), more than 70 GitHub topics such as desktop-app, electron-app, tauri-app, gtk, qt, macos-app, pdf-editor, cad and remote-desktop, and a hand-picked list of flagship apps. An app is listed only if it has a license (one GitHub detects, or one appsgit checked by hand), a README and a commit in the last six months, is not archived or a fork, and has 1000+ GitHub stars (topics), 500+ (awesome lists) or 100+ (hand-picked). It must also be an end-user application with a desktop signal: installers in its releases, install instructions for Windows, macOS or Linux, or a Flathub, Homebrew, winget, Chocolatey, Snap or AUR package. Libraries, frameworks, themes, plugins and servers are left out, and source-available apps are labelled as such.