Open Source Team Chat & Messaging Software
Team Chat & Messaging software provides a centralized environment for real-time text, voice, and video communication. These tools organize conversations into threads or channels to prevent information loss during asynchronous work. This type of software serves organizations and communities that need to manage their own chat logs and member directories. By hosting these apps on private infrastructure, you ensure that sensitive internal discussions and metadata remain on your own hardware. This approach removes reliance on external service providers for the storage of company messages.
This page lists 44 open source tools in the Team Chat & Messaging category. The most popular are Rocket.Chat, Mattermost and Zulip. Most use the Apache-2.0 or AGPL-3.0 license, and 30 offer an official Docker image.
Rocket.Chat
A secure communication platform providing real-time messaging, voice, and video for organizations requiring full data control.
Mattermost
A self-hosted collaboration platform providing team chat, workflow automation, voice calling, and screen sharing for secure organizations.
Zulip
An organized team chat application using topic based threading to support both live and asynchronous communication.
SimpleX Chat
A privacy focused messaging platform that operates without user identifiers to protect metadata and identity.
Tinode
A federated instant messaging platform with a Go backend and native clients for mobile and web.
Element
A communication client for encrypted messaging and collaboration built on the decentralized Matrix protocol.
Fluxer
An instant messaging and VoIP platform for communities featuring Markdown support, voice and video calls, and self-hosting.
Mumble
Low-latency voice chat software featuring a dedicated server and cross-platform clients for high quality audio communication.
HuLa
A cross-platform instant messaging system providing private and group chat capabilities across desktop and mobile devices.
ejabberd
Realtime communication platform providing XMPP server, MQTT broker, and SIP service capabilities for scalable messaging.
The Lounge
A self-hosted web IRC client that remains connected to servers while the user is offline.
Colanode
A local-first collaboration workspace combining real-time chat, rich text pages, databases, and file management for teams.
Expensify
Automate expense reporting, reimbursements, and corporate card management with real-time data synchronization and various third party integrations.
Teams for Linux
An unofficial desktop wrapper for Microsoft Teams that provides native system integration for Linux users.
Franz
Consolidate multiple messaging and email services into a single desktop window to reduce application switching.
Synapse
A homeserver implementation for the Matrix open standard for secure and interoperable real-time communications.
Campfire
A self-hosted group chat system featuring multiple rooms, direct messaging, file attachments, and bot integration via API.
Cinny
A secure and modern Matrix client providing an encrypted interface for decentralized instant messaging conversations.
Legcord
A standalone desktop client for Discord that integrates privacy protections and custom modification frameworks.
WeeChat
A lightweight and extensible chat client supporting multiple protocols and customizable through various scripting languages.
Ergo
A modern IRC server that integrates daemon, services framework, and bouncer functionality into one application.
Converse
A client side XMPP chat application that runs in web browsers or as a desktop app.
Stoat
Self-hostable group chat with servers, channels, voice, and moderation tools built under EU privacy law.
Openfire
A real time collaboration server using the XMPP open protocol for instant messaging and communication.
Quiet
A peer-to-peer team chat that syncs messages directly between devices over Tor without central servers.
Stoat
A self-hosted communication platform featuring a back-end, web front-end, file server, and image proxy.
Wire
Provides end to end encrypted messaging, file sharing, and video calls for secure team communication and collaboration.
nheko
A native desktop client for the Matrix protocol designed to feel like a mainstream chat application.
Dorion
A lightweight Discord client designed for low spec hardware with support for themes and plugins.
WebCord
A privacy focused desktop client for Discord and SpaceBar that avoids using the official Discord API.
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