Self-hosted alternatives to Slack
Want team chat without handing your data to Slack? These 30 open-source apps run on your own server. Cheapest estimated hosting starts at about $5/month.
| App | Health | Stars | License | Docker | RAM (est.) | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rocket.Chat direct | Actively maintained | 46.4k | MIT | ✓ | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Mattermost direct | Actively maintained | 39.5k | ⊘ Proprietary | ✓ | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Huly direct | Actively maintained | 28k | EPL-2.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Colanode direct | Maintained | 5.2k | Apache-2.0 | ✓ | 4 GB | $20/mo |
| Virola Messenger direct | Health unknown | – | ⊘ Proprietary | – | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Chatwoot | Actively maintained | 38.8k | ⊘ Proprietary | ✓ | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Zulip | Actively maintained | 26.2k | Apache-2.0 | – | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| SimpleX Chat | Actively maintained | 19.6k | AGPL-3.0 | – | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Apprise | Actively maintained | 17.7k | MIT | ✓ | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| OpenWA | Actively maintained | 16.5k | MIT | ✓ | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Tinode | Actively maintained | 13.5k | GPL-3.0 | – | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Centrifugo | Actively maintained | 10.9k | MIT | ✓ | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Fluxer | Actively maintained | 10.8k | AGPL-3.0 | ✓ | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Mumble | Actively maintained | 8.4k | BSD-3-Clause | – | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| ejabberd | Actively maintained | 6.8k | GPL-2.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Openfire | Actively maintained | 3.1k | Apache-2.0 | – | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Tuwunel | Actively maintained | 2.7k | Apache-2.0 | ✓ | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Stoat | Actively maintained | 2.7k | AGPL-3.0, MIT | – | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| WBO | Actively maintained | 2.7k | AGPL-3.0 | ✓ | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Chitchatter | Actively maintained | 2.3k | GPL-2.0 | – | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Live Helper Chat | Actively maintained | 2.3k | Apache-2.0 | – | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| MongooseIM | Actively maintained | 1.8k | GPL-2.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Hyphanet | Actively maintained | 1.2k | GPL-2.0 | – | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Conduit | Actively maintained | 964 | Apache-2.0 | – | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Tox | Maintained | 2.7k | GPL-3.0 | – | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| RetroShare | Maintained | 2k | GPL-2.0 | – | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Shhh | Actively maintained | 420 | MIT | – | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Databag | Maintained | 1.5k | Apache-2.0 | ✓ | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Notifo | Maintained | 883 | MIT | – | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| SAMA | Actively maintained | 161 | GPL-3.0 | ✓ | 2 GB | $10/mo |
The options in detail
1. Rocket.Chat
Communications platform that puts data protection first (alternative to Gitter.im and Slack).
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-03. Latest release 9.0.0-rc.3 (2026-10-31). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
2. Mattermost
Platform for secure collaboration across the entire software development lifecycle, can be integrated with Gitlab (alternative to Slack).
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-03. Latest release v11.7.15-rc1 (2026-10-28). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
3. Huly
All-in-one project management platform (alternative to Linear, Jira, Slack).
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Latest release v0.7.426 (2026-07-05). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
4. Colanode
Collaboration suite with real-time messaging, rich text pages, file management, and dynamic databases - built for offline work (alternative to Slack, Notion).
Maintained Last activity 2026-04-03. Latest release v0.4.7 (2026-04-03). Needs roughly 4 GB RAM. How to run it →
5. Virola Messenger
Instant messaging and collaboration tool with private and group chat rooms, continuous voice and video meetings, files sharing, issue tracking with integrated task board (alternative to Slack).
Health unknown Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
6. Chatwoot
Customer communication platform (alternative to Intercom and Zendesk).
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-04. Latest release v4.19.1 (2026-10-24). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
7. Zulip
Powerful group chat application.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-03. Latest release 13.0-rc1 (2026-10-30). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
8. SimpleX Chat
Most private and secure chat and applications platform - now with double ratchet E2E encryption.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-10-21. Latest release v7.1.0-beta.9 (2026-11-02). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
9. 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.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-01. Latest release v2.1.0 (2026-10-24). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
10. 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).
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-01. Latest release v0.27.1 (2026-11-01). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
11. Tinode
Instant messaging platform. Backend in Go. Clients: Swift iOS, Java Android, JS webapp, scriptable command line; chatbots.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-09-27. Latest release v0.25.3 (2026-07-04). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
12. Centrifugo
Language-agnostic real-time messaging (Websocket or SockJS) server.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Latest release v6.10.2 (2026-10-23). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
13. Fluxer
Instant messaging and VoIP platform built for friends, groups, and communities (alternative to Discord).
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-03. Latest release fluxer-desktop-stable@2026.1103.403 (2026-11-03). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
14. Mumble
Low-latency, high quality voice/text chat software.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-10-30. Latest release v1.6.0-alpha2 (2026-10-25). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
15. ejabberd
XMPP instant messaging server.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Latest release 26.09 (2026-09-30). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
16. Openfire
Real time collaboration (RTC) server.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-01. Latest release v5.1.2 (2026-08-17). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
17. Tuwunel
High-performance and feature-rich chat server for Matrix, and the successor to conduwuit (fork of Conduit).
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Latest release v1.9.4 (2026-10-10). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
18. Stoat
User-first chat platform built with modern web technologies.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-10-07. Latest release v1.1.4 (2025-11-24). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
19. WBO
Web Whiteboard to collaborate in real-time on schemas, drawings, and notes.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Latest release v2.18.31 (2026-10-29). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
20. Chitchatter
Peer-to-peer chat app that is serverless, decentralized, and ephemeral.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
21. Live Helper Chat
Live Support chat for your website.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-10-31. Latest release 4.97v (2026-10-23). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
22. MongooseIM
Mobile messaging platform with a focus on performance and scalability.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Latest release 6.10.0 (2026-10-15). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
23. Hyphanet
Anonymously share files, browse and publish freesites (web sites accessible only through Hyphanet) and chat on forums.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-09-19. Latest release build01507 (2026-09-04). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
24. Conduit
Simple, fast, and reliable chat server powered by Matrix.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-10-18. Latest release v0.10.15 (2026-09-30). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
25. Tox
Distributed, secure messenger with audio and video chat capabilities.
Maintained Last activity 2026-11-02. Latest release nightly (2025-01-27). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
27. Shhh
Keep secrets out of emails or chat logs, share them using secure links with passphrase and expiration dates.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-09-17. Latest release 3.2.4 (2026-01-22). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
28. Databag
Federated, end-to-end encrypted messaging service for the web, iOS, and Android, supporting text, photos, video, and WebRTC video and audio calls.
Maintained Last activity 2026-06-14. Latest release v1.1.1021 (2024-06-20). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
29. Notifo
Multichannel notification server with support for Email, Mobile Push, Web Push, SMS, messaging and a javascript plugin.
Maintained Last activity 2026-09-20. Latest release 1.3.0 (2022-11-30). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
30. SAMA
Next-Gen self-hosted chat server and clients.
Actively maintained Last activity 2026-09-10. Latest release 0.37.2 (2026-09-10). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
Why self-host instead of Slack?
- Own your data — it lives on a server you control, with backups you decide on.
- Predictable cost — a small VPS often replaces per-seat pricing for a whole team or family.
- No lock-in — open-source licenses let you keep running the software even if a vendor disappears.
The trade-off: you are responsible for updates, backups and security. Pick an app marked Actively maintained and with Docker support for the easiest ride.
Browse related categories
Other alternatives guides
Slack is a trademark of its owner; this site is not affiliated with it. Listings come from the community-maintained awesome-selfhosted list.