Rocket.Chat
Team ChatOpen-source team chat and collaboration platform
Replaces Slack, Microsoft Teams
Best Multi-User Team Chat for self-hosting
The 6 best Multi-User team chat you can self-host, ranked by community traction.
Mattermost
Team ChatSecure collaboration for developer teams
Replaces Slack, Microsoft Teams
Zulip
Team ChatThreaded team chat that combines email and chat
Replaces Slack, Microsoft Teams
Revolt
Team ChatOpen-source chat platform for communities
Replaces Discord
Spark IM
Team ChatCross-platform XMPP instant messaging client
Replaces Slack, Skype
Virola Messenger
Team ChatInstant messaging and collaboration tool with private and group chat
No apps match these filters.
At a glance
| App | Deploy effort | Difficulty | Min. RAM | License | ★ Stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rocket.Chat | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 2,048 MB | MIT | 46,270 |
| Mattermost | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 2,048 MB | AGPL-3.0 | 39,327 |
| Zulip | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 2,048 MB | Apache-2.0 | 26,047 |
| Revolt | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 1,024 MB | AGPL-3.0 | 3,391 |
| Spark IM | Read-the-docs project | Easy | 256 MB | Apache-2.0 | 607 |
| Virola Messenger | Read-the-docs project | Medium | 512 MB | ⊘ Proprietary | — |
Quick picks
- Most adopted: Rocket.Chat (46,270 GitHub stars).
- Lightest footprint: Spark IM (from 256 MB RAM, against 2,048 MB for the heaviest here).
- Licensing: 2 of 6 use AGPL-3.0; check the rest individually if you plan to modify and redistribute.
Every option here is open-source and self-hostable, tagged Multi-User within the team chat category. Deploy effort is graded from published container recipes, not vendor claims — see the methodology.