Berty
Chat & CommunicationPeer-to-peer messaging app that works offline
Replaces WhatsApp, Signal
Best Offline-First Chat & Communication for self-hosting
The 7 best Offline-First chat & communication you can self-host, ranked by community traction.
Tox
Chat & CommunicationPeer-to-peer encrypted messaging protocol and core
Replaces Skype, Discord
Toxic
Chat & CommunicationTerminal-based client for the Tox messaging network
Replaces Skype, WhatsApp
Delta Chat
Chat & CommunicationDecentralized messenger built on top of email
Replaces WhatsApp, Signal
Briar
Chat & CommunicationPeer-to-peer encrypted messaging that works offline
Replaces Signal, WhatsApp
Wesh Network
Chat & CommunicationP2P encrypted messaging protocol toolkit
Replaces Signal, WhatsApp
Jami
Chat & CommunicationFully distributed, peer-to-peer encrypted communication
Replaces Skype, Zoom
No apps match these filters.
At a glance
| App | Deploy effort | Difficulty | Min. RAM | License | ★ Stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berty | Read-the-docs project | Hard | 256 MB | Apache-2.0 | 9,325 |
| Tox | Read-the-docs project | Medium | 64 MB | GPL-3.0 | 2,693 |
| Toxic | Read-the-docs project | Medium | 64 MB | GPL-3.0 | 1,307 |
| Delta Chat | Read-the-docs project | Medium | 256 MB | MPL-2.0 | 937 |
| Briar | Read-the-docs project | Medium | 128 MB | GPL-3.0 | 800 |
| Wesh Network | Read-the-docs project | Hard | 256 MB | Apache-2.0 | 253 |
| Jami | Read-the-docs project | Medium | 256 MB | GPL-3.0 | 44 |
Quick picks
- Most adopted: Berty (9,325 GitHub stars).
- Lightest footprint: Tox (from 64 MB RAM, against 256 MB for the heaviest here).
- Licensing: 4 of 7 use GPL-3.0; check the rest individually if you plan to modify and redistribute.
Every option here is open-source and self-hostable, tagged Offline-First within the chat & communication category. Deploy effort is graded from published container recipes, not vendor claims — see the methodology.