Berty vs FreeScout
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted chat & communication options
— licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one
replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Compare Berty with
choose an app… Plane Chatwoot Focalboard Super Productivity Wekan SimpleX Chat Etherpad OpenProject Habitica Self-Hosted Tinode Planka Leantime Centrifugo Screego Typebot git-bug Kanboard Mumble Kaneo ejabberd The Lounge Papercups Taskwarrior Zammad WorkAdventure Soketi Remark42 Isso FreeSWITCH qTox MiroTalk Synapse Ferdium Telegram Bot API Server Rustpad Asterisk WeeChat Ergo irssi FluffyChat Quicksy Bridge Kamailio Cusdis Tox Stoat AnyCable Chitchatter Live Helper Chat Spacebar Nextcloud Talk Indico RetroShare SIPCAPTURE Homer Peer-calls MongooseIM mautrix-telegram Routr GlobaLeaks openSIPS mautrix Databag Galène InspIRCd Candy Toxic Hyphanet Syphon FusionPBX soju KiwiIRC Glowing Bear Bonfire Pretalx Delta Chat Element X Notifo SimpleX Briar Quassel IRC OTS matrix-commander Mumble Web Comentario mautrix-signal BitlBee ngIRCd Miaou Session Nextcloud Talk Signaling Server UnrealIRCd MiroTalk C2C matrix-appservice-irc Linphone Chatmail Chatmail Relay SchildiChat Hookshot Snikket Atheme IRC Services Maunium Sticker Picker Spectrum 2 Shhh Gamja Jami Server Bridge Mollysocket Anope PushBits Tigase XMPP Server Comm Heisenbridge Slixmpp Ferdium Server Solanum Wesh Network Draupnir baibot matrix-media-repo Charybdis IRCd Zusam Cactus Comments ircd-hybrid Scuttlebutt Room Robust IRC Flexisip Metronome IM SAMA Biboumi Monocles Chat Hebbot ircu2 Prose Libervia Jami YunoHost Mail Relay 3CX ARN-Messager Freepbx GNUnet Groupboard MailBag Mailman3 Mailing List Manager Mlmmj Web Peachpub PrivMX WebMail SIP3 TrueConf Wazo Yeti-Switch
Compare FreeScout with
choose an app… Chatwoot UVdesk SimpleX Chat Etherpad Centrifugo Screego Typebot Mumble The Lounge GLPI Papercups Zammad WorkAdventure Soketi Remark42 Isso FreeSWITCH qTox MiroTalk Ferdium Telegram Bot API Server Rustpad Erxes osTicket Asterisk WeeChat Frappe Helpdesk Ergo Peppermint irssi Libredesk Helpy Trudesk Handesk Faveo Helpdesk Request Tracker OpenSupports Ticketit Znuny OTOBO Tiledesk FlowInquiry TicketsBot
Feature Berty FreeScout Category Chat & Communication Chat & Communication License Apache-2.0 AGPL-3.0 Language TypeScript PHP Setup difficulty Hard Medium Min. RAM 256 MB 1,024 MB Deployment bare-metal, source docker, bare-metal, source GitHub stars ★ 9,268 ★ 4,465 First released 2018 2018 Replaces WhatsApp, Signal Help Scout, Zendesk, Front
Why pick each one
Choose Berty if… Released under the Apache-2.0 license Mature project with 9.3k GitHub stars Written in TypeScript Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM Berty details
Frequently asked questions Is Berty or FreeScout better? Neither is universally better. Berty has the larger community, while FreeScout is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Berty and FreeScout free and open-source? Yes. Berty is licensed under Apache-2.0 and FreeScout under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Berty and FreeScout with Docker? Berty: check the project docs for container support. FreeScout: yes.