The Best Open Source Franz AlternativesTop Instant Messengers and other similar apps like Franz

The best open source alternative to Franz is Station. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to Franz and many of them is open source so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternatives to Franz are Beeper, Ferdium, ElectronIM and Freeter.

filter to find the best alternatives

Franz alternatives are mainly Instant Messengers, but if you're looking for Web Browsers or Application Launchers you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Open Source, Google Chrome, iPad, Android, Mac, iPhone and Linux. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to Franz.
Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard
Franz alternatives page was last updated

Alternatives list

  1. Station icon
     114 likes

    Station is the first open-source smart browser for busy people. A single place for all of your web applications.

    28 Station alternatives

    Cost / License

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Microsoft Edge
    • Google Chrome
    • Brave
     
    |
    4
    Station vs Franz Comments
    Guest
    Positive
    3

    Beautiful design and more easy to configure, right. A lot of apps, right. But, no languages support (only english) and really not consume less ram. On my test : 4 services connected on both (Franz and Station), Station takes about 2,1 Go of Ram ! Franz consume 700 mo. In comparision, I have also 30 opened tabs in Chrome and it consume about 1 Go of my Ram.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Guest
    Positive
    0

    400+ apps. Very modern design. It has also a notifications manager.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Guest
    Positive
    0

    Had the services I wanted that Franz didn't, even with its recipes some apps were impossible to add.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    3 of 4 comments
    • Station is Free and Open SourceFranz is Freemium and Open Source
  2. Beeper icon
     77 likes

    Brings together messaging from 14 networks into a single inbox, including WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, and more, with strong privacy via on-device connections, cross-platform availability, chat reminders, scheduling, and unified notifications for all devices.

    23 Beeper alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Chrome OS
    • Android Tablet
    • iPad
    • Self-Hosted
     
  3. Ferdium icon
     68 likes

    Open source cross-platform desktop app uniting messaging, email, productivity, and custom services in a side-by-side interface with easy account-free use, workspaces, built-in Todo panel, resource hibernation, robust privacy controls, and optional multi-device sync.

    29 Ferdium alternatives

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • PortableApps.com
     
    |
    2
    Ferdium vs Franz Comments
    marcolopes
    Positive
    2

    I tested a bunch of them after too many unsolved problems with Franz...

    All of them FAILED on memory usage and sluggish performance, except for Ferdium!

    Been using it for the past years almost without any problem (except few hours downtime when the server was down - Ferdium should not need a connection to a server to work!)

    Galactic Man
    Positive
    1

    It's Ferdi after the Ferdi developer threw a wobbly and walked away (Ferdi being forked from Franz after THAT developer started pricing a little too aggressively). If you liked Ferdi you'll like Ferdium 'cos it's the same, innit. Ferdium seems to be still getting updates but its future is anyone's guess at this point.

    • Ferdium is Free and Open SourceFranz is Freemium and Open Source
    • Ferdium is Lightweight and Privacy focusedFranz is not according to our users
  4. ElectronIM icon
     6 likes

    Free open source Electron based multi instant messaging (IM) client.

    Combine all your IM applications (or whatever you want) in a single browser (Electron) window.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  5. Freeter icon
     30 likes

    The smartest way to work on your computer. Freeter is a productivity app that allows you to gather everything you need for work in one place, organized by projects and workflows, and have a quick access to them.

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  6. Empathy icon
     157 likes

    Empathy is a messaging program which supports text, voice, video chat, and file transfers over many different protocols. You can tell it about your accounts on all those services and do all your chatting within one application.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  7. Wavebox icon
     41 likes

    Productivity browser featuring unified webmail, website, and web app management, isolated multi-account support, vertical sidebar with grouping, memory-saving tab sleeping, app-to-app linking, built-in chat and screenshare, collaboration workspaces, and strong security.

    32 Wavebox alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Flathub
     
  8. Hamsket icon
     20 likes

    Hamsket is a fork of Rambox that was started when Rambox moved from being totally free to a "freemium" model.

    14 Hamsket alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
    |
    1
    Hamsket vs Franz Comments
    RemovedUser
    Positive
    0

    This is the tracker-free version of Rambox which is the best alternative for Franz

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    • Hamsket is Free and Open SourceFranz is Freemium and Open Source
  9. matterbridge icon
     6 likes

    Bridges between a growing number of protocols: mattermost, IRC, gitter, xmpp, slack, discord, telegram, rocketchat, steam, twitch, ssh-chat, zulip, whatsapp, keybase, matrix, microsoft teams, and more with REST API (mattermost not required!).

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Self-Hosted
    • Online
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    • Android Tablet
    • BSD
    • Flathub
     
  10. Speek! icon
     12 likes

    Speek! is the first messenger that is anonymous and censorship-resistant by design. Speek! messenger encrypts all messages and is secure, private and decentralized.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
     
  11. Tinode icon
     10 likes

    Fully open source instant messaging server and clients. No proprietary components or non-free dependencies. Backend in pure Go (GPL 3.0), with a command-line administration tool in python + gRPC. Clients for Android, iPhone, and Web - ReactJS (all licensed under Apache 2.0).

    159 Tinode alternatives

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Self-Hosted
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
     
  12. Chatter icon
     1 like

    Chatter is a centralized platform for chat apps, ensuring privacy and automatic login. Supports WhatsApp, Discord, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, Snapchat, WeChat, and more. Built on Tauri framework requiring Node.js and NPM, offering a seamless multiple chat experience.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
12 of 31 Franz alternatives