The Best Open Source Slack AlternativesTop Group Chat Apps & Instant Messengers like Slack in 2023
The best open source alternative to Slack is Element. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Slack and loads of them is open source so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternatives to Slack are Mattermost, Zulip, Rocket.Chat and Wire.
Slack alternatives are mainly Group Chat Apps but may also be Encrypted Chat Apps or Instant Messengers. Filter by these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Slack.- Freemium • Open Source
- Group Chat App
- Instant Messenger
- Encrypted Chat App
275 Element alternatives- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Online
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- iPad
- Self-Hosted
- Matrix.org
- Flathub
- F-Droid
- Cloudron
Element is a secure collaboration and messaging app based on the Matrix protocol. It’s decentralised to deliver digital sovereignty, and based on an open standard for easy connections and interoperability. It is end-to-end encrypted by default.
- - Element is the most popular Web-based, Windows, Android & Mac alternative to Slack.
- - Element is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to Slack.
Element Features
Comments about Element as a Alternative to Slack
TommiIt is decentralized and it works with an open standard
2Federated, decentralized, encrypted, open-source.
5Dserver Hostingthis is a open source and free software that is very useful for me
1kaspianEncrypted, free, open-source, decentralized
0Privacy by design and based on matrix protocol!
2- Freemium • Open Source
- Group Chat App
- Encrypted Chat App
- Team Collaboration Tool
117 Mattermost alternatives- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- iPad
- Self-Hosted
- JavaScript
- Go (Programming Language)
- Cloudron
Mattermost is a secure, open source platform for communication, collaboration, and workflow orchestration across tools and teams.
Mattermost Features
Comments about Mattermost as a Alternative to Slack
shelehovchaninSame functionality. Same interface. At the same time, there are much fewer restrictions. IN my experience, the free version is great enough for a team of 100 people
7kostyaAllmost the same interface and features
3Indiana LakeSame with more emphasis on privacy.
0liger1978Great interface, you control your data.
0It's faster for one thing. It's far superior in terms of data ownership, and it's extremely scalable.
1- Free Personal • Open Source
- Group Chat App
- Instant Messenger
- Encrypted Chat App
223 Zulip alternatives- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Online
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- BSD
- iPad
- Self-Hosted
Zulip is the only modern team chat app that is designed for both live and asynchronous conversations. Zulip topics create a separate space for each discussion, so different conversations will never get in each other's way.
Zulip Features
Comments about Zulip as a Alternative to Slack
Paulo CoghiMore than feature parity with Slack, it's better because of Streams and Topics. It offer the same free tier with 10.000 max messages and better paid plans to the hosted version, and also provide the open source self-hosted option to install it on your own server and also remove the max messages limits. 5 stars
3the threading model is the best i've used for keeping up with active communities, and the open-source community is excellent.
2It's a little different, for sure, but what it does, it does better than slack. Not a open source copy of slack like mattermost. If you want slack and nothing else, but in open source, stick to mattermost, if you want something that exceeds that, choose zulip.
2The concept of topics to each message is a super useful feature :)
3Zulip is open source and the methods of communications used is vastly different. It is specially useful in professional environments where different teams might want to participate in different conversations at the same time. Zulip solves this problem by including topics, where in each channel/stream, multiple topics can exist at once, at the same time.
4- Freemium • Open Source
- Group Chat App
- Encrypted Chat App
- Team Collaboration Tool
129 Rocket.Chat alternatives- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- iPhone
- iPad
- Self-Hosted
- Cloudron
Rocket.Chat is a Web Chat Server, developed in JavaScript, using the Meteor fullstack framework.
Rocket.Chat Features
Comments about Rocket.Chat as a Alternative to Slack
John FastmanDoes everything Slack does AND it's open source. However, it's also self-hosted. This means you have to put in the effort to set it up, but you control your own data, which is a huge advantage to your privacy - your chats and files don't sit on someone else's servers, ready for them or hackers to look at.
10open source, locally hosted so you own your data.
2Rocket.Chat comes very close to slack regarding it's core features and handling.
7- Free Personal • Open Source
- Group Chat App
- Instant Messenger
- Video Calling App
262 Wire alternatives- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Online
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- iPad
- Self-Hosted
- F-Droid
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
Wire is the most secure collaboration platform featuring messenger, voice, video, conference calls, file-sharing, and external collaboration –all protected by the most secure end-to-end-encryption.
- - Wire is the most popular SaaS alternative to Slack.
Wire Features
Opinions about Wire as a Alternative to Slack
- Free • Open Source
- Group Chat App
- Instant Messenger
- Encrypted Chat App
138 Matrix.org alternatives- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Online
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- iPad
- Self-Hosted
- WebRTC
- Python
- JavaScript
- Go (Programming Language)
- Cloudron
- Java
- Perl
Matrix defines a set of open APIs for decentralised communication, suitable for securely publishing, persisting and subscribing to data over a global open federation of servers with no single point of control.
Matrix.org Features
Comments about Matrix.org as a Alternative to Slack
nrg200Capable of everything Slack can do, but can be self-hosted - keeping a team's data in-house.
1Vladimir StudinskyOpen source, fecentralized, federation, chat-voice-video function.
1somegirlfromitMatrix is a protocol, not a client.
18Respects your Freedom. Increasingly popular
2Free open source instant messaging service with federation.
0- Free • Open Source
- Group Chat App
- Instant Messenger
- Video Calling App
25 Revolt alternatives- Windows
- Linux
- Online
- Android
- Rust
- Flathub
Revolt is a brand new chat platform designed around you.
Revolt Features