Open Source Self-Hosted Slack Alternatives

Slack is not available as a self-hosted solution but there are plenty of alternatives for power users and business that want to host a solution on-premise. The best open source Self-Hosted alternative is Element. It's not free, so if you're looking for a free alternative, you could try Element or Zulip. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Slack and many of them are open source and available as a self-hosted solution so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source Self-Hosted alternatives to Slack are Matrix, Wire, Mirotalk and Nextcloud Talk.

filter to find the best alternatives

Slack alternatives are mainly Group Chat Apps, but if you're looking for Instant Messengers or Team Collaboration Tools you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Open Source, Self-Hosted, Self-Hosted + Open Source and Free. You can also filter by region, for example EU-based alternatives if you prefer software developed in the European Union. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to Slack.
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Alternatives list

  1. Element icon

    Element

     779 likes

    Provides secure collaboration with end-to-end encryption, supporting chat, voice, and video calls. Available on all major platforms, it enables digital sovereignty with a decentralized design and interoperability through bridges to systems like Slack and Teams. Includes enterprise-grade SaaS.

    302 Element alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Android Tablet
    • iPad
    • Self-Hosted
    • Matrix.org
    • Flathub
    • F-Droid
    • Cloudron
    • Snapcraft
    Video calls for desktop and mobile
     
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    13
    Comments about Element as an Alternative to Slack
    Top Positive Comment
    brinerustle
    6

    because its open source, decentralised, and end-to-end secure. Plus the folks at matrix.org are working to get us out of our communication silos by creating standards for communication interoperability!

    Top Negative Comment
    davaga6837
    1

    Element is way too buggy and slow. It's actually totally free unlike the description which says it's not free. But, free isn't enough when the software is just buggy and slow.

    Dserver Hosting
    Positive
    1

    this is a open source and free software that is very useful for me

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    3 of 13 comments
    Element icon
    Element icon
    • Element is Free Personal and Open SourceSlack is Freemium and Proprietary
    • Element is Privacy focused and LightweightSlack is not according to our users
  2. Zulip icon

    Zulip

     267 likes

    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.

    221 Zulip alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Android Tablet
    • BSD
    • iPad
    • Self-Hosted
    • F-Droid
    Zulip screenshot 1
     
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    77
    Comments about Zulip as an Alternative to Slack
    Top Positive Comment
    Paulo Coghi
    10

    More 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

    Nakul Verma
    Positive
    0

    Zulip is a very good free and open source software that helps people to conversation to each other on random and some important topics separately. A usercan see who is online or ofline at the real time that is awesome.

    gilbertbw
    Positive
    0

    Zulip's threading model is no much richer than Slacks (where it feels like a bolted feature). This starts to become noticable at even just three person organisations and only gets more important as you grow. In addition the ability to self host gives smaller businesses more flexability than Slack.

    3 of 77 comments
    Zulip icon
    Zulip icon
    • Zulip is Free Personal and Open SourceSlack is Freemium and Proprietary
    • Zulip is Privacy focusedSlack is not according to our users
  4. Rocket.Chat icon

    Rocket.Chat

     160 likes

    Rocket.Chat is a Web Chat Server, developed in JavaScript, using the Meteor fullstack framework.

    142 Rocket.Chat alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    • Self-Hosted
    • Cloudron
    Rocket.Chat screenshot 1
     
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    3
    Comments about Rocket.Chat as an Alternative to Slack
    John Fastman
    Positive
    10

    Does 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.

    Guest
    Positive
    7

    Rocket.Chat comes very close to slack regarding it's core features and handling.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Guest
    Positive
    2

    open source, locally hosted so you own your data.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Rocket.Chat icon
    Rocket.Chat icon
    • Rocket.Chat is Freemium and Open SourceSlack is Freemium and Proprietary
  5. Matrix icon

    Matrix

     387 likes

    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.

    166 Matrix alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Android Tablet
    • iPad
    • Self-Hosted
    • WebRTC
    • Python
    • JavaScript
    • Go (Programming Language)
    • Cloudron
    • Java
    • Perl
    Main Page
     
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    7
    Comments about Matrix as an Alternative to Slack
    Top Positive Comment
    Vladimir Studinsky
    2

    Open source, fecentralized, federation, chat-voice-video function.

    Top Negative Comment
    somegirlfromit
    18

    Matrix is a protocol, not a client.

    Guest
    Positive
    4

    Respects your Freedom. Increasingly popular

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    3 of 7 comments
    Matrix icon
    Matrix icon
    • Matrix is Free and Open SourceSlack is Freemium and Proprietary
    • Matrix is Privacy focused, Security-focused and LightweightSlack is not according to our users
  6. Wire icon

    Wire

     316 likes

    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.

    282 Wire alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Android Tablet
    • iPad
    • Self-Hosted
    • F-Droid
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
    • Flathub
    • Snapcraft
    Wire screenshot 1
     
  9. Nextcloud Talk icon

    Nextcloud Talk

     33 likes

    Self-hosted communication platform with secure audio, video, chat, web conferencing, screensharing, advanced encryption, and metadata privacy, running on user-controlled servers, supporting web and mobile apps, and eliminating third-party data exposure.

    109 Nextcloud Talk alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    • Self-Hosted
    • Nextcloud
    • F-Droid
    • Flatpak
    • Chocolatey
    Nextcloud Talk screenshot 1
     
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    1
    Comments about Nextcloud Talk as an Alternative to Slack
    Guest
    Negative
    0

    Nextcloud Talk, like most of Nextcloud, is very heavyweight. So if you don't have a very good server, it's going to be very slow (for me it was around 10 seconds to send a single message)

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Nextcloud Talk icon
    Nextcloud Talk icon
    • Nextcloud Talk is Free Personal and Open SourceSlack is Freemium and Proprietary
    • Nextcloud Talk is Privacy focusedSlack is not according to our users
  10. Twake icon

    Twake

     28 likes

    Twake is a real-time teamwork platform. It is a suite of collaborative tools that includes the specificities of some bestsellers (Slack, Trello, Google Drive...). We provide professional messaging, storage space, online collaborative editors (Words, Excel, PowerPoint), task...

    127 Twake alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Self-Hosted
    Twake screenshot 1
     
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    1
    Comments about Twake as an Alternative to Slack
    Guest
    Positive
    1

    I like Twake as an alternative to Slack because it is open-source.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Twake icon
    Twake icon
    • Twake is Freemium and Open SourceSlack is Freemium and Proprietary
  11. Huly icon

    Huly

     11 likes

    Open-source platform unifying project, document, issue, and task management with real-time team collaboration, instant messaging, video conferencing, and GitHub bidirectional sync, all in one customizable workspace for developers and product teams.

    75 Huly alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    Huly screenshot 1
     
  12. Tracim icon

    Tracim

     17 likes

    All you need in a team collaboration tool dedicated to small efficient teams. Chat, notes, drive, online collaborative edition, calendars, news, spaces, notifications...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Self-Hosted
     
  14. eXo Platform icon

    eXo Platform

     115 likes

    eXo Platform is an all-in-one digital workplace solution that helps you connect, align and engage your teams around a single interface. You can use it to improve company and peer-to-peer communication, boost collaboration and manage company knowledge.

    101 eXo Platform alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Android Tablet
    • iPad
    • Self-Hosted
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
    News
     
12 of 35 Slack alternatives