Self-Hosted Telegram Alternatives

    Telegram 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 Self-Hosted alternative is Element, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Telegram and 18 are available as a self-hosted solution so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Self-Hosted alternatives to Telegram are Wire (Free Personal, Open Source), Matrix.org (Free, Open Source), Zulip (Free Personal, Open Source) and Kontalk Messenger (Free, Open Source).

    This page was last updated Oct 12, 2021

    1. Element

      • Freemium • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • Online
      • Android
      • iPhone
      • Android Tablet
      • iPad
      • Self-Hosted
      • Matrix.org
      • Cloudron
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      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.
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      Element vs Telegram opinions
      Almost everyone thinks Element is a great alternative to Telegram.
       all • positive • negative      relevance • date
      Cloud base with good features and awful UI!
      Top positive comment  over 3 years ago

      5
      Element is structured more honestly out in the open, compared to Telegram.
      Top positive comment  9 months ago

      2
      LeSnake Great encryption, uses matrix protocol, so it's decentralized, while offering similar and even more functions. But the UI isn't as intuitive as the telegram one, and the encryption sometimes can't decrypt a message.
      Positive comment • 4 months ago

      0
      rrhyast Better than telegram and discord but need a lot of work to be popular
      Positive comment • 6 months ago

      0
      The group features match up to telegrams with a more discordesqe UI.
      Positive comment • 10 months ago

      0
      Great group functionality
      Positive comment • 10 months ago

      1
      It is 100% free as in freedom.
      Positive comment • about 1 year ago

      0
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      7 of 9 comments

    2. Wire

      • Free Personal • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • Online
      • Android
      • iPhone
      • Android Tablet
      • iPad
      • Self-Hosted
      • Software as a Service (SaaS)
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      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. Why Wire?
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      Wire vs Telegram opinions
      Almost everyone thinks Wire is a great alternative to Telegram.
      cityroler always End-to-End encrypted; servers in the EU; high quality audio and video calls;
      Top positive comment  over 4 years ago

      10
      Multiplatform, chat, audio and video calling with great quality and: Clientside is already open source and they are currently working on completely opensourcing the serverside too. Great application.
      Top positive comment  over 4 years ago

      7
      gnudesign Privacy and security focused, lot of features but way behind Telegram's user experience design.
      Positive comment • about 1 year ago

      0
      It is fully open source instead Telegram (server and client).
      Positive comment • over 3 years ago

      0
      Always end-to-end encrypted. Fully open source.
      Positive comment • over 3 years ago

      6

    4. Matrix.org

      • Free • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • Online
      • Android
      • iPhone
      • Android Tablet
      • iPad
      • Self-Hosted
      • WebRTC
      • Python
      • JavaScript
      • Go (Programming Language)
      • Cloudron
      • Java
      • Perl
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      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 vs Telegram opinions
      Almost everyone thinks Matrix.org is a great alternative to Telegram.
      LeSnake Matrix is a protocol used by i.e. Element, not a messenger iself
      Negative comment • 4 months ago

      0
    5. Zulip is a group chat app in which messages are threaded by topic, helping you have long-running, organized conversations.
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    6. Kontalk is a secure instant messenger, allowing you to send and receive text, image and voice messages (other file types coming soon) to and from other Kontalk users completely free of charge. Kontalk Features: - Your phone number is your ID. No usernames or passwords.
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      Most users think Kontalk Messenger is a great alternative to Telegram.

    8. Tinode

      • Free • Open Source
      • Online
      • Android
      • iPhone
      • Self-Hosted
      • Software as a Service (SaaS)
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      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).
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    9. Free browser based real-time video calls. Simple, Secure, Fast. Start your next video call with a single click. No download, plug-in or login required. Just get straight to talking, messaging and sharing your screen.

    10. Cyanide

      • Free • Open Source
      • Self-Hosted
      • Sailfish OS
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      Cyanide is Tox client for Sailfish OS .
      No screenshots yet

    11. Webogram

      • Free Personal • Proprietary
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • Chrome OS
      • Self-Hosted
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      Webogram is an unofficial Telegram web app. Telegram offers great apps for mobile communication. It is based on the MTProto protocol and has an Open API and cloud-support . MTProto data can be carried over HTTP, so this project has been created.
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    12. Boosted version of the telegram bot API. It has all of the official telegram bot API features plus: - Downloading of files up to 1.5 GB in size - Anonymous file storage (the URL of downloaded files does not contain your bot's token)
      No screenshots yet
    Showing 10 of 18 alternatives