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Open source alternatives to Discord

We track 3 open-source Discord alternatives, of which 3 currently score 70 or above on Repoly's GitHub health scale and 2 ship a Docker image. Rocket.Chat leads on health at 99/100 with 524 commits in the last 90 days; across all 3 projects you are choosing between Apache-2.0, MIT, ⊘ Proprietary.

3
Alternatives
99k
Combined stars
1,643
Commits / 90 days
2
With Docker
Licence family Licence

Showing 3 of 3 tools

All 3 Discord alternatives, ranked by health

  • Top pick · highest health

    Rocket.Chat

    99 GOOD

    Communications platform that puts data protection first (alternative to Gitter.im and Slack).

    ★ 46k · ⟳ today · 8.8.1 · MIT

    DockerNodejsK8S
    Website ↗ Source ↗

  • Mattermost

    98 GOOD

    Platform for secure collaboration across the entire software development lifecycle, can be integrated with Gitlab (alternative to Slack).

    ★ 39k · ⟳ today · v11.10.1 · ⊘ Proprietary

    DockerGoK8S
    Website ↗ Source ↗

  • Element

    87 GOOD

    Fully-featured Matrix client for Web, iOS & Android.

    ★ 13k · ⟳ today · v1.12.27 · Apache-2.0

    Nodejs
    Website ↗ Source ↗

Discord alternatives: common questions

What is the most maintained open source alternative to Discord?

Rocket.Chat scores highest at 99/100, with 524 commits in the last 90 days, 46k GitHub stars and its latest release (8.8.1) published 5 days ago. Element has the most raw commit activity at 630 commits in 90 days.

Which Discord alternatives use a permissive licence?

2 of 3 are permissively licensed (MIT, Apache, BSD or similar): Rocket.Chat (MIT), Element (Apache-2.0). 0 use copyleft licences such as GPL or AGPL, which require you to publish changes if you distribute a modified version.

Which Discord alternatives run in Docker?

2 of 3 publish a Docker image or Compose file: Rocket.Chat, Mattermost. Docker support contributes 10 of the 100 available health points, because it is the clearest signal that self-hosting is a supported path rather than an afterthought.