SAMA
Next-Gen self-hosted chat server and clients.
Description from awesome-selfhosted (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Still maintained? Yes: 6 commits in the last 90 days, latest release 0.37.2 (Sep 2026).
Comparisons in Communication - Custom Communication Systems: Slack alternatives, WhatsApp alternatives, Microsoft Teams alternatives, Discord alternatives.
At a glance
SAMA quick facts
- Health score
- 61/100 SLOWING
- Stars
- 161
- Last commit
- 25 days ago (Oct 2026)
- Latest release
- 0.37.2, Sep 2026
- Licence
- GPL-3.0
Top alternatives to SAMA
In its own words
The project's README opens: "The intention of our messaging protocol and chat server, which are different from others, is to provide an alternative solution to the wide spread XMPP messaging protocol (and to be honest — the only wide spread ‘standard’ these days)."
Why it ranks here
Health score explained
SAMA scores 61/100, #29 of 44 in Communication - Custom Communication Systems: 6 commits in the last 90 days earn 7.0 of 35 points, the latest release (0.37.2, 2 months ago) earns 25.0 of 25, 161 stars add 8.8 of 20, an active, unarchived repository keeps 10 and Docker support adds the final 10. That places it in the slowing band (40 to 69). The biggest shortfall is commit activity, worth 28.0 more points.
Recomputed nightly from the GitHub API. How the score is calculated.
- Commit activity biggest shortfall 7.0 / 35
6 commits in 90 days (30+ scores full marks)
- Release recency 25.0 / 25
0.37.2 released 2 months ago
- Stars 8.8 / 20
161 stars on GitHub (logarithmic)
- Not archived 10.0 / 10
Repository is active
- Docker support 10.0 / 10
Docker image or Compose file available
Commit activity
- 6
- Last 90 days
- 90
- Last 12 months
- 25 days ago
- Last push
Ranked #29 of 44 tools in Communication - Custom Communication Systems by health , between Screego (#28) and RetroShare (#30) .
Details
| Licence | GPL-3.0 |
| Platforms | Nodejs, Docker |
| Latest release | 0.37.2 · 2 months ago |
| Stars | 161 |
| Open issues | 1 |
| Docker | Yes |
| Repository | SAMA-Communications/sama-server ↗ |
SAMA vs its top 5 alternatives
Active tools that share a category with SAMA (Communication - Custom Communication Systems), scored on the same five terms.
| Tool | Health | Stars | Licence | Last commit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rocket.Chat | 99 | 46k | MIT | today |
| Chatwoot | 98 | 39k | ⊘ Proprietary | today |
| Mattermost | 98 | 39k | ⊘ Proprietary | today |
| Gotify | 97 | 16k | MIT | 2 days ago |
| Tinode | 87 | 14k | GPL-3.0 | 5 days ago |
| SAMA (this tool) | 61 | 161 | GPL-3.0 | 25 days ago |
SAMA: common questions
Is SAMA still maintained?
SAMA had 6 commits in the last 90 days and its last push was 25 days ago; the latest tagged release, 0.37.2, is from 2 months ago. Repoly recomputes this nightly.
Run itSponsored
Run SAMA on a VPS from $4/mo
SAMA ships a Docker image, so any of these providers can run it on a small instance.
- is*hosting NVMe VPS in 20+ locations, hourly billing from $5/mo Deploy ↗
- ProHoster VPS with DDoS protection included from $4/mo Deploy ↗
- GODLIKE Game and app servers on NVMe from $4/mo Deploy ↗
Affiliate links. Repoly may earn a commission, which never affects health scores.