What is Campfire used for?

Campfire is a simple self-hosted web chat application from Basecamp with rooms, direct messages, file attachments and a bot API, available without a subscription. It is a good fit for private team chat on your own server and chat bots through the API.

Is Campfire open source?

Yes. Campfire is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at basecamp/once-campfire and is written mainly in Ruby.

Yes. Campfire is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Campfire?

Yes. Campfire can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is Campfire an alternative to?

Campfire is an open-source alternative to Slack, Google Chat, Zoho Cliq and Chanty. Other open-source alternatives to Slack include Rocket.Chat, Mattermost and Zulip.

Is Campfire actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Campfire was on 26 September 2026, and the latest release is v1.5.1, published on 26 September 2026. The project has 4.7k stars on GitHub.

Campfire: open-source alternative to Slack, Google Chat

About Campfire

Campfire is a web-based group chat application that Basecamp offers as software you run yourself, with no subscription. It covers the features people expect from team chat, including multiple rooms with access controls, direct messages, @mentions and search.

Files can be attached to messages and previewed, notifications are delivered via Web Push, and an API supports bot integrations. The Docker image bundles the web app, background jobs, caching, file serving and SSL, so a single machine is enough for a complete deployment. A pre-built image is published on the GitHub container registry.

The simplest way to deploy is ONCE, a tool that walks through setup and keeps the instance up to date automatically; you can also run the Docker image directly by following the self-hosting guide. On first launch a wizard creates the admin account, whose email address appears on the sign-in page. Campfire is written in Ruby, licensed under MIT, and open to modification.

Key features

Multiple chat rooms with access controls
Direct messages and @mentions
File attachments with previews
Message search
Web Push notifications
API with bot integration support
Single-machine Docker deployment

Good fit for

→Private team chat on your own server
→Chat bots through the API

Built with: Ruby
Tags: chat; team-chat; self-hosted; docker; ruby; messaging; basecamp; bot-api

Campfire: questions and answers

What is Campfire used for?: Campfire is a simple self-hosted web chat application from Basecamp with rooms, direct messages, file attachments and a bot API, available without a subscription. It is a good fit for private team chat on your own server and chat bots through the API.
Is Campfire open source?: Yes. Campfire is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at basecamp/once-campfire and is written mainly in Ruby.
Is Campfire free?: Yes. Campfire is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Campfire?: Yes. Campfire can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is Campfire an alternative to?: Campfire is an open-source alternative to Slack, Google Chat, Zoho Cliq and Chanty. Other open-source alternatives to Slack include Rocket.Chat, Mattermost and Zulip.
Is Campfire actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Campfire was on 26 September 2026, and the latest release is v1.5.1, published on 26 September 2026. The project has 4.7k stars on GitHub.