What is Chitchatter used for?

Chitchatter is a serverless peer-to-peer chat and video app that is end-to-end encrypted and ephemeral, with no accounts and no message storage. It is a good fit for private one-off chat rooms without accounts and learning serverless WebRTC app design.

Is Chitchatter open source?

Yes. Chitchatter is open source under the GPL-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at jeremyckahn/chitchatter and is written mainly in TypeScript.

Yes. Chitchatter is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.

Can I self-host Chitchatter?

Yes. Chitchatter can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Chitchatter an alternative to?

Chitchatter is an open-source alternative to Whereby, Google Meet, GoTo Meeting and FaceTime. Other open-source alternatives to Whereby include Jitsi Meet, Briefing and MiroTalk.

Is Chitchatter actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Chitchatter was on 29 September 2026. The project has 2.3k stars on GitHub.

Chitchatter: open-source alternative to Whereby, Google Meet

About Chitchatter

Chitchatter is a free communication tool that aims to be the simplest way to connect with others privately and securely. It is peer-to-peer, using a TURN server only when a direct connection is not possible, and end-to-end encrypted through WebRTC. It is fully open source under the GPL v2 license.

Messages are ephemeral: content is never written to disk on either the client or a server. The tool is also decentralized, working without an API server, with only GitHub for static assets and public WebTorrent and TURN relay servers needed to establish connections. Its topics list video conferencing and the Trystero library.

A public instance runs at chitchatter.im, and since it is a static web app it can also be hosted elsewhere. Chitchatter suits people who want a quick private room for text, video, or file exchange without creating accounts, and developers interested in serverless WebRTC applications.

Key features

Peer-to-peer WebRTC connections
End-to-end encryption
Ephemeral messages never stored to disk
No account or API server required
Text chat and video conferencing
TURN fallback for reliable connections

Good fit for

→Private one-off chat rooms without accounts
→Learning serverless WebRTC app design

Built with: TypeScript; React
Tags: p2p; webrtc; chat; end-to-end-encryption; video-conferencing; privacy; serverless; ephemeral

Chitchatter: questions and answers

What is Chitchatter used for?: Chitchatter is a serverless peer-to-peer chat and video app that is end-to-end encrypted and ephemeral, with no accounts and no message storage. It is a good fit for private one-off chat rooms without accounts and learning serverless WebRTC app design.
Is Chitchatter open source?: Yes. Chitchatter is open source under the GPL-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at jeremyckahn/chitchatter and is written mainly in TypeScript.
Is Chitchatter free?: Yes. Chitchatter is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.
Can I self-host Chitchatter?: Yes. Chitchatter can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Chitchatter an alternative to?: Chitchatter is an open-source alternative to Whereby, Google Meet, GoTo Meeting and FaceTime. Other open-source alternatives to Whereby include Jitsi Meet, Briefing and MiroTalk.
Is Chitchatter actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Chitchatter was on 29 September 2026. The project has 2.3k stars on GitHub.