What is Rocket.Chat used for?

Rocket.Chat is a customizable team communications platform with real-time chat and video, aimed at organizations with strict data protection needs and offered self-hosted, cloud or air-gapped. It is a good fit for secure internal chat for regulated organizations, replacing Slack with a self-hosted alternative, and customer and citizen communication channels.

Is Rocket.Chat open source?

Yes. Rocket.Chat is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at RocketChat/Rocket.Chat and is written mainly in TypeScript.

Yes. Rocket.Chat is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence. A managed cloud version is also available.

Can I self-host Rocket.Chat?

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

What is Rocket.Chat an alternative to?

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

Is Rocket.Chat actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Rocket.Chat was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is 8.8.1, published on 9 September 2026. The project has 46k stars on GitHub.

Rocket.Chat: open-source alternative to Slack

About Rocket.Chat

Rocket.Chat is a communications platform written in TypeScript for teams and organizations that care about data protection. It supports real-time conversations between colleagues, with partner companies, and with customers or citizens, and its topics place it in the same space as Slack, with WebRTC for calls and meetings.

The product emphasizes control over where and how it runs. Deployment options include self-hosted servers, a managed cloud and fully air-gapped environments, with a scalable architecture and performance monitoring for workspace administration. Security and sovereignty features, including identity management, are a core part of the pitch, and the platform is built to be highly customizable, so organizations can adapt it to their own workflows and integrations.

The repository's license is listed as 'Other' on GitHub, although the topics reference an MIT-licensed community core, so confirm which components fall under which terms before relying on it commercially. It suits government bodies, enterprises and regulated industries that want a Slack-style tool they can host themselves.

Key features

Real-time team messaging and channels
Video conferencing built on WebRTC
Self-hosted, cloud and air-gapped deployment
Scalable architecture with performance monitoring
Identity and security controls for data sovereignty
Highly customizable platform

Good fit for

→Secure internal chat for regulated organizations
→Replacing Slack with a self-hosted alternative
→Customer and citizen communication channels

Built with: TypeScript; JavaScript
Tags: team-chat; messaging; self-hosted; collaboration; webrtc; slack-alternative; air-gapped; secure-communications

Rocket.Chat: questions and answers

What is Rocket.Chat used for?: Rocket.Chat is a customizable team communications platform with real-time chat and video, aimed at organizations with strict data protection needs and offered self-hosted, cloud or air-gapped. It is a good fit for secure internal chat for regulated organizations, replacing Slack with a self-hosted alternative, and customer and citizen communication channels.
Is Rocket.Chat open source?: Yes. Rocket.Chat is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at RocketChat/Rocket.Chat and is written mainly in TypeScript.
Is Rocket.Chat free?: Yes. Rocket.Chat is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence. A managed cloud version is also available.
Can I self-host Rocket.Chat?: Yes. Rocket.Chat can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Rocket.Chat an alternative to?: Rocket.Chat is an open-source alternative to Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat and Zoho Cliq. Other open-source alternatives to Slack include Mattermost, Element and Zulip.
Is Rocket.Chat actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Rocket.Chat was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is 8.8.1, published on 9 September 2026. The project has 46k stars on GitHub.