What is RocketChat and what are its top alternatives?
RocketChat is an open-source team communication platform that offers features such as video and audio conferencing, screen sharing, and real-time messaging. It is highly customizable and can be integrated with numerous third-party services. However, RocketChat can be resource-intensive and requires technical expertise for proper setup and maintenance.
- Slack: Slack is a popular team collaboration tool known for its user-friendly interface and integration options. It offers features like channels, file sharing, and customizable notifications. Pros include a wide range of integrations and a strong focus on user experience, while cons include pricing for advanced features.
- Microsoft Teams: Microsoft Teams is a comprehensive collaboration platform that integrates with the Microsoft 365 suite. It offers features like chat, video conferencing, and file sharing. Pros include seamless integration with Microsoft products, while cons include limited customization options.
- Discord: Discord is primarily known for gaming communities but is also used for team communication. It offers features like voice channels, text chat, and role-based permissions. Pros include a high level of customization and voice chat functionality, while cons include less focus on business-oriented features.
- Slack: Slack is a popular team collaboration tool known for its user-friendly interface and integration options. It offers features like channels, file sharing, and customizable notifications. Pros include a wide range of integrations and a strong focus on user experience, while cons include pricing for advanced features.
- Flock: Flock is a team collaboration platform that emphasizes real-time communication and productivity features. It offers channels, video conferencing, and integrations with popular tools. Pros include a clean interface and built-in productivity tools, while cons include limited customization options.
- Mattermost: Mattermost is an open-source alternative to RocketChat that offers self-hosted team communication solutions. It provides features like messaging, file sharing, and integrations with third-party services. Pros include high customizability and data control, while cons include a steeper learning curve for setup.
- Zulip: Zulip is a team chat platform that organizes conversations into threads for better context and productivity. It offers features like topic-based threading, file sharing, and integrations. Pros include efficient message organization and strong search functionality, while cons include a less intuitive interface for new users.
- RingCentral: RingCentral is a cloud communications platform that includes team messaging, video conferencing, and phone system integration. It offers features like virtual meetings, file sharing, and integrations with CRM tools. Pros include a comprehensive communication suite, while cons include pricing for additional features.
- Chanty: Chanty is a team chat platform that focuses on simplicity and ease of use. It offers features like direct messaging, file sharing, and task management. Pros include a clean interface and affordable pricing, while cons include fewer integrations compared to other tools.
- Twist: Twist is a team communication tool by Doist that emphasizes asynchronous communication and organized discussions. It offers features like threads, channels, and integrations with popular tools. Pros include a focus on reducing noise and improving focus, while cons include a learning curve for users accustomed to real-time chat platforms.
Top Alternatives to RocketChat
- Mattermost
Mattermost is modern communication from behind your firewall.
- Slack
Imagine all your team communication in one place, instantly searchable, available wherever you go. That’s Slack. All your messages. All your files. And everything from Twitter, Dropbox, Google Docs, Asana, Trello, GitHub and dozens of other services. All together. ...
- Google Hangouts
Message contacts, start free video or voice calls, and hop on a conversation with one person or a group. ...
- Discord
Discord is a modern free voice & text chat app for groups of gamers. Our resilient Erlang backend running on the cloud has built in DDoS protection with automatic server failover. ...
- Zulip
Zulip is powerful, open source team chat that combines the immediacy of real-time chat with the productivity benefits of threaded conversations. Zulip allows busy managers and others in meetings all day to participate in their teams chats. ...
- Flock
Flock is a communication app for teams. Packed with tons of productivity features, Flock drives efficiency and boosts speed of execution. ...
- Riot
Riot brings custom tags to all browsers. Think React + Polymer but with enjoyable syntax and a small learning curve. ...
- Skype
Skype’s text, voice and video make it simple to share experiences with the people that matter to you, wherever they are. ...
RocketChat alternatives & related posts
- Open source60
- On-premise deployment41
- Free26
- Built using golang22
- Fast and easy to use21
- Docker image provided for easy setup14
- Full text search14
- Built using react12
- Supports multiple teams11
- Search and data archiving11
- Very professional11
- Keeps us focused, effective, concise8
- Clean and simple look7
- Integration with Gitlab7
- Webhooks support7
- Well documented6
- Use #Hashtags like Twitter6
- Import Slack logs3
- Reactive community and ease of use3
- Self managed data2
- On-premises Deployment2
- Secure2
- Markdown support1
- On premise installation1
- Kanban1
- Checklists1
- Slack-compatible integrations1
- Easy webhook integration1
- Less integrations and plugins than slack2
- Many basic features are enterprise only2
- Custom sidewide themes only in enterprise2
- Basic permissions only in enterprise edition1
- Not compatible with Telegram keys, which used by FSB1
related Mattermost posts
I use Slack because it offers the best experience, even on the free tier (which we're still using). As a comparison, I have had in depth experience with HipChat, Stride, Skype, Google Chat (the new service), Google Hangouts (the old service). For self hosted, Mattermost is open source and claims to support most Slack integrations, but I have not extensively investigated this claim.
I use Zulip instead of Slack, Mattermost, or RocketChat because of its first class threading. One week after switching to Gmail (in 2004) I realized I was never (willingly) going to use an unthreaded email product again. I had that same experience the first time I saw Zulip.
Zulip is also fully open-source, with a well-maintained (e.g. 90+% test coverage, fully static python), easily extensible code-base. In many companies, your communication platform (chat or email) is the center of the workplace -- no one asks for a chat integration into their calendar, they ask for a calendar integration into their chat. A fully open-source codebase means you can customize Zulip to your needs, and are never at the whim of a corporate maintainer who can't or won't fix simple bugs, or who will charge you tens of thousands of dollars for making minor customizations.
- Easy to integrate with1.2K
- Excellent interface on multiple platforms876
- Free849
- Mobile friendly694
- People really enjoy using it690
- Great integrations331
- Flexible notification preferences315
- Unlimited users198
- Strong search and data archiving184
- Multi domain switching support155
- Easy to use82
- Beautiful40
- Hubot support27
- Unread/read control22
- Slackbot21
- Permalink for each messages19
- Text snippet with highlighting17
- Quote message easily15
- Per-room notification14
- Awesome integration support13
- Star for each message / attached files12
- IRC gateway12
- Good communication within a team11
- Dropbox Integration11
- Slick, search is great10
- Jira Integration10
- New Relic Integration9
- Great communication tool8
- Combine All Services Quickly8
- Asana Integration8
- This tool understands developers7
- XMPP gateway7
- Google Drive Integration7
- Awesomeness7
- Replaces email6
- Twitter Integration6
- Google Docs Integration6
- BitBucket integration6
- Jenkins Integration5
- GREAT Customer Support / Quick Response to Feedback5
- Guest and Restricted user control5
- Clean UI4
- Excellent multi platform internal communication tool4
- GitHub integration4
- Mention list view4
- Gathers all my communications in one place4
- Perfect implementation of chat + integrations3
- Easy3
- Easy to add a reaction3
- Timely while non intrusive3
- Great on-boarding3
- Threaded chat3
- Visual Studio Integration3
- Easy to start working with3
- Android app3
- Simplicity2
- Message Actions2
- It's basically an improved (although closed) IRC2
- So much better than email2
- Eases collaboration for geographically dispersed teams2
- Great interface2
- Great Channel Customization2
- Markdown2
- Intuitive, easy to use, great integrations2
- Great Support Team1
- Watch1
- Multi work-space support1
- Flexible and Accessible1
- Better User Experience1
- Archive Importing1
- Travis CI integration1
- It's the coolest IM ever1
- Community1
- Great API1
- Easy remote communication1
- Get less busy1
- API1
- Zapier integration1
- Targetprocess integration1
- Finally with terrible "threading"—I miss Flowdock1
- Complete with plenty of Electron BLOAT1
- I was 666 star :D1
- Dev communication Made Easy1
- Integrates with just about everything1
- Very customizable1
- Platforms0
- Easy to useL0
- Can be distracting depending on how you use it13
- Requires some management for large teams6
- Limit messages history6
- Too expensive5
- You don't really own your messages5
- Too many notifications by default4
related Slack posts
Sentry has been essential to our development approach. Nobody likes errors or apps that crash. We use Sentry heavily during Node.js and React development. Our developers are able to see error reports, crashes, user's browsers, and more, all in one place. Sentry also seamlessly integrates with Asana, Slack, and GitHub.
Last time we shared there information about our decision about using YouTrack over Jira actually we found much better solution that our team have loved. Linear is a minimalistic issue tracker that integrates well with Sentry, GitHub, Slack and Figma which are our basic tools. I would like to recommend checking out Linear as a potential alternative to "heavy" issue trackers, maybe at enterprises that may not work but when we're a startup that works awesome!
related Google Hangouts posts
I own an Escape Room. Since right now everyone is practicing social distancing, I would like to run my Escape Room games virtually. I would like to allow approx 4 users to log in to play. They can chitchat a few minutes before their game to get to know each other. Then once the game begins, I will introduce myself and give them the plot to their escape game. I will have a wide-angle camera mounted to the wall to show the room, and as the game master, carry a tablet or webcam around as players talk to me and direct me to show them certain items in the room, move in for closeups in certain areas, try lock combinations, etc. I will be their hands while they solve the puzzles. I am not sure if Google Hangouts Google Meet or Zoom is better for this. I did try it yesterday using google hangout meet and it was good, but I think there may have been a wifi issue where it was choppy. Just trying to figure out the best option. Thank you! Catherine
I'm looking for advice on what App to use in conversation and phone calls to someone who lives out of the country. Should I use Google Hangouts, Google Hangouts Chat, or does anyone have any other suggestions? I would greatly appreciate any help you could possibly provide. Thank you
Discord
- Unlimited Users64
- Unlimited Channels58
- Easy to use54
- Voice Chat50
- Fast and easy set-ups and connections48
- Clean UI45
- Free42
- Mobile Friendly42
- Android App32
- Mention system28
- Customizable notifications on per channel basis26
- Customizable ranks/permissions25
- IOS app21
- Good code embedding20
- Vast Webhook Support18
- Dark mode15
- Roles13
- Easy context switching between work and home13
- Bot control12
- Great Communities12
- Very Resource Friendly11
- Robust11
- Easy to develop for11
- Great Customer Support11
- Video Call Conference11
- Video call meeting11
- Sharing screen layer10
- Able to hold 99 people in one call10
- Easy Server Setup and joining system9
- Shares screen with other member9
- Easy9
- Great browser experience8
- Easy to code bots for7
- Lower bandwidth requirements than competitors7
- Noice6
- Easily set up custom emoji3
- Not as many integrations as Slack10
- For gamers9
- Limited file size5
- Sends data to US Gov4
- For everyone4
- Undescriptive in global ban reasons2
- Suspected Pedophiles in few servers2
- Unsupportive Support1
- High memory and CPU footprint1
related Discord posts
Shortly after I joined Algolia as a developer advocate, I knew I wanted to establish a place for the community to congregate and share their projects, questions and advice. There are a ton of platforms out there that can be used to host communities, and they tend to fall into two categories - real-time sync (like chat) and async (like forums). Because the community was already large, I felt that a chat platform like Discord or Gitter might be overwhelming and opted for a forum-like solution instead (which would also create content that's searchable from Google).
I looked at paid, closed-source options like AnswerHub and ForumBee and old-school solutions like phpBB and vBulletin, but none seemed to offer the power, flexibility and developer-friendliness of Discourse. Discourse is open source, written in Rails with Ember.js on the front-end. That made me confident I could modify it to meet our exact needs. Discourse's own forum is very active which made me confident I could get help if I needed it.
It took about a month to get Discourse up-and-running and make authentication tied to algolia.com via the SSO plugin. Adding additional plugins for moderation or look-and-feel customization was fairly straightforward, and I even created a plugin to make the forum content searchable with Algolia. To stay on top of answering questions and moderation, we used the Discourse API to publish new messages into our Slack. All-in-all I would say we were happy with Discourse - the only caveat would be that it's very helpful to have technical knowledge as well as Rails knowledge in order to get the most out of it.
From a StackShare Community member: “We’re about to start a chat group for our open source project (over 5K stars on GitHub) so we can let our community collaborate more closely. The obvious choice would be Slack (k8s and a ton of major projects use it), but we’ve seen Gitter (webpack uses it) for a lot of open source projects, Discord (Vue.js moved to them), and as of late I’m seeing Spectrum more and more often. Does anyone have experience with these or other alternatives? Is it even worth assessing all these options, or should we just go with Slack? Some things that are important to us: free, all the regular integrations (GitHub, Heroku, etc), mobile & desktop apps, and open source is of course a plus."
- Open source65
- Great Community48
- Extensive developer documentation40
- Powered by Python38
- Clean & Smooth UI34
- Full text search26
- Dozens of integrations25
- Threading model25
- On-premise deployment21
- Fully internationalized16
- Cross-platform (Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android)12
- Its very good forsearching and chatting with topics5
- Awesome open source alternative to Slack3
- Runs very well3
- Very Nice2
- Mobile Push Notification1
- LDAP Integration1
- Integration with most of well known services1
- The interface require a lot of overhaul0
related Zulip posts
We use Zulip for group chat at the Recurse Center, both for our team (< 10 people) and for our alumni community (1,300+ people). We tried Slack, but Zulip is way better. Among the many reasons: It has a much better threading model and is open source.
Zulip has easily the best threading model among all the chat applications and I prefer it over Slack, Mattermost, RocketChat, Hipchat, Discord etc. Each and every conversation is a seperate thread and has a topic. This model makes it extremely easier to catch up and participate in conversations. Once you get used to the threading model of Zulip its hard to tolerate threading model like Slack which is really inefficient and time wasting.
related Flock posts
Hello there, We're developing a team chat application which would consist of direct (one-to-one) conversations and channel (group) conversations. I'm not the developer (of course), but my team suggested to go with Redis.
I've seen tech stacks of BIG team chat applications like Slack and Flock...but they haven't used RabbitMQ and used Redis instead.
A quick question, what's a good choice to go with for RabbitMQ or Redis for a message queue system in our case?
- Its just easy... no training wheels needed13
- Light weight. Fast. Clear13
- Very simple, fast11
- Straightforward9
- Minimalistic6
- Great documentation4
- Simpler semantics than other frameworks4
- Easier than playing Teemo3
- Great engineering2
- Light, flexible and library friendly2
- Mastered under an hour1
- Smaller community1
related Riot posts
- Free, widespread258
- Desktop and mobile apps147
- Because i have to :(110
- Low cost international calling57
- Good for international calls56
- Best call quality anywhere, generally10
- Beautiful emojis5
- Chat bots4
- Translator2
- Skype for business integration with Outlook2
- United kingdom1
- Not the Best, but get the job done1
- Really high CPU utilization during video/screenshare5
- Not always reliable3
- Outdated UI3
- Birthday notifications are annoying3
- The worst indicator noises of any app ever3
- Finding/adding people isn't easy2
related Skype posts
Uploadcare is mostly remote team and we're using video conferencing all the time both for internal team meetings and for external sales, support, interview, etc. calls. I think we've tried every solution there is on the market before we've decided to stop with Zoom.
Tools just plainly don't work (Skype), are painful to install for external participants (Webex and other "enterprise" solutions) can't properly handle 10+ participants calls (Google Hangouts Chat).
Zoom just works. It has all required features and even handles bad connections very graciously. One of the best tool decisions we've ever made :)
I use Slack because it offers the best experience, even on the free tier (which we're still using). As a comparison, I have had in depth experience with HipChat, Stride, Skype, Google Chat (the new service), Google Hangouts (the old service). For self hosted, Mattermost is open source and claims to support most Slack integrations, but I have not extensively investigated this claim.