Rocket.Chat — An open-source, self-hostable team chat platform with unified messaging, voice, and video, free under MIT license or on custom-quoted Commercial, Government, and Defense plans.
By Noahlast updated pricing verified
Rocket.Chat screenshots & video
Rocket.Chat in 20 seconds
Best for: regulated organizations needing self-hosted or air-gapped team chat, and teams wanting a free open-source Slack alternative
Pricing: Community Edition free and self-hosted (MIT license, unlimited users); Commercial, Government, and Defense tiers are custom-quoted with no public pricing.
- Rocket.Chat's Community Edition is free, open-source (MIT license), and self-hostable with no user limit.
- Commercial, Government, and Defense tiers all require contacting sales; no list pricing is published.
- Rocket.Chat has 46,000+ stars on its GitHub repository.
- Rocket.Chat holds a 4.3/5 rating from 156 reviews on Capterra.
- The Defense tier supports air-gapped deployment with a DoD Authorization to Operate up to Impact Level 6.
Limitations: No published pricing for any paid tier — every quote requires contacting sales.; Self-hosting adds administration overhead versus SaaS competitors.; Government/Defense feature set is overkill for typical business customers.
Top alternatives: Slack, Mattermost, Element, Microsoft Teams, Zulip — full list
What is Rocket.Chat?
Rocket.Chat is an open-source team communications platform (MIT license) that unifies messaging, voice, video, screen sharing, and AI-assisted chat, deployable as a self-hosted Community Edition or through commercial cloud/self-managed tiers. The Community Edition is free and unlimited on user count, making it a common self-hosted alternative to Slack or Microsoft Teams. Paid Commercial, Government, and Defense tiers add single sign-on, compliance frameworks (HIPAA, FINRA, MiFID II, GDPR), federated communications across organizations, and — at the Defense tier — air-gapped deployment with a DoD Authorization to Operate up to Impact Level 6 and FIPS 140-3 cryptography. None of the paid tiers list pricing publicly; all require contacting sales. Rocket.Chat serves over 46,000 GitHub stars worth of open-source adoption alongside enterprise customers spanning healthcare, critical infrastructure, and classified government programs.
Rocket.Chat is an open-source (MIT-licensed) team communications platform combining messaging, voice, video, screen sharing, and AI-assisted conversation into a self-hostable or cloud-deployable product, developed in TypeScript with over 46,000 GitHub stars. The self-managed Community Edition is free with no user limit, while Commercial, Government, and Defense tiers add SSO, compliance features (HIPAA, FINRA, GDPR), federation, and air-gapped deployment options up to DoD Authorization to Operate at Impact Level 6; none of the paid tiers publish list pricing, so buyers request a quote. It targets regulated and security-conscious organizations — government agencies, defense contractors, healthcare, and critical infrastructure operators — alongside teams wanting a free, self-hostable Slack alternative. Rocket.Chat differentiates on deployment flexibility and data sovereignty: customers choose where and how data is stored, from standard cloud hosting to fully air-gapped, isolated networks supporting classified programs. Extensibility comes through custom and pre-built apps, and the platform includes federated communications across organizations, comprehensive audit logs, and WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessibility support.
Standout feature: A fully open-source (MIT-licensed), self-hosted Community Edition with no user limit, alongside government and defense deployment options authorized up to DoD Impact Level 6 for classified environments.
Biggest weakness: None of the paid tiers publish list pricing — Commercial, Government, and Defense plans all require contacting sales for a quote, making it hard to budget or compare costs against competitors like Slack or Mattermost without a sales call.
Pros
- Community Edition is free, open-source (MIT license), and self-hostable with no user limit.
- Deployment options span standard cloud hosting to fully air-gapped, classified environments.
- Federated communications let separate Rocket.Chat deployments message across organizational boundaries.
- Extensible via custom and pre-built apps, plus native voice, video, and screen sharing.
Cons
- No published list pricing for any paid tier; every quote requires a sales conversation.
- Self-hosting the Community Edition adds administration and infrastructure overhead compared to SaaS competitors.
- Government/Defense-specific features add complexity that most mainstream business customers won't need.
Rocket.Chat pricing
Free · verified from the vendor's pricing page
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Community (self-managed) | Free | Free, open-source (MIT license), self-hosted edition with core messaging, voice, and video, unlimited users, and community support only. |
| Commercial | Custom | Custom quote-based pricing for cloud-hosted or self-managed deployments with SSO, HIPAA/FINRA/MiFID II compliance, and dedicated support; contact sales. |
| Government | Custom | Custom pricing for sovereign, regulated deployments with granular access controls, audit logs, and GDPR compliance. |
| Defense | Custom | Custom pricing for air-gapped deployments with DoD Authorization to Operate up to Impact Level 6 and FIPS 140-3 cryptography. |
What reviewers say
Scores belong to their platforms; we display them with attribution and never fold them into our own ratings.