Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Pumble

Rocket.Chat is an open-source communications platform designed for secure, mission-critical messaging and collaboration. It provides real-time team chat plus optional omnichannel engagement features for communicating with external users through multiple channels.

Key Features

• Public and private channels, direct messages, threads, mentions, and reactions
• Role-based access control and administrative controls for organizations
• Voice and video calling support (WebRTC)
• Omnichannel capabilities for customer/citizen support workflows
• Extensible apps and integrations ecosystem (Marketplace and custom apps)
• Federation options for connecting multiple Rocket.Chat servers

Use Cases

• Private Slack-like team chat for companies and regulated environments
• Secure internal and cross-organization coordination for operations teams
• Customer support or citizen engagement via an omnichannel inbox

Limitations and Considerations

• Some advanced features (especially around omnichannel and governance) may depend on enterprise licensing and deployment choices
• Real-time performance and large deployments require careful sizing and database tuning

Rocket.Chat is a strong fit for organizations that need control over data, flexible deployment options, and a customizable communications stack. It combines modern chat features with extensibility and security-oriented administration for critical operations.

Mattermost is an open-source, self-hosted collaboration platform designed for secure team communication and real-time collaboration in high-stakes environments. It supports flexible deployment options, including on-premises or private cloud setups, with enterprise-grade security, governance, and integration capabilities.

Key Features

• Self-hosted deployment with high availability for mission-critical use
• Native audio calls and screen sharing within channels
• Interoperability with external tools (MS Teams, GitLab, Atlassian) and native playbooks
• Open-source Team Edition licensed under MIT
• Data control, granular admin and deployment flexibility (air-gapped networks, on-prem/private cloud)
• Real-time DevSecOps collaboration with integrated playbooks and automation

Use Cases

• Integrated Security Operations and incident response coordination
• Real-time DevSecOps collaboration to accelerate software delivery
• Self-sovereign collaboration and data governance for regulated environments

Limitations and Considerations

• Team Edition is intended for small teams and is not recommended for government or sensitive workloads

Conclusion: Mattermost offers a secure, self-hosted collaboration platform with deployment flexibility and strong integration capabilities, making it suitable for organizations needing data control and mission-critical workflows.

Zulip is an open-source team chat platform designed for both real-time and asynchronous communication. Its distinctive topic-based threading keeps conversations organized, making it easier to follow multiple discussions without losing context.

Key Features

• Topic-based threading within channels (streams) to keep discussions focused
• Inbox-style view to prioritize unread conversations
• Real-time messaging with searchable history
• Powerful integrations and bots, including webhook-based workflows
• Granular permissions and administration for organizations and communities
• Multi-platform clients, including web, desktop, and mobile apps

Use Cases

• Team communication for engineering, product, and operations groups
• Open source or community collaboration with many parallel discussions
• Async-first coordination across time zones while preserving context

Zulip is a strong fit for teams that want the immediacy of chat without sacrificing long-term clarity. Its conversation organization model scales well as the number of channels and active threads grows.

Element is a Matrix-based collaboration and messaging client for web and desktop, designed for interoperable real-time communication across the federated Matrix network. It supports deployments where organizations want control over their communication stack while remaining compatible with other Matrix services.

Key Features

• Matrix client for rooms, direct messages, and community-style spaces
• End-to-end encryption for private conversations (Matrix E2EE)
• Cross-organization interoperability via Matrix federation
• Audio/video calling capabilities via the Matrix ecosystem
• Configurable deployment via a static web build and a JSON configuration file
• Optional desktop app packaging (Electron wrapper)

Use Cases

• Secure team chat for companies, communities, and public-sector organizations
• Federated collaboration between multiple organizations using different Matrix servers
• Self-hosted communication front-end paired with a Matrix homeserver

Limitations and Considerations

• Requires a compatible Matrix homeserver (such as Synapse) to function
• Recommended to host the client on a different domain than the homeserver to reduce XSS risk

Element is a widely used Matrix client that emphasizes interoperability, encryption, and deployment flexibility. It is a strong choice for organizations that want modern real-time collaboration without vendor lock-in.

Spacebar is a free and open source communication platform that reimplements Discord’s core user experience as a self-hostable, full-stack system. It aims for compatibility with Discord clients and bots while providing control over configuration, theming, and deployment.

Key Features

• Discord-compatible API behavior to reuse many existing clients and bots with minimal changes
• Real-time text chat with gateway-style events
• Voice and video calling via WebRTC
• Built-in content delivery (CDN-style) for media and attachments
• Admin dashboard and configurable limits for communities and deployments
• Theme system and design customization
• Plugin/extension approach for adding functionality
• Decentralization-oriented design goals to reduce single points of failure

Use Cases

• Host a Discord-like community server for a company, school, or gaming group
• Run a private collaboration chat with full control over data retention and policies
• Provide a compatible backend for custom clients, integrations, or bots

Limitations and Considerations

• Compatibility with all Discord features and third-party clients/bots may vary due to ongoing reimplementation work

Spacebar is a strong option for teams and communities that want a familiar Discord-style experience while retaining control over hosting, customization, and platform behavior. It is especially appealing when Discord API compatibility and real-time communication features are key requirements.

Tailchat is an open source “noIM” (not only instant messaging) team collaboration app that combines chat with an extensible platform for integrating tools and workflows. It supports multi-group workspaces, panels for organizing topics, and a plugin-centered approach for customization.

Key Features

• Real-time messaging with multiple message types (text, links, mentions, images, files) and reactions
• Workspace and group structure with panels to organize conversations by topic
• Inbox-style notifications for mentions and plugin events
• Plugin center for extending the UI and embedding tools (e.g., whiteboards, conferencing, utilities)
• Bot and open platform integrations via simple URL requests or OpenAPI apps
• Built-in RBAC permission system with roles and permission points that plugins can extend
• Optional AI assistant features such as rewriting, simplifying text, and summarizing chat history
• Multi-platform support with web-based UI and dedicated clients for native capabilities

Use Cases

• Replacing Slack/Discord-style chat for teams that want deeper customization
• Building an internal collaboration hub by embedding third-party tools through plugins
• Adding automation and notifications from external systems using bots and OpenAPI

Limitations and Considerations

• The third-party developer interfaces and plugin APIs may still evolve and can introduce breaking changes over time

Tailchat fits teams that want a modern chat experience but also need a flexible integration and extension model. Its plugin system and RBAC design make it suitable for both small groups and larger, structured organizations.

Movim is a federated blogging and messaging platform that acts as a web frontend for the XMPP protocol. It combines social posting features with real-time chat and group conversations in a responsive, cross-platform web interface.

Key Features

• Web-based XMPP client with real-time 1:1 and group chat
• Federated social network features: posts, comments, likes, mentions, and communities
• Search across posts, chatrooms, communities, tags, and people
• Push notifications for social interactions and mentions
• Public chatrooms and private group chats with member invitations
• Account connectivity features to integrate other chat accounts
• Personalization options such as dark mode and accent color
• Multilingual interface with extensive translation coverage

Use Cases

• Run a community hub that blends XMPP chatrooms with social posting
• Provide a modern web client for an existing XMPP server deployment
• Host private group collaboration spaces backed by XMPP

Movim is a strong fit when you want XMPP-based messaging paired with a lightweight, federated social experience accessible from any modern browser.

Stoat (formerly Revolt) is an open-source chat and community messaging platform with text channels and direct messages. It can be deployed on your own infrastructure as a full stack including the backend, web client, file server, and supporting services.

Key Features

• Text channels and direct messages for teams and communities
• Roles and fine-grained permissions for access control
• Moderation tooling for managing communities
• Bot support for automation and integrations
• File handling via a dedicated file server with optional S3-compatible storage
• Docker Compose-based deployment with a bundled reverse proxy

Use Cases

• Self-hosted alternative to proprietary team chat for small organizations
• Community chat server with moderation and permission controls
• Private group messaging for clubs, classrooms, or project teams

Limitations and Considerations

• Voice channels are not included in the provided self-hosting guide and are under rework
• Some deployment constraints may apply to available web client builds depending on architecture

Stoat is suited to users who want a modern chat experience with community features while keeping control of deployment and data. Its modular stack and containerized setup make it practical to operate on a VPS or dedicated server.

SAMA is an open-source messaging server designed as a modern alternative to legacy chat protocols. It provides real-time WebSocket and HTTP APIs for users, conversations, messages, activities and address books, and ships with reference web and mobile clients.

Key Features

• High-performance WebSocket core powered by uWebSockets.js for low-latency messaging
• REST and real-time APIs covering Users, Conversations, Messages, Activities, Address Book and Push Notifications
• Persistent storage using MongoDB and ephemeral/state features backed by Redis (presence, caching/pubsub)
• End-to-end encryption support and built-in push notification flows
• Clustering and horizontal scaling primitives for multi-node deployments
• Docker-friendly deployment and reference frontend (web) and Flutter mobile clients
• GPL-3.0 licensed project with an emphasis on a compact, modern protocol alternative to XMPP

Use Cases

• Add real-time chat, group conversations and activity streams to mobile and web applications
• Build team chat or community messaging platforms with end-to-end encryption and push notifications
• Implement lightweight, scalable messaging backends for consumer or enterprise apps requiring low latency

Limitations and Considerations

• Uses a custom SAMA protocol (designed as an alternative to XMPP) which has a smaller ecosystem and fewer third-party clients
• GPL-3.0 license can restrict embedding into proprietary products without complying with license terms
• High-concurrency deployments require tuning and appropriate resources for uWebSockets.js, MongoDB and Redis

SAMA is a focused chat server for teams and apps that need a high-performance, modern messaging backend. It is suitable for projects that can adopt its protocol and license model and want a Docker-friendly, scalable real-time messaging stack.

Conduit is a lightweight, open-source Matrix homeserver implemented in Rust. It targets easy setup and low system requirements by shipping as a single binary with an embedded database (RocksDB by default) while also supporting a SQLite backend for smaller installations. (conduit.rs)

Key Features

• Single self-contained binary for simple deployment and low overhead.
• Implemented in Rust and built on Ruma and the axum web framework for modularity and performance. (gitlab.com)
• Default RocksDB storage engine with an optional SQLite backend; configurable cache and DB tuning options. (famedly.gitlab.io)
• Docker and systemd packaging examples and deployment guides; configuration via a conduit.toml file (TOML-based). (famedly.gitlab.io)
• Focus on core Matrix features with ongoing improvements and a changelog documenting protocol/version updates and fixes. (conduit.rs)

Use Cases

• Small personal or family Matrix homeserver on low-resource hardware (Raspberry Pi, single-board computers).
• Lightweight team or community chat server that needs easy setup and minimal maintenance overhead.
• Developers and administrators who prefer a single-binary Rust implementation for embedding or custom deployments.

Limitations and Considerations

• Project is marked beta: some Matrix features and federation edge-cases are incomplete (examples historically include certain E2EE federation behaviors and outgoing presence/read-receipt handling). Users should evaluate feature gaps against their needs before production use. (github.com)

Conduit provides a compact, Rust-native alternative to heavier Matrix homeservers, prioritizing simplicity, performance, and low resource usage while continuing to close feature gaps and improve federation behavior.

Libervia is a modular communication and social platform built on the XMPP protocol. It provides a shared backend and multiple frontends (including a web interface) to deliver messaging and social features in a unified, extensible system.

Key Features

• XMPP-based architecture leveraging the open, federated messaging ecosystem
• Multiple user interfaces, including a web frontend (Libervia Web)
• Real-time chat and contact management via XMPP
• Social features often associated with "social networking" use cases (implemented through XMPP extensions)
• Extensible, plugin-oriented design to add or customize features

Use Cases

• Run a self-managed team chat and messaging service using XMPP
• Provide a federated communication platform for communities or organizations
• Build custom XMPP-powered apps by extending the backend and exposing tailored frontends

Limitations and Considerations

• Feature availability can depend on XMPP server support and enabled XMPP extensions
• A full deployment typically involves multiple components (backend, XMPP server, and chosen frontends)

Libervia is best suited for users who want an open-protocol communication stack with the flexibility of multiple interfaces. Its XMPP foundation and modular design make it a strong choice for extensible, federated messaging and social functionality.