Best Self-hosted Communication & Collaboration tools in 2026

Stoat (formerly Revolt) is an open-source chat platform for communities and teams with channels, direct messages, roles/permissions, moderation tools, and bot support.

AGPL-3.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Discord+11

Open-source browser-based peer-to-peer chat with E2E encryption, ephemeral messages, video/audio, screen sharing, direct file transfer, and iframe embedding.

GPL-2.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Zoom+15

Self-hosted, secure platform for file sharing, collaboration, and document management with no vendor lock-in.

AGPL-3.0Actively maintained

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Dropbox+19

Self-hosted live chat and customer support platform with website widgets, operator console, chatbots, omnichannel integrations, and optional voice/video/screensharing.

Apache-2.0Actively maintained

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Zendesk+19

Self-hostable web video conferencing app built on LiveKit, with large-meeting performance, screen sharing, chat, recordings, and transcription features.

MITActively maintained

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Zoom+19

Self-hosted Nextcloud Talk combines chat, video calls and webinars into one secure collaboration app.

AGPL-3.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Microsoft Teams+19

A Bash script that auto-implements a full mail server (Postfix, Dovecot, DKIM, SpamAssassin) with TLS and PAM-based logins on Debian/Ubuntu.

GPL-3.0Slowing down

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Microsoft Exchange Online+14

Open source groupware suite providing webmail, calendaring, address books, and shared resources via open standards like IMAP, CalDAV, and CardDAV.

GPL-2.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Microsoft Exchange Online+19

ZNC is an advanced IRC bouncer that stays connected to IRC networks, letting you reconnect from one or more clients and replay buffered messages you missed.

Apache-2.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

IRCCloud+3

WildDuck is a horizontally scalable IMAP/POP3 mail server that stores all mail in MongoDB, runs stateless Node.js workers, and provides a REST API for full server control.

EUPL-1.2Actively maintained

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Microsoft Exchange Online+13

Privacy-focused Gmail cleanup app to bulk unsubscribe, delete emails by sender, mark as read, archive messages, and manage labels using the Gmail API.

MITActively maintained

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Unroll.Me+6

Movim is a federated social platform and web-based XMPP client for blogging, chat, communities, and real-time messaging with a responsive cross‑platform interface.

AGPL-3.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Element Matrix (Hosted)+15

RetroShare is a decentralized friend-to-friend platform for encrypted chat, mail, forums, channels and secure file sharing, with optional Tor/I2P support.

Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Telegram+19

Carrier-grade SIP/VoIP/WebRTC packet capture and monitoring platform with real-time search, correlation, and troubleshooting workflows using the HEP/EEP protocol.

Actively maintained

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ThousandEyes VoIP Monitoring+3

Automated open-source mail server installer bundling Postfix, Dovecot, webmail, anti-spam/antivirus and LDAP/SQL backends for mainstream Linux/BSD.

GPL-3.0Actively maintained

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Microsoft Exchange Online+16

Self-hostable community discussion platform combining Q&A, forums, team chat, ideation/upvoting, and Disqus-style embedded blog comments.

AGPL-3.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Stack Overflow+19

EteSync (Etebase Server) provides a self-hostable, zero-knowledge, end-to-end encrypted sync backend for calendars, contacts, tasks and notes across devices.

AGPL-3.0Likely dormant

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Google Calendar+7

sabre/dav is a PHP framework for building WebDAV file servers and CalDAV/CardDAV calendar and contacts services.

BSD-3-ClauseActively maintained

Alternative to:

Google Calendar+11

Routr is a programmable SIP server (proxy/registrar/location) for building scalable VoIP infrastructure with APIs, multi-tenancy, and Kubernetes-ready deployment.

MITActively maintained

Alternative to:

Fonoster+7

Cypht is an open-source PHP/JavaScript webmail and RSS aggregator built from modular plugin sets, unifying multiple accounts with search and server-side filters.

SnappyMail is a fast, modern webmail client (RainLoop fork) focused on performance, privacy, and secure IMAP access with optional PGP support and admin controls.

AGPL-3.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Gmail+10

Briefing is a secure, anonymous WebRTC-based video group chat with text chat, screen sharing, and simple invite links, designed to run in modern browsers.

AGPL-3.0Slowing down

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Zoom+12

Self-hosted, lightweight federated messenger with end-to-end encrypted threads and optional WebRTC audio/video calling across independently hosted nodes.

Apache-2.0Actively maintained

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Signal+19

Self-hosted WebRTC videoconferencing server designed for lectures, meetings, and conferences, featuring chat, recording, screen sharing, moderation, and a built-in TURN server.

MITActively maintained

Alternative to:

Zoom+17

InspIRCd is a modular, lightweight Internet Relay Chat (IRC) server with a flexible module system, designed for stable and performant IRC network deployments.

Actively maintained

Alternative to:

IRCCloud+3

High-performance, standards-compliant IMAP/POP3/LMTP server with flexible authentication, extensible plugin system (Lua, Sieve) and OpenSSL TLS support.

Actively maintained

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Microsoft Exchange Online+15

Convos is a multiuser web IRC client with a built-in persistent bouncer, chat history, theming, rich formatting, and optional video chat.

Artistic-2.0Actively maintained

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IRCCloud+3

FusionPBX is a domain-based, multi-tenant PBX and softswitch web UI for FreeSWITCH, supporting extensions, IVR, queues, voicemail, provisioning, and more.

Actively maintained

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3CX+13

Nextcloud Mail is a webmail app that connects to IMAP/SMTP accounts, offering a unified inbox and deep integration with other Nextcloud apps like Contacts and Calendar.

AGPL-3.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Microsoft Outlook+11

Open-source task scheduler and calendar app that auto-plans tasks, syncs with external calendars, and provides a modern UI for managing time blocks and workflows.

MITActively maintained

Alternative to:

Google Calendar+13