Description
Team chat tools reveal their edges after a while: free tiers keep the last ten thousand messages, so that requirements discussion from six months ago is behind a paywall; the server is somewhere else and file loading is a gamble; and genuinely sensitive project material lives on somebody else's infrastructure. Rocket.Chat's answer is a fully open-source server you run yourself — messages, files and user data on your own disks, history kept indefinitely, no per-seat billing to anyone.
The desktop client is what this entry covers: an Electron shell that holds several servers at once, so a company workspace, a community server and a client's instance all sit in one sidebar with notifications, unread counts and quick switching. Feature-wise it tracks Slack closely — channels, DMs, threads, reactions, message editing and full-text search are all there.
Multiple workspaces: mount several Rocket.Chat servers in the sidebar simultaneously, each with its own unread badge, replacing a row of browser tabs.
Channels, DMs and threads: public channels, private groups and direct messages, plus Discussions and Threads to pull long side-conversations out of the main channel.
Voice and video calls: conferencing is built in and Jitsi or BBB can be plugged in, started from the chat window rather than another meeting app.
Desktop notifications: system-level alerts, keyword mentions, per-channel do-not-disturb windows, and a tray icon carrying the unread count.
Search and message editing: the full history is searchable, messages can be edited or removed, and admins can set retention policies.
Bots and integrations: webhooks, a REST API and a bot framework push alerts, CI results and tickets into channels, and chat commands can trigger operations work in the other direction.
Open source and self-hosted: the MIT-licensed server starts from a single Docker command, keeping data sovereignty entirely in your hands.
The desktop client is what this entry covers: an Electron shell that holds several servers at once, so a company workspace, a community server and a client's instance all sit in one sidebar with notifications, unread counts and quick switching. Feature-wise it tracks Slack closely — channels, DMs, threads, reactions, message editing and full-text search are all there.
Features
Multiple workspaces: mount several Rocket.Chat servers in the sidebar simultaneously, each with its own unread badge, replacing a row of browser tabs.
Channels, DMs and threads: public channels, private groups and direct messages, plus Discussions and Threads to pull long side-conversations out of the main channel.
Voice and video calls: conferencing is built in and Jitsi or BBB can be plugged in, started from the chat window rather than another meeting app.
Desktop notifications: system-level alerts, keyword mentions, per-channel do-not-disturb windows, and a tray icon carrying the unread count.
Search and message editing: the full history is searchable, messages can be edited or removed, and admins can set retention policies.
Bots and integrations: webhooks, a REST API and a bot framework push alerts, CI results and tickets into channels, and chat commands can trigger operations work in the other direction.
Open source and self-hosted: the MIT-licensed server starts from a single Docker command, keeping data sovereignty entirely in your hands.
