Category guide
Top 148 Communication Apps, Compared (Oct 2026)
Independent communication app ranking from live install data — quick answer, comparisons and FAQ.
Quick answer: Rocket.Chat is the best self-hosted Communication app on PickYour.App right now — 82 000 installs and climbing. Mattermost is the runner-up. Both install in one click.
This guide covers 148 communication tools you can run yourself. No seat fees. No lock-in. Pick an app, we size the server for you.
148 Communication apps at a glance
Ranked by real installs on PickYour.App · updated Oct 2026.
| # | App | Category | Installs | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | R Rocket.Chat Team chat platform you fully control | Communication | 82 000 | €0.046/hr |
| 2 | M Mattermost Team chat — the self-hosted Slack | Communication | 78 000 | €0.046/hr |
| 3 | J Jitsi Meet Private video meetings in the browser | Communication | 61 000 | €0.046/hr |
| 4 | P Postal Self-hosted mail server with a clean sending API | Communication | 42 000 | €0.046/hr |
| 5 | Z Zulip Threaded team chat for focused teams | Communication | 39 000 | €0.046/hr |
| 6 | M Mautic Open-source marketing automation & email campaigns | Communication | 38 000 | €0.046/hr |
| 7 | S Synapse Matrix homeserver for private messaging | Communication | 34 000 | €0.046/hr |
| 8 | L Listmonk Self-hosted newsletter & mailing | Communication | 33 000 | €0.023/hr |
| 9 | M Mailcow Dockerized mail suite with a friendly admin UI | Communication | 29 000 | €0.046/hr |
| 10 | M Mailu Simple full-featured mail server in Docker | Communication | 21 000 | €0.046/hr |
| 11 | 3 3CX Full-featured PABX system, with call queues, built-in web conferencing, live chat and social media messaging all on one system. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 12 | A Akkoma Federated microblogging server with Mastodon, GNU social, and ActivityPub compatibility. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 13 | A Answer Knowledge-based community software. You can use it to quickly build your Q&A community for product technical support, customer support, user communication, and more. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 14 | A AnyCable Realtime server for reliable two-way communication over WebSockets, Server-sent events, etc. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 15 | A Apprise Apprise allows you to send a notification to almost all of the most popular notification services available to us today such as: Telegram, Discord, Slack, Amazon SNS | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 16 | A Artalk Comment system built in Golang, providing a lightweight and highly customizable solution for adding comments to your website. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 17 | A AsmBB Fast, SQLite-powered forum engine written in ASM. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 18 | A Asterisk Easy to use but advanced IP PBX system, VoIP gateway and conference server. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 19 | B b1gMail Complete email solution that runs on any webspace with PHP and MariaDB. It supports POP3 catchall mailboxes and can also integrate with Postfix or b1gMailServer if | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 20 | B BuddyPress Powerful plugin that takes your WordPress.org powered site beyond the blog with social-network features like user profiles, activity streams, user groups, and more. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 21 | B Bulwark Webmail client for Stalwart Mail | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 22 | C Centrifugo Language-agnostic real-time messaging (Websocket or SockJS) server. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 23 | C Citadel Groupware including email, calendar/scheduling, address books, forums, mailing lists, IM, wiki and blog engines, RSS aggregation and more. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 24 | C Conduit A simple, fast, and reliable chat server powered by Matrix. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 25 | C Coral A better commenting experience from Vox Media. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 26 | C Cozy Cloud Personal cloud where you can manage and sync your files, notes, contacts, passwords, and documents. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 27 | C Cypht Feed reader for your email accounts. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 28 | D DebOps Your Debian-based data center in a box. A set of general-purpose Ansible roles that can be used to manage Debian or Ubuntu hosts. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 29 | D diaspora Distributed social networking server. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 30 | D Digipad An online self-hosted application for creating collaborative digital notepads (Documentation in french). | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 31 | D Digiwall Create multimedia collaborative walls for in-person or remote work (documentation in French). | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 32 | E egroupware Software suite including calendars, address books, notepad, project management tools, client relationship management tools (CRM), knowledge management tools, a wiki and | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 33 | E ejabberd XMPP instant messaging server. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 34 | E Element Fully-featured Matrix client for Web, iOS & Android. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 35 | E Elgg Powerful open source social networking engine. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 36 | E Enigma 1/2 BBS Enigma 1/2 is a modern, multi-platform BBS engine with unlimited "callers" and legacy DOS door game support. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 37 | F Flarum Delightfully simple forums. Flarum is the next-generation forum software that makes online discussion fun again. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 38 | F Flexisip Complete, modular and scalable SIP server, includes a push gateway, to deliver SIP incoming calls or text messages on mobile device platforms where push notifications | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 39 | F Forward Email Privacy-focused encrypted email for everyone. All-in-one alternative to Gmail + Mailchimp + Sendgrid. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 40 | F Freepbx Web-based open source GUI that controls and manages Asterisk. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 41 | F FreeSWITCH Scalable open source cross-platform telephony platform. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 42 | F Friendica A decentralized social network | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 43 | F FusionPBX Web interface for multi-platform voice switch called FreeSWITCH. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 44 | G GlobaLeaks Whistleblowing software enabling anyone to easily set up and maintain a secure reporting platform. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 45 | G Glowing Bear A web frontend for WeeChat. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 46 | G Gmail Cleaner Web-based GUI for cleaning Gmail inboxes | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 47 | G GNUnet Software framework for decentralized, peer-to-peer networking. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 48 | G Gotify Notification server with Android and CLI clients (alternative to PushBullet). | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 49 | G GoToSocial ActivityPub federated social network server implementing the Mastodon client API. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 50 | G Groupboard Online whiteboard, audio/video conferencing, screen sharing, shared code editing and optional session recording/playback. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 51 | H Hatsu Bridge that interacts with Fediverse on behalf of your static site. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 52 | H Hollo Federated single-user microblogging software | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 53 | H Hubzilla Decentralized identity, privacy, publishing, sharing, cloud storage, and communications/social platform. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 54 | H HyperKitty Access GNU Mailman v3 archives. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 55 | H Hyphanet Anonymously share files, browse and publish freesites (web sites accessible only through Hyphanet) and chat on forums. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 56 | I Iceshrimp.NET Federated microblogging server that communicates over ActivityPub. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 57 | I Inboxen Lets you have an infinite number of unique inboxes. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 58 | I InspIRCd Modular IRC server written in C++ for Linux, BSD, Windows, and macOS. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 59 | I iRedMail Full-featured mail server solution based on Postfix and Dovecot. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 60 | I Isso Lightweight commenting server written in Python and Javascript. It aims to be a drop-in replacement for Disqus. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 61 | J Jami Universal communication platform which preserves the user's privacy and freedoms. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 62 | K Kamailio Modular SIP server (registrar/proxy/router/etc). | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 63 | K Keila Reliable and easy-to-use newsletter tool (alternative to Mailchimp and Sendinblue). | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 64 | K Kiwi IRC Responsive web IRC client with theming support. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 65 | L Lemmy Link aggregator for the fediverse (alternative to Reddit). | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 66 | L Libervia Web frontend from Salut à Toi. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 67 | L Loomio Collaborative decision-making tool that makes it easy for anyone to participate in decisions which affect them. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 68 | M Maddy Mail Server All-in-one mail server that implements SMTP (both MTA and MX) and IMAP. Replaces Postfix, Dovecot, OpenDKIM, OpenSPF, OpenDMARC with single daemon. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 69 | M Mail-in-a-Box Turns any Ubuntu server into a fully functional mail server with one command. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 70 | M MailDev SMTP server and interface for testing email | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 71 | M MailFlow Unified webmail client | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 72 | M Mailman Manage electronic mail discussion and e-newsletter lists. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 73 | M Mailrise SMTP gateway for Apprise notifications | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 74 | M Mbin Federated content aggregator and microblogging platform | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 75 | M Misago Fully featured modern forum application that is fast, scalable and responsive. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 76 | M Misskey Decentralized app-like microblogging server/SNS for the Fediverse, using the ActivityPub protocol like GNU social and Mastodon. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 77 | M Mitra Federated micro-blogging platform | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 78 | M mlmmj Mailing list management made joyful. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 79 | M Modoboa Mail hosting and management platform including a modern and simplified web user interface. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 80 | M MongooseIM Mobile messaging platform with a focus on performance and scalability. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 81 | M Mox Complete e-mail solution with IMAP4, SMTP, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, MTA-STS, DANE and DNSSEC, reputation-based and content-based junk filtering, Internationalization (IDNA) | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 82 | M MyBB Free, extensible forum software package. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 83 | N Nextcloud Mail Email application for Nextcloud | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 84 | N Nextcloud Social Nextcloud app for federated networking | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 85 | N ngircd Portable and lightweight Internet Relay Chat server for small or private networks. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 86 | N NodeBB Forum software built for the modern web. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 87 | N Nortix Mail Disposable e-mail server with an easy configuration | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 88 | N Notifo Multichannel notification server with support for Email, Mobile Push, Web Push, SMS, messaging and a javascript plugin. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 89 | N Notifuse Platform for sending newsletters and transactional mail | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 90 | N ntfy Push notifications to phone or desktop using HTTP PUT/POST, with Android app, CLI and web app, similar to Pushover and Gotify. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 91 | O One Time Secret Share sensitive information securely with self-destructing links that are only viewable once. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 92 | O Openfire Real time collaboration (RTC) server. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 93 | O Openmeetings Video conferencing, instant messaging, whiteboard, collaborative document editing and other groupware tools using API functions of the Red5 Streaming Server for Remoting | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 94 | O openSIPS SIP proxy/server for voice, video, IM, presence and any other SIP extensions. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 95 | O OpenWA WhatsApp API gateway exposing messaging as REST endpoints, with a web dashboard, multi-account sessions, and webhook events (alternative to WhatsApp Business API | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 96 | O OSSN Social networking software that allows you to make a social networking website and helps your members build social relationships, with people who share similar | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 97 | P phpBB Flat-forum bulletin board software solution that can be used to stay in touch with a group of people or can power your entire website. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 98 | P phpList Newsletter and email marketing with advanced management of subscribers, bounces, and plugins. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 99 | P Pinkary Federated landing page for links and connecting with others without the noise | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 100 | P Postorius Web user interface to access GNU Mailman. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 101 | P PrivMX WebMail Web-based, end-to-end encrypted email platform that uses an independent PKI. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 102 | P Prosody IM Feature-rich and easy to configure XMPP server. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 103 | P PushBits Notification server for relaying push notifications via Matrix, similar to PushBullet and Gotify. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 104 | Q qpixel Q&A-based community knowledge-sharing software. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 105 | Q Quassel IRC Distributed IRC client, meaning that one (or multiple) client(s) can attach to and detach from a central core. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 106 | R remark42 Lightweight and simple comment engine, which doesn't spy on users. It can be embedded into blogs, articles or any other place where readers add comments. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 107 | R RetroShare Secured and decentralized communication system. Offers decentralized chat, forums, messaging, file transfer. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 108 | R Robust IRC IRC without netsplits. Distributed IRC server, based on RobustSession protocol. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 109 | R Roundcube Browser-based IMAP client with an application-like user interface. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 110 | R Routr Lightweight SIP proxy, location server, and registrar for a reliable and scalable SIP infrastructure. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 111 | S Salut à Toi Multipurpose, multi frontend, libre and decentralized communication tool. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 112 | S SAMA Next-Gen self-hosted chat server and clients. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 113 | S Schleuder GPG-enabled mailing list manager with resending-capabilities. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 114 | S Scoold Stack Overflow in a JAR. An enterprise-ready Q&A platform with full-text search, SAML, LDAP integration and social login support. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 115 | S Screego Screego is a simple tool to quickly share your screen to one or multiple people via web browser. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 116 | S Sendy Self-hosted email newsletter application that lets you send bulk emails via Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) or other SMTP services. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 117 | S Shhh Keep secrets out of emails or chat logs, share them using secure links with passphrase and expiration dates. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 118 | S Simple Machines Forum Free, professional grade software package that allows you to set up your own online community within minutes. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 119 | S Simple NixOS Mailserver Complete mailserver solution leveraging the Nix Ecosystem. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 120 | S SIP3 VoIP troubleshooting and monitoring platform. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 121 | S SIPCAPTURE Homer Troubleshooting and monitoring VoIP calls. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 122 | S Snac Simple, minimalistic ActivityPub instance | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 123 | S SnappyMail Simple, modern, lightweight & fast web-based email client (fork of RainLoop). | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 124 | S Socialhome Federated and decentralized profile builder and social network engine. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 125 | S SOGo SOGo offers multiple ways to access the calendaring and messaging data. CalDAV, CardDAV, GroupDAV, as well as ActiveSync, including native Outlook compatibility and Web | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 126 | S Spectrum 2 Spectrum 2 is an open source instant messaging transport. It allows users to chat together even when they are using different IM networks. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 127 | S SquirrelMail Another browser-based IMAP client. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 128 | S Stalwart Mail Server All-in-one mail server with JMAP, IMAP4, and SMTP support and a wide range of modern features. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 129 | S Storyden Fresh take on bulletin board forum software | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 130 | S Sympa Mailing list manager. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 131 | T Talkyard Create a community, where your users can suggest ideas and get questions answered. And have friendly open-ended discussions and chat | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 132 | T Tigase XMPP server implementation in Java. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 133 | T Tine Software for digital collaboration in companies and organizations. From powerful groupware functionalities to clever add-ons, tine combines everything to make daily team | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 134 | T Tinode Instant messaging platform. Backend in Go. Clients: Swift iOS, Java Android, JS webapp, scriptable command line; chatbots. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 135 | T Tox Distributed, secure messenger with audio and video chat capabilities. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 136 | T Tracim Collaborative Platform for team collaboration: file,threads,notes,agenda,etc. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 137 | T Tuwunel High-performance and feature-rich chat server for Matrix, and the successor to conduwuit (fork of Conduit). | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 138 | U UnrealIRCd Modular, advanced and highly configurable IRC server written in C for Linux, BSD, Windows, and macOS. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 139 | V Virola Messenger Instant messaging and collaboration tool with private and group chat rooms, continuous voice and video meetings, files sharing, issue tracking with integrated task board | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 140 | W Wazo Full-featured IPBX solution built atop Asterisk with integrated Web administration interface and REST-ful API. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 141 | W WBO Web Whiteboard to collaborate in real-time on schemas, drawings, and notes. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 142 | W Weechat Fast, light and extensible chat client. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 143 | W wildduck Scalable no-SPOF IMAP/POP3 mail server. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 144 | W WorkAdventure Virtual office / virtual conference application presented as a 16-bit RPG video game. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 145 | Y yarn.social Self-Hosted, Twitter™-like Decentralised micro-logging platform. No ads, no tracking, your content, your data. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 146 | Y Yeti-Switch Transit class4 softswitch(SBC) with integrated billing and routing engine and REST API. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 147 | Z Zimbra Collaboration Email, calendar, collaboration server with Web interface and lots of integrations. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
| 148 | Z ZNC Advanced IRC bouncer. | Communication | 0 | €0.018/hr |
Best Communication apps, reviewed
R
Rocket.Chat
Communication · 82 000 installs
The core loop is what Rocket.Chat does best. Spec: 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB disk. Most people start here.
- Does: the core communication job.
- Runs on: 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 50 GB — about €0.046/hr on Pay as you go.
M
Mattermost
Communication · 78 000 installs
The core loop is what Mattermost does best. Spec: 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB disk. Some teams prefer this one.
- Does: the core communication job.
- Runs on: 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 50 GB — about €0.046/hr on Pay as you go.
J
Jitsi Meet
Communication · 61 000 installs
Jitsi Meet covers the essentials without demanding a manual. Spec: 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 25 GB disk. Great for smaller setups.
- Does: the core communication job.
- Runs on: 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 25 GB — about €0.046/hr on Pay as you go.
P
Postal
Communication · 42 000 installs
The core loop is what Postal does best. Plan for 2 vCPU and 4 GB of RAM. Climbing steadily.
- Does: the core communication job.
- Runs on: 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 50 GB — about €0.046/hr on Pay as you go.
How we ranked these apps
No sponsors, no editors' picks. The chart is built from install counts.
What it costs to run
The software is free. You only pay for the server. Peak spec in this list: 2 vCPU / 4 GB, near €0.046/hour. Pausing stops the meter. The install wizard pre-sizes the server for you.
Which Communication app should you pick?
- You want the safe bet? Rocket.Chat — the most installed pick here.
- You prefer the lighter option? Mattermost — a close second, some teams like it more.
- Tight budget? 3CX runs on 1 vCPU / 1 GB — the cheapest server here.
- Not sure yet? Install the leader, try it for an hour, pause the server. You pay cents.
Free software, not free servers
No per-seat pricing, no trial clock. Hosting is the cost.
Heavy apps may need a bigger plan later — upgrades take a minute.
Verdict
Rocket.Chat takes the top spot, with Mattermost as the alternative. Install it in one click and decide for yourself.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best communication app?
Rocket.Chat leads this category on PickYour.App. The core loop is what Rocket.Chat does best. Spec: 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB disk.
Can I use these tools for free?
Yes. Every app here is open-source. You only pay for the server — from €0.018 per hour, and pausing stops the meter.
How much does a communication server cost?
About €0.046/hour for the biggest spec in this list. Smaller apps run on less.
Which one is easiest to start?
3CX — it needs the smallest server (1 vCPU / 1 GB). The install wizard sets it up in one click.
Ready to self-host?
Pick an app, we handle the server, domain and HTTPS.
Generated 2026-10-22 from live catalog data · all guides