Teams choosing chat software need to weigh a tool’s intended use against signs that its project is healthy and actively shipping. This October 2026 snapshot uses the supplied ToolVitals records, including ToolVitals scores, health and shipping scores, project descriptions, openness and license labels, and GitHub star counts.
The ranking covers open/source-visible tools and orders them by ToolVitals score descending, then health and shipping for equal composite scores. GitHub stars provide context only and do not determine placement.
Rankings
| Rank | Tool | Openness | License | Health | Shipping | GitHub Stars | Score | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Element | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 97 | 97 | 13542 | 97 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 2 | Mattermost | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 97 | 97 | 39289 | 97 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 3 | Rocket.Chat | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 97 | 97 | 46224 | 97 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 4 | Fluxer | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 96 | 97 | 10495 | 97 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 5 | Haven Chat | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 96 | 96 | 587 | 96 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 6 | Discourse | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-2.0 | 96 | 95 | 47933 | 96 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 7 | Zulip | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 96 | 95 | 26007 | 96 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 8 | Chatmail Core | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 96 | 95 | 937 | 95 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 9 | Wire | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-3.0 | 96 | 95 | 168 | 95 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 10 | wacli | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 96 | 94 | 2785 | 95 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 11 | Quackback | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 95 | 94 | 306 | 95 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 12 | Vexa | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 95 | 93 | 2860 | 94 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 13 | Cap | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 93 | 95 | 23111 | 94 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 14 | VACS | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 93 | 93 | 69 | 93 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 15 | nodyx | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 92 | 94 | 138 | 93 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 16 | Gryt | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 91 | 96 | 38 | 93 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 17 | CBoard | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-3.0 | 93 | 91 | 759 | 92 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 18 | SimpleX Chat | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 92 | 89 | 19526 | 91 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 19 | Frappe Gameplan | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 92 | 89 | 517 | 90 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 20 | adamant-im | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-3.0 | 91 | 89 | 788 | 90 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 21 | Activist | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 91 | 85 | 751 | 89 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 22 | Hackers Pub | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 90 | 86 | 165 | 88 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 23 | Lemmy | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 90 | 84 | 14615 | 87 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 24 | Ethora | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 86 | 87 | 549 | 87 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 25 | HappyDeliver | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 85 | 85 | 232 | 85 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 26 | nChat | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 85 | 84 | 0 | 84 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 27 | Open Self Service | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 84 | 77 | 184 | 81 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 28 | Habitat | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 82 | 80 | 150 | 81 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 29 | Mqvi | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 81 | 81 | 20 | 81 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 30 | Tinode | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-3.0 | 81 | 76 | 13530 | 79 | 🟢 Good |
| 31 | VoteKit | OSI-approved OSS | ISC | 78 | 78 | 0 | 78 | 🟢 Good |
| 32 | WhippyTerm | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-3.0 | 79 | 73 | 94 | 77 | 🟢 Good |
| 33 | Set Outlook Signatures | OSI-approved OSS | EUPL-1.2 | 71 | 68 | 413 | 70 | 🟢 Good |
| 34 | agentgram | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 68 | 46 | 41 | 59 | 🟡 Fair |
| 35 | CajeerBots | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 53 | 29 | 0 | 43 | 🟡 Fair |
| 36 | Majik Message | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 46 | 33 | 2 | 41 | 🟡 Fair |
| 37 | QuoteVote | OSI-approved OSS | LGPL-3.0 | 48 | 28 | 35 | 40 | 🟡 Fair |
| 38 | Open IM | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 49 | 23 | 16682 | 39 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 39 | Circled | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 47 | 25 | 210 | 38 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 40 | Indic Subtitler | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 44 | 25 | 95 | 37 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 41 | Discuit | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 30 | 13 | 552 | 24 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 42 | Late.fyi | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 29 | 13 | 0 | 23 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 43 | Deskive | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 15 | 0 | 30 | 9 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 44 | Vanilla | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-2.0 | 15 | 0 | 2975 | 9 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 45 | NPMChat | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 14 | 0 | 21 | 8 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 46 | Weevean | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 13 | 0 | 13 | 8 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 47 | Colanode | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 10 | 2 | 5163 | 7 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 48 | OpenCom | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-3.0 | 10 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 49 | Spacebar | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 9 | 0 | 6713 | 5 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 50 | ThoughtBase | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 6 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
Top 3 Highlights
Element leads the October 2026 ranking at 97, with health and shipping scores also at 97. It is listed as an enterprise communication platform and carries the openness label “OSI-approved OSS” with the license label “AGPL-3.0”. Its 13542 GitHub stars are context only and do not set its rank.
Mattermost ranks second with a ToolVitals score of 97, a health score of 97, and a shipping score of 97. Its listed focus is secure collaboration across the software development lifecycle. It carries the openness label “OSI-approved OSS” with the license label “Apache-2.0”; its 39289 GitHub stars are context only.
Rocket.Chat ranks third with ToolVitals, health, and shipping scores all at 97. Its listed positioning is secure communications for mission-critical operations. It carries the openness label “OSI-approved OSS” with the license label “MIT”. The record lists 46224 GitHub stars, which do not determine placement.
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