best-of ranking · updated nightly

Best Open Source Collaboration & Communication Tools

Ranked by GitHub stars — actual adoption, not editorial taste. All 10 are free, open source and self-hostable; license and last activity on every entry.

  1. 1
    Plane ★ 62K

    Project management for teams and AI agents

    AGPL-3.0 TypeScript pushed 2026-11-02 details →
  2. 2
    Rocket.Chat ★ 46K

    Self-hosted team messaging with voice, video, and AI

    NOASSERTION TypeScript pushed 2026-11-02 details →
  3. 3
    cobalt ★ 46K

    best way to save what you love

    AGPL-3.0 Svelte pushed 2026-04-06 details →
  4. 4
    Buzz ★ 37K

    Team chat, project management, and AI agents in one place

    Apache-2.0 Rust pushed 2026-11-02 details →
  5. 5
    Jitsi ★ 30K

    Private, secure video calls with no account needed

    Apache-2.0 TypeScript pushed 2026-11-02 details →
  6. 6
    srs ★ 29K

    SRS is a simple, high-performance, AI-driven real-time media server supporting RTMP, WebRTC, HLS, HTTP-FLV, HTTP-TS, SRT, MPEG-DASH, and GB28181, with codec sup

    MIT C++ pushed 2026-10-31 details →
  7. 7
    Huly ★ 28K

    All-in-one workspace for project, chat, and docs

    EPL-2.0 TypeScript pushed 2026-11-02 details →
  8. 8
    Zulip ★ 26K

    Organized team chat for distributed teams

    Apache-2.0 Python pushed 2026-11-02 details →
  9. 9
    univer ★ 23K

    Univer is a full-stack framework for creating and editing spreadsheets / word processor / presentation on both web and server.

    Apache-2.0 TypeScript pushed 2026-11-02 details →
  10. 10
    etherpad ★ 19K

    Etherpad: A modern really-real-time collaborative document editor.

    Apache-2.0 TypeScript pushed 2026-11-02 details →
method stars desc · snapshot from github api refresh nightly related Compliance & Risk Management, Human Resources (HR), Legal, Marketing & Customer Engagement, E-commerce Platforms, Document Management & E-Signatures

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last updated nightly · ranking method: github stars, live-tracked

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Frequently asked questions

What is the best open source Collaboration & Communication tool in 2026?

Plane leads the ranking with 61,880 GitHub stars, ahead of Rocket.Chat. Rankings use live GitHub star counts, refreshed nightly.

How is this list of Collaboration & Communication tools ranked?

By GitHub stars — a proxy for adoption and community size. Each entry also shows its licence, primary language and last commit date, so you can judge maintenance activity rather than trusting the ranking alone.

Are the best Collaboration & Communication tools free?

Every project on this list is open source and free to self-host. Some also offer paid managed hosting, but the software itself carries no licence fee.