head to head · open source
univer vs chat
univer has 14,417 GitHub stars, 1,303 forks, 151 open issues and last shipped today. chat has 13,512 stars, 2,079 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. univer leads on adoption by 7% (14,417 vs 13,512 stars). univer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; chat is written in Go under GPL-3.0. univer has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, chat 15%. univer was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (collaboration), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| univer | chat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 14K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 2.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick univer if
- You weight community size — 14K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick chat if
- You want the chat feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and chat fits your workflow better
About univer
Univer is an open source, full stack office SDK for building spreadsheet, document and presentation interfaces inside your own product. Rather than shipping an end user office suite, it gives developers the primitives — a Canvas based renderer, a formula engine, a plugin architecture and a single Facade API — to embed spreadsheet and document editing into a web application or run the same logic headlessly on Node.js.
read the full univer overview →
About chat
Tinode is an open source, full stack instant messaging server that pairs a Go backend with native iOS, Android, web, and command line clients, built for developers and operators who want to run or federate their own messaging platform rather than rent one.
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Frequently asked questions
Is univer or chat more popular?
univer has 14,417 GitHub stars and chat has 13,512. univer has the larger community by that measure.
Are univer and chat free?
Both are open source. univer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and chat under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between univer and chat?
univer is written in TypeScript and chat in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, univer or chat?
Choose univer if you want the larger community (14,417 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose chat if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.