head to head · open source
univer vs chat
univer has 22,875 GitHub stars, 1,920 forks, 151 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. chat has 13,548 stars, 2,093 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. univer leads on adoption by 69% (22,875 vs 13,548 stars). univer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; chat is written in Go under GPL-3.0. univer has attracted 8% 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 | ★ 23K | ★ 14K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 2.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick univer if
- You weight community size — 23K 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
A full stack, isomorphic office SDK for building spreadsheets, documents, and presentations. Build embeddable productivity experiences with a plugin architecture, Canvas based rendering, a formula engine, and one Facade API that works in the browser and on Node.js. English 简体中文 繁體中文 日本語 한국어 Español 📖 Documentation ✨ Showcase 📘 API Reference 📝 Blog ✨ What is Univer? Univer is an open source SDK for creating office applications inside your own product. It gives you the building blocks for spreadsheet, document, and presentation experiences without forcing you into a hosted app or a fixed UI. Use Univer when you…
read the full univer overview →
About chat
Tinode Instant Messaging Server Instant messaging full stack. Backend in pure Go (license GPL 3.0), clients for Android (Java), iOS (Swift), and web (ReactJS), as well as gRPC client support for C++, C , Go, Java, Node, PHP, Python, Ruby, Objective C, etc (all clients licensed under Apache 2.0). Wire transport is JSON over websocket (long polling is also available) or protobuf with gRPC. This is beta quality software: feature complete and stable but probably with a few bugs or missing features. Follow instructions to install and run or use one of the cloud services below. Read API documentation. Tinode is not…
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Frequently asked questions
Is univer or chat more popular?
univer has 22,875 GitHub stars and chat has 13,548. 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 (22,875 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.