head to head · open source
chitchatter vs galene
chitchatter has 2,344 GitHub stars, 451 forks, 53 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. galene has 1,429 stars, 207 forks, 59 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. chitchatter leads on adoption by 64% (2,344 vs 1,429 stars). chitchatter is written in TypeScript under GPL-2.0; galene is written in Go under MIT. chitchatter has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, galene 14%. chitchatter was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (video-conferencing), 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
| chitchatter | galene | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.3K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 451 | ⑂ 207 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick chitchatter if
- You weight community size — 2.3K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick galene if
- You want the galene feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and galene fits your workflow better
About chitchatter
Chitchatter Logo provided by @ramyashreeshetty Chitchatter is a free (as in both price and freedom) communication tool. Designed to be the simplest way to connect with others privately and securely, it is: Fully open source (licensed under GPL v2) Peer to peer Whenever possible, otherwise a TURN server is used to ensure reliable peer connection End to end encrypted (via WebRTC) Ephemeral Message content is never persisted to disk on either the client or server Decentralized No API server required . Chitchatter works completely without an API server all that's required for basic functionality is availability of…
read the full chitchatter overview →
About galene
The Galene videoconferencing system Galene is a fully featured videoconferencing system that is easy to deploy and requires very moderate server resources. It is described at . Quick start Point your browser at , ignore the unknown certificate warning, and log in with username vimes and password sybil . For full installation instructions, please see the file [galene install.md][1] in this directory. Documentation [galene install.md][1]: full installation instructions [galene.md][2]: usage and administration; [galene client.md][3]: writing clients; [galene protocol.md][4]: the client protocol; [galene api.md][5]…
read the full galene overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is chitchatter or galene more popular?
chitchatter has 2,344 GitHub stars and galene has 1,429. chitchatter has the larger community by that measure.
Are chitchatter and galene free?
Both are open source. chitchatter is licensed under GPL-2.0 and galene under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between chitchatter and galene?
chitchatter is written in TypeScript and galene 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, chitchatter or galene?
Choose chitchatter if you want the larger community (2,344 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose galene if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.