head to head · open source
chitchatter vs galene
chitchatter has 2,332 GitHub stars, 434 forks, 53 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. galene has 1,406 stars, 195 forks, 59 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. chitchatter leads on adoption by 66% (2,332 vs 1,406 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 | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 434 | ⑂ 195 |
| 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 is a TypeScript web chat application released under GPL 2.0 that provides secure peer to peer communication without a required central API server. It lives in the decentralized web mesh ecosystem, using React, WebRTC, Trystero, WebTorrent, and TURN relays to connect browsers directly. The project is a free, open source collaboration tool for private conversations, video and audio chats, screen sharing, and file transfer.
read the full chitchatter overview →
About galene
Galene is a videoconference server. It lives in the Go, WebRTC, SFU, video conferencing, file sharing, and webapp ecosystem. It is listed as Business Software / Collaboration & Communication. It is described as a fully featured, easy to deploy videoconferencing system requiring very moderate server resources. It gives browser users named groups, operator permissions, and file sharing. It solves the problem of running video meetings without a heavy hosted stack. It also supports extension, because the README points to client, protocol, and administrative API documents.
read the full galene overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is chitchatter or galene more popular?
chitchatter has 2,332 GitHub stars and galene has 1,406. 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 (2,332 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose galene if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.