head to head · open source
Plane vs Rocket.Chat
Plane has 59,546 GitHub stars, 5,776 forks, 1,103 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Rocket.Chat has 46,133 stars, 13,891 forks, 4,023 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Plane leads on adoption by 29% (59,546 vs 46,133 stars). Plane is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Rocket.Chat is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. Plane has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Rocket.Chat 30%. Rocket.Chat was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Plane | Rocket.Chat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 60K | ★ 46K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 14K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Plane if
- You weight community size — 60K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Rocket.Chat if
- You want the Rocket.Chat feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Rocket.Chat fits your workflow better
About Plane
Plane is an open source project management platform for teams that need to track issues, run cycles, and manage product roadmaps without handing their data to a proprietary SaaS vendor, and it is aimed at engineering, product, and operations teams that would otherwise pay for Jira, Linear, ClickUp, or Asana.
read the full Plane overview →
About Rocket.Chat
Rocket.Chat is an open source, self hostable team communications platform written in TypeScript that gives organisations full ownership of their messaging, voice, and federation infrastructure instead of renting it from a closed SaaS vendor.
read the full Rocket.Chat overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Plane or Rocket.Chat more popular?
Plane has 59,546 GitHub stars and Rocket.Chat has 46,133. Plane has the larger community by that measure.
Are Plane and Rocket.Chat free?
Both are open source. Plane is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and Rocket.Chat has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Plane and Rocket.Chat?
Plane is written in TypeScript and Rocket.Chat in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Plane or Rocket.Chat?
Choose Plane if you want the larger community (59,546 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Rocket.Chat if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.