head to head · open source
Rocket.Chat vs Campfire
Rocket.Chat has 46,361 GitHub stars, 14,076 forks, 4,023 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Campfire has 4,813 stars, 824 forks, 37 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Rocket.Chat leads on adoption by 863% (46,361 vs 4,813 stars). Rocket.Chat is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Campfire is written in Ruby under MIT. Rocket.Chat has attracted 30% as many forks as stars, Campfire 17%. 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
| Rocket.Chat | Campfire | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 14K | ⑂ 824 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Rocket.Chat if
- You weight community size — 46K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Campfire if
- You want the Campfire feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and Campfire fits your workflow better
About Rocket.Chat
The ultimate secure open source solution for team communications Rocket.Chat is an open source, secure, fully customizable communications platform developed in TypeScript for organizations with high standards of data protection. We are the ultimate solution for team communications, enabling real time conversations between colleagues, with other companies, and with your customers or citizens, regardless of how they connect with you. The result is an increase in productivity and user satisfaction rates. Every day, tens of millions of users in over 150 countries and in organizations such as Deutsche Bahn, The US…
read the full Rocket.Chat overview →
About Campfire
Campfire Campfire is a web based chat application. It supports many of the features you'd expect, including: Multiple rooms, with access controls Direct messages File attachments with previews Search Notifications (via Web Push) @mentions API, with support for bot integrations Running your own Campfire instance Campfire's Docker image contains everything needed for a fully functional, single machine deployment. This includes the web app, background jobs, caching, file serving, and SSL. You can use our pre built image at ghcr.io/basecamp/once campfire:latest , or build your own from this repo. Deploying with ONCE…
read the full Campfire overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Rocket.Chat or Campfire more popular?
Rocket.Chat has 46,361 GitHub stars and Campfire has 4,813. Rocket.Chat has the larger community by that measure.
Are Rocket.Chat and Campfire free?
Both are open source. Rocket.Chat has no licence declared in this registry, and Campfire is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Rocket.Chat and Campfire?
Rocket.Chat is written in TypeScript and Campfire in Ruby. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Rocket.Chat or Campfire?
Choose Rocket.Chat if you want the larger community (46,361 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Campfire if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.