head to head · open source
Rocket.Chat vs Campfire
Rocket.Chat has 46,133 GitHub stars, 13,891 forks, 4,023 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Campfire has 4,629 stars, 792 forks, 37 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Rocket.Chat leads on adoption by 897% (46,133 vs 4,629 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 | ★ 4.6K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 14K | ⑂ 792 |
| 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
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 →
About Campfire
Campfire is a web based group chat application in the Business Software / Collaboration & Communication category. It is written in Ruby, released under the MIT license, and presented as a self hosted service that avoids recurring subscription fees. The project lives in the Ruby and Docker self hosting ecosystem, with its homepage at https://once.com/campfire and its published Docker image at ghcr.io/basecamp/once campfire:latest.
read the full Campfire overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Rocket.Chat or Campfire more popular?
Rocket.Chat has 46,133 GitHub stars and Campfire has 4,629. 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 (46,133 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Campfire if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.