head to head · open source
Rocket.Chat vs drafft-ink
Rocket.Chat has 46,361 GitHub stars, 14,076 forks, 4,023 open issues and last shipped yesterday. drafft-ink has 570 stars, 74 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. Rocket.Chat leads on adoption by 8,034% (46,361 vs 570 stars). Rocket.Chat is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; drafft-ink is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. Rocket.Chat has attracted 30% as many forks as stars, drafft-ink 13%. Rocket.Chat was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (collaboration), 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
| Rocket.Chat | drafft-ink | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 570 |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-07-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 14K | ⑂ 74 |
| 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 drafft-ink if
- You want the drafft-ink feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and drafft-ink 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 drafft-ink
Drafft.ink An infinite canvas whiteboard built with Rust and WebGPU. Try it now: drafft.ink — draw first, sign up never. Cross platform (Linux, Windows, macOS, browser, mobile). Real time collaboration via CRDTs. No account required. Self hostable with a single binary. Features Shapes and Drawing Rectangles, ellipses, lines, arrows, freehand paths with pressure sensitivity Smart Guides Smart alignment snapping, equal spacing detection, angle snapping Text Multiple font families (GelPen, GelPen Serif, Vanilla Extract), per character styling, inline LaTeX math Images Drag and drop, paste from clipboard, embedded…
read the full drafft-ink overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Rocket.Chat or drafft-ink more popular?
Rocket.Chat has 46,361 GitHub stars and drafft-ink has 570. Rocket.Chat has the larger community by that measure.
Are Rocket.Chat and drafft-ink free?
Both are open source. Rocket.Chat has no licence declared in this registry, and drafft-ink is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Rocket.Chat and drafft-ink?
Rocket.Chat is written in TypeScript and drafft-ink in Rust. 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 drafft-ink?
Choose Rocket.Chat if you want the larger community (46,361 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose drafft-ink if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.