head to head · open source
Rocket.Chat vs sharkord
Rocket.Chat has 46,133 GitHub stars, 13,891 forks, 4,023 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sharkord has 1,496 stars, 134 forks, 52 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Rocket.Chat leads on adoption by 2,984% (46,133 vs 1,496 stars). Rocket.Chat is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; sharkord is written in TypeScript under MIT. Rocket.Chat has attracted 30% as many forks as stars, sharkord 9%. Rocket.Chat was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (chat, webrtc), 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 | sharkord | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 14K | ⑂ 134 |
| 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 sharkord if
- You want the sharkord feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and sharkord 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 sharkord
Sharkord is a lightweight, self hosted, open source chat server written in TypeScript under the MIT license. It provides voice, video, text, and screen sharing for small groups that want privacy, simplicity, and full control over their data. The project lives in the Discord like collaboration and communication ecosystem, and its topics emphasize realtime messaging, privacy, data ownership, and self hosting.
read the full sharkord overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Rocket.Chat or sharkord more popular?
Rocket.Chat has 46,133 GitHub stars and sharkord has 1,496. Rocket.Chat has the larger community by that measure.
Are Rocket.Chat and sharkord free?
Both are open source. Rocket.Chat has no licence declared in this registry, and sharkord is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Rocket.Chat and sharkord?
Rocket.Chat is written in TypeScript and sharkord 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, Rocket.Chat or sharkord?
Choose Rocket.Chat if you want the larger community (46,133 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose sharkord if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.