head to head · open source
Rocket.Chat vs sharkord
Rocket.Chat has 46,361 GitHub stars, 14,076 forks, 4,023 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sharkord has 1,559 stars, 152 forks, 52 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Rocket.Chat leads on adoption by 2,874% (46,361 vs 1,559 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 10%. 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 | ★ 1.6K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 14K | ⑂ 152 |
| 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
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 sharkord
Sharkord A lightweight, self hosted real time communication platform What is Sharkord? [!NOTE] Sharkord is in alpha stage. Bugs, incomplete features and breaking changes are to be expected. Sharkord is a self hosted communication platform that brings the most important Discord like features to your own infrastructure. Voice, video, and screen sharing without the bloat or surveillance. Screenshots Features Voice channels with video and screen sharing, over a built in mediasoup SFU Text channels grouped into categories, with threads, replies, reactions, pins and search Direct messages between members Roles and…
read the full sharkord overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Rocket.Chat or sharkord more popular?
Rocket.Chat has 46,361 GitHub stars and sharkord has 1,559. 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 (46,361 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose sharkord if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.