head to head · open source
Rocket.Chat vs univer
Rocket.Chat has 46,361 GitHub stars, 14,076 forks, 4,023 open issues and last shipped yesterday. univer has 22,854 stars, 1,920 forks, 151 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Rocket.Chat leads on adoption by 103% (46,361 vs 22,854 stars). Rocket.Chat is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; univer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Rocket.Chat has attracted 30% as many forks as stars, univer 8%. 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 | univer | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 23K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 14K | ⑂ 1.9K |
| 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 univer if
- You want the univer feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and univer 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 univer
A full stack, isomorphic office SDK for building spreadsheets, documents, and presentations. Build embeddable productivity experiences with a plugin architecture, Canvas based rendering, a formula engine, and one Facade API that works in the browser and on Node.js. English 简体中文 繁體中文 日本語 한국어 Español 📖 Documentation ✨ Showcase 📘 API Reference 📝 Blog ✨ What is Univer? Univer is an open source SDK for creating office applications inside your own product. It gives you the building blocks for spreadsheet, document, and presentation experiences without forcing you into a hosted app or a fixed UI. Use Univer when you…
read the full univer overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Rocket.Chat or univer more popular?
Rocket.Chat has 46,361 GitHub stars and univer has 22,854. Rocket.Chat has the larger community by that measure.
Are Rocket.Chat and univer free?
Both are open source. Rocket.Chat has no licence declared in this registry, and univer is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Rocket.Chat and univer?
Rocket.Chat is written in TypeScript and univer 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 univer?
Choose Rocket.Chat if you want the larger community (46,361 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose univer if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.