head to head · open source
univer vs chitchatter
univer has 14,417 GitHub stars, 1,303 forks, 151 open issues and last shipped today. chitchatter has 2,332 stars, 434 forks, 53 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. univer leads on adoption by 518% (14,417 vs 2,332 stars). univer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; chitchatter is written in TypeScript under GPL-2.0. univer has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, chitchatter 19%. univer 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
| univer | chitchatter | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 434 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick univer if
- You weight community size — 14K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick chitchatter if
- You want the chitchatter feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and chitchatter fits your workflow better
About univer
Univer is an open source, full stack office SDK for building spreadsheet, document and presentation interfaces inside your own product. Rather than shipping an end user office suite, it gives developers the primitives — a Canvas based renderer, a formula engine, a plugin architecture and a single Facade API — to embed spreadsheet and document editing into a web application or run the same logic headlessly on Node.js.
read the full univer overview →
About chitchatter
Chitchatter is a TypeScript web chat application released under GPL 2.0 that provides secure peer to peer communication without a required central API server. It lives in the decentralized web mesh ecosystem, using React, WebRTC, Trystero, WebTorrent, and TURN relays to connect browsers directly. The project is a free, open source collaboration tool for private conversations, video and audio chats, screen sharing, and file transfer.
read the full chitchatter overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is univer or chitchatter more popular?
univer has 14,417 GitHub stars and chitchatter has 2,332. univer has the larger community by that measure.
Are univer and chitchatter free?
Both are open source. univer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and chitchatter under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between univer and chitchatter?
univer is written in TypeScript and chitchatter 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, univer or chitchatter?
Choose univer if you want the larger community (14,417 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose chitchatter if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.