Rocket.Chat

Rocket.Chat is an open-source team communication platform founded in 2015 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, that has established itself as one of the most feature-rich and customizable alternatives to Slack and Microsoft Teams. With EU hosting options and the ability to self-host on European infrastructure, Rocket.Chat enables organizations to maintain complete data sovereignty while benefiting from a mature, enterprise-grade communication system. The platform is used by major organizations worldwide including government agencies, financial institutions, healthcare providers, and defense organizations that require on-premises deployment for security and compliance reasons.

What distinguishes Rocket.Chat from other team messaging platforms is its remarkable breadth of functionality combined with full self-hosting capability. The platform offers team messaging, direct messaging, video conferencing, screen sharing, file sharing, omnichannel customer engagement, federation between instances, and a comprehensive bot and integration ecosystem -- all within a single, open-source application. For organizations that need a unified communications platform they can deploy on their own servers, Rocket.Chat represents the most complete open-source option available, with an active development community and commercial support options that make it viable for enterprise deployment.

Team Messaging and Channels

Rocket.Chat's messaging system is built around channels (public and private), direct messages, and discussion threads. Channels can be organized by team, project, or topic, with granular permission settings controlling who can join, post, and manage channel settings. The messaging interface supports rich text formatting with Markdown, file attachments up to configurable size limits, code snippets with syntax highlighting, emoji reactions, and message pinning. Threaded conversations allow team members to have focused discussions without cluttering the main channel timeline.

The search functionality is powerful and covers messages, files, and users across the entire workspace. Users can search with filters for specific channels, date ranges, and message types. Star and bookmark features allow users to save important messages for quick reference. Message editing and deletion with audit trails ensure accountability while allowing correction of errors. For large organizations, Rocket.Chat supports unlimited channels and message history, with the only constraints being server storage capacity.

Video Conferencing and Voice Calls

Rocket.Chat includes built-in video conferencing capabilities that allow teams to start video calls directly from any channel or direct message. The platform supports group video calls with screen sharing, making it suitable for team meetings, presentations, and collaborative work sessions. Video quality adapts automatically to network conditions, and calls can be recorded for later reference when configured by administrators. The integration with Jitsi Meet provides an additional option for organizations that prefer a dedicated, open-source video conferencing backend.

For organizations with specific video conferencing requirements, Rocket.Chat also integrates with external providers including BigBlueButton, Google Meet, and Zoom. This flexibility allows teams to use their preferred video platform while maintaining Rocket.Chat as their central communication hub. The native video conferencing eliminates the need for a separate video calling service for many teams, simplifying the technology stack and reducing the number of tools employees need to learn and manage.

Omnichannel Customer Engagement

One of Rocket.Chat's most powerful differentiators is its omnichannel capability, which transforms the platform from a simple team chat into a complete customer engagement center. The Livechat feature embeds a chat widget on your website, allowing visitors to communicate with support agents directly through Rocket.Chat. Agents can handle multiple conversations simultaneously, transfer chats between departments, and access customer history across sessions. The omnichannel system also integrates with WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, SMS, and email, consolidating all customer communication into a single interface.

The omnichannel system includes features like automatic routing, queue management, canned responses, and customer satisfaction surveys. Departments can be configured to handle specific types of inquiries, and supervisors can monitor agent performance through real-time dashboards and historical analytics. For businesses that need both internal team communication and external customer support in a single platform, Rocket.Chat's omnichannel capability eliminates the need for separate tools like Zendesk or Intercom, potentially saving significant licensing costs while maintaining data sovereignty.

End-to-End Encryption

Rocket.Chat supports end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for sensitive communications, ensuring that messages can only be read by the intended recipients and not by server administrators or anyone with access to the database. When E2EE is enabled for a channel or direct message, encryption keys are generated and stored locally on each user's device, and messages are encrypted before leaving the client. This means that even if the server is compromised, encrypted message content remains protected.

The E2EE implementation uses industry-standard cryptographic protocols and supports key verification between users to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks. While E2EE adds a layer of complexity including limitations on server-side search and some features that require access to message content, it provides essential protection for organizations handling sensitive information. Government agencies, healthcare providers, legal firms, and financial institutions particularly benefit from this capability, as it ensures that confidential communications remain private regardless of where the server is hosted.

Self-Hosting and Deployment Options

Rocket.Chat can be self-hosted on virtually any infrastructure, from a single server to complex Kubernetes clusters. The platform provides official Docker images, Snap packages, and installation guides for major Linux distributions, cloud providers, and container orchestration platforms. For European organizations, self-hosting on European infrastructure ensures complete data sovereignty, with all messages, files, and user data remaining within your control and jurisdiction. Popular European hosting providers like Hetzner, OVHcloud, and Scaleway are excellent choices for running Rocket.Chat instances.

The self-hosted deployment gives administrators complete control over configuration, security policies, backup schedules, and update timing. Organizations can integrate Rocket.Chat with existing infrastructure including LDAP and Active Directory for user authentication, SAML and OAuth for single sign-on, and custom SMTP servers for email notifications. The platform's extensive administration panel provides fine-grained control over virtually every aspect of the system, from message retention policies to file upload restrictions and notification settings.

Federation and Interoperability

Rocket.Chat supports federation through the Matrix protocol, allowing different Rocket.Chat instances and Matrix-compatible platforms to communicate with each other. This means that organizations can maintain their own independent Rocket.Chat servers while still communicating with partners, clients, or other organizations that run separate instances. Federation is particularly valuable for inter-organizational collaboration where each party needs to maintain control over their own data while enabling seamless cross-organizational communication.

Beyond federation, Rocket.Chat offers extensive integration capabilities through its marketplace of apps and integrations. The platform connects with over 100 services including GitHub, GitLab, Jira, Trello, Jenkins, Grafana, and many more through webhooks, incoming and outgoing integrations, and the Rocket.Chat Apps framework. For custom integrations, a comprehensive REST API and real-time API provide programmatic access to virtually all platform functionality.

Bot Framework and Automation

Rocket.Chat includes a powerful bot framework that supports multiple bot development approaches. The platform's built-in Hubot adapter, support for custom bot users, and the Apps framework enable teams to build automation for common tasks like ticket creation, status updates, notifications, and workflow approvals. Chatbots can be built using popular AI frameworks and connected to Rocket.Chat to provide automated customer support, internal helpdesk assistance, or information retrieval.

The marketplace includes pre-built bots and apps for common use cases, and the Rocket.Chat Apps Engine allows developers to create custom apps that extend the platform's functionality. Apps can add custom slash commands, message actions, scheduled tasks, and UI elements. For organizations with complex workflow requirements, the combination of bots, webhooks, and custom apps makes Rocket.Chat a flexible platform that can adapt to specific business processes.

Pricing and Licensing

Rocket.Chat's open-source community edition is completely free with unlimited users, channels, and messages. This edition includes core messaging features, basic video conferencing, and self-hosting capability. The commercial Enterprise edition, starting from approximately $4 per user per month on the cloud-hosted plan, adds advanced features including read receipts, message auditing, advanced permissions, data loss prevention, compliance reporting, and priority support. Rocket.Chat also offers a fully managed cloud hosting option for organizations that prefer not to manage their own infrastructure.

The pricing structure is competitive compared to Slack and Microsoft Teams, especially for organizations with many users, since the self-hosted community edition has no per-user costs beyond infrastructure. For organizations that need enterprise features and commercial support, the per-user pricing scales linearly and includes SLA-backed support. The combination of a capable free tier and reasonable commercial pricing makes Rocket.Chat accessible to organizations of all sizes, from small teams to large enterprises.

Security and Compliance

Rocket.Chat takes security seriously, with regular security audits, a responsible disclosure program, and timely patching of vulnerabilities. The platform supports two-factor authentication, SSO through SAML and OAuth providers, LDAP integration, and role-based access control. Compliance features include message retention policies, audit logs, data export capabilities, and the option for end-to-end encryption. For organizations in regulated industries, the self-hosted deployment model combined with these security features enables compliance with frameworks including GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2, and government security standards.

The platform's use by government and defense organizations speaks to its security credentials. Several national governments and military organizations have deployed Rocket.Chat for internal communications, choosing it specifically because the self-hosted, open-source model allows complete security auditing and eliminates dependence on external service providers. For European organizations, deploying Rocket.Chat on European infrastructure provides strong protection against extraterritorial data access requests under laws like the US CLOUD Act.

Limitations and Considerations

While Rocket.Chat is feature-rich, users have noted some areas for improvement. The notification system can be inconsistent, particularly across mobile platforms, and the desktop application has occasional stability issues. The user interface, while functional, is less polished than Slack's refined experience, and some features like threaded conversations feel less intuitive. Self-hosting requires technical expertise for initial setup and ongoing maintenance, including database management, backups, and updates.

Despite these considerations, Rocket.Chat remains the most complete open-source team communication platform available. Its combination of messaging, video, omnichannel support, federation, and self-hosting capability is unmatched by any single competitor. For organizations that prioritize data sovereignty, customization, and avoiding vendor lock-in, Rocket.Chat provides a compelling and mature solution that continues to improve with each release.