If you already have a team member with web development experience, you can self-host a range of free and open-source live chat solutions. It’s a cost-effective DIY alternative.

They’ll take a little longer to incorporate and customize than their paying hosted equivalent. However, with most site teams or consultants, this shouldn’t be a significant undertaking.

1. ActiveHelper

For WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla websites, ActiveHelper is accessible as a self-hosted plugin.

It’s one of the few self-hosted live chat options without a free-for-ever pricing tier. It can also be more cost-effective than a hosted solution because

It is self-hosted, and the price is for a lifetime license if the staff can handle the management labor.

The one-time fee includes 12 months of support, and updates are accessible for a small price to licensees as they become available.

Proactive chat initiation, personalized buttons, logo branding, canned answers, and the ability to switch conversations between agents are all included in ActiveHelper.

Its architecture isn’t as advanced as some of the more expensive hosted solutions, so it might be a decent choice for small companies who don’t want to pay a recurring membership fee.

Features

  • Branding that can be customized
  • The form that can be completed offline
  • Visitor tracking on a website
  • Canned Reactions

2. Rocket Chat

Rocket Chat is well-known for its open-source team collaboration software. SaaS and Self-Managed are the two distribution types available with this platform.

Large businesses will benefit significantly from this tool because it adds two-factor authentication, E2E encryption, SSO, and OAuth providers to message exchanges.

Real-time translation of its UI to over 50 languages is an exclusive function that gives users the feeling of becoming a native speaker.

Users will download the docker image and run the program on their servers for the self-managed version. For Self-Managed and Cloud, Rocket Chat has various pricing mechanisms.

The pricing plans for Self-Managed are Community @ Free, Pro @ $3/per user/month, and Enterprise @ Tiered pricing.

The Cloud/SaaS distribution model’s Bronze, Silver, and Gold pricing plans are $2/user/month, $4/user/month, and tiered pricing, respectively.

Features

Free audio and video conferencing, visitor access, screen sharing, file sharing, LiveChat, LDAP Group Sync, two-factor authentication (2FA).

It also features, E2E encryption, SSO, and hundreds of OAuth providers are just a few of the features available.

Pros

  • It offers an entirely free contract.
  • Integrations, Plugins, Themes, and Powerful APIs are just a few of the customization options.
  • Data importers that are simple to use.

Cons

  • Comprehensive documents are scarce.
  • Better customer service and sales systems are needed.

3. Live Helper Chat

Live Helper Chat is an open-source project that bills itself as secure enough to scale for corporate use. It is one of the most common frameworks that provide a self-hosting option.

According to GitHub, the source code for Live Helper Chat has a reasonably broad adoption and mostly favorable reviews. The documentation on the leading site is extensive.

You can also access a library of finished Live Helper Chat tasks for ideas and assistance in solving challenges that others have already solved.

This live chat solution can be designed to support single sign-on (SSO) authentication and Sign in With Google. It also supports MFA/2FA with the Google Authenticator app and mobile app integration using Flutter back-end customization using node.js.

The creators of Live Helper Chat often offer a controlled version for users who want to miss the production work.

Features

  • Before sending a post, see what users are typing.
  • There are several operators.
  • Send canned messages as if a natural person typed them.
  • Database of chats.
  • Priority in the queue.
  • Chat statistics are created, as well as the most popular chats.
  • After the user has closed the session, it will be resumed.

Pros

  • Service is provided immediately.
  • Clients expend less time.
  • A single operator can handle multiple clients at the same time.
  • Speech chats are also possible.

Cons

  • Difficulties of communicating.
  • It’s possible that it won’t sit well with the elderly.

3. Mattermost

Mattermost bills itself as a provider of “High Trust Messaging for the Enterprise,” which is accurate.

It’s an outstanding self-hosted open-source networking network that enables encrypted connectivity across a wide range of industries.

It can be installed on a private cloud inside local servers’ premises. Mattermost is a versatile partner for all internal instant messaging for organizations that place a high value on privacy.

The platform is well-liked on GitHub, and it comes with a wealth of documentation to assist with Docker download. Mattermost is available in two different distribution models: cloud and self-hosted.

Large businesses looking for self-hosting options should use a cloud download that supports both Linux and Docker installations. The free Enterprise Edition 30-day trial will be extended in the future (E20).

The other contracts, E10 and E20, are valued at $3.25 per user per month and $8.50 per user per month, respectively when paid monthly.

Features

  • Notifications through push.
  • Native applications are available for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
  • There is no limit on the number of times you will search.
  • Regulation for advanced access management.
  • Support for multi-node database deployment.

Pros

  • Create your workflows.
  • Dev Ops workflows are allowed.
  • Scalability and security at the enterprise level.
  • Encourages migration.

Cons

  • The implementation phase is arduous.
  • There isn’t a voice-video call option in the app. There is a need for integration.

4. Troop Messenger

The work you organize and structure must be adequately communicated to the teams to produce the desired results. Troop Messenger allows you to collaborate with your colleagues as never before.

Through its clear and smooth user interface, it enables a fantastic user experience. With text messages, social chats, voice-video calling, screen sharing, Fork out, Burnout, and more. You can handle all of your work conversations.

With solid end-to-end encrypted algorithms, it expands high-form authentication to users’ work/business conversations.

It was created for small groups, SMEs, multinational corporations, governments, and defense agencies.

Apart from SaaS, Chat APIs, and custom application creation, the self-hosted distribution model was created specifically for large organizations with data security in mind.

When opposed to its rivals, Troop Messenger has a very fair price system. A one-month business free trial is offered to anybody who applies with the service.

Aside from that, the premium rate package costs $1 per user/month, while Enterprise costs $5 per user/month. It has an exceptional self-hosting service that costs $5+per user/month.

Features of Troop Messenger

  • Search for a contact person.
  • Support via email or chat.
  • Keep a record of your data.
  • History of Messages
  • Groups of people.
  • Analytical thinking.

Pros

  • A one-of-a-kind partnership feature-stack
  • Cost-Efficient
  • Excellent customer service
  • Advanced Filters for a faster search result
  • Support documentation that is easy to comprehend.

Cons

  • It does not allow for migration.
  • More is needed. Optional Extras

5. Zulip

Zulip advises that you just listen to critical discussions and forget the others. Hundreds of engineers from all over the world contributed to the development of open-source applications.

The self-hosted distribution model for Large Entities includes a comprehensive production installation guide that allows customers to execute it on their networks.

Zulip now supports Hubot, Zapier, and IFTTT integrations in addition to its 90 native integrations. It has excellent user documentation, which covers everything from product setup to stream management.

Zulip offers two competing payment models: Zulip Cloud and Zulip On-Premise. According to Zulip, you can just listen in on critical discussions and forget the rest.

Hundreds of engineers from around the world contributed to Open-Source projects. The self-hosted distribution model for Large Entities comes with a comprehensive production installation guide that allows customers to execute it on their networks.

Zulip now offers Hubot, Zapier, and IFTTT integrations in addition to its 90 native integrations.

It comes with excellent user documentation, which covers everything from product setup to stream management.

There are two payment options available: Zulip cloud and Zulip on-premise.

Features of Zulip

  • Markdown Optimized For Chat

Bulleted lists, bold, italics, and other formatting options will help you communicate your thoughts. Zulip also encourages the use of LaTeX for math discussions.

  • Emoji And Emoji Reactions

Have fun using emojis to show yourself!

  • Inline Image, Video, And Tweet Previews

Send a page, and we’ll create a preview for you; press the preview to see it at full size.

  • Drag-And-Drop File Uploads

We’ll import and preview any file you drag into the compose box. It’s never been easier to share and debate work with coworkers.

  • Code And Quote Blocks

Markdown code blocks make it simple to discuss code (and syntax highlighting). And block quotes make it simple to address large chunks of text.

Pros

  • It has a developer-friendly code that is of good quality.
  • With its APIs, you can build your integrations.
  • Special threading technique.
  • Helps in relocation.

Cons

  • The learning curve is steep.
  • Features that are as simple as possible.

6. Matrix Chat

Matrix is a decentralized conversation shop as well as a networking protocol. It replicates the received message across all servers with active user involvement.

It’s an excellent self-hosted distribution model that uses the Olm and Megolm cryptographic ratchets to have solid end-to-end encryption.

With accessible RESTful HTTP/JSON APIs, you can create applications, chat rooms, direct chats, and chatbots. Matrix.org never asks for money. It’s unrestricted. Its free servers are available for public registration to all.

Features of Matrix Chat

  • Practical and straightforward by default, RESTful HTTP/JSON APIs are used.
  • The Matrix norm has a loose definition.
  • There are no single points of influence or failure in completely decentralized conversations.
  • Olm and Megolm have end-to-end encryption.
  • Matrix signaling is used in WebRTC VoIP/Video calling.

Pros

  • Each server has complete control over the data of its users.
  • The Matrix norm has a loose definition.
  • There are no single points of weakness or regulation.
  • Bridging is encouraged.

Cons

  • The cloud version isn’t available.

7. Lets Chat

You have a small team and want complete control of how the team collaborates. Then Lets Chat, a self-hosted tool explicitly designed for small groups, is the best tool for you.

It’s based on Node.js and MongoDB, and it’s simple to set up on your servers. It can be used to mount the Docker and Vagrant platforms.

Let’s Chat has several exclusive features, including private/password-protected spaces, image embedding, transcripts/chat history, and many more.

Features of Lets Chat

  • Please hold your snacks (bring your server).
  • Messages that don’t go away.
  • There are some offices.
  • Notifications/reminders about new messages.
  • (Hey @you), mentions
  • Image embeds are available.
  • Pasting the code.
  • Uploading files (local / Amazon S3)
  • Transcripts and chat history are available.
  • Multi-user chat via XMPP (MUC).

Pros

  • LDAP/Kerberos authentication is supported.
  • BYOS is encouraged (Bring your server).
  • It has several different chat rooms.
  • It’s suitable for Hubots.

Cons

  • This service is not available in the cloud.
  • There are no integrations available.

8. Nextcloud

Nextcloud Files, Nextcloud Talk, Nextcloud Groupware, Nextcloud at Home, and industry solutions are among the self-hosted communication tools. They are designed to secure user data across multiple layers of protection.

It uses the authentication mechanisms of SAML, Kerberos, and LDAP to accomplish this. It’s an open-source program, with the source code accessible for users on GitHub.

There are three pricing options for Nextcloud: Basic, Standard, and Premium. For 50 consumers, the annual pricing for Basic, Standard, and Premium is 1900 Euros, 3400 Euros, and 4900 Euros, respectively.

Features of Nextcloud

  • Free and open-source software (although hosted server space may cost money).
  • If it’s self-hosted or hosted.
  • Encryption from beginning to end (testing phase only).
  • Versioning is the process of making changes to a file.
  • Files can be easily shared.
  • Collaboration is a good thing.
  • Stream audio and video formats.
  • Calendar, addresses, documents, and assignments are also included.
  • Images from mobile devices are automatically uploaded.
  • Authentication of two factors (via backup codes, TOTP authenticator app, Yubikey, and more).

Pros

  • It comes in two flavors: Nextcloud for Home and Nextcloud for Company.
  • Comply with HIPPA and GDPR requirements.
  • Aid for businesses.
  • Exclusive link to Nextcloud’s primary engineering team.

Cons

  • On joint hosting, there are more minor problems with distribution.
  • There are no specific installation instructions in the manual.

9. Wire Chat

According to Wire Chat, you can modernize the way you collaborate. It protects users’ contact and data with uncompromised end-to-end encryption. Wire complies with ISO, CCPA, GDPR, and SOX regulations.

It enables new users or migrators to implement it using a variety of deployment options. Users can choose from three deployment options: cloud, private, and on-premises.

The Wire is fully open-source, and the source code can be found on GitHub. Wire Pro, Wire Enterprise, and Wire Enterprise Technology are the three pricing options for the highly reliable team sharing program.

When paid biennially, the three options cost 4 Euros per user/per month and 8 Euros per user/per month.

To learn more about Wire Enterprise Technology pricing, users can contact their staff.

Features of Wire Chat

  • Chatter that never stops.
  • Chat in a safe setting.
  • Calling through video.
  • Calls are made in groups.
  • Meetings are held.
  • The ability to share files.
  • This is an audio recording.
  • Encryption from beginning to finish.

Pros

  • A third party audits it.
  • It ensures both forward and backward confidentiality.
  • A straightforward privacy policy
  • There is no need to register for a phone number; just use your email address.

Cons

  • It’s a high learning curve.
  • Slow on occasion

Conclusion

Your needs and resources determine the best Live Chat solution. Although, running your own Live Chat service requires some effort, the rewards frequently outweigh the costs.

In some ways, it’s about protecting your personal information. In some ways, it’s about getting total leverage, and in others, it’s about cutting costs.