Slack vs Rocket.Chat
Rocket.Chat is the one you can host yourself and run for free; Slack is a hosted service with a published per-user price.
Pick Slack if…
Pick Slack if you want a hosted chat tool with a large app marketplace (2,600+ apps) and are fine paying per user after the free plan's 90-day history.
Pick Rocket.Chat if…
Pick Rocket.Chat if you need to run chat on your own servers, want free self-hosting (MIT Community edition or the free Starter plan for up to 50 users), or need air-gapped deployment.
Price
- Freemium
- Freemium
- Open source
Starting price
Free plan
Open source
Works on
| Feature | Workplace messaging with channels, huddles, workflows, search and AI features for teams. | Self-hostable team chat with a free Community edition, a free Starter plan for up to 50 users, and paid plans. |
|---|---|---|
| Price |
|
|
| Starting price | $7.25 USD per user / month, when paying annually (Pro); $8.75 per user / month when paying monthly | — |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Works on | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android | Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, API |
| Try Slack (opens the Slack website in a new tab) | Try Rocket.Chat (opens the Rocket.Chat website in a new tab) |
Slack is a hosted workplace platform. Its Free plan keeps and searches only the last 90 days of messages and limits you to 10 apps. Pro is US$7.25 per user per month billed annually (US$8.75 monthly). Rocket.Chat's pricing page shows no dollar prices for its paid plans, so you would need to ask sales.
Rocket.Chat is open core. The code outside its ee directories is MIT-licensed, and the Community edition is free to self-host (docs: up to 100 concurrent users and 10,000 push notifications a month). The Starter plan is free for up to 50 users, with no paid support. The ee code needs a Rocket.Chat subscription for production use. Slack is not open source and cannot be self-hosted.
Deployment is the biggest difference. Rocket.Chat lists on-premises, secure cloud and air-gapped options, plus Matrix and XMPP federation. Slack lists huddles, Canvas, Lists, workflows and Slack Connect with outside companies.
Both have apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android. Rocket.Chat also has a web app; Slack's web version was not confirmed on its pages.
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Last updated 16 October 2026. How we make money