Communication
European community chat platforms
Run a community on European or self hosted chat
A community chat platform is for groups larger than a team: open servers with many rooms, roles and permissions, moderation tools, voice channels and bots. Gaming clans, open source projects, clubs and study groups all run on them. Compared with work chat, the emphasis is on scale, public joining, moderation at volume and voice quality rather than on integrations.
Communities that grow on a closed platform can lose everything if the operator changes terms or closes an account, and members' messages sit with a company nobody chose. Element, Mumble, TeamSpeak and Rocket.Chat can be self hosted or joined on European servers. A European alternative to Discord puts moderation policy and message history in your own hands, and open protocols mean members can keep talking if you move.
European options
| service | Country | Hosting | Open source | Free plan | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 mssgs |
 Netherlands |
EU hosted | — | ✓ | EU controlled |
 Element |
 Open source |
Self-hosted | ✓ | — | |
 Revolt |
Open source |
Self-hosted | ✓ | ✓ | |
 Mumble |
Open source |
Self-hosted | ✓ | ✓ | |
 Rocket.Chat |
Open source |
Self-hosted | ✓ | — |
mssgs
Group chat for teams and communities from the Netherlands
mssgs is a group chat app for friends, communities and teams, developed in the Netherlands. It is organised into servers with channels, alongside direct messages and voice calls. Built-in mini-games, custom bots, webhooks and support for MCP and AI agents extend what a server can do, and there are apps for iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux and the web.
NetherlandsEU hostedFree planEU controlledSelf-hosted and open source
Open source projects you can run yourself. Not necessarily made in Europe, but nobody else holds your data.
Element
Open source team chat built on Matrix
Open sourceOpen source
Revolt
Open source community chat you can self-host
Open sourceOpen sourceFree plan
Mumble
Open source low latency voice chat
Open sourceOpen sourceFree plan
Rocket.Chat
Open source team chat you host yourself
Open sourceOpen sourceServices without verified European control
Kept here for transparency, but excluded from the European options and totals. How we classify services →
Germany
