Categories
💬 Free Encrypted Messaging and Video Meeting Apps
Mainstream chat apps turn your contacts, location and message metadata into a product. This category collects free messengers with end-to-end encryption, open protocols and self-hostable servers, plus video meetings you can start without an account. The things that matter: is encryption on by default, can you run your own server, and how much metadata is left behind.
13 tools
耳语同传 Hushpiece
On-device meeting interpreter for Mac — live bilingual subtitles for any meeting app
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Offline
Briar
Keeps talking when the internet is down — Bluetooth and Wi-Fi direct, Tor when online
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Offline
FluffyChat
A Matrix client that looks like an ordinary messenger, for people who do not want to tinker
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Cross-platform
Jami
Chat and video calls with no central server — your account is a key pair on your device
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- No Sign-up
Mattermost
Slack on your own server, with a free edition that keeps your full history
- Open Source
- No Ads
- Cross-platform
- Self-hostable
Delta Chat
Chat over email — the other person does not even need the app
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Cross-platform
Element
Email, but for chat — an open protocol with a server you can own
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Cross-platform
Jitsi Meet
Share a link and start a meeting — no seat caps, no 40-minute timer
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Cross-platform
Mumble
The lowest-latency voice chat, running on your own server
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- No Sign-up
Session
No phone number, no email — just a random ID
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- No Sign-up
SimpleX Chat
A messenger with no user identifiers at all
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- No Sign-up
Zulip
Group chat organized by topic — hundreds of people without the flood
- Open Source
- No Ads
- Cross-platform
- Self-hostable
Signal
End-to-end encrypted messaging where privacy is the default, not an option
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Cross-platform