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Alternatives to Tox

Tox is a distributed, secure messenger with audio and video chat capabilities, providing peer-to-peer encrypted communication without central servers. Find open source and proprietary alternatives that serve similar purposes.

License:GPL-3.0
Stars:2,417
Difficulty:Easy
Pricing:Free
Hosting:Self-Hosted

Self-hosted alternatives to Tox

Open source projects that can replace Tox:

RetroShare logo

RetroShare

1,815
NOASSERTION

RetroShare is a fully decentralized, open-source communication platform that establishes encrypted connections between you and your friends to create a network of computers. It provides various distributed services including forums, channels, chat, and mail, all while ensuring maximum security and anonymity.

Key Features

  • True Decentralization:

    • No central servers or dependencies
    • Friend-to-friend (F2F) network topology
    • Works offline between connected friends
    • Censorship-resistant by design
    • No single point of failure
    • Complete data ownership

  • Comprehensive Communication:

    • Encrypted instant messaging
    • Decentralized forums and channels
    • Secure mail system with offline delivery
    • Voice and video calls (experimental)
    • Multi-user chat rooms
    • File sharing with BitTorrent-like swarming

  • Strong Security & Privacy:

    • PGP authentication between nodes
    • TLS encryption with Perfect Forward Secrecy
    • Optional Tor/I2P integration
    • Anonymous tunnels for friend-of-friend connections
    • IP address hidden from non-direct friends
    • No tracking or data collection

  • Cross-Platform Support:

    • Available on Windows, Linux, macOS
    • Android version available
    • Extensible through plugins
    • JSON API for developers
    • Active development since 2006
    • Completely free and open-source

More communication projects

Discover other open source projects in the communication category:

Rocket.Chat
Rocket.Chat
Rocket.Chat is an open-source, fully customizable communications platform for organizations with high standards of data protection, offering team collaboration, omnichannel customer service, and a complete messaging solution.
chatteam-collaboration
Stars
42,772
Relative Popularity
199
License
NOASSERTION
Novu
Novu
Novu is an open-source notification infrastructure that provides a unified API for sending notifications across multiple channels including Email, SMS, Push, and Chat. It offers an embeddable notification center, workflow engine, and no-code email editor.
communicationnotifications
Stars
37,058
Relative Popularity
157
License
NOASSERTION
Mattermost
Mattermost
Mattermost is an open source platform for secure collaboration across the entire software development lifecycle. It provides team messaging, file sharing, project management and integrations in a self-hosted environment.
communicationcollaboration
Stars
32,712
Relative Popularity
148
License
NOASSERTION
Zulip
Zulip
Zulip is a powerful open-source team chat application that combines the immediacy of real-time chat with the organization of email-style threading, designed for productive team collaboration.
chatteam-collaboration
Stars
22,974
Relative Popularity
112
License
Apache-2.0
Apprise
Apprise
Apprise allows you to send notifications to almost all of the most popular notification services available today such as: Telegram, Discord, Slack, Amazon SNS, Gotify, etc. through a single unified interface.
communicationnotifications
Stars
13,640
Relative Popularity
56
License
BSD-2-Clause
Element
Element
Element is a secure and decentralized communication client for the Matrix network. It provides end-to-end encrypted messaging, voice/video calls, file sharing, and collaboration features with a focus on privacy and security.
communicationchat
Stars
11,819
Relative Popularity
55
License
AGPL-3.0
Tinode
Tinode
Tinode is an instant messaging platform with a Go backend and clients for iOS, Android, web, and command line, designed for building chat applications with modern features.
messagingchat
Stars
12,540
Relative Popularity
55
License
GPL-3.0
Gotify
Gotify
Gotify is a simple server for sending and receiving messages in real-time via WebSocket. It provides a sleek web UI, REST API, and supports plugins for extending functionality. Perfect for self-hosted push notifications.
communicationnotifications
Stars
12,770
Relative Popularity
53
License
NOASSERTION
Centrifugo
Centrifugo
Centrifugo is an open-source scalable real-time messaging server that can instantly deliver messages to application users over WebSocket, HTTP-streaming, SSE, GRPC, and WebTransport. It provides a language-agnostic PUB/SUB server for building real-time applications.
communicationwebsockets
Stars
9,002
Relative Popularity
38
License
Apache-2.0

Showing 1-9 of 25 projects in communication

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