KouChat

KouChat

KouChat is an open-source, self-hosted web chat application. It allows users to set up chat rooms and direct messaging between users on a server or website.
KouChat image
opensource selfhosted web-chat chat-rooms direct-messaging

KouChat: Self-Hosted Web Chat Application for Chat Rooms & Direct Messaging

Open-source, self-hosted web chat application allowing users to set up chat rooms and direct messaging on a server or website

What is KouChat?

KouChat is an open-source, self-hosted web chat software designed to provide real-time communication capabilities for websites, online communities, and teams. It allows site owners to set up customized chat rooms, private messaging, and other collaboration features integrated directly into an existing site.

As an open-source Node.js application, KouChat gives full control over user data, security protocols, interface design, and chat features. It can be downloaded, installed on a private server infrastructure, and modified as needed. This makes KouChat popular for enhancing communication on intranets, membership sites, online courses, gaming portals, and other internal/external communities.

Key features include public and private chat rooms, direct messaging between users, notifications, message history, typing indicators, user blocking, attachments, emojis, markdown formatting, URL previews, internationalization, theming/white-labeling, and bot integration capabilities.

Overall, KouChat aims to provide a feature-rich yet lightweight chat solution for websites and apps that want to build in real-time user discussions without relying on third-party services. Its open-source nature provides transparency and control for those with the technical expertise to manage their own servers and infrastructure.

KouChat Features

Features

  1. Open source code
  2. Self-hosted
  3. Web-based
  4. Chat rooms
  5. Direct messaging
  6. File sharing
  7. User management
  8. Multiple themes
  9. Bot integration
  10. Mobile support

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Free and open source

Self-hosted - full control over data

Web-based - accessible from anywhere

Feature-rich

Customizable

Active development community

Cons

Requires technical expertise to set up and manage

Limited native mobile apps

Not as user-friendly as some commercial options


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