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Rocket.Chat Review

Depends

Should I use Rocket.Chat?

Centralize real-time messaging, voice, video, AI, and apps for secure, reliable and unified communication among internal and external stakeholders. - rocket.chat

· 1 month ago

Buy if you're a government, defense, or regulated organization needing air-gapped, sovereign messaging with RBAC and E2EE. Skip it if you're a commercial team that just needs good chat — Slack or Teams is smoother and cheaper to run.

Confidence

Medium. Based on 14 public sources across official pages, reviews, and a security advisory. No named enterprise customers found in sources.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo evidence in sources reviewed
  • Security posture

Pricing

Free

Free self-managed workspace

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes
Team CollaborationNot published in sources
Citizen EngagementNot published in sources

Best for

  • Government and defense agencies
  • Critical infrastructure and healthcare
  • Teams replacing Skype for Business Server
  • Orgs needing on-prem or air-gapped deployment

Not for

  • Small teams wanting a simple Slack replacement
  • Non-technical teams with no admin or ops capacity
  • Anyone who needs polished search or huddles
  • Companies without compliance or data-sovereignty requirements

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

Most tier pricing is hidden behind 'contact sales' — no public numbers in sources

medium

Free workspace is self-managed: you own ops, upgrades, and patching

medium

CVE-2026-28514: password-validation flaw — patch quickly if self-hosting

medium

Users report weaker search and fewer features than Slack

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Open-source and fully customizable, developed in TypeScript
  • Deploys in cloud, on-premises, or air-gapped for data sovereignty
  • Built-in end-to-end encryption, identity management, role-based access control
  • Unifies messaging, voice, video, AI, and apps in one platform
  • 90% of top Capterra reviewers recommend it

Cons

  • App Store reviewer: 'Search is really bad' versus Slack
  • Reviewer cites missing audio huddles and video calls
  • Published CVE in password validation flow
  • Positioning now aimed at government buyers, not general teams

Sources & method

- 10 sources - Strong posture: end-to-end encryption, RBAC, air-gapped deployment, WCAG 2.1 AA conformance; one published CVE.

official x4review x4security x1news x1
  • CVE-2026-28514, Missing await on an asynchronous password-validation call returns a Promise object, breaking password validation logic.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 4/5

    Rating

  • Free

    Starting price

  • 10

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 4/5. Free open-source core; enterprise pricing opaque
  • Ease of use: 3/5. Chat basics praised; search and polish criticized
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Messaging, voice, video, AI unified; gaps reported
  • Support quality. No evidence in sources reviewed
  • Security posture: 4/5. E2EE, RBAC, air-gapped, WCAG 2.1 AA; one CVE
  • 4.3/5 Average rating 648 verified reviews across G2, Capterra, Software Advice
  • 4.2/5 G2 rating 338 reviews
  • Yes Free tier Free self-managed workspace
  • 4.2/5 App Store rating Apple App Store

Pricing

Free self-managed workspace

Free

  • Core collaboration and security features included

Team Collaboration

Not published in sources

  • Requires contacting sales

Citizen Engagement

Not published in sources

  • Government/citizen-facing use cases

Security

Strong posture: end-to-end encryption, RBAC, air-gapped deployment, WCAG 2.1 AA conformance; one published CVE.

  • CVE-2026-28514Missing await on an asynchronous password-validation call returns a Promise object, breaking password validation logic.⁹

What users say

Users average ~4.3/5, praising solid chat, channels, and document sharing while criticizing search and Slack-parity gaps.

“Yes, it's open source, but it's not as good as Slack. Search is really bad. Does not include audio huddles or video calls.”
Apple App Store review
“My journey so far with Rocket.Chat has been a satisfying one, it's been a great tool for instant chat, channels and document sharing.”
Capterra review
“Works like a charm.”
GetApp review
Full analysis

Based on 14 public sources across official pages, reviews, and a security advisory. No named enterprise customers found in sources.

Built for DoD-grade secure comms. Great if you're regulated; overkill and clunkier than Slack for everyone else.

Methodology

Based on 14 public sources across official pages, reviews, and a security advisory. No named enterprise customers found in sources.

Read how a report is made.

Sources

  1. Rocket.Chat homepagerocket.chat
    official
  2. Rocket.Chat product security pagerocket.chat
    official
  3. RocketChat/Rocket.Chat on GitHubgithub.com
    official
  4. Introducing Secure CommsOS (blog)rocket.chat
    official
  5. Apple App Store reviewsapps.apple.com
    review
  6. Capterra reviewscapterra.ca
    review
  7. GetApp reviewsgetapp.com.au
    review
  8. checkthat.ai review aggregatecheckthat.ai
    review
  9. NVD CVE-2026-28514nvd.nist.gov
    security
  10. DLT white paper: Rocket.Chat for U.S. mission-criticaldlt.com
    news

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