A curated collection of the best tools for real-time and asynchronous group messaging that organize conversations into channels or threads, offer file sharing, presence indicators, integrations and moderation, and enable teams or communities to coordinate work and discussions.
Open-source customer messaging and live chat with hosted and self-hosting options for product and support teams.
Group chat platforms
Papercups is a customer messaging platform that provides a live chat widget, shared inbox, and developer-friendly APIs for product and support teams. It is available as an open-source self-hosted solution and as a hosted cloud offering aimed at startups and engineering teams who want embedded chat, message routing, and integrations without heavyweight vendor lock-in.
In-app messaging SDK for web and mobile apps with ready-to-integrate UI and developer-first APIs
Group chat platforms
Talkjs is a developer-focused in-app chat SDK that provides a prebuilt user interface, real-time messaging infrastructure, and APIs for web and mobile applications. It's designed for product teams, marketplaces, SaaS platforms, and mobile apps that need to add private and group conversations, system messages, and moderation controls without building a chat backend from scratch.
APIs for building scalable activity feeds and in-app chat with real-time, low-latency delivery
Group chat platforms
Backend APIs and SDKs for developers to add activity feeds, chat, and notification functionality to web and mobile applications. Intended for product teams and engineers building social feeds, messaging, and real-time engagement features.
Embedded real-time chat and community messaging for websites, with moderation, customization, and developer APIs for integration.
Group chat platforms
Real-time website chat and community messaging widget for site owners, community managers, and content publishers. Chatwee provides embeddable group chat, private messaging, moderation tools, and integrations aimed at increasing on-site engagement and retaining visitors.
Real-time private and group chat platform with persistent threads, lightweight moderation, and developer-friendly APIs for apps and communities.
Group chat platforms
Chitchatter.im is a web- and API-first chat platform for teams, communities, and embedded applications. It provides real-time messaging, threaded conversations, user presence, moderation controls, and developer APIs to integrate chat into websites and products.
Embeddable real-time chat SDKs and APIs for web and mobile apps, built for product teams and customer-facing platforms.
Group chat platforms
Real-time chat SDK and API for web and mobile apps, designed for product teams, marketplaces, SaaS platforms, and community sites. AtomChat provides embeddable chat widgets, developer SDKs, moderation tools, and optional voice/video so teams can add conversation features to web and native applications without building infrastructure from scratch.
Centralized property operations and direct-booking tools for short-term rental managers
Group chat platforms
Property management and booking platform for short-term rental operators, small hotel owners, and property managers. Roomlio centralizes channel management, direct booking, calendar sync, payments, and automation to reduce double bookings and simplify guest communication.
Real-time visual workspace for distributed product, design, and engineering teams
Group chat platforms
Real-time collaborative whiteboard and meeting workspace for product, design, and engineering teams. Arena.im provides an infinite canvas, live collaboration (cursors, audio, and pointer), templates, and integrations for design handoff, workshops, and planning sessions.
Add a multi-user website chat that connects visitors with team members and external messaging apps in one embeddable widget.
Group chat platforms
Elfsight Group Chat Widget is a web-embeddable chat widget that enables real-time group conversations on websites and connects site visitors with teams and external messaging platforms. It’s aimed at website owners, support teams, marketing teams, and community managers who need a lightweight chat that supports group rooms, moderated conversations, and integrations with common messaging services.
Lightweight embeddable chat widgets with developer-friendly APIs, moderation and analytics for websites and apps.
Group chat platforms
Embedded-chat.com provides embeddable live chat and conversational widget software for websites and mobile apps. It is designed for product teams, customer support groups, and developers who need a customizable chat UI, moderation controls, message routing, and analytics without building chat from scratch.
Lightweight embeddable chatrooms for websites and live events, built for moderated communities and real-time engagement.
Group chat platforms
Embeddable web chatroom platform for website owners, streamers, and community moderators. Minnit.chat provides moderated, customizable chatrooms that embed on any web page, with features for user moderation, chat widgets, guest and registered users, and basic automation. It’s suited for small to mid-size communities, event pages, and sites that need an on-page chat experience without a full forum or third-party platform integration.
A simple embeddable website chat widget for customer support and lead capture
Group chat platforms
Lightweight live chat widget and business messaging platform for small teams and websites. deadsimplechat.com provides an embeddable chat widget, basic automation, visitor tracking, and integrations for teams that need a low-friction way to chat with site visitors, capture leads, and hand off conversations to email or other tools.