Chatto: Open-Source Self-Hosted Slack and Discord Alternative

My notes

Summary

Chatto, a self-hostable group/team chat app positioned as a Discord/Slack alternative, has gone open source at version 0.4. It runs as a single self-contained binary (serves its own frontend), supports encrypted-at-rest data with per-user keys, and includes built-in end-to-end encrypted voice/video calls with screen sharing. A managed “Chatto Cloud” hosting option (EU-based infrastructure) is entering public beta soon, with no lock-in to move data in or out of it.

Key Insight

• Install is a single Homebrew command: brew install chattocorp/tap/chatto then chatto init and chatto run, with no separate database or reverse-proxy setup implied by the pitch.
• Architecture is single-tenant per process: each Chatto server powers one community, with no federation between servers, so hosting multiple communities just means running multiple processes. That is simpler ops than federated tools (e.g. Matrix) at the cost of cross-server discovery.
• Data protection framing: full encryption at rest with per-user keys that get shredded on account deletion, which is a concrete, verifiable privacy claim rather than a vague “we care about privacy” line.
• Binaries ship for Linux (x86_64/ARM64), macOS, and Windows, so the barrier to self-hosting on a home server or small VPS is low.
• Roadmap signal: 0.5 will focus on moderation and content reporting plus multi-server client polish, with 1.0 expected 6-12 months from July 2026 and breaking changes still possible until then. That matters when evaluating it for anything beyond a hobby or community server.
• Chatto Cloud (paid hosting) is positioned as “just hosting”, with no premium tiers, ads, or feature gating, and portability guaranteed between self-hosted and cloud-hosted instances.