Open source chat server for mobile and web apps | Free, Secure, and Easy to Use
SAMA - simple but advanced open source chat server for mobile and web apps. With end-to-end encryption and clustering out of the box.
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Open source chat server for developers building secure, real-time messaging features into mobile and web apps.
🚀 Overview
SAMA (Simple but Advanced Messaging Alternative) is a next-generation open-source chat platform providing a high-performance, self-hostable server for real-time communication. Powered by uWebSockets.js, it handles users, conversations, messages, group chats, push notifications, and more with clustering and end-to-end encryption support out of the box.
This project solves the issues with outdated protocols like XMPP—which is complex and inefficient—and proprietary services like Firebase Chat that create vendor lock-in and privacy concerns. SAMA offers a modern, lightweight alternative that's blazing fast, easy to deploy via Docker, and fully customizable.
It's built for developers, indie makers, and teams integrating chat into their applications. The creators built it to provide a simple yet advanced, privacy-focused messaging backend without compromises on performance or openness.
✨ Key Features
- High-performance WebSocket server using uWebSockets.js for massive concurrency and low latency
- Real-time messaging, group chats, channels, threads, activities, address book, and multi-device sync
- End-to-end encryption (in active development via open PRs)
- Push notifications and programmable chat bots
- Extensive REST APIs and JS SDK for easy integration
- Optional: upcoming voice chats, XMPP adapter, full E2EE rollout per roadmap
🛠 Tech Stack
- Frontend: React (web client), Flutter (mobile client)
- Backend: Node.js, uWebSockets.js
- Database: MongoDB
- Auth: Custom (JWT/tokens via API)
- Hosting: Docker, self-hosted; public cloud at app.samacloud.io
👥 Who Is This For?
This project is useful for:
- Developers who want to add secure chat to web/mobile apps without proprietary dependencies
- Teams looking for a scalable, open-source chat backend with clustering
- Indie makers building messaging apps or communities
📸 Screenshots / Demo
- Live demo: https://app.samacloud.io
- GitHub: https://github.com/SAMA-Communications/sama-server
🔥 Project Status
- 🟢 Actively building
Last updated: 2026-03-24
❓ FAQ
Is this project free?
Freemium — Fully open source (self-host free), public cloud hosted instance available (flexible pricing tiers at https://samacloud.io/pricing).
Is the source code available?
Yes — https://github.com/SAMA-Communications/sama-server (GPL-3.0)
Can I contribute?
Yes — Open issues/PRs on GitHub, join Discord community for feedback/discussion, or help with roadmap items like E2EE/XMPP adapter.
📬 Contact & Links
- Website: https://samacloud.io
- GitHub: https://github.com/SAMA-Communications
- Discord: https://discord.gg/bHSm9a7DpC
- Medium: https://medium.com/sama-communications
- Email: khomenkoigor@gmail.com
Built with ❤️ and kept warm on WarmIndex.
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