Live chat is something worse than a commodity. There’s no way to innovate or do anything interesting at all. AIM solved the chat channel perfectly and Skype completed voice chat.

Since then the game has been: use investor money to pay for servers and collect users, then sell them to some big company.

An actual profitable chat service, like, as a business, can’t exist I think. It is impossible to compete with free service provided for “free” (free as in barnyard animals don’t have to pay for their dinner).

Lest this come across as smug or whatever, I’m personally eating from the Discord trough. It is what it is.

https://zulip.com is one of the better alternatives with an option for self-hosting.

> Surely in 2024 live chat is really a commodity

IMO, it is, as long as you don't need video sharing or mobile. As soon as these are involved, the field of competitors narrows considerably.

A chat server may be a commodity, but good user experiences, mobile apps, video calls, file storage, third-party integrations, support etc. definitely aren't.

Maybe Campfire

https://once.com/campfire

matrix.org is a neat open protocol/platform but clients have some room to improve.

Rocket Chat is a possible alternative. Also Teams and Discord.

Mattermost

Zulip?