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Comparison · Comms
Maddy vs Rocket.Chat
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Maddy and Rocket.Chat — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:self-hosted
Maddy vs Rocket.Chat: at a glance
What is Maddy?
maddy's latest release is a security fix, five months after its last feature work.
maddy is an all-in-one Go mail server for SMTP and IMAP. Its most recent release, 0.9.6 in October, requires explicit trust for PROXY protocol headers and closes an auth misconfiguration that could skip password checks. Before that, the 0.9 line ran from March to May: no-downtime config reload in 0.9.0, an LDAP injection fix, and removal of long-deprecated commands.
What is Rocket.Chat?
Rocket.Chat 9.0 puts LDAP, SAML and Custom OAuth behind a plan and removes seven logins.
The 9.0 candidate line opened on 27 October, and its lead is a licensing change: LDAP, SAML and Custom OAuth now require a premium plan, and seven login providers are removed, including Facebook, LinkedIn and X. rc.0 also drops anonymous write, the Atlassian Crowd integration, Gravatar and the raw MongoDB query parameters, while rc.3 moves REST refusals to a single 403 shape. 8.9.0 LTS, dated 5 October, is supported until 31 October 2027.
Maddy vs Rocket.Chat: editorial side-by-side
Maddy
0.0COMMS
maddy's latest release is a security fix, five months after its last feature work.
◆ Current state
maddy is an all-in-one Go mail server for SMTP and IMAP. Its most recent release, 0.9.6 in October, requires explicit trust for PROXY protocol headers and closes an auth misconfiguration that could skip password checks. Before that, the 0.9 line ran from March to May: no-downtime config reload in 0.9.0, an LDAP injection fix, and removal of long-deprecated commands.
◆ Where it's heading
The project is moving from convenient defaults to safer ones, accepting breaking changes on the way. Older conveniences such as SASL LOGIN, STARTTLS plaintext fallback and the maddyctl symlink have been removed, and 0.9.1 flagged several DNS providers for removal in 0.10.0. Two of the last four releases were security fixes.
◆ Prediction
0.10.0 is scoped by the deprecations announced in 0.9.1: expect the flagged DNS providers to go and gandi to require Bearer tokens. The five-month gap gives no date for it.
Rocket.Chat
6.3COMMS
Rocket.Chat 9.0 puts LDAP, SAML and Custom OAuth behind a plan and removes seven logins.
◆ Current state
The 9.0 candidate line opened on 27 October, and its lead is a licensing change: LDAP, SAML and Custom OAuth now require a premium plan, and seven login providers are removed, including Facebook, LinkedIn and X. rc.0 also drops anonymous write, the Atlassian Crowd integration, Gravatar and the raw MongoDB query parameters, while rc.3 moves REST refusals to a single 403 shape. 8.9.0 LTS, dated 5 October, is supported until 31 October 2027.
◆ Where it's heading
Calling keeps maturing on its own track: rc.1 adds a noise cancellation choice to native LiveKit calls, with RNNoise served by the workspace itself. The bigger change sorts the install base. Community workspaces keep local login plus Google, GitHub, GitLab, Apple and Nextcloud, while directory sign-in moves to paid plans, with a free Starter plan for eligible organizations of up to 50 users. The rest of 9.0 reads as a clean-up, collecting deprecations announced in 8.9 and breaking REST clients that read the old error codes.
◆ Prediction
Expect more fix-and-bump candidates before 9.0.0 goes final, since rc.2 was a bare bump and rc.3 is mostly error-shape changes. How many Community workspaces hit the login change at upgrade is unclear; the notes already point admins to recovery steps.
Alternatives to Maddy and Rocket.Chat
Other Comms products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Maddy or Rocket.Chat.
Synapse
Synapse 1.164 advertises Matrix v1.16 and v1.17 amid a run of dependency security patches
Subsplash
Subsplash gives church staff notes on every person and every Workflow card.
Grain
Grain adds consent controls and rule-based privacy as its meeting data reaches more AI tools.
Converse.js
Converse.js 14.0.1 fixes OMEMO:2 group decryption broken by Chromium 153.
Element iOS
Element Classic now asks its own users to move to Element X, if their server opts in.
See all Maddy alternatives → · See all Rocket.Chat alternatives →
Recent activity from Maddy and Rocket.Chat
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 3d agoRocket.Chat9.0 rc.3: REST refusals become 403; /hooks status codes change
- 5d agoRocket.Chat9.0 rc.2: version bump only
- 6d agoRocket.Chat9.0 rc.1: noise cancellation choice for LiveKit calls
- 7d agoRocket.Chat9.0 rc.0: LDAP, SAML and Custom OAuth become premium-only ⚡
- 26d agoRocket.Chat8.9.0 LTS: 12-month support, Deno removed, hybrid AI Search
- 1mo agoMaddymaddy 0.9.6 fixes PROXY trust and auth bypass misconfig
- 1mo agoRocket.Chat8.9 rc.5: version bump only
- 5mo agoMaddymaddy 0.9.5 fixes nested pipeline logging and systemd reload reporting
- 6mo agoMaddymaddy 0.9.4 removes the maddyctl symlink and implicit run command
- 6mo agoMaddymaddy 0.9.3 patches an LDAP injection flaw in auth.ldap
- 7mo agoMaddymaddy 0.9.2 fixes an rspamd panic on unspecified tls_client
- 7mo agoMaddymaddy 0.9.1 flags libdns providers for removal in 0.10.0
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Maddy and Rocket.Chat?
Both compete on the same themes — self-hosted — within Comms. Rocket.Chat is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Maddy better than Rocket.Chat?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Rocket.Chat is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Comms products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Maddy?
Top Maddy alternatives in Comms are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Maddy alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/maddy for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Rocket.Chat?
Top Rocket.Chat alternatives in Comms are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Rocket.Chat alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rocketchat for the full list with editorial commentary on each.