Openfire is a free, open-source XMPP chat server for self-hosted team messaging. See features, pricing, pros and cons, and top alternatives for 2026.
Openfire is a real-time collaboration (RTC) server that implements the XMPP protocol to power instant messaging, presence, and group chat for organizations that prefer to run their own infrastructure rather than rely on a hosted SaaS chat provider.
Originally built by Jive Software in the early 2000s, Openfire has been community-owned since 2008 and is now governed by the Ignite Realtime Foundation, a Dutch non-profit created in 2016 specifically to keep Openfire and related XMPP tooling independent and open source.
Openfire's core strength is its plugin ecosystem, which adds capabilities like message archiving and monitoring, a REST API for automation, LDAP or Active Directory-backed authentication, and clustering for high-availability deployments.
Because it speaks standard XMPP, Openfire works with a broad range of third-party clients on desktop and mobile, and it supports multi-user chat rooms, presence, and federation with other XMPP servers out of the box.
Openfire is entirely free under the Apache License 2.0. There are no paid tiers, per-user fees, or usage caps from the project itself; the only ongoing cost is the infrastructure and staff time needed to self-host it.
Organizations that want commercial support beyond the community forums typically contract with third-party consultancies rather than a single official vendor, since Openfire has no owning company.
Yes. Openfire is fully open source under the Apache License 2.0 with no paid tiers or usage limits; you only pay for the infrastructure you run it on.
Openfire is built on XMPP (also known as Jabber), an open, federated messaging protocol widely used for chat and presence.
Yes, Openfire supports clustering for high availability and has been used in deployments with extensive PubSub nodes and large user bases.
Any standard XMPP client works, including Spark, Conversations, Gajim, Pidgin, and Monal, since Openfire follows the open XMPP specification.
The Ignite Realtime Foundation, a Dutch non-profit established in 2016, oversees Openfire's development after Jive Software handed the project to the community.
Openfire supports TLS for transport encryption and SASL channel binding; end-to-end encryption options like OMEMO are available through compatible clients and plugins.
Support is primarily community-driven through the Ignite Realtime forums and documentation, with some third-party consultancies offering paid support.