{"slug": "campfire", "name": "Campfire", "category": "communication", "category_name": "Email and chat", "description": "", "recommenders": 6, "commenters": 8, "warners": 1, "score": 4.481, "rising": -0.64, "first": "2025-12-02", "latest": "2026-08-21", "why": "It's open source, trivial to self-host, and can support an arbitrary number of rooms and users.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 0, "compare": 1, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 2, 3, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "It's open source, trivial to self-host, and can support an arbitrary number of rooms and users.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "once.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://once.com/campfire", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Campfire"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 790171777, "item_id": 49385736, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49385736", "by": "znpy", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "https://once.com/campfire", "excerpt": "https://once.com/campfire", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Slack Code"}, {"id": 751581264, "item_id": 46973829, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46973829", "by": "chrisvalleybay", "date": "2026-02-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Campfire by 37Signals [0] might be interesting to you.", "excerpt": "Campfire by 37Signals [0] might be interesting to you. This can also serve as a foundation to add your own features on top of. [0] https://once.com/campfire", "context": "", "use_case": "Community chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Communities Are Not Fungible"}, {"id": 751422176, "item_id": 46963886, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46963886", "by": "monooso", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It used to be a paid product, now it's free.", "excerpt": "It used to be a paid product, now it's free. There's a clear link to the source code on GitHub [1], so you don't need to go through the \"checkout\". [1]: https://github.com/basecamp/once-campfire", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord Alternatives, Ranked"}, {"id": 751344096, "item_id": 46959006, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46959006", "by": "monooso", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's open source, trivial to self-host, and can support an arbitrary number of rooms and users.", "excerpt": "I'm a little surprised nobody has mentioned Campfire [1]. It's open source, trivial to self-host, and can support an arbitrary number of rooms and users. Sure, it doesn't have all of Discord's bells and whistles (for better or worse), but then neither do some of the alternatives mentioned in the article. [1]: https://once.com/campfire", "context": "", "use_case": "self-hosted team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord Alternatives, Ranked"}, {"id": 751145216, "item_id": 46946576, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46946576", "by": "SunshineTheCat", "date": "2026-02-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "pretty nice to use and easy to set up", "excerpt": "Someone bring back AOL instant messenger! >:( Jokes aside, I've played around with Campfire and it's very, very simple, but pretty nice to use and easy to set up: https://once.com/campfire", "context": "", "use_case": "Team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 751239856, "item_id": 46952491, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46952491", "by": "tabbott", "date": "2026-02-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It is not an actively maintained Discord alternative.", "excerpt": "Onboarding has a thread going here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46951401. My understanding is that Campfire hasn't been actively developed for ~10 years (https://once.com/campfire/changelog shows some minor fixes after the OSS launch; their GitHub has no 2026 commits). There are no mobile apps. It is not an actively maintained Discord alternative. Stoat is early in development. For example, https://github.co", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["self-hosted team chat", "community chat", "team chat"], "compared": [{"slug": "slack", "name": "Slack", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [{"id": 760208352, "item_id": 47513022, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47513022", "by": "baron3dl", "date": "2026-03-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "blabber on about agent coordination at internet scale without a walled garden", "excerpt": "Most of my friends and coworkers are. They get that look when they see me, like oh shit, he\u2019s going to tell us about https://getcampfire.dev again. And then I do, blabber on about agent coordination at internet scale without a walled garden, or just on your machine.", "context": "", "use_case": "agent coordination", "switched_from": "", "story": "Is anybody else bored of talking about AI?"}, {"id": 760206144, "item_id": 47512884, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47512884", "by": "baron3dl", "date": "2026-03-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I made a spec and a reference impl that does that and more.", "excerpt": "I made a spec and a reference impl that does that and more. Serverless, signed, agent coordination. https://getcampfire.dev cf is the protocol, trust web is a convention. By default, trust nothing.", "context": "", "use_case": "signed agent coordination protocol", "switched_from": "", "story": null}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46949564", "title": "Discord Alternatives, Ranked", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46671952", "title": "Show HN: Dock \u2013 Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49374965", "title": "Slack Code", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47508745", "title": "Is anybody else bored of talking about AI?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47491466", "title": "item 47491466", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46972056", "title": "Communities Are Not Fungible", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"compare": 1}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 3, "warn": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 790171777, "item_id": 49385736, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49385736", "by": "znpy", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "https://once.com/campfire", "excerpt": "https://once.com/campfire", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Slack Code"}, {"id": 751581264, "item_id": 46973829, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46973829", "by": "chrisvalleybay", "date": "2026-02-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Campfire by 37Signals [0] might be interesting to you.", "excerpt": "Campfire by 37Signals [0] might be interesting to you. This can also serve as a foundation to add your own features on top of. [0] https://once.com/campfire", "context": "", "use_case": "Community chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Communities Are Not Fungible"}, {"id": 751422176, "item_id": 46963886, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46963886", "by": "monooso", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It used to be a paid product, now it's free.", "excerpt": "It used to be a paid product, now it's free. There's a clear link to the source code on GitHub [1], so you don't need to go through the \"checkout\". [1]: https://github.com/basecamp/once-campfire", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord Alternatives, Ranked"}, {"id": 751344096, "item_id": 46959006, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46959006", "by": "monooso", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's open source, trivial to self-host, and can support an arbitrary number of rooms and users.", "excerpt": "I'm a little surprised nobody has mentioned Campfire [1]. It's open source, trivial to self-host, and can support an arbitrary number of rooms and users. Sure, it doesn't have all of Discord's bells and whistles (for better or worse), but then neither do some of the alternatives mentioned in the article. [1]: https://once.com/campfire", "context": "", "use_case": "self-hosted team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord Alternatives, Ranked"}, {"id": 751239856, "item_id": 46952491, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46952491", "by": "tabbott", "date": "2026-02-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It is not an actively maintained Discord alternative.", "excerpt": "Onboarding has a thread going here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46951401. My understanding is that Campfire hasn't been actively developed for ~10 years (https://once.com/campfire/changelog shows some minor fixes after the OSS launch; their GitHub has no 2026 commits). There are no mobile apps. It is not an actively maintained Discord alternative. Stoat is early in development. For example, https://github.co", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month"}, {"id": 751145216, "item_id": 46946576, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46946576", "by": "SunshineTheCat", "date": "2026-02-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "pretty nice to use and easy to set up", "excerpt": "Someone bring back AOL instant messenger! >:( Jokes aside, I've played around with Campfire and it's very, very simple, but pretty nice to use and easy to set up: https://once.com/campfire", "context": "", "use_case": "Team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally"}, {"id": 746792977, "item_id": 46674561, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46674561", "by": "striking", "date": "2026-01-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "I think Campfire used to have a one-time cost of $200 or something per domain, when did it switch to being free? Edit: found it, it was in August 2025 https://github.com/basecamp/once-campfire/commit/df76a227dc19cd39cad9f560d61c0f27117365cf", "context": "", "use_case": "self-hosted team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Dock \u2013 Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss"}, {"id": 746792769, "item_id": 46674548, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46674548", "by": "with", "date": "2026-01-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "which is self-hostable and completely free", "excerpt": "Slack but better UX/pricing, sure, but the real reason everyone is on Slack is network effects and integrations. External partners force you onto Slack even if you hate the pricing, and there is other lock-in (CI/CD webhooks, monitoring alerts, support ticketing). I like the concept, but there are reasons why everyone doesn't just switch to something like https://once.com/campfire which is self-hostable and completel", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Dock \u2013 Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss"}, {"id": 737989537, "item_id": 46124346, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46124346", "by": "ChrisArchitect", "date": "2025-12-02", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Unlike Campfire, where we shared a zero-history copy of the codebase", "excerpt": "On Fizzy's public codebase: dhh > Unlike Campfire, where we shared a zero-history copy of the codebase, Fizzy's public codebase has the entire life of the product development cycle out in the open. 1,792 pull requests of historical fun and insight into how we make things at 37signals! https://github.com/basecamp/fizzy/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aclosed", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fizzy"}]}