Campfire (ONCE) basecamp/once-campfire

Basecamp's simple MIT-licensed group chat with rooms, DMs, file attachments, search and bot API, shipped as one Docker image.

Creator kit + Compare GitHub ↗ Install guide (official) ↗

Campfire (ONCE) at a glance

Checked 15 Oct 2026

Campfire is 37signals' web group chat, now free and MIT-licensed. One Docker image holds the Rails app, background jobs, caching, file serving, SSL and a SQLite database. It covers rooms with access controls, DMs, attachments, search, web push notifications, @mentions and a bot API. There are no threads, voice or video calls, or native desktop apps documented. Install with the ONCE tool (Linux or macOS) or plain Docker; no hardware sizing is published.

Cite this pageRepoQuarry. “Campfire (ONCE).” Checked 15 Oct 2026. https://repoquarry.dev/projects/campfire

How much of Slack does it replace?

3 of 5 jobs. Rooms, DMs, search and bots only; no threads or calls.

Channels and direct messages Partial replacement

Threaded conversations Not covered

Voice and video huddles Not covered

Integrations Partial replacement

Search and message history Partial replacement

For threaded conversations, voice and video huddles, see other Slack alternatives. You may also need to build an interface, an API server and hosting yourself.

Facts, with sources

Every answer links to where we found it. We read the documentation; we did not install it.

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QuestionAnswerSourceChecked

Runs on my machine? Self-hosted single Docker container Campfire's Docker image contains everything needed for a fully-functional, single-machine deployment. github.com · once-campfire#running-your-own-campfire-instance ↗ 1d ago

Code licence MIT Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy github.com · MIT-LICENSE ↗ 1d ago

Model weights licence No separate model weights github.com · once-campfire#readme ↗ 1d ago

Commercial use Yes, MIT Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy github.com · MIT-LICENSE ↗ 1d ago

Paid services needed? None required You are welcome - and encouraged - to modify Campfire to your liking. github.com · once-campfire#readme ↗ 1d ago

Hardware Not documented Know the answer? —

Operating systems Any machine that runs Docker; the ONCE installer runs on Linux and macOS ONCE runs on Linux and macOS github.com · once#readme ↗ 1d ago

Setup effort Easy; one ONCE command or a single docker run with a volume once deploy ghcr.io/basecamp/once-campfire --host chat.example.com github.com · once-campfire#deploying-with-once ↗ 1d ago