Gitter

What Gitter does

Gitter is a chat and networking platform built for developer communities, originally launched around 2013 as a chat layer on top of GitHub. Users create rooms mapped to repositories, organizations, or free-form topics (Go, Scala, Rails, and other language/framework communities are prominent), with infinite message history, Markdown and LaTeX formatting, threaded conversations, and end-to-end encryption for private rooms. Following acquisitions by GitLab in March 2017 and by Element (New Vector Ltd) in September 2020, Gitter completed a full migration to the Matrix protocol in February 2023, with the legacy web app replaced by a Gitter-branded instance of Element running on the gitter.im Matrix homeserver. All Gitter rooms are now accessible through any Matrix-compatible client, and the platform functions as part of the broader Matrix/Element ecosystem rather than as a standalone product.

Technically, Gitter is a Matrix homeserver rather than an independent stack: it stores all rooms and message history, supports federated communication, and exposes the standard Matrix Client-Server API. Native integrations with GitHub and GitLab (SSO, repo-mapped rooms, permission inheritance, issue decorations) remain the primary distribution hooks, while IRC bridging, the matrix-hookshot and go-neb bots, and the Matrix Public Archive extend the surface for community tooling and search-indexable history. The Gitter-branded Element client on web, Android, and iOS is the recommended front end.

Gitter has been free for all users since the GitLab acquisition in March 2017, when paid subscriptions and 25-person private-room limits were eliminated and the codebase was open-sourced under MIT. There is no standalone pricing model, no disclosed revenue, and no direct sales motion; the platform is operated as a maintained asset within New Vector Ltd with 1–10 employees. Distribution is product-led and community-led: GitHub/GitLab repository pages surface rooms organically, and adoption is driven by developer communities rather than enterprise procurement. Named users and communities include AirBnB, AWS, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla Science Lab, Rails, Scala, Deeplearning4j, and Minio, with 800,000+ community members reported as of March 2017.

Name

Gitter

Legal name

New Vector Ltd

Website

https://gitter.im

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Gitter is a free, Matrix-based chat and networking platform for developer and open-source communities. Acquired by GitLab in 2017 and by Element (New Vector Ltd) in 2020, it now operates as a branded Element client on the gitter.im homeserver.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Developer Team Messaging Software

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518210)

SIC

Communications Services, Nec (4899)

akta.pro primary industry

Open-Source & Developer Communities (BPAMABAM)

Keywords

• Developer chat platform
• Open source messaging
• Community team chat
• Matrix protocol chat
• Github team messaging

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Operations

Revenue model

1. Free Platform Model: After GitLab acquisition in March 2017, Gitter made all conversations free and unlimited. Previously there were paid subscriptions with 25-person limits on private rooms. All existing paid subscriptions ceased and any charges in the last three weeks were refunded.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Gitter is a chat and networking platform that helps developers manage, grow and connect communities through messaging, content and discovery. It provides public and private chat rooms linked to GitHub and GitLab repositories, with Markdown/LaTeX formatting, threaded conversations and end-to-end encryption for private rooms. The product is delivered as a Gitter-branded version of Element running on the gitter.im Matrix homeserver and is free for all users.

Product overview

Gitter is a chat and networking platform for developer communities. Originally a standalone chat product, it was acquired by GitLab in 2017 and then Element in 2020. In February 2023, Gitter fully migrated to the Matrix protocol, with the web application replaced by a Gitter-branded version of Element. The platform offers rooms for GitHub/GitLab repositories and free-form channels, supporting markdown formatting, LaTeX, threaded conversations, and end-to-end encryption. Users can access Gitter via the web app at app.gitter.im, any Matrix-compatible client like Element for desktop/mobile, or via IRC bridge. The Matrix Public Archive provides public room archiving functionality.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Gitter chat and networking platform Free chat and networking platform for managing, growing and connecting developer and open source communities. Provides public and private rooms tied to GitHub and GitLab repositories, Markdown/LaTeX formatting, threaded conversations, end-to-end encryption for private rooms and unlimited searchable message history. Delivered as a Gitter-branded Element client running on the gitter.im Matrix homeserver.
• Gitter Web app Browser-accessible entry point to Gitter, implemented as a Gitter-branded Element client. Available in all modern browsers, with sign-in via GitHub, GitLab or Twitter and access to all existing Gitter rooms and message history.

Named customers9 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration9 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• ElementcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 September 2020Gitter was acquired by Element in September 2020 and became part of the Matrix ecosystem. The long-term plan was to merge Gitter's features into Element and eventually replace the Gitter app with a Gitter-customized version of Element.
• Matrix.orgcoreTechnology or Integration · 30 September 2020Gitter is built on Matrix, an open network for secure, decentralized communication. Gitter operates as a Matrix homeserver (gitter.im) and all Gitter rooms are accessible via any Matrix client.
• GitLabcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 15 March 2017Gitter was acquired by GitLab in March 2017. Following the acquisition, all Gitter functionality became free and unlimited. Gitter continued operating as a standalone network with support for GitHub and Twitter logins alongside new GitLab integrations. The codebase was open sourced under MIT license.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Discord: Voice, video, and text chat platform widely adopted by open-source and developer communities as an alternative to Gitter. Competes directly for developer-community mindshare and OSS project chat rooms.
• Slack: Enterprise-focused team chat platform. While more workplace-oriented, it overlaps with Gitter's developer/team communication use cases and shares the same core chat-and-channel paradigm.
• Element: Flagship Matrix client and Gitter's parent product since 2020. Gitter is now operated as a Gitter-branded Element instance; functionally, Element is the closest architectural and product peer.
• Rocket.Chat: Open-source team chat platform offering self-hosting, federation, and developer-focused collaboration. Competes with Gitter for technical users who value open-source and on-premise deployment.
• Mattermost: Self-hostable, open-source team collaboration platform targeted at developer and DevOps teams. Closely comparable to Gitter's developer/technical-community positioning with enterprise security features.
• Zulip: Open-source threaded chat application used by open-source projects and technical teams. Competes with Gitter in the developer/OSS community segment with a distinctive threading model.
• IRC networks (Libera.Chat / OFTC): Long-standing IRC networks hosting open-source and technical communities. Gitter explicitly positioned itself as 'the IRC of the post-IRC era' and historically offered an IRC bridge, making legacy IRC networks a direct functional peer for OSS community chat.

Broad incumbents

• Microsoft Teams: Enterprise collaboration incumbent with broad team chat, video, and developer-tool integrations. Competes indirectly with Gitter by capturing enterprise developer teams at the broader platform level.
• Telegram: Mass-market messaging platform with significant adoption among developer communities and crypto/OSS projects (groups, channels, bots). Competes with Gitter for general developer community chat.

Emerging players

• Keybase: End-to-end encrypted chat and identity platform appealing to security-conscious developer communities. Overlaps with Gitter's E2E-encrypted private rooms and developer user base.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/gitchat

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors4 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Gitter