Frappe runs an incubator for people building open source apps on the Frappe Framework. In November 2022 it wrote to a developer who had shown some of his work at that year’s ERPNext conference and asked what he was building. The reply listed three small tools: a PDF annotator, a credit card statement analyser and a form builder for React.* Rushabh Mehta, Frappe’s founder, wrote back.
Nikhil, you should build something more ambitious - for a bigger audience. Do you have any other ideas on your plate?
I wanted to build an open-source alternative to Slack earlier this year. If you look at Slack’s pricing - it’s exorbitantly expensive ($8 per user per month). Most companies just need a chat app which works on both web and mobile and can integrate with other services. The user would just pay for one server on Frappe Cloud. Their pricing would not be tied to the number of users - but based on server cost.
Yes! An open source alternative to slack / telegram would be awesome. Matrix has bad UX - we have been trying to find alternatives at FOSS United.
Would solve subscription hell for us. Most tools that we use have pricing based on per user per month. Some users might not even use the tool a lot, yet we have to pay for the seat. Let me give this idea a little thought and I’ll apply for the program.
Yes, please do! We would use it ourselves in Frappe. Does not have to be a federated chat, just super slick UX.
Frappe funded the work and helped with design and marketing. Raven was built over the next three months.
Channels, direct messages and file sharing, on web and mobile. Anyone with a Frappe site could install it.
Frappe’s own team chat ran on Telegram. The company is run democratically and has many small groups, so it needed polls and workspaces. Raven had neither. Frappe signed up for product support, and both features went on the roadmap.
Frappe moved its team chat from Telegram to Raven, all at once.
Polls, push notifications on mobile, GIFs and bots that post on their own. Shipped five days after the move. Frappe’s first bot told everyone who was on leave each morning.
After about two weeks, a poll asked whether to go back. 43 voted yes, 8 voted no. The company moved back the same day.
“No pain no gain. Maybe we try back in a few months.” — Rushabh
Replies to a message stay together instead of filling the channel.
Workspaces let one Raven site hold many groups, each with its own channels. The same release brought AI bots and the ERPNext integrations: document previews, alerts and actions inside the chat. Frappe moved its chat back to Raven in January 2025. This time it stayed.
The team that built Raven joined Frappe. Raven is now built and maintained by Frappe.
A faster app, a proper PWA on mobile and a redesign, fixing a long list of performance issues. Frappe’s team ran the beta before anyone else.
The same question, asked on Raven this time to see whether people had warmed to it. 59 voted to stay, 3 voted to go back.
Messages sent on Frappe’s Raven, per month, March 2024 to September 2026.
