This! Open source helps protect users' freedoms. However, I am sympathetic when you're talking about software that needs to be run server side. Because in that

This! Open source helps protect users' freedoms. However, I am sympathetic when you're talking about software that needs to be run server side. Because in that case, you almost always have to deploy and manage the infrastructure yourself (or know somebody to do it that you trust), which is just too much for most people. With chat specifically, you might be able to avoid self-hosting by using something that supports federation. Personally I'm rooting for Matrix to establish itself here.