Anope vs Glowing Bear
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted chat & communication options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Anope | Glowing Bear |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 77 · Good | 62 · Good |
| Category | Chat & Communication | Chat & Communication |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C++ | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 365 | ★ 978 |
| First released | 2003 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Slack | IRCCloud, Slack |
What are Anope and Glowing Bear?
Anope
Anope is a set of IRC services that provides NickServ, ChanServ, and related registration features for IRC networks. It works with most major IRCd implementations and supports SQL and LDAP backends.
- NickServ and ChanServ
- Works with many IRCds
- SQL and LDAP integration
- Web panel available
Glowing Bear
Glowing Bear is a web front end that connects to a WeeChat relay, giving the powerful WeeChat IRC client a modern browser interface. It supports notifications, themes, and mobile use.
- WeeChat relay front end
- Browser-based IRC
- Push notifications
- Theme support
Anope vs Glowing Bear: key differences
Anope is written in C++, while Glowing Bear is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Anope versus GPL-3.0 for Glowing Bear. Anope is the more established project (first released 2003), while Glowing Bear arrived in 2014. Glowing Bear has the considerably larger community, at 978 GitHub stars versus 365. Glowing Bear lists first-class Docker deployment; Anope does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Anope if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Written in C++
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Choose Glowing Bear if…
- Leverages WeeChat power
- Works on mobile browsers
Watch out for
- Requires WeeChat relay
- IRC focused
Frequently asked questions
Is Anope or Glowing Bear better?
Neither is universally better. Glowing Bear has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Anope and Glowing Bear free and open-source?
Yes. Anope is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Glowing Bear under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Anope and Glowing Bear with Docker?
Anope: check the project docs for container support. Glowing Bear: yes.