Centrifugo vs irssi

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted chat & communication options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureCentrifugoirssi
CategoryChat & CommunicationChat & Communication
LicenseMITGPL-2.0
LanguageGoC
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM256 MB32 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, binarybare-metal, binary, source
GitHub stars★ 10,590★ 3,129
First released20151999
ReplacesPusher, Firebase Realtime DatabaseSlack

Why pick each one

Choose Centrifugo if…

  • Handles many connections
  • Easy to integrate
Centrifugo details

Choose irssi if…

  • Released under the GPL-2.0 license
  • Active community (3.1k GitHub stars)
  • Written in C
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 32 MB RAM
irssi details

Frequently asked questions

Is Centrifugo or irssi better?

Neither is universally better. Centrifugo has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Centrifugo and irssi free and open-source?

Yes. Centrifugo is licensed under MIT and irssi under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Centrifugo and irssi with Docker?

Centrifugo: yes. irssi: check the project docs for container support.

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