Centrifugo vs MailBag
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?
Compare Centrifugo with
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Compare MailBag with
choose an app… Chatwoot SimpleX Chat Etherpad Screego Typebot Berty Mumble The Lounge Papercups
Feature Centrifugo MailBag Category Chat & Communication Chat & Communication License MIT MIT Language Go Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 256 MB 150 MB Deployment docker, kubernetes, binary bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 10,590 — First released 2015 2026 Replaces Pusher, Firebase Realtime Database —
Why pick each one
Choose MailBag if… Released under the MIT license Tiny footprint — runs in 150 MB RAM MailBag details
Frequently asked questions Is Centrifugo or MailBag 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 MailBag free and open-source? Yes. Centrifugo is licensed under MIT and MailBag under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Centrifugo and MailBag with Docker? Centrifugo: yes. MailBag: check the project docs for container support.