Cinny vs conduwuit
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted matrix & xmpp options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
conduwuit
Archived
Well-maintained fork of the Conduit Matrix homeserver
| Feature | Cinny | conduwuit |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 88 · Excellent | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Matrix & XMPP | Matrix & XMPP |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,903 | ★ 25 |
| First released | 2021 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Slack, Discord | Slack, Discord |
What are Cinny and conduwuit?
Cinny
Cinny is a Matrix client focused on a clean, simple and modern user interface. It can be self-hosted as a static web app to connect to any Matrix homeserver.
- Clean and minimal UI
- End-to-end encryption
- Static web app deployment
- Desktop builds available
conduwuit
conduwuit is a community-maintained fork of Conduit, a Matrix homeserver written in Rust. It focuses on stability, performance, and adding features that upstream Conduit lacked.
- Faster than upstream Conduit
- Easy single-binary deploy
- Active maintenance
- Matrix federation
Cinny vs conduwuit: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: conduwuit's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Cinny is actively maintained. Cinny is written in TypeScript, while conduwuit is built with Rust. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Cinny versus Apache-2.0 for conduwuit. Cinny is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for conduwuit. Cinny is the more established project (first released 2021), while conduwuit arrived in 2024. Cinny has the considerably larger community, at 3,903 GitHub stars versus 25.
Why pick each one
Choose Cinny if…
- Lightweight to host
- Attractive interface
Watch out for
- Fewer features than Element
- Matrix-only
Choose conduwuit if…
- More features than Conduit
- Good performance
Watch out for
- Relatively young project
- Smaller community
Frequently asked questions
Is Cinny or conduwuit better?
Neither is universally better. Cinny has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Cinny and conduwuit free and open-source?
Yes. Cinny is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and conduwuit under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cinny and conduwuit with Docker?
Cinny: yes. conduwuit: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Cinny or conduwuit?
Cinny has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for conduwuit. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.