Cinny vs Dendrite
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted matrix & xmpp options
— licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one
replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Compare Cinny with
choose an app… Rocket.Chat Mattermost Zulip Tinode Element Web Spectrum Let's Chat Mumble Matterbridge ejabberd The Lounge Synapse WeeChat Ergo Converse.js Revolt irssi Openfire FluffyChat Tox Dino Nheko Tuwunel Conduit Spacebar Nextcloud Talk ZNC Movim mautrix-whatsapp MongooseIM gomuks Profanity InspIRCd Convos IRC Syphon Element Call KiwiIRC Dendrite Lite Bonfire Element X Fractal Maubot Mumble Web JSXC Hydrogen matrix-nio Continuwuity mautrix-signal CoyIM Gajim Miaou mautrix-discord SchildiChat Ketesa Synapse Admin jabberd2 Mjolnir Construct Tigase XMPP Server Pantalaimon Sliding Sync Proxy matrix-appservice-slack Coqui Chat Synapse-MAS aioxmpp Poezio Slidge Sygnal Metronome IM matrix-corporal PeerTube Plugin LiveChat Commet go-sendxmpp Simple-Matrix-Bot-Lib Monocles Chat Openfire Pade Plugin Prose conduwuit Prosody
Compare Dendrite with
choose an app… Rocket.Chat Mattermost Zulip Tinode Element Web Spectrum Let's Chat Mumble Matterbridge ejabberd The Lounge Synapse WeeChat Ergo Converse.js Revolt irssi Openfire FluffyChat Tox Dino Nheko Tuwunel Conduit Spacebar Nextcloud Talk ZNC Movim mautrix-whatsapp MongooseIM gomuks Profanity InspIRCd Convos IRC Syphon Element Call KiwiIRC Dendrite Lite Bonfire Element X Fractal Maubot Mumble Web JSXC Hydrogen matrix-nio Continuwuity mautrix-signal CoyIM Gajim Miaou mautrix-discord SchildiChat Ketesa Synapse Admin jabberd2 Mjolnir Construct Tigase XMPP Server Pantalaimon Sliding Sync Proxy matrix-appservice-slack Coqui Chat Synapse-MAS aioxmpp Poezio Slidge Sygnal Metronome IM matrix-corporal PeerTube Plugin LiveChat Commet go-sendxmpp Simple-Matrix-Bot-Lib Monocles Chat Openfire Pade Plugin Prose conduwuit Prosody
Feature Cinny Dendrite Category Matrix & XMPP Matrix & XMPP License AGPL-3.0 Apache-2.0 Language TypeScript Go Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 64 MB 512 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal, source docker, binary, source GitHub stars ★ 3,826 ★ 5,632 First released 2021 2017 Replaces Slack, Discord Slack, Discord
Why pick each one
Choose Cinny if… Lightweight to host Attractive interface Cinny details Choose Dendrite if… Much lighter than Synapse Active development by Matrix.org Dendrite details
Frequently asked questions Is Cinny or Dendrite better? Neither is universally better. Dendrite has the larger community, while Cinny is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Cinny and Dendrite free and open-source? Yes. Cinny is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Dendrite under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cinny and Dendrite with Docker? Cinny: yes. Dendrite: yes.