Bonfire vs Etherpad
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 Bonfire with
choose an app… Chatwoot SimpleX Chat Element Web Spectrum Centrifugo Screego Typebot Berty Mumble The Lounge Papercups Dendrite Synapse Cinny Ergo Revolt Tox Nheko Conduit Spacebar gomuks Elgg InspIRCd Syphon KiwiIRC Dendrite Lite Fractal Mumble Web Continuwuity Miaou Buddycloud
Compare Etherpad with
choose an app… Plane Chatwoot Focalboard Super Productivity Wekan SimpleX Chat Docs by Suite Numerique OpenProject Habitica Self-Hosted Planka Leantime Centrifugo Screego Typebot CodiMD git-bug Kanboard Berty Mumble Kaneo HedgeDoc ONLYOFFICE Docs The Lounge Papercups Taskwarrior Zammad WorkAdventure Soketi Remark42 Isso FreeSWITCH qTox MiroTalk Ferdium FreeScout Telegram Bot API Server Rustpad Asterisk WeeChat Collabora Online Ergo irssi Quicksy Bridge Kamailio Cusdis Tox Stoat AnyCable Chitchatter Live Helper Chat Spacebar Nextcloud Talk Indico RetroShare SIPCAPTURE Homer Vrite Peer-calls mautrix-telegram Routr GlobaLeaks openSIPS mautrix Databag Galène InspIRCd Candy Toxic Hyphanet FusionPBX soju KiwiIRC Glowing Bear Pretalx Delta Chat Notifo SimpleX Briar Quassel IRC OTS matrix-commander Mumble Web Comentario LibreOffice Online BitlBee ngIRCd Miaou Session Nextcloud Talk Signaling Server UnrealIRCd MiroTalk C2C matrix-appservice-irc Linphone Chatmail Relay Hookshot Atheme IRC Services Maunium Sticker Picker Spectrum 2 Shhh Gamja Jami Server Bridge Mollysocket Anope PushBits Comm Heisenbridge Slixmpp Ferdium Server Solanum Wesh Network Draupnir baibot matrix-media-repo Charybdis IRCd Zusam Cactus Comments ircd-hybrid Scuttlebutt Room Robust IRC Flexisip SAMA Biboumi Hebbot ircu2 Libervia Jami YunoHost Mail Relay 3CX ARN-Messager Freepbx GNUnet Groupboard MailBag Mailman3 Mailing List Manager Mlmmj Web Peachpub PrivMX WebMail SIP3 TrueConf Wazo Yeti-Switch
Feature Bonfire Etherpad Category Chat & Communication Chat & Communication License AGPL-3.0 Apache-2.0 Language Elixir TypeScript Setup difficulty Hard Medium Min. RAM 1,024 MB 512 MB Deployment docker, source docker, bare-metal, source GitHub stars ★ 930 ★ 18,481 First released 2020 2011 Replaces Facebook Groups, Discord Google Docs
Why pick each one
Choose Bonfire if… Released under the AGPL-3.0 license First-class Docker support for quick deployment Written in Elixir Bonfire details
Frequently asked questions Is Bonfire or Etherpad better? Etherpad is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Bonfire if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Bonfire and Etherpad free and open-source? Yes. Bonfire is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Etherpad under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Bonfire and Etherpad with Docker? Bonfire: yes. Etherpad: yes.