Bonfire vs Solanum
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted chat & communication options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Bonfire | Solanum |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 82 · Excellent | 71 · Good |
| Category | Chat & Communication | Chat & Communication |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Elixir | C |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 943 | ★ 262 |
| First released | 2020 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Facebook Groups, Discord | Slack, Discord |
What are Bonfire and Solanum?
Bonfire
Bonfire is a flexible, modular framework for building federated social networks and digital communities. It supports ActivityPub federation and is highly customizable through extensions.
- Modular extension architecture
- ActivityPub federation
- Customizable community flavors
- Privacy-focused design
Solanum
Solanum is an IRCv3 server daemon descended from the Charybdis lineage. It is the software that powers the Libera.Chat IRC network and is suitable for running large IRC infrastructures.
- Powers Libera.Chat
- IRCv3 protocol support
- Scales to large networks
- Charybdis-derived codebase
Bonfire vs Solanum: key differences
Bonfire is written in Elixir, while Solanum is built with C. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Bonfire versus GPL-2.0 for Solanum. Solanum is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Bonfire. Bonfire has the considerably larger community, at 943 GitHub stars versus 262. Bonfire lists first-class Docker deployment; Solanum does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Bonfire if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Elixir
Watch out for
- Still maturing
- Complex to configure
Choose Solanum if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Bonfire or Solanum better?
Neither is universally better. Bonfire has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Bonfire and Solanum free and open-source?
Yes. Bonfire is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Solanum under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Bonfire and Solanum with Docker?
Bonfire: yes. Solanum: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Bonfire or Solanum?
Solanum has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Bonfire. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.