Bonfire vs Spacebar
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?
Bonfire
Federated social networking toolkit for communities
VS
Spacebar
Self-hostable, open-source Discord-compatible chat backend
| Feature | Bonfire | Spacebar |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Chat & Communication | Chat & Communication |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Elixir | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 930 | ★ 2,189 |
| First released | 2020 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Facebook Groups, Discord | Discord |
Why pick each one
Choose Bonfire if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Elixir
Choose Spacebar if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Bonfire or Spacebar better?
Neither is universally better. Spacebar has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Bonfire and Spacebar free and open-source?
Yes. Bonfire is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Spacebar under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Bonfire and Spacebar with Docker?
Bonfire: yes. Spacebar: yes.