SHSelfHostIndex

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?
BO Bonfire Federated social networking toolkit for communities VS Spacebar Self-hostable, open-source Discord-compatible chat backend
FeatureBonfireSpacebar
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score82 · Excellent83 · Excellent
CategoryChat & CommunicationChat & Communication
LicenseAGPL-3.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageElixirTypeScript
Setup difficultyHardHard
Min. RAM1,024 MB1,024 MB
Deploymentdocker, sourcedocker, source
GitHub stars★ 943★ 2,196
First released20202021
ReplacesFacebook Groups, DiscordDiscord

What are Bonfire and Spacebar?

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

Spacebar

Spacebar is a free, open-source, self-hostable chat platform that is compatible with the Discord client and API. It lets communities run their own Discord-like server infrastructure.

  • Discord-API compatible
  • Works with existing Discord clients
  • Self-hosted communities
  • Voice and text channels

Bonfire vs Spacebar: key differences

Bonfire is written in Elixir, while Spacebar is built with TypeScript. Spacebar has the considerably larger community, at 2,196 GitHub stars versus 943.

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
Bonfire details

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

Watch out for

  • Still in heavy development
  • Feature gaps versus Discord
Spacebar details

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.

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