SHSelfHostIndex

Chatmail vs Metronome IM

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
CH Chatmail Minimal, instant-onboarding mail server for Delta Chat VS ME Metronome IM Lightweight, fork-based XMPP communication server
FeatureChatmailMetronome IM
CategoryMail ServersMatrix & XMPP
LicenseMPL-2.0MIT
LanguagePythonLua
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcedocker, bare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 476★ 175
First released20232012
ReplacesWhatsAppSlack, WhatsApp

Why pick each one

Choose Chatmail if…

  • Released under the MPL-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in Python
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Chatmail details

Choose Metronome IM if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in Lua
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Metronome IM details

Frequently asked questions

Is Chatmail or Metronome IM better?

Neither is universally better. Chatmail has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Chatmail and Metronome IM free and open-source?

Yes. Chatmail is licensed under MPL-2.0 and Metronome IM under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Chatmail and Metronome IM with Docker?

Chatmail: yes. Metronome IM: yes.

Related comparisons