SHSelfHostIndex

Metronome IM vs Dendrite

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted matrix & xmpp options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
ME Metronome IM Lightweight, fork-based XMPP communication server VS DE Dendrite Second-generation Matrix homeserver written in Go
FeatureMetronome IMDendrite
CategoryMatrix & XMPPMatrix & XMPP
LicenseMITApache-2.0
LanguageLuaGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM128 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcedocker, binary, source
GitHub stars★ 175★ 5,632
First released20122017
ReplacesSlack, WhatsAppSlack, Discord

Why pick each one

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

Choose Dendrite if…

  • Much lighter than Synapse
  • Active development by Matrix.org
Dendrite details

Frequently asked questions

Is Metronome IM or Dendrite better?

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

Are Metronome IM and Dendrite free and open-source?

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

Can I run Metronome IM and Dendrite with Docker?

Metronome IM: yes. Dendrite: yes.

Related comparisons