Toxic vs qTox
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted chat & communication options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Toxic | qTox |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 79 · Good | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Chat & Communication | Chat & Communication |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,305 | ★ 4,976 |
| First released | 2014 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Skype, WhatsApp | Skype, WhatsApp |
What are Toxic and qTox?
Toxic
Toxic is a console client for the peer-to-peer, encrypted Tox communication protocol. It provides text chat, file transfer, and audio calls from the terminal with no central servers.
- Terminal-based Tox client
- Fully peer-to-peer
- Encrypted chat and calls
- File transfer support
qTox
qTox is a Qt-based client for the Tox protocol, a fully distributed, encrypted, peer-to-peer communication network. It supports text chat, file transfer, voice, and video without any central servers.
- Fully peer-to-peer, no servers
- End-to-end encryption
- Voice and video calls
- File transfer
Toxic vs qTox: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: qTox's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Toxic is actively maintained. Toxic is written in C, while qTox is built with C++. Toxic is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for qTox. QTox has the considerably larger community, at 4,976 GitHub stars versus 1,305.
Why pick each one
Choose Toxic if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Active community (1.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Watch out for
- Terminal UI only
- No offline messaging
Choose qTox if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Active community (5k GitHub stars)
- Written in C++
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Watch out for
- No offline messaging
- Project development has slowed
Frequently asked questions
Is Toxic or qTox better?
Neither is universally better. qTox has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Toxic and qTox free and open-source?
Yes. Toxic is licensed under GPL-3.0 and qTox under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Toxic and qTox with Docker?
Toxic: check the project docs for container support. qTox: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Toxic or qTox?
Toxic has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for qTox. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.