Conduit vs ejabberd
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted matrix & xmpp options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Conduit
Simple, fast and reliable Matrix homeserver in Rust
VS
ejabberd
Robust, scalable XMPP messaging server
| Feature | Conduit | ejabberd |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Matrix & XMPP | Matrix & XMPP |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Rust | Erlang |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,200 | ★ 6,732 |
| First released | 2020 | 2002 |
| Replaces | Slack, Discord | Slack, WhatsApp |
What are Conduit and ejabberd?
Conduit
Conduit is a lightweight Matrix homeserver written in Rust that aims to be easy to set up and run on small servers. It uses an embedded database and requires minimal configuration.
- Embedded database, no external DB
- Very low resource usage
- Single binary deployment
- Matrix federation support
ejabberd
ejabberd is a robust and scalable XMPP server powering instant messaging, presence, and real-time communication. It targets operators running large messaging deployments. It is deployed via Docker or native packages.
- Highly scalable XMPP server
- Clustering support
- Many extension modules
- MQTT and SIP support
Conduit vs ejabberd: key differences
Conduit is written in Rust, while ejabberd is built with Erlang. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Conduit versus GPL-2.0 for ejabberd. Conduit is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for ejabberd. Ejabberd is the more established project (first released 2002), while Conduit arrived in 2020. Ejabberd has the considerably larger community, at 6,732 GitHub stars versus 2,200.
Why pick each one
Choose Conduit if…
- Extremely easy to deploy
- Runs on a Raspberry Pi
Watch out for
- Not all Matrix features implemented
- Smaller ecosystem
Choose ejabberd if…
- Extremely scalable
- Battle-tested
- Standards-based
Watch out for
- XMPP UX depends on clients
- Advanced config is complex
Frequently asked questions
Is Conduit or ejabberd better?
Neither is universally better. ejabberd has the larger community, while Conduit is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Conduit and ejabberd free and open-source?
Yes. Conduit is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ejabberd under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Conduit and ejabberd with Docker?
Conduit: yes. ejabberd: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Conduit or ejabberd?
Conduit has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for ejabberd. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.