SHSelfHostIndex

Conduit vs gomuks

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?
Conduit Simple, fast and reliable Matrix homeserver in Rust VS GO gomuks Terminal-based Matrix client written in Go
FeatureConduitgomuks
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupRead-the-docs project
CategoryMatrix & XMPPMatrix & XMPP
LicenseApache-2.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageRustGo
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM128 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, sourcebinary, source
GitHub stars★ 2,200★ 1,727
First released20202018
ReplacesSlack, DiscordSlack, Discord

What are Conduit and gomuks?

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

Read the full Conduit guide →

gomuks

gomuks is a terminal user interface client for the Matrix protocol. It supports end-to-end encryption and provides a keyboard-driven chat experience for people who prefer the command line.

  • Terminal UI
  • End-to-end encryption
  • Keyboard-driven
  • Single Go binary

Conduit vs gomuks: key differences

Conduit is written in Rust, while gomuks is built with Go. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Conduit versus AGPL-3.0 for gomuks. Gomuks is the more established project (first released 2018), while Conduit arrived in 2020. Conduit lists first-class Docker deployment; gomuks does not.

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
Conduit details

Choose gomuks if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Active community (1.7k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Go
gomuks details

Frequently asked questions

Is Conduit or gomuks better?

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

Are Conduit and gomuks free and open-source?

Yes. Conduit is licensed under Apache-2.0 and gomuks under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Conduit and gomuks with Docker?

Conduit: yes. gomuks: check the project docs for container support.

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