Conduit vs Dendrite
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
Dendrite
Archived
Second-generation Matrix homeserver written in Go
| Feature | Conduit | Dendrite |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Matrix & XMPP | Matrix & XMPP |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Rust | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, source | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,200 | ★ 5,625 |
| First released | 2020 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Slack, Discord | Slack, Discord |
What are Conduit and Dendrite?
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
Dendrite
Dendrite is a lightweight, efficient Matrix homeserver written in Go by the Matrix.org team. It is designed to be a more resource-efficient alternative to Synapse while remaining fully compatible with the Matrix protocol.
- Lower memory footprint than Synapse
- Federated Matrix protocol
- End-to-end encryption support
- Polylith and monolith deployment modes
Conduit vs Dendrite: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Dendrite's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Conduit is actively maintained. Conduit is written in Rust, while Dendrite is built with Go. Conduit is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Dendrite. Dendrite is the more established project (first released 2017), while Conduit arrived in 2020. Dendrite has the considerably larger community, at 5,625 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 Dendrite if…
- Much lighter than Synapse
- Active development by Matrix.org
Watch out for
- Some Synapse features still missing
- Less battle-tested at large scale
Frequently asked questions
Is Conduit or Dendrite better?
Neither is universally better. Dendrite 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 Dendrite free and open-source?
Yes. Conduit is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Dendrite under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Conduit and Dendrite with Docker?
Conduit: yes. Dendrite: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Conduit or Dendrite?
Conduit has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Dendrite. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.