Conduit vs Spectrum
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — 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
Spectrum
Open-source platform for building online communities
| Feature | Conduit | Spectrum |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Matrix & XMPP | Forums & Community |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Rust | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,200 | ★ 10,837 |
| First released | 2020 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Slack, Discord | Discord, Discourse |
Why pick each one
Choose Spectrum if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 10.8k GitHub stars
- Written in JavaScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Conduit or Spectrum better?
Neither is universally better. Spectrum 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 Spectrum free and open-source?
Yes. Conduit is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Spectrum under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Conduit and Spectrum with Docker?
Conduit: yes. Spectrum: yes.