Conduit vs Tuwunel
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
Tuwunel
Simple, fast and reliable chat server powered by Matrix based on
| Feature | Conduit | Tuwunel |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Matrix & XMPP | Matrix & XMPP |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Rust | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 50 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, source | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,200 | ★ 2,407 |
| First released | 2020 | 2025 |
| Replaces | Slack, Discord | Conduit, Dendrite, Synapse |
Why pick each one
Choose Tuwunel if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Active community (2.4k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 50 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Conduit or Tuwunel better?
Neither is universally better. Tuwunel 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 Tuwunel free and open-source?
Yes. Conduit is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Tuwunel under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Conduit and Tuwunel with Docker?
Conduit: yes. Tuwunel: check the project docs for container support.