Conduit vs Openfire
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
Openfire
Real-time collaboration XMPP server written in Java
| Feature | Conduit | Openfire |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Matrix & XMPP | Matrix & XMPP |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Rust | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, source | docker, bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,200 | ★ 3,052 |
| First released | 2020 | 2004 |
| Replaces | Slack, Discord | Slack, Microsoft Teams |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Conduit or Openfire better?
Neither is universally better. Openfire 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 Openfire free and open-source?
Yes. Conduit is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Openfire under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Conduit and Openfire with Docker?
Conduit: yes. Openfire: yes.