conduwuit vs Syphon
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted matrix & xmpp options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
conduwuit
Archived
Well-maintained fork of the Conduit Matrix homeserver
VS
Syphon
Privacy-focused Matrix client built with Flutter
| Feature | conduwuit | Syphon |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 15 · At risk | 14 · At risk |
| Status | Archived | Actively maintained |
| Category | Matrix & XMPP | Matrix & XMPP |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Rust | Dart |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 25 | ★ 1,059 |
| First released | 2024 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Slack, Discord | WhatsApp, Discord |
What are conduwuit and Syphon?
conduwuit
conduwuit is a community-maintained fork of Conduit, a Matrix homeserver written in Rust. It focuses on stability, performance, and adding features that upstream Conduit lacked.
- Faster than upstream Conduit
- Easy single-binary deploy
- Active maintenance
- Matrix federation
Syphon
Syphon is a Matrix messaging client that emphasizes privacy and a calm, distraction-free interface, built with Flutter for desktop and mobile. It supports end-to-end encryption out of the box.
- Privacy-first Matrix client
- End-to-end encryption
- Distraction-free design
- Desktop and mobile
conduwuit vs Syphon: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: conduwuit's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Syphon is actively maintained. Conduwuit is written in Rust, while Syphon is built with Dart. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for conduwuit versus AGPL-3.0 for Syphon. Syphon is the more established project (first released 2020), while conduwuit arrived in 2024. Syphon has the considerably larger community, at 1,059 GitHub stars versus 25. Conduwuit lists first-class Docker deployment; Syphon does not.
Why pick each one
Choose conduwuit if…
- More features than Conduit
- Good performance
Watch out for
- Relatively young project
- Smaller community
Choose Syphon if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (1.1k GitHub stars)
- Written in Dart
Frequently asked questions
Is conduwuit or Syphon better?
Neither is universally better. Syphon has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are conduwuit and Syphon free and open-source?
Yes. conduwuit is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Syphon under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run conduwuit and Syphon with Docker?
conduwuit: yes. Syphon: check the project docs for container support.