SHSelfHostIndex

Chatmail Relay vs Tinode

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?
CH Chatmail Relay Minimal email server tuned for Delta Chat messaging VS TI Tinode Open-source instant messaging server
FeatureChatmail RelayTinode
CategoryChat & CommunicationMatrix & XMPP
LicenseMPL-2.0GPL-3.0
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 476★ 13,452
First released20232016
ReplacesWhatsApp, SignalWhatsApp, Slack

Why pick each one

Choose Chatmail Relay if…

  • Uses open email standards
  • Hard to censor
Chatmail Relay details

Choose Tinode if…

  • Good developer foundation
  • Multiple clients
  • Lightweight
Tinode details

Frequently asked questions

Is Chatmail Relay or Tinode better?

Neither is universally better. Tinode has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Chatmail Relay and Tinode free and open-source?

Yes. Chatmail Relay is licensed under MPL-2.0 and Tinode under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Chatmail Relay and Tinode with Docker?

Chatmail Relay: yes. Tinode: yes.

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