SHSelfHostIndex

Chatmail Relay vs Syphon

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 SY Syphon Privacy-focused Matrix client built with Flutter
FeatureChatmail RelaySyphon
CategoryChat & CommunicationMatrix & XMPP
LicenseMPL-2.0AGPL-3.0
LanguagePythonDart
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM512 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metalbinary, source
GitHub stars★ 476★ 1,061
First released20232020
ReplacesWhatsApp, SignalWhatsApp, Discord

Why pick each one

Choose Chatmail Relay if…

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

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
Syphon details

Frequently asked questions

Is Chatmail Relay or Syphon better?

Syphon is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Chatmail Relay if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Chatmail Relay and Syphon free and open-source?

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

Can I run Chatmail Relay and Syphon with Docker?

Chatmail Relay: yes. Syphon: check the project docs for container support.

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