Delta Chat vs ejabberd

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?
FeatureDelta Chatejabberd
CategoryChat & CommunicationMatrix & XMPP
LicenseMPL-2.0GPL-2.0
LanguageRustErlang
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM256 MB512 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, binarydocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 916★ 6,711
First released20172002
ReplacesWhatsApp, Signal, TelegramSlack, WhatsApp

Why pick each one

Choose Delta Chat if…

  • Leverages decentralized email
  • No new server protocol
Delta Chat details

Choose ejabberd if…

  • Extremely scalable
  • Battle-tested
  • Standards-based
ejabberd details

Frequently asked questions

Is Delta Chat or ejabberd better?

Neither is universally better. ejabberd has the larger community, while Delta Chat is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Delta Chat and ejabberd free and open-source?

Yes. Delta Chat is licensed under MPL-2.0 and ejabberd under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Delta Chat and ejabberd with Docker?

Delta Chat: check the project docs for container support. ejabberd: yes.

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