ejabberd vs Construct
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?
ejabberd
Robust, scalable XMPP messaging server
VS
Construct
High-performance Matrix homeserver written in C++
| Feature | ejabberd | Construct |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Matrix & XMPP | Matrix & XMPP |
| License | GPL-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Erlang | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,711 | ★ 395 |
| First released | 2002 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Slack, WhatsApp | Slack, Discord |
Why pick each one
Choose Construct if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Written in C++
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is ejabberd or Construct better?
Neither is universally better. ejabberd has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are ejabberd and Construct free and open-source?
Yes. ejabberd is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Construct under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run ejabberd and Construct with Docker?
ejabberd: yes. Construct: check the project docs for container support.