Ergo vs Papercups
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted chat & communication options
— licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one
replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Compare Ergo with
choose an app… Rocket.Chat Mattermost Chatwoot Zulip SimpleX Chat Etherpad Tinode Element Web Spectrum Centrifugo Screego Typebot Let's Chat Berty Mumble Matterbridge ejabberd The Lounge Zammad WorkAdventure Dendrite Soketi Remark42 Isso FreeSWITCH qTox MiroTalk Synapse Ferdium FreeScout Telegram Bot API Server Rustpad Cinny Asterisk WeeChat Converse.js Revolt irssi Openfire Tox Dino Nheko Conduit Spacebar Nextcloud Talk Movim gomuks InspIRCd Syphon KiwiIRC Dendrite Lite Bonfire Fractal Mumble Web Continuwuity Miaou
Compare Papercups with
choose an app… Plane Chatwoot Focalboard Super Productivity Wekan SimpleX Chat Etherpad OpenProject Habitica Self-Hosted Planka Leantime Centrifugo Screego Typebot git-bug Kanboard Berty Mumble Kaneo The Lounge Taskwarrior Zammad WorkAdventure Soketi Remark42 Isso FreeSWITCH qTox MiroTalk Ferdium FreeScout Telegram Bot API Server Rustpad Erxes Asterisk WeeChat irssi Quicksy Bridge Kamailio Cusdis Libredesk Tox Stoat AnyCable Chitchatter Live Helper Chat Spacebar Nextcloud Talk Indico RetroShare SIPCAPTURE Homer Peer-calls mautrix-telegram Routr GlobaLeaks openSIPS mautrix Databag Galène InspIRCd Candy Toxic Hyphanet FusionPBX soju KiwiIRC Glowing Bear Bonfire Pretalx Delta Chat Notifo SimpleX Briar Quassel IRC OTS matrix-commander Mumble Web Comentario BitlBee ngIRCd Miaou Session Nextcloud Talk Signaling Server UnrealIRCd MiroTalk C2C matrix-appservice-irc Linphone Chatmail Relay Hookshot Atheme IRC Services Maunium Sticker Picker Spectrum 2 Shhh Gamja Jami Server Bridge Mollysocket Anope PushBits Comm Tiledesk Heisenbridge Slixmpp Ferdium Server Solanum Wesh Network Draupnir baibot matrix-media-repo Charybdis IRCd Zusam Cactus Comments ircd-hybrid Scuttlebutt Room Robust IRC Flexisip SAMA Biboumi Hebbot ircu2 Libervia Jami YunoHost Mail Relay 3CX ARN-Messager Freepbx GNUnet Groupboard MailBag Mailman3 Mailing List Manager Mlmmj Web Peachpub PrivMX WebMail SIP3 TrueConf Wazo Yeti-Switch
Feature Ergo Papercups Category Chat & Communication Chat & Communication License MIT MIT Language Go Elixir Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 64 MB 1,024 MB Deployment docker, binary, source docker, bare-metal, source GitHub stars ★ 3,288 ★ 6,097 First released 2016 2020 Replaces Slack, Discord Intercom, Drift
Why pick each one
Choose Ergo if… No external services needed Easy to run Ergo details Choose Papercups if… Released under the MIT license First-class Docker support for quick deployment Mature project with 6.1k GitHub stars Written in Elixir Papercups details
Frequently asked questions Is Ergo or Papercups better? Neither is universally better. Papercups has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Ergo and Papercups free and open-source? Yes. Ergo is licensed under MIT and Papercups under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Ergo and Papercups with Docker? Ergo: yes. Papercups: yes.