irssi 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?
Compare irssi with
choose an app… Rocket.Chat Mattermost Chatwoot Zulip SimpleX Chat Etherpad Element Web Centrifugo Screego Typebot Let's Chat Berty Mumble Matterbridge ejabberd The Lounge Papercups Zammad WorkAdventure Dendrite Soketi Remark42 Isso FreeSWITCH qTox MiroTalk Synapse Ferdium FreeScout Telegram Bot API Server Rustpad Cinny Asterisk WeeChat Ergo Converse.js Openfire Dino Nheko Conduit Nextcloud Talk Movim
Compare Tinode with
choose an app… Rocket.Chat Mattermost Zulip SimpleX Chat Element Web Let's Chat Berty Matterbridge ejabberd The Lounge Dendrite qTox Synapse Cinny WeeChat Ergo Converse.js Openfire FluffyChat Quicksy Bridge Dino Nheko Tuwunel Conduit Nextcloud Talk ZNC Movim mautrix-whatsapp MongooseIM gomuks Profanity Toxic Convos IRC Syphon Element Call Dendrite Lite Delta Chat Element X Fractal Maubot Briar JSXC Hydrogen matrix-nio Continuwuity mautrix-signal CoyIM Gajim Session mautrix-discord Chatmail Chatmail Relay SchildiChat Ketesa Synapse Admin jabberd2 Mjolnir Snikket Construct Tigase XMPP Server Pantalaimon Sliding Sync Proxy matrix-appservice-slack Coqui Chat Synapse-MAS Wesh Network aioxmpp Poezio Slidge Sygnal Metronome IM matrix-corporal PeerTube Plugin LiveChat Commet go-sendxmpp Simple-Matrix-Bot-Lib Monocles Chat Openfire Pade Plugin Prose conduwuit Prosody
Feature irssi Tinode Category Chat & Communication Matrix & XMPP License GPL-2.0 GPL-3.0 Language C Go Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 32 MB 256 MB Deployment bare-metal, binary, source docker, binary GitHub stars ★ 3,129 ★ 13,452 First released 1999 2016 Replaces Slack WhatsApp, Slack
Why pick each one
Choose irssi if… Released under the GPL-2.0 license Active community (3.1k GitHub stars) Written in C Tiny footprint — runs in 32 MB RAM irssi details Choose Tinode if… Good developer foundation Multiple clients Lightweight Tinode details
Frequently asked questions Is irssi 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 irssi and Tinode free and open-source? Yes. irssi is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Tinode under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run irssi and Tinode with Docker? irssi: check the project docs for container support. Tinode: yes.