Mumble 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?
FeatureMumblePapercups
CategoryChat & CommunicationChat & Communication
LicenseBSD-3-ClauseMIT
LanguageC++Elixir
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM128 MB1,024 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, binarydocker, bare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 8,175★ 6,097
First released20052020
ReplacesDiscord, TeamSpeak, VentriloIntercom, Drift

Why pick each one

Choose Mumble if…

  • Excellent voice quality
  • Tiny resource footprint
Mumble 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 Mumble or Papercups better?

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

Are Mumble and Papercups free and open-source?

Yes. Mumble is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Papercups under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Mumble and Papercups with Docker?

Mumble: yes. Papercups: yes.

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