Libervia vs Solanum
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted chat & communication options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Libervia | Solanum |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Chat & Communication | Chat & Communication |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Python | C |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 50 | ★ 262 |
| First released | 2009 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Slack, Facebook | Slack, Discord |
What are Libervia and Solanum?
Libervia
Libervia, formerly Salut a Toi, is a communication ecosystem built on XMPP that offers desktop, web, and command-line frontends. It supports chat, blogging, file sharing, and more over a single decentralized network.
- Multiple frontends on XMPP
- Blogging and file sharing
- End-to-end encryption
- Command-line interface
Solanum
Solanum is an IRCv3 server daemon descended from the Charybdis lineage. It is the software that powers the Libera.Chat IRC network and is suitable for running large IRC infrastructures.
- Powers Libera.Chat
- IRCv3 protocol support
- Scales to large networks
- Charybdis-derived codebase
Libervia vs Solanum: key differences
Libervia is written in Python, while Solanum is built with C. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Libervia versus GPL-2.0 for Solanum. Solanum is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Libervia. Libervia is the more established project (first released 2009), while Solanum arrived in 2020. Solanum has the considerably larger community, at 262 GitHub stars versus 50.
Why pick each one
Choose Libervia if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Choose Solanum if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Libervia or Solanum better?
Neither is universally better. Solanum has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Libervia and Solanum free and open-source?
Yes. Libervia is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Solanum under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Libervia and Solanum with Docker?
Libervia: check the project docs for container support. Solanum: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Libervia or Solanum?
Solanum has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Libervia. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.