Tinode vs ZNC
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?
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 irssi Openfire FluffyChat Quicksy Bridge Dino Nheko Tuwunel Conduit Nextcloud Talk 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
Compare ZNC with
choose an app… Element Web ejabberd The Lounge Dendrite Synapse Cinny Converse.js Openfire FluffyChat Dino Nheko Tuwunel Conduit Movim mautrix-whatsapp MongooseIM gomuks Profanity Convos IRC Syphon soju Element Call Glowing Bear Dendrite Lite Element X Fractal Maubot Gamja
Feature Tinode ZNC Category Matrix & XMPP Matrix & XMPP License GPL-3.0 Apache-2.0 Language Go C++ Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 256 MB 64 MB Deployment docker, binary docker, bare-metal, source GitHub stars ★ 13,452 ★ 2,123 First released 2016 2004 Replaces WhatsApp, Slack IRCCloud
Why pick each one
Choose Tinode if… Good developer foundation Multiple clients Lightweight Tinode details Choose ZNC if… Very stable and mature Highly configurable ZNC details
Frequently asked questions Is Tinode or ZNC 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 Tinode and ZNC free and open-source? Yes. Tinode is licensed under GPL-3.0 and ZNC under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Tinode and ZNC with Docker? Tinode: yes. ZNC: yes.