SHSelfHostIndex

Dendrite vs Maubot

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?
DE Dendrite Second-generation Matrix homeserver written in Go VS MA Maubot Plugin-based bot framework for Matrix chat rooms
FeatureDendriteMaubot
CategoryMatrix & XMPPMatrix & XMPP
LicenseApache-2.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageGoPython
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, sourcedocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 5,632★ 891
First released20172018
ReplacesSlack, DiscordSlack bots

Why pick each one

Choose Dendrite if…

  • Much lighter than Synapse
  • Active development by Matrix.org
Dendrite details

Choose Maubot if…

  • Extensible with plugins
  • Easy plugin management
Maubot details

Frequently asked questions

Is Dendrite or Maubot better?

Neither is universally better. Dendrite has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Dendrite and Maubot free and open-source?

Yes. Dendrite is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Maubot under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Dendrite and Maubot with Docker?

Dendrite: yes. Maubot: yes.

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