SHSelfHostIndex

Dendrite vs Pantalaimon

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 PA Pantalaimon End-to-end encryption-aware Matrix reverse proxy
FeatureDendritePantalaimon
CategoryMatrix & XMPPMatrix & XMPP
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageGoPython
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, sourcedocker, binary, source
GitHub stars★ 5,632★ 331
First released20172019
ReplacesSlack, Discord—

Why pick each one

Choose Dendrite if…

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

Choose Pantalaimon if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in Python
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Pantalaimon details

Frequently asked questions

Is Dendrite or Pantalaimon 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 Pantalaimon free and open-source?

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

Can I run Dendrite and Pantalaimon with Docker?

Dendrite: yes. Pantalaimon: yes.

Related comparisons