SHSelfHostIndex

Dendrite vs Rocket.Chat

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — 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 RO Rocket.Chat Open-source team chat and collaboration platform
FeatureDendriteRocket.Chat
CategoryMatrix & XMPPTeam Chat
LicenseApache-2.0MIT
LanguageGoTypeScript
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, sourcedocker, snap, kubernetes
GitHub stars★ 5,632★ 45,947
First released20172015
ReplacesSlack, DiscordSlack, Microsoft Teams

Why pick each one

Choose Dendrite if…

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

Choose Rocket.Chat if…

  • Feature-rich Slack alternative
  • Strong integrations
  • Self-hostable
Rocket.Chat details

Frequently asked questions

Is Dendrite or Rocket.Chat better?

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

Are Dendrite and Rocket.Chat free and open-source?

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

Can I run Dendrite and Rocket.Chat with Docker?

Dendrite: yes. Rocket.Chat: yes.

Related comparisons