Dendrite vs Openfire
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 Dendrite with
choose an app… Rocket.Chat Mattermost Zulip Tinode Element Web Spectrum Let's Chat Mumble Matterbridge ejabberd The Lounge Synapse Cinny WeeChat Ergo Converse.js Revolt irssi FluffyChat Tox Dino Nheko Tuwunel Conduit Spacebar Nextcloud Talk ZNC Movim mautrix-whatsapp MongooseIM gomuks Profanity InspIRCd Convos IRC Syphon Element Call KiwiIRC Dendrite Lite Bonfire Element X Fractal Maubot Mumble Web JSXC Hydrogen matrix-nio Continuwuity mautrix-signal CoyIM Gajim Miaou mautrix-discord SchildiChat Ketesa Synapse Admin jabberd2 Mjolnir Construct Tigase XMPP Server Pantalaimon Sliding Sync Proxy matrix-appservice-slack Coqui Chat Synapse-MAS 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 Openfire with
choose an app… Rocket.Chat Mattermost Zulip Tinode Element Web Let's Chat BigBlueButton Matterbridge ejabberd The Lounge Synapse Cinny WeeChat Ergo Converse.js irssi FluffyChat Dino Nheko Tuwunel La Suite - Meet Conduit Nextcloud Talk ZNC Movim Twake Workplace mautrix-whatsapp MongooseIM gomuks Profanity Convos IRC Syphon Element Call Dendrite Lite Element X Fractal Maubot JSXC Hydrogen matrix-nio Continuwuity mautrix-signal CoyIM Gajim mautrix-discord SchildiChat Ketesa Synapse Admin jabberd2 Mjolnir Construct Tigase XMPP Server Pantalaimon Sliding Sync Proxy matrix-appservice-slack Coqui Chat Synapse-MAS 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
Feature Dendrite Openfire Category Matrix & XMPP Matrix & XMPP License Apache-2.0 Apache-2.0 Language Go Java Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 512 MB Deployment docker, binary, source docker, bare-metal, binary GitHub stars ★ 5,632 ★ 3,052 First released 2017 2004 Replaces Slack, Discord Slack, Microsoft Teams
Why pick each one
Choose Dendrite if… Much lighter than Synapse Active development by Matrix.org Dendrite details
Frequently asked questions Is Dendrite or Openfire 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 Openfire free and open-source? Yes. Dendrite is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Openfire under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Dendrite and Openfire with Docker? Dendrite: yes. Openfire: yes.