Dendrite 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 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 Openfire FluffyChat Tox Dino Nheko Tuwunel Conduit Spacebar Nextcloud Talk 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 ZNC with
choose an app… Tinode Element Web ejabberd The Lounge 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 Dendrite ZNC Category Matrix & XMPP Matrix & XMPP License Apache-2.0 Apache-2.0 Language Go C++ Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 64 MB Deployment docker, binary, source docker, bare-metal, source GitHub stars ★ 5,632 ★ 2,123 First released 2017 2004 Replaces Slack, Discord IRCCloud
Why pick each one
Choose Dendrite if… Much lighter than Synapse Active development by Matrix.org Dendrite details Choose ZNC if… Very stable and mature Highly configurable ZNC details
Frequently asked questions Is Dendrite or ZNC 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 ZNC free and open-source? Yes. Dendrite is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ZNC under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Dendrite and ZNC with Docker? Dendrite: yes. ZNC: yes.