mautrix-telegram vs Papercups

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted chat & communication options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
Featuremautrix-telegramPapercups
CategoryChat & CommunicationChat & Communication
LicenseAGPL-3.0MIT
LanguageGoElixir
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM256 MB1,024 MB
Deploymentdocker, sourcedocker, bare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 1,715★ 6,097
First released20182020
ReplacesTelegram official clientIntercom, Drift

Why pick each one

Choose mautrix-telegram if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (1.7k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Go
mautrix-telegram details

Choose Papercups if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 6.1k GitHub stars
  • Written in Elixir
Papercups details

Frequently asked questions

Is mautrix-telegram or Papercups better?

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

Are mautrix-telegram and Papercups free and open-source?

Yes. mautrix-telegram is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Papercups under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run mautrix-telegram and Papercups with Docker?

mautrix-telegram: yes. Papercups: yes.

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