Miaou vs Spacebar
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?
Miaou
Self-hosted multi-room chat with markdown and code blocks
VS
Spacebar
Self-hostable, open-source Discord-compatible chat backend
| Feature | Miaou | Spacebar |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Chat & Communication | Chat & Communication |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 553 | ★ 2,189 |
| First released | 2014 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Discord, Slack | Discord |
Why pick each one
Choose Miaou if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in JavaScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Choose Spacebar if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Miaou or Spacebar better?
Neither is universally better. Spacebar has the larger community, while Miaou is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Miaou and Spacebar free and open-source?
Yes. Miaou is licensed under MIT and Spacebar under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Miaou and Spacebar with Docker?
Miaou: check the project docs for container support. Spacebar: yes.