Mollysocket 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?
Mollysocket
Server for unified push support in Molly chat application
VS
Papercups
Open-source live chat and customer messaging
| Feature | Mollysocket | Papercups |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Chat & Communication | Chat & Communication |
| License | AGPL-3.0-or-later | MIT |
| Language | Rust | Elixir |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 50 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 375 | ★ 6,097 |
| First released | 2024 | 2020 |
| Replaces | — | Intercom, Drift |
Why pick each one
Choose Mollysocket if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0-or-later license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 50 MB RAM
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
Frequently asked questions
Is Mollysocket or Papercups better?
Neither is universally better. Papercups has the larger community, while Mollysocket is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Mollysocket and Papercups free and open-source?
Yes. Mollysocket is licensed under AGPL-3.0-or-later and Papercups under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Mollysocket and Papercups with Docker?
Mollysocket: check the project docs for container support. Papercups: yes.