Papercups vs Soketi
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?
Papercups
Open-source live chat and customer messaging
VS
Soketi
Self-hostable WebSocket server compatible with Pusher
| Feature | Papercups | Soketi |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Chat & Communication | Chat & Communication |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Elixir | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,097 | ★ 5,631 |
| First released | 2020 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Intercom, Drift | Pusher |
Why pick each one
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 Papercups or Soketi better?
Neither is universally better. Papercups has the larger community, while Soketi is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Papercups and Soketi free and open-source?
Yes. Papercups is licensed under MIT and Soketi under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Papercups and Soketi with Docker?
Papercups: yes. Soketi: yes.