Papercups vs UnrealIRCd
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
UnrealIRCd
Highly configurable open-source IRC server
| Feature | Papercups | UnrealIRCd |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Chat & Communication | Chat & Communication |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Elixir | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,097 | ★ 521 |
| First released | 2020 | 1999 |
| Replaces | Intercom, Drift | Slack, Discord |
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
Choose UnrealIRCd if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Papercups or UnrealIRCd 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 Papercups and UnrealIRCd free and open-source?
Yes. Papercups is licensed under MIT and UnrealIRCd under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Papercups and UnrealIRCd with Docker?
Papercups: yes. UnrealIRCd: check the project docs for container support.