Papercups vs WorkAdventure
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
WorkAdventure
Virtual office / virtual conference application presented as a 16-bit
| Feature | Papercups | WorkAdventure |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Chat & Communication | Chat & Communication |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Elixir | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,097 | ★ 5,696 |
| First released | 2020 | 2026 |
| Replaces | Intercom, Drift | — |
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 WorkAdventure if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 5.7k GitHub stars
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Papercups or WorkAdventure 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 WorkAdventure free and open-source?
Yes. Papercups is licensed under MIT and WorkAdventure under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Papercups and WorkAdventure with Docker?
Papercups: yes. WorkAdventure: yes.