Papercups vs Zusam
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
Zusam
Truly private space for you and your friends
| Feature | Papercups | Zusam |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Chat & Communication | Chat & Communication |
| License | MIT | Unlicense |
| Language | Elixir | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 50 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,097 | ★ 223 |
| First released | 2020 | 2023 |
| 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 Zusam if…
- Released under the Unlicense license
- Written in PHP
- Tiny footprint — runs in 50 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Papercups or Zusam 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 Zusam free and open-source?
Yes. Papercups is licensed under MIT and Zusam under Unlicense. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Papercups and Zusam with Docker?
Papercups: yes. Zusam: check the project docs for container support.