Pretalx vs The Lounge
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?
Compare Pretalx with
choose an app… Chatwoot SimpleX Chat Etherpad Centrifugo Screego Typebot Berty Mumble Papercups Indico
Compare The Lounge with
choose an app… Plane Rocket.Chat Mattermost Chatwoot Focalboard Zulip Super Productivity Wekan SimpleX Chat Etherpad OpenProject Habitica Self-Hosted Tinode Element Web Planka Leantime Centrifugo Screego Typebot git-bug Let's Chat Kanboard Berty Mumble Kaneo Matterbridge ejabberd Papercups Taskwarrior Zammad WorkAdventure Dendrite Soketi Remark42 Isso FreeSWITCH qTox MiroTalk Synapse Ferdium FreeScout Telegram Bot API Server Rustpad Cinny Asterisk WeeChat Ergo Converse.js irssi Openfire Quicksy Bridge Kamailio Cusdis Tox Stoat Dino Nheko AnyCable Chitchatter Live Helper Chat Conduit Spacebar Nextcloud Talk ZNC Indico Movim RetroShare SIPCAPTURE Homer Peer-calls mautrix-telegram Routr GlobaLeaks openSIPS mautrix Databag Galène InspIRCd Candy Toxic Hyphanet Convos IRC FusionPBX soju KiwiIRC Glowing Bear Bonfire Delta Chat Notifo SimpleX Briar Quassel IRC OTS matrix-commander Mumble Web Comentario BitlBee ngIRCd Miaou Session Nextcloud Talk Signaling Server UnrealIRCd MiroTalk C2C matrix-appservice-irc Linphone Chatmail Relay Hookshot Atheme IRC Services Maunium Sticker Picker Spectrum 2 Shhh Gamja Jami Server Bridge Mollysocket Anope PushBits Comm Heisenbridge Slixmpp Ferdium Server Solanum Wesh Network Draupnir baibot matrix-media-repo Charybdis IRCd Zusam Cactus Comments ircd-hybrid Scuttlebutt Room Robust IRC Flexisip SAMA Biboumi Hebbot ircu2 Libervia Jami YunoHost Mail Relay 3CX ARN-Messager Freepbx GNUnet Groupboard MailBag Mailman3 Mailing List Manager Mlmmj Web Peachpub PrivMX WebMail SIP3 TrueConf Wazo Yeti-Switch
Feature Pretalx The Lounge Category Chat & Communication Chat & Communication License Apache-2.0 MIT Language Python TypeScript Setup difficulty Medium Easy Min. RAM 50 MB 256 MB Deployment bare-metal docker, binary, source GitHub stars ★ 929 ★ 6,309 First released 2025 2014 Replaces Zoho Backstage IRCCloud, Slack
Why pick each one
Choose Pretalx if… Released under the Apache-2.0 license Written in Python Tiny footprint — runs in 50 MB RAM Pretalx details Choose The Lounge if… Great IRC experience in the browser Multi-user support The Lounge details
Frequently asked questions Is Pretalx or The Lounge better? The Lounge is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Pretalx if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Pretalx and The Lounge free and open-source? Yes. Pretalx is licensed under Apache-2.0 and The Lounge under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Pretalx and The Lounge with Docker? Pretalx: check the project docs for container support. The Lounge: yes.