Robust IRC vs SimpleX Chat
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 Robust IRC with
choose an app… Chatwoot Etherpad Centrifugo Screego Typebot Berty Mumble The Lounge Papercups
Compare SimpleX Chat with
choose an app… Plane Chatwoot Focalboard Super Productivity Wekan Etherpad OpenProject Habitica Self-Hosted Tinode Planka Leantime Centrifugo Screego Typebot git-bug Kanboard Berty Mumble Kaneo ejabberd The Lounge Papercups Taskwarrior Zammad WorkAdventure Soketi Remark42 Isso FreeSWITCH qTox MiroTalk Synapse Ferdium FreeScout Telegram Bot API Server Rustpad Asterisk WeeChat Ergo irssi FluffyChat Quicksy Bridge Kamailio Cusdis Tox Stoat AnyCable Chitchatter Live Helper Chat Spacebar Nextcloud Talk Indico RetroShare SIPCAPTURE Homer Peer-calls MongooseIM mautrix-telegram Routr GlobaLeaks openSIPS mautrix Databag Galène InspIRCd Candy Toxic Hyphanet Syphon FusionPBX soju KiwiIRC Glowing Bear Bonfire Pretalx Delta Chat Element X Notifo SimpleX Briar Quassel IRC OTS matrix-commander Mumble Web Comentario mautrix-signal BitlBee ngIRCd Miaou Session Nextcloud Talk Signaling Server UnrealIRCd MiroTalk C2C matrix-appservice-irc Linphone Chatmail Chatmail Relay SchildiChat Hookshot Snikket Atheme IRC Services Maunium Sticker Picker Spectrum 2 Shhh Gamja Jami Server Bridge Mollysocket Anope PushBits Tigase XMPP Server Comm Heisenbridge Slixmpp Ferdium Server Solanum Wesh Network Draupnir baibot matrix-media-repo Charybdis IRCd Zusam Cactus Comments ircd-hybrid Scuttlebutt Room Flexisip Metronome IM SAMA Biboumi Monocles Chat Hebbot ircu2 Prose 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 Robust IRC SimpleX Chat Category Chat & Communication Chat & Communication License BSD-3-Clause AGPL-3.0 Language Go Haskell Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 256 MB Deployment bare-metal docker, binary, source GitHub stars ★ 195 ★ 19,211 First released 2020 2021 Replaces — Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram
Why pick each one
Choose Robust IRC if… Released under the BSD-3-Clause license Written in Go Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM Robust IRC details
Frequently asked questions Is Robust IRC or SimpleX Chat better? Neither is universally better. SimpleX Chat has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Robust IRC and SimpleX Chat free and open-source? Yes. Robust IRC is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and SimpleX Chat under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Robust IRC and SimpleX Chat with Docker? Robust IRC: check the project docs for container support. SimpleX Chat: yes.