SimpleX Chat vs qTox
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 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 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 Robust IRC 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
Compare qTox with
choose an app… Chatwoot Etherpad Tinode Centrifugo Screego Typebot Berty Mumble ejabberd The Lounge Papercups Zammad WorkAdventure Soketi Remark42 Isso FreeSWITCH MiroTalk Synapse Ferdium FreeScout Telegram Bot API Server Rustpad Asterisk WeeChat Ergo irssi FluffyChat Quicksy Bridge Tox Dino Peer-calls MongooseIM Toxic Syphon Delta Chat Element X Briar CoyIM Spark IM Gajim Session Linphone Chatmail Chatmail Relay SchildiChat Jangouts Snikket Jami Server Bridge Tigase XMPP Server Wesh Network Metronome IM Jami
Feature SimpleX Chat qTox Category Chat & Communication Chat & Communication License AGPL-3.0 GPL-3.0 Language Haskell C++ Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 256 MB 128 MB Deployment docker, binary, source bare-metal, binary GitHub stars ★ 19,211 ★ 4,977 First released 2021 2014 Replaces Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram Skype, WhatsApp
Why pick each one
Choose qTox if… Released under the GPL-3.0 license Active community (5k GitHub stars) Written in C++ Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM qTox details
Frequently asked questions Is SimpleX Chat or qTox 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 SimpleX Chat and qTox free and open-source? Yes. SimpleX Chat is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and qTox under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run SimpleX Chat and qTox with Docker? SimpleX Chat: yes. qTox: check the project docs for container support.