SHSelfHostIndex

SimpleX Chat vs UnrealIRCd

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?
SI SimpleX Chat Private messenger without any user identifiers VS UN UnrealIRCd Highly configurable open-source IRC server
FeatureSimpleX ChatUnrealIRCd
CategoryChat & CommunicationChat & Communication
LicenseAGPL-3.0GPL-2.0
LanguageHaskellC
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM256 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, sourcebare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 19,211★ 521
First released20211999
ReplacesSignal, WhatsApp, TelegramSlack, Discord

Why pick each one

Choose SimpleX Chat if…

  • Best-in-class metadata privacy
  • Run your own relays
SimpleX Chat details

Choose UnrealIRCd if…

  • Released under the GPL-2.0 license
  • Written in C
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
UnrealIRCd details

Frequently asked questions

Is SimpleX Chat or UnrealIRCd 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 UnrealIRCd free and open-source?

Yes. SimpleX Chat is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and UnrealIRCd under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run SimpleX Chat and UnrealIRCd with Docker?

SimpleX Chat: yes. UnrealIRCd: check the project docs for container support.

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