soju vs Glowing Bear
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?
soju
User-friendly IRC bouncer with multi-network support
VS
Glowing Bear
Web front end for the WeeChat IRC relay
| Feature | soju | Glowing Bear |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Chat & Communication | Chat & Communication |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,000 | ★ 975 |
| First released | 2020 | 2014 |
| Replaces | IRCCloud | IRCCloud, Slack |
Why pick each one
Choose soju if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is soju or Glowing Bear better?
Neither is universally better. soju has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are soju and Glowing Bear free and open-source?
Yes. soju is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Glowing Bear under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run soju and Glowing Bear with Docker?
soju: yes. Glowing Bear: yes.