Soketi 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?
FeatureSoketiThe Lounge
CategoryChat & CommunicationChat & Communication
LicenseAGPL-3.0MIT
LanguageTypeScriptTypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM128 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, binarydocker, binary, source
GitHub stars★ 5,631★ 6,309
First released20212014
ReplacesPusherIRCCloud, Slack

Why pick each one

Choose Soketi if…

  • Drop-in Pusher replacement
  • Lightweight
Soketi details

Choose The Lounge if…

  • Great IRC experience in the browser
  • Multi-user support
The Lounge details

Frequently asked questions

Is Soketi or The Lounge better?

Neither is universally better. The Lounge has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Soketi and The Lounge free and open-source?

Yes. Soketi is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and The Lounge under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Soketi and The Lounge with Docker?

Soketi: yes. The Lounge: yes.

Related comparisons