Solanum vs Spacebar
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted chat & communication options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Spacebar
Self-hostable, open-source Discord-compatible chat backend
| Feature | Solanum | Spacebar |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 71 · Good | 83 · Excellent |
| Category | Chat & Communication | Chat & Communication |
| License | GPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | C | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 262 | ★ 2,196 |
| First released | 2020 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Slack, Discord | Discord |
What are Solanum and Spacebar?
Solanum
Solanum is an IRCv3 server daemon descended from the Charybdis lineage. It is the software that powers the Libera.Chat IRC network and is suitable for running large IRC infrastructures.
- Powers Libera.Chat
- IRCv3 protocol support
- Scales to large networks
- Charybdis-derived codebase
Spacebar
Spacebar is a free, open-source, self-hostable chat platform that is compatible with the Discord client and API. It lets communities run their own Discord-like server infrastructure.
- Discord-API compatible
- Works with existing Discord clients
- Self-hosted communities
- Voice and text channels
Solanum vs Spacebar: key differences
Solanum is written in C, while Spacebar is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Solanum versus AGPL-3.0 for Spacebar. Solanum is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Spacebar. Spacebar has the considerably larger community, at 2,196 GitHub stars versus 262. Spacebar lists first-class Docker deployment; Solanum does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Solanum if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Choose Spacebar if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Watch out for
- Still in heavy development
- Feature gaps versus Discord
Frequently asked questions
Is Solanum or Spacebar better?
Neither is universally better. Spacebar has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Solanum and Spacebar free and open-source?
Yes. Solanum is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Spacebar under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Solanum and Spacebar with Docker?
Solanum: check the project docs for container support. Spacebar: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Solanum or Spacebar?
Solanum has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Spacebar. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.