Synapse vs Openfire
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted matrix & xmpp options
— licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one
replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Compare Synapse with
choose an app… Rocket.Chat Mattermost Zulip SimpleX Chat Tinode Element Web Spectrum Let's Chat Berty Mumble Matterbridge ejabberd The Lounge Dendrite qTox Cinny WeeChat Ergo Converse.js Revolt irssi FluffyChat Quicksy Bridge Tox Dino Nheko Tuwunel Conduit Spacebar Nextcloud Talk ZNC Movim mautrix-whatsapp MongooseIM gomuks Profanity InspIRCd Toxic Convos IRC Syphon Element Call KiwiIRC Dendrite Lite Bonfire Delta Chat Element X Fractal Maubot Briar Mumble Web JSXC Hydrogen matrix-nio Continuwuity mautrix-signal CoyIM Gajim Miaou Session mautrix-discord Chatmail Chatmail Relay SchildiChat Ketesa Synapse Admin jabberd2 Mjolnir Snikket Construct Tigase XMPP Server Pantalaimon Sliding Sync Proxy matrix-appservice-slack Coqui Chat Synapse-MAS Wesh Network aioxmpp Poezio Slidge Sygnal Metronome IM matrix-corporal PeerTube Plugin LiveChat Commet go-sendxmpp Simple-Matrix-Bot-Lib Monocles Chat Openfire Pade Plugin Prose conduwuit Prosody
Compare Openfire with
choose an app… Rocket.Chat Mattermost Zulip Tinode Element Web Let's Chat BigBlueButton Matterbridge ejabberd The Lounge Dendrite Cinny WeeChat Ergo Converse.js irssi FluffyChat Dino Nheko Tuwunel La Suite - Meet Conduit Nextcloud Talk ZNC Movim Twake Workplace mautrix-whatsapp MongooseIM gomuks Profanity Convos IRC Syphon Element Call Dendrite Lite Element X Fractal Maubot JSXC Hydrogen matrix-nio Continuwuity mautrix-signal CoyIM Gajim mautrix-discord SchildiChat Ketesa Synapse Admin jabberd2 Mjolnir Construct Tigase XMPP Server Pantalaimon Sliding Sync Proxy matrix-appservice-slack Coqui Chat Synapse-MAS aioxmpp Poezio Slidge Sygnal Metronome IM matrix-corporal PeerTube Plugin LiveChat Commet go-sendxmpp Simple-Matrix-Bot-Lib Monocles Chat Openfire Pade Plugin Prose conduwuit Prosody
Feature Synapse Openfire Category Matrix & XMPP Matrix & XMPP License AGPL-3.0 Apache-2.0 Language Python Java Setup difficulty Hard Medium Min. RAM 1,024 MB 512 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal docker, bare-metal, binary GitHub stars ★ 4,503 ★ 3,052 First released 2014 2004 Replaces Slack, Discord, WhatsApp Slack, Microsoft Teams
Why pick each one
Choose Synapse if… Open federated protocol Strong encryption Bridges to other chats Synapse details
Frequently asked questions Is Synapse or Openfire better? Neither is universally better. Synapse has the larger community, while Openfire is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Synapse and Openfire free and open-source? Yes. Synapse is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Openfire under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Synapse and Openfire with Docker? Synapse: yes. Openfire: yes.