The Lounge vs qTox
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?
Compare The Lounge with
choose an app… Plane Rocket.Chat Mattermost Chatwoot Focalboard Zulip Super Productivity Wekan SimpleX Chat Etherpad OpenProject Habitica Self-Hosted Tinode Element Web Planka Leantime Centrifugo Screego Typebot git-bug Let's Chat Kanboard Berty Mumble Kaneo Matterbridge ejabberd Papercups Taskwarrior Zammad WorkAdventure Dendrite Soketi Remark42 Isso FreeSWITCH MiroTalk Synapse Ferdium FreeScout Telegram Bot API Server Rustpad Cinny Asterisk WeeChat Ergo Converse.js irssi Openfire Quicksy Bridge Kamailio Cusdis Tox Stoat Dino Nheko AnyCable Chitchatter Live Helper Chat Conduit Spacebar Nextcloud Talk ZNC Indico Movim RetroShare SIPCAPTURE Homer Peer-calls mautrix-telegram Routr GlobaLeaks openSIPS mautrix Databag Galène InspIRCd Candy Toxic Hyphanet Convos IRC FusionPBX soju KiwiIRC Glowing Bear Bonfire Pretalx Delta Chat Notifo SimpleX Briar Quassel IRC OTS matrix-commander Mumble Web Comentario BitlBee ngIRCd Miaou Session Nextcloud Talk Signaling Server UnrealIRCd MiroTalk C2C matrix-appservice-irc Linphone Chatmail Relay Hookshot Atheme IRC Services Maunium Sticker Picker Spectrum 2 Shhh Gamja Jami Server Bridge Mollysocket Anope PushBits Comm Heisenbridge Slixmpp Ferdium Server Solanum Wesh Network Draupnir baibot matrix-media-repo Charybdis IRCd Zusam Cactus Comments ircd-hybrid Scuttlebutt Room Robust IRC Flexisip SAMA Biboumi Hebbot ircu2 Libervia Jami YunoHost Mail Relay 3CX ARN-Messager Freepbx GNUnet Groupboard MailBag Mailman3 Mailing List Manager Mlmmj Web Peachpub PrivMX WebMail SIP3 TrueConf Wazo Yeti-Switch
Compare qTox with
choose an app… Chatwoot SimpleX Chat Etherpad Tinode Centrifugo Screego Typebot Berty Mumble ejabberd Papercups Zammad WorkAdventure Soketi Remark42 Isso FreeSWITCH MiroTalk Synapse Ferdium FreeScout Telegram Bot API Server Rustpad Asterisk WeeChat Ergo irssi FluffyChat Quicksy Bridge Tox Dino Peer-calls MongooseIM Toxic Syphon Delta Chat Element X Briar CoyIM Spark IM Gajim Session Linphone Chatmail Chatmail Relay SchildiChat Jangouts Snikket Jami Server Bridge Tigase XMPP Server Wesh Network Metronome IM Jami
Feature The Lounge qTox Category Chat & Communication Chat & Communication License MIT GPL-3.0 Language TypeScript C++ Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 256 MB 128 MB Deployment docker, binary, source bare-metal, binary GitHub stars ★ 6,309 ★ 4,977 First released 2014 2014 Replaces IRCCloud, Slack Skype, WhatsApp
Why pick each one
Choose The Lounge if… Great IRC experience in the browser Multi-user support The Lounge details Choose qTox if… Released under the GPL-3.0 license Active community (5k GitHub stars) Written in C++ Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM qTox details
Frequently asked questions Is The Lounge or qTox better? The Lounge is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider qTox if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are The Lounge and qTox free and open-source? Yes. The Lounge is licensed under MIT and qTox under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run The Lounge and qTox with Docker? The Lounge: yes. qTox: check the project docs for container support.