The Lounge vs ZNC
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories
— 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 qTox 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 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 ZNC with
choose an app… Tinode Element Web ejabberd Dendrite Synapse Cinny Converse.js Openfire FluffyChat Dino Nheko Tuwunel Conduit Movim mautrix-whatsapp MongooseIM gomuks Profanity Convos IRC Syphon soju Element Call Glowing Bear Dendrite Lite Element X Fractal Maubot Gamja
Feature The Lounge ZNC Category Chat & Communication Matrix & XMPP License MIT Apache-2.0 Language TypeScript C++ Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 256 MB 64 MB Deployment docker, binary, source docker, bare-metal, source GitHub stars ★ 6,309 ★ 2,123 First released 2014 2004 Replaces IRCCloud, Slack IRCCloud
Why pick each one
Choose The Lounge if… Great IRC experience in the browser Multi-user support The Lounge details Choose ZNC if… Very stable and mature Highly configurable ZNC details
Frequently asked questions Is The Lounge or ZNC better? The Lounge is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider ZNC if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are The Lounge and ZNC free and open-source? Yes. The Lounge is licensed under MIT and ZNC under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run The Lounge and ZNC with Docker? The Lounge: yes. ZNC: yes.