The Lounge vs Zusam
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 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 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 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 Zusam with
choose an app… Chatwoot SimpleX Chat Etherpad Centrifugo Screego Typebot Berty Mumble Papercups
Feature The Lounge Zusam Category Chat & Communication Chat & Communication License MIT Unlicense Language TypeScript PHP Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 256 MB 50 MB Deployment docker, binary, source bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 6,309 ★ 223 First released 2014 2023 Replaces IRCCloud, Slack —
Why pick each one
Choose The Lounge if… Great IRC experience in the browser Multi-user support The Lounge details Choose Zusam if… Released under the Unlicense license Written in PHP Tiny footprint — runs in 50 MB RAM Zusam details
Frequently asked questions Is The Lounge or Zusam better? The Lounge is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Zusam if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are The Lounge and Zusam free and open-source? Yes. The Lounge is licensed under MIT and Zusam under Unlicense. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run The Lounge and Zusam with Docker? The Lounge: yes. Zusam: check the project docs for container support.