Chitchatter vs Snikket
| Tagline | Serverless peer-to-peer ephemeral chat with no accounts required | XMPP-based private messenger server with easy one-command setup |
| Category | Team Chat & Collaboration | Team Chat & Collaboration |
| Replaces | Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams | Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams |
| GitHub stars | 2.3k | 437 |
| Language | Nodejs | Lua |
| License | GPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 1/5 Effortless | 1/5 Effortless |
| Deploy options | One-Click Manual | Docker Docker Compose |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 4 days ago | 6 days ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
Chitchatter
- No message history; all chats are ephemeral and disappear on page close
- No file sharing, threads, reactions, or integrations
- WebRTC NAT traversal can fail on restrictive corporate networks
- No moderation, authentication, or access control features
Snikket
- No public channels or community servers; designed for private groups only
- Federation with other XMPP servers has occasional compatibility edge cases
- Limited bot or integration support compared to Slack or Matrix
Bottom line
Both are a similar lift to self-host; choose Chitchatter for the larger community and ecosystem. Chitchatter has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.