# ejabberd

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/ejabberd/

11 people recommended ejabberd in Hacker News comments and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 12 months, in 10 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Low-maintenance XMPP server that people run for years, praised for good defaults and self-healing operation.

Summary written by Claude from 18 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 17 of those comments still count.

## Why people recommend it

- Low maintenance, runs for years (4 comments in the sample): "I've had only one issue with ejabberd (didn't read the docs close enough and had to move from mnesia to sql when I hit the…" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46117447)) "ejabberd was one of the most "fire and forget" piece of server software I was running" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49430090)) "It just works, takes close to no resources and needs almost no maintenance" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47035603))
- Works well with Conversations clients (3 comments in the sample): "I sleep much better at night having my whole family using XMPP over a self-hosted ejabberd" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47038961)) "my ejabberd server + Conversations clients so that devices can send me status updates" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46648483)) "I have not seen this issue with ejabberd + Conversations" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49445410))
- Good defaults out of the box (2 comments in the sample): "it was just a fire and forget/good defaults/good logging/self-healing experience. Highly recommend." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49702266)) "ships a turn server properly configured out of the box" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47041399))
- Recommended alongside Prosody (2 comments in the sample): "We have good servers like ejabberd and prosody for XMPP." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46779999)) "you'll probably be happier with Prosody or ejabberd" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47039555))

## What people recommend instead

- [Prosody XMPP server](https://hackerapproved.com/p/prosody/): 19 recommend, 1 mixed, 3 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "ejabberd", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ejabberd/ (11 recommend, 0 mixed, 3 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.