ejabberd
Hacker ApprovedXmpp server in Hosting & cloud
Low-maintenance XMPP server that people run for years, praised for good defaults and self-healing operation.
Low-maintenance XMPP server that people run for years, praised for good defaults and self-healing operation.
15 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 80%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 10 years
Median of the 5 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Low maintenance, runs for years
“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 size limit) in over a decade of self-hosting it.”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Self-hosting a Matrix server for 5 years” “ejabberd was one of the most "fire and forget" piece of server software I was running”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence” “It just works, takes close to no resources and needs almost no maintenance”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “Running My Own XMPP Server” - Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “Running My Own XMPP Server”
- Comment from 2 Aug 2026 in “A Week in Matrix”
Works well with Conversations clients
“I sleep much better at night having my whole family using XMPP over a self-hosted ejabberd”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “Running My Own XMPP Server” “my ejabberd server + Conversations clients so that devices can send me status updates”
Comment from 16 Jan 2026 in “Just the Browser” “I have not seen this issue with ejabberd + Conversations”
Comment from 26 Aug 2026 in “Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence” Good defaults out of the box
“it was just a fire and forget/good defaults/good logging/self-healing experience. Highly recommend.”
Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “Jabber/XMPP: How Do We Gain Traction?” “ships a turn server properly configured out of the box”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “Running My Own XMPP Server” Recommended alongside Prosody
“We have good servers like ejabberd and prosody for XMPP.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “France Aiming to Replace Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.” “you'll probably be happier with Prosody or ejabberd”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “Running My Own XMPP Server”
What people recommend instead
The same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prosody XMPP server | 21 | 3 | 88% | 8 | — | Approved |
| ejabberdThis page | 12 | 3 | 80% | 7 | 10 yrs5 owners | Approved |
What people said
18 of the 23 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it was just a fire and forget/good defaults/good logging/self-healing experience. Highly recommend.”
“I have not seen this issue with ejabberd + Conversations”
“ejabberd was one of the most "fire and forget" piece of server software I was running”
“I run my local ejabberd for a decade and some”
“OMEMO [1] preferred over OTR and PGP and supports many to many E2EE.”
“ships a turn server properly configured out of the box”
“Ejabberd is a bit overkill for a few people though.”
“you'll probably be happier with Prosody or ejabberd”
“I sleep much better at night having my whole family using XMPP over a self-hosted ejabberd”
“ejabberd is so much easier to set up than prosody, especially containerized”
“defaulted to a simpler but less secure config”
“The ejabberd comment in this thread is telling”
“my ejabberd instance has been running for years with no effort”
“it was just not easy enough to set up for ordinary people”
“It just works, takes close to no resources and needs almost no maintenance”
“We have good servers like ejabberd and prosody for XMPP.”
“my ejabberd server + Conversations clients so that devices can send me status updates”
“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 size limit) in over a decade of self-hosting it.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.