Prosody XMPP server
Hacker ApprovedXmpp server in Hosting & cloud
Recommended as a lightweight, low-maintenance XMPP server that runs on almost anything and migrates easily. Caveat: some modules conflict, and voice call TURN/STUN setup trips people up.
19 people recommended Prosody XMPP server in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 27 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 26 of those comments still count.
23 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 19
- mixed feelings
- 1
- warn against or regret it
- 3
The record
Recommended in 8 of 12 months
In 13 different threads.
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
Why it carries the badge
- 19 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 6.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 13 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 21% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 25 of the 31 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Light on resources, low maintenance
“I found hosting an xmpp server extremely easy and very light in maintenance with prosody”
Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “Jabber/XMPP: How Do We Gain Traction?” “the low resource usage was ridiculously pleasant compared to matrix homeserver”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Verifying your Matrix devices is becoming mandatory” “Prosody can run on just about anything and is mostly maintenance-free”
Comment from 8 Jul 2026 in “EU now one step away from reviving private message scanning rules” - Comment from 2 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: Who Is Using XMPP?”
Recommended over other XMPP servers
“If you're a FreeBSD user, or even an experienced hands-on Linux sysadmin, I'd probably recommend going with Prosody”
Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “Jabber/XMPP: How Do We Gain Traction?” “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” - Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “Running My Own XMPP Server”
Easy to set up
“I just went with Prosody and it took maybe 20 minutes with claude+opentofu+docker to get it added to my stack.”
Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “Jabber/XMPP: How Do We Gain Traction?” “Prosody one could easily set up in 15 minutes or less.”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “Running My Own XMPP Server” “took some config but wasn’t that hard”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence” Happy long-term use, easy migration
“been using it for several years, ever since I switched from my early 2000s jabber.org account to selfhosted”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “Running My Own XMPP Server” “I had no problem migrating data when changing from ejabberd to Prosody”
Comment from 1 Aug 2026 in “A Week in Matrix”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Module conflicts need careful configuration
“Prosody isn't bad but has a reputation of needing attention to be paid to which incompatible modules not to enable together”
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 | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prosody XMPP serverThis page | 19 | 1 | 3 | 86% | 8 | — | Approved |
| ejabberd | 11 | 0 | 3 | 79% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
25 of the 31 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I just went with Prosody and it took maybe 20 minutes with claude+opentofu+docker to get it added to my stack.”
“If you're a FreeBSD user, or even an experienced hands-on Linux sysadmin, I'd probably recommend going with Prosody”
“I made an invitation site with an instance of converse.js at the bottom of the page, pointed at an anonymous group on my (Prosody) server.”
“I found hosting an xmpp server extremely easy and very light in maintenance with prosody”
“You can own your whole stack with no commercial restrictions.”
“suffer through setting up prosody. It's a bit futzy but you won't find yourself saying”
“all you need is a sane default configuration that covers the most common use cases”
“took some config but wasn’t that hard”
“I had no problem migrating data when changing from ejabberd to Prosody”
“Prosody can run on just about anything and is mostly maintenance-free”
“lightweight and minimal maintenance”
“Prosody isn't bad but has a reputation of needing attention to be paid to which incompatible modules not to enable together”
“everyone has been very helpful as we're trying to catch back up”
“Prosody one could easily set up in 15 minutes or less.”
“you'll probably be happier with Prosody or ejabberd”
“been using it for several years, ever since I switched from my early 2000s jabber.org account to selfhosted”
“Those people should continue using Prosody.”
“Eventually I stopped because the contacts went away”
“selfhostable servers (I use prosody) are great”
“Essentially, they're just ignoring the missing EKU flag and pretend it would be there, violating the spec.”
“We have good servers like ejabberd and prosody for XMPP.”
“One of my favourite small features we added in the latest release is a 'prosodyctl check features' command”
“the low resource usage was ridiculously pleasant compared to matrix homeserver”
“You can set up a server on your domain (e.g. 'Prosody”
“prosody is fast and insanely flexible”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.