Messaging on Pi Stack

ejabberd vs Prosody vs OpenFire: Best Self-Hosted XMPP Server 2026

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), also known as Jabber, is an open, decentralized, XML-based communication standard that has been powering instant messaging, VoIP, video calls, and IoT messaging since 1999. Unlike proprietary platforms that lock your messages into corporate servers, XMPP lets you run your own messaging infrastructure with full control over your data, privacy, and user base.

EventStoreDB vs Kafka vs Pulsar: Best Event Sourcing Platform 2026

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Event sourcing has emerged as one of the most powerful architectural patterns for building resilient, auditable, and scalable systems. Instead of storing only the current state of your data, event sourcing persists every state change as an immutable event in an append-only log. This gives you a complete history, natural audit trails, and the ability to replay events to rebuild state at any point in time.

TextBee vs Jasmin vs Kalkun: Best Self-Hosted SMS Gateway 2026

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sending and receiving SMS messages at scale doesn’t require expensive cloud services. Whether you need two-factor authentication, marketing campaigns, transactional alerts, or a messaging API for your applications, self-hosted SMS gateways give you full control over costs, data, and routing.

Mattermost vs Rocket.Chat vs Zulip: Best Self-Hosted Slack Alternatives in 2026

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Why Self-Host Your Team Messaging?

Slack and Microsoft Teams dominate team communication, but they come with real trade-offs:

Data Privacy: Your conversations live on someone else’s servers, subject to their policies and potential data breaches
Cost at Scale: Slack’s per-user pricing becomes expensive fast — $12.50/user/month for Business+ adds up quickly
Message History Limits: Free and lower-tier plans restrict searchable history
Vendor Lock-in: Migrating years of chat history, files, and integrations is painful
Compliance Requirements: Healthcare, finance, and government sectors often require data residency

Self-hosted messaging platforms solve all of these problems. You own your data, control your infrastructure, and pay zero per-seat licensing fees. In 2026, three platforms stand out as mature, production-ready Slack alternatives: mattermost, Rocket.Chat, and Zulip.