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Comparison · Comms
Openfire vs Revolt
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Openfire and Revolt — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:self-hosted
Openfire vs Revolt: at a glance
What is Openfire?
Openfire keeps its XMPP server current without changing what it is.
Openfire ships a maintenance release every one to two months, each a mix of dependency upgrades, MUC and pubsub correctness fixes, and occasional security hardening. 5.1.2 follows that shape exactly: Jetty, log4j2, and the PostgreSQL driver moved forward, three inapplicable Tomcat CVEs suppressed, and a set of MUC self-ping errors corrected to return the right XMPP error types. The last release with real feature content was 5.1.0 in June, which added channel binding and an admin console for failed server-to-server connections.
What is Revolt?
Revolt swaps Tenor for its own Gifbox, pulling GIF delivery in-house.
Revolt is an open-source, self-hostable chat platform competing in the Discord-alternative space. The one visible release, v0.13.8, replaces Tenor (Google's GIF service) with Gifbox, a GIF platform the project now runs itself. With only a single changelog entry available, the broader release cadence isn't observable from this data.
Openfire vs Revolt: editorial side-by-side
Openfire
2.5COMMS
Openfire keeps its XMPP server current without changing what it is.
◆ Current state
Openfire ships a maintenance release every one to two months, each a mix of dependency upgrades, MUC and pubsub correctness fixes, and occasional security hardening. 5.1.2 follows that shape exactly: Jetty, log4j2, and the PostgreSQL driver moved forward, three inapplicable Tomcat CVEs suppressed, and a set of MUC self-ping errors corrected to return the right XMPP error types. The last release with real feature content was 5.1.0 in June, which added channel binding and an admin console for failed server-to-server connections.
◆ Where it's heading
The project's direction is protocol conformance and operational currency rather than new capability. Recent cycles have gone into XEP compliance details - self-ping error semantics, XEP-0398 presence handling, base64 whitespace tolerance - and into keeping the dependency tree clean enough to pass a scanner. That is a reasonable posture for infrastructure a decade into deployment, and nothing in the last six releases suggests a change of scope.
◆ Prediction
Expect the same cadence: another patch in four to eight weeks carrying library bumps and MUC or pubsub conformance fixes, with anything larger held for a 5.2 line.
Revolt
2.5COMMS
Revolt swaps Tenor for its own Gifbox, pulling GIF delivery in-house.
◆ Current state
Revolt is an open-source, self-hostable chat platform competing in the Discord-alternative space. The one visible release, v0.13.8, replaces Tenor (Google's GIF service) with Gifbox, a GIF platform the project now runs itself. With only a single changelog entry available, the broader release cadence isn't observable from this data.
◆ Where it's heading
Owning the GIF layer instead of leaning on Tenor fits the pattern of a self-hosting-first project reducing third-party and Google dependencies. It points toward more of the messaging stack being brought under the project's own control over time.
◆ Prediction
Expect follow-up work hardening Gifbox (search quality, content moderation, self-host configuration). With only one entry visible, anything beyond that is unclear from the available data.
Alternatives to Openfire and Revolt
Other Comms products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Openfire or Revolt.
Proton Bridge
Proton Bridge spends its first release in ten weeks on crashes, memory bounds and dead code
Stalwart
Stalwart is chasing mail RFCs and its own storage layer at the same time
Mux
Every manual control Mux ships now arrives with a Robots workflow that does it for you
Netcore Cloud
Netcore's feed remains a demand-generation channel; ten entries, zero product releases.
mailcow
mailcow's release notes are almost entirely upstream security currency.
See all Openfire alternatives → · See all Revolt alternatives →
Recent activity from Openfire and Revolt
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2d agoOpenfireOpenfire 5.1.2: MUC self-ping errors and library upgrades
- 1mo agoOpenfireOpenfire 5.1.1: MUC and pubsub subscription fixes
- 1mo agoRevoltReplaces Tenor with in-house Gifbox GIF platform
- 2mo agoOpenfireChannel binding support and S2S connection diagnostics
- 3mo agoOpenfireOpenfire 5.0.5: dependency currency and logging fixes
- 5mo agoOpenfireFixes high CPU from exception-based control flow
- 8mo agoOpenfireOpenfire 5.0.3: driver upgrades and MUC fixes
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Openfire and Revolt?
Both compete on the same themes — self-hosted — within Comms. Openfire and Revolt are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 2.5 vs 2.5, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Openfire better than Revolt?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Openfire and Revolt are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 2.5 vs 2.5, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Comms products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Openfire?
Top Openfire alternatives in Comms are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Openfire alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/openfire for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Revolt?
Top Revolt alternatives in Comms are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Revolt alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/revolt for the full list with editorial commentary on each.