What is Tuwunel used for?

Tuwunel is a high-performance Matrix homeserver written in Rust, offered as a Synapse alternative and the official successor to conduwuit. It is a good fit for self-hosting a Matrix server with low resource use and replacing Synapse for a community or company.

Is Tuwunel open source?

Yes. Tuwunel is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at matrix-construct/tuwunel and is written mainly in Rust.

Yes. Tuwunel is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Tuwunel?

Yes. Tuwunel can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Tuwunel an alternative to?

Tuwunel is an open-source alternative to Slack, WhatsApp and Discord. Other open-source alternatives to Slack include Element Android, Cinny and VoceChat.

Is Tuwunel actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Tuwunel was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.9.3, published on 25 September 2026. The project has 2.6k stars on GitHub.

Tuwunel: open-source alternative to Slack, WhatsApp, Discord

About Tuwunel

Tuwunel is a Matrix homeserver written entirely in Rust that you can use in place of Synapse with your favorite client, bridge, or bot. It aims to be scalable, low-cost, enterprise-ready, and community-driven, and implements the Matrix specification for everything except the most niche uses. It is released under the Apache-2.0 license.

The project is the official successor to conduwuit, which reached stability, and its topics mention Conduit and RocksDB. According to the README, many companies with an interest in its development now support it with full-time staff, and it is primarily sponsored by the Swiss government, where it is deployed for citizens.

You can get it from GitHub releases, build it from source, or pull a Docker image from Docker Hub. It suits individuals, communities, and organizations that want to run their own Matrix server with lower resource use than heavier implementations, and that need federation with the wider Matrix network.

Key features

Full-featured Matrix homeserver
Written entirely in Rust
Works with existing Matrix clients, bridges, and bots
Docker image and release binaries
RocksDB storage backend
Successor to conduwuit

Good fit for

→Self-hosting a Matrix server with low resource use
→Replacing Synapse for a community or company

Built with: Rust
Tags: matrix; homeserver; chat; rust; federation; self-hosted; messaging; synapse-alternative

Tuwunel: questions and answers

What is Tuwunel used for?: Tuwunel is a high-performance Matrix homeserver written in Rust, offered as a Synapse alternative and the official successor to conduwuit. It is a good fit for self-hosting a Matrix server with low resource use and replacing Synapse for a community or company.
Is Tuwunel open source?: Yes. Tuwunel is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at matrix-construct/tuwunel and is written mainly in Rust.
Is Tuwunel free?: Yes. Tuwunel is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Tuwunel?: Yes. Tuwunel can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Tuwunel an alternative to?: Tuwunel is an open-source alternative to Slack, WhatsApp and Discord. Other open-source alternatives to Slack include Element Android, Cinny and VoceChat.
Is Tuwunel actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Tuwunel was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.9.3, published on 25 September 2026. The project has 2.6k stars on GitHub.