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ElementvsTidal Echo

Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.

ElementTidal Echo
Score76/10047/100
Rank in category#2 of 13 in Instant Messaging#61 of 110 in Chat
GitHub stars13 621329
Stars, last 30 days+119—
Stable releases, 12 months180
Latest releasev1.12.33 · 27 Oct 2026—
SetupModerateAdvanced
Official Docker imageYesNo
LicenseAGPL-3.0AGPL-3.0
Main languageTypescriptHTML

Which one should you pick?

Element scores 76/100 against 47/100 for Tidal Echo, so it is the safer default.

Element ships more often: 18 stable releases in the past year, against 0 for Tidal Echo.

If you want the quickest setup, Element is easier to run; Tidal Echo needs more configuration.

Element is growing faster right now (+119 stars in 30 days).

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