harnessvsSimpleX Chat
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| harness | SimpleX Chat | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 80/100 | 74/100 |
| Rank in category | #3 of 28 in CI/CD | #4 of 110 in Chat |
| GitHub stars | 38 746 | 19 613 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +319 | +143 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 6 | 12 |
| Latest release | v2.28.2 · 20 Apr 2026 | v7.0.4 · 3 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Easy | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | Yes | Yes |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Main language | Go | Haskell |
Which one should you pick?
harness scores 80/100 against 74/100 for SimpleX Chat, so it is the safer default.
SimpleX Chat ships more often: 12 stable releases in the past year, against 6 for harness.
If you want the quickest setup, harness is easier to run; SimpleX Chat needs more configuration.
harness is growing faster right now (+319 stars in 30 days).
harness details →SimpleX Chat details →