ejabberd
Communication platform as a Service (cPaaS) platforms
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
Take the quiz to check if ejabberd and its alternatives fit your requirements.
€200 per month
Free Trial unavailable
Free version
Small
Medium
Large
- Information technology and software
- Media and communications
- Banking and insurance
What is ejabberd
ejabberd is an open-source, Erlang-based messaging server that implements XMPP and related real-time communication protocols. It is used by engineering teams to build and operate chat, presence, and publish/subscribe messaging for web and mobile applications, either self-hosted or via commercial support offerings. The product emphasizes standards-based interoperability, clustering for high concurrency, and extensibility through modules and APIs. It is commonly adopted when organizations want protocol control and on-premises or private-cloud deployment options rather than a fully managed messaging API service.
Standards-based XMPP foundation
ejabberd is built around XMPP, enabling federated messaging and interoperability with other XMPP-compliant clients and servers. This can reduce vendor lock-in compared with proprietary messaging APIs. It also supports common real-time features such as presence and roster management that are native to the protocol.
Scalable clustering architecture
ejabberd is designed for high concurrency and supports clustering to distribute load across nodes. This architecture fits use cases that require large numbers of concurrent connections and real-time fan-out patterns. It can be deployed in self-managed environments where teams need control over scaling and capacity planning.
Extensible via modules and APIs
The server supports modular extensions and provides administrative and integration interfaces (for example, HTTP-based APIs and server-to-server capabilities depending on configuration). This allows teams to tailor authentication, routing, and feature sets to application requirements. It is suitable for embedding into broader communication stacks where custom workflows are needed.
Not a turnkey CPaaS
ejabberd is primarily server software rather than a fully managed CPaaS with bundled channels, phone numbers, and usage-based messaging APIs. Teams typically need to design, host, monitor, and operate the service themselves or contract for commercial support. This increases time-to-production compared with managed communication platforms.
Requires specialized operations skills
Running ejabberd reliably at scale requires expertise in Erlang/OTP concepts, XMPP configuration, and distributed systems operations. Organizations without in-house experience may face a steeper learning curve for deployment, upgrades, and troubleshooting. Operational responsibilities such as security hardening and capacity management remain with the customer.
Feature set depends on protocol
Capabilities are strongly tied to XMPP and available extensions, which may not align with applications expecting modern, proprietary chat features out of the box. Some advanced messaging functions (for example, certain moderation, analytics, or multi-channel orchestration features) may require additional development or third-party components. Integration patterns can differ from API-first CPaaS products that provide unified SDKs across channels.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| ejabberd Community Edition (eCS) | Completely free (open-source, GPLv2) | Self-hosted community release; download and documentation available on the official ejabberd site. |
| ejabberd Business Edition (eBE) | Contact sales / Custom pricing | Enterprise LTS/supported edition with additional enterprise features (mobile enhancements, advanced clustering, monitoring); available on-premise or as a dedicated deployment — no public list price on vendor site. |
| Fluux (managed ejabberd by ProcessOne) — Emerging | €200 per month (starting) | Managed on shared servers, m.in-app.io domain, standard support, 1 node (no HA). |
| Fluux (managed) — Growing | €1,400 per month (starting) | Dedicated servers, custom domain, premium support, 2+ nodes with HA. |
| Fluux (managed) — Established | €6,000 per month (starting) | Dedicated servers, custom domain, corporate support with access to experts, 2+ nodes with HA. |
Additional Fluux stage pricing (per vendor page): Stage 1 €200; Stage 2 €500; Stage 3 €800; Stage 4 €1,400; Stage 5 €1,800; Stage 6 €2,200; Stage 7 €2,650; Stage 8 €3,100; Stage 9 €3,550; Stage 10 €4,000; Stage 11 €4,500; Stage 12 €5,000; Stage 13 €6,000; Stage 14 €8,000; Stage 15 €10,500 (see vendor pricing page for included "jabs" per stage and details).
Seller details
ProcessOne
Paris, France
2005
Private
https://www.process-one.net/en/ejabberd/
https://x.com/processone
https://www.linkedin.com/company/processone/
