There seem to be plentiful options for text chat servers, so I’m curious for those that self-host their own, what their preferences & experiences have been with them.
Also those mentioned in the title were just a few examples, if you run something else, e.g. Revolt or Mattermost or something else less popular, would be interested in reading about it!
I’m a big fan of Matrix, as it’s easily accessible from anywhere - plus I already have a server for it spun up going on two years now which makes it easier for me.
What’s the advantage of self hosting Matrix?
I can setup bridges, so I can communicate with any other messaging systems (whatsapp, discord) within matrix
Personally, its a combination of the following reasons:
I’m not held to another server, and self-hosting my own makes sure that whomever hosting the server doesn’t just close the doors one day and decide they’re no longer going to do so
I find it fun to setup my own services, like Matrix, Lemmy, Mastodon, etc
I control what servers are blocked / defederated from, from my knowledge though defederating on Matrix doesn’t happen nearly as often as it does for ActivityPub based platforms however.
I created Matrix accounts for some of my family members to communicate with, and if they lose the password I know that I can reset it for them rather than hoping they setup the account recovery info correctly.