How to Self-Host Snikket: Private XMPP Messaging 2026

TL;DR

Snikket (Apache 2.0) is a batteries-included XMPP server distribution based on Prosody — the battle-tested XMPP server in Lua. Snikket removes all the complexity of configuring XMPP: it comes with automatic TLS, invite-based registration, and officially maintained iOS and Android apps. Share encrypted messages, voice calls, video calls, and files with friends and family — all on your own server. No phone number required, no telemetry, no ads.

Key Takeaways

• Snikket: Apache 2.0, Prosody-based — opinionated, easy XMPP deployment
• XMPP protocol: Open standard — federates with other XMPP servers worldwide
• Invite-only: Users join via invite links you generate — no open registration
• End-to-end encryption: OMEMO E2E encryption in all supported clients
• Apps: Official Snikket iOS and Android apps; also compatible with Conversations (Android) and Siskin IM (iOS)
• Calls: Voice and video calls via XMPP Jingle (no third-party server)

---

Snikket vs Signal vs Telegram vs Matrix

Feature	Snikket	Signal	Telegram	Matrix
Self-hosted	Yes	No	No	Yes
Open protocol	XMPP	Open source	MTProto	Matrix
E2E encrypted	Yes (OMEMO)	Yes (always)	Opt-in	Yes (E2EE rooms)
Federation	Yes (XMPP)	No	No	Yes
Phone number required	No	Yes	Yes	No
Voice/video calls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Group calls	Basic	Yes	Yes	Yes
Server required	Yes (yours)	Signal's	Telegram's	Yes (yours)
RAM (idle)	~100MB	—	—	~1GB+

---

Server Requirements

• Domain: A dedicated domain or subdomain (e.g., chat.yourdomain.com)
• DNS: Specific SRV records required for federation
• Ports: 80, 443 (HTTPS), 5222 (XMPP client), 5269 (XMPP federation), and STUN/TURN ports for calls
• RAM: ~100–200MB

---

Part 1: DNS Setup

Snikket requires several DNS records:

# A records:
chat.yourdomain.com.     A     your-server-ip
groups.chat.yourdomain.com.  A  your-server-ip
share.chat.yourdomain.com.   A  your-server-ip

# SRV records for XMPP:
_xmpp-client._tcp.chat.yourdomain.com.  SRV  5 0 5222 chat.yourdomain.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.chat.yourdomain.com.  SRV  5 0 5269 chat.yourdomain.com.
_xmpps-client._tcp.chat.yourdomain.com. SRV  5 0 5223 chat.yourdomain.com.
_xmpps-server._tcp.chat.yourdomain.com. SRV  5 0 5270 chat.yourdomain.com.

---

Part 2: Docker Setup

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  snikket:
    image: snikket/snikket-server:latest
    container_name: snikket
    restart: unless-stopped
    network_mode: host    # Required for SRV record routing
    volumes:
      - snikket_data:/snikket
    env_file:
      - snikket.conf

volumes:
  snikket_data:

# snikket.conf
SNIKKET_DOMAIN=chat.yourdomain.com
SNIKKET_ADMIN_EMAIL=admin@yourdomain.com

# TURN server for calls (optional but recommended for external calls):
# SNIKKET_TWEAK_TURN_ENABLED=true

docker compose up -d

Snikket automatically provisions Let's Encrypt certificates for all required subdomains.

---

Part 3: Create Your Admin Account

After startup, create the initial admin invite:

# Create an admin invite:
docker exec snikket snikket-invite admin

# Output: https://chat.yourdomain.com/invites/abc123def456

Open this URL in a browser → download the Snikket app → scan the QR code to join.

---

Part 4: Invite Users

# Create single invite:
docker exec snikket snikket-invite create

# Create bulk invites:
docker exec snikket snikket-invite create-bulk 10

# Create group invite (for a specific channel):
docker exec snikket snikket-invite create --group family-group

Each invite is a URL that creates an account when opened in the Snikket app.

---

Part 5: Client Apps

Official Snikket App (Recommended)

• iOS: Snikket on App Store (free)
• Android: Snikket on F-Droid / Play Store (free)

1. Open the invite link on your phone
2. App opens automatically and creates your account
3. Start messaging

Third-Party XMPP Clients

Snikket is standard XMPP — any XMPP client works:

Platform	Client	Notes
Android	Conversations	Best third-party Android XMPP client
iOS	Siskin IM	Feature-rich XMPP for iOS
macOS	Beagle IM	Native macOS
Windows/Linux	Gajim	Desktop XMPP client
Web	Converse.js	Browser-based XMPP

Connect with:

• Server: chat.yourdomain.com
• Username: yourname@chat.yourdomain.com
• Password: set during invite registration

---

Part 6: Group Chats (Multi-User Chat)

Create a persistent group chat room:

# Create a group:
docker exec snikket snikket-group create family

# The group JID is: family@groups.chat.yourdomain.com

In the Snikket app → Channels → Join → enter the group JID.

Or invite directly:

# Create invite that auto-joins a group:
docker exec snikket snikket-invite create --group family
# Share this invite link — recipients join both the server and the group

---

Part 7: File Sharing

Snikket includes HTTP file upload (share.chat.yourdomain.com):

• Files and images are uploaded to your server
• Share links in chat
• Configurable file size limit and retention period

# snikket.conf additions:
SNIKKET_TWEAK_SHARE_MAX_SIZE=10485760    # 10MB max file size
SNIKKET_TWEAK_SHARE_EXPIRE_DAYS=30      # Files auto-delete after 30 days

---

Part 8: Federation with Other XMPP Servers

XMPP is a federated protocol — your users can message anyone on any XMPP server:

your-user@chat.yourdomain.com → friend@jabber.org
your-user@chat.yourdomain.com → colleague@another-xmpp-server.com

No extra configuration needed — federation works automatically via the SRV DNS records.

Public XMPP servers your users can contact:

• jabber.org
• conversations.im
• movim.eu

---

Part 9: Monitoring and Admin

# View current users:
docker exec snikket snikket-user list

# View active sessions:
docker exec snikket prosodyctl status

# Check certificate status:
docker exec snikket snikket-certs status

# Renew certificates manually:
docker exec snikket snikket-certs renew

# Server stats:
docker exec snikket prosodyctl mod_measure dump

---

Maintenance

# Update:
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

# Backup:
tar -czf snikket-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz \
  $(docker volume inspect snikket_snikket_data --format '{{.Mountpoint}}')

# Restore:
docker compose down
# Restore volume data
docker compose up -d

Why Self-Host Snikket?

The case for self-hosting Snikket comes down to three practical factors: data ownership, cost at scale, and operational control.

Data ownership is the fundamental argument. When you use a SaaS version of any tool, your data lives on someone else's infrastructure subject to their terms of service, their security practices, and their business continuity. If the vendor raises prices, gets acquired, changes API limits, or shuts down, you're left scrambling. Self-hosting Snikket means your data and configuration stay on infrastructure you control — whether that's a VPS, a bare metal server, or a home lab.

Cost at scale matters once you move beyond individual use. Most SaaS equivalents charge per user or per data volume. A self-hosted instance on a $10-20/month VPS typically costs less than per-user SaaS pricing for teams of five or more — and the cost doesn't scale linearly with usage. One well-configured server handles dozens of users for a flat monthly fee.

Operational control is the third factor. The Docker Compose configuration above exposes every setting that commercial equivalents often hide behind enterprise plans: custom networking, environment variables, storage backends, and authentication integrations. You decide when to update, how to configure backups, and what access controls to apply.

The honest tradeoff: you're responsible for updates, backups, and availability. For teams running any production workloads, this is familiar territory. For individuals, the learning curve is real but the tooling (Docker, Caddy, automated backups) is well-documented and widely supported.

Server Requirements and Sizing

Before deploying Snikket, assess your server capacity against expected workload.

Minimum viable setup: A 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM VPS with 20GB SSD is sufficient for personal use or small teams. Most consumer VPS providers — Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr — offer machines in this range for $5-10/month. Hetzner offers excellent price-to-performance for European and US regions.

Recommended production setup: 2 vCPUs with 4GB RAM and 40GB SSD handles most medium deployments without resource contention. This gives Snikket headroom for background tasks, caching, and concurrent users while leaving capacity for other services on the same host.

Storage planning: The Docker volumes in this docker-compose.yml store all persistent Snikket data. Estimate your storage growth rate early — for data-intensive tools, budget for 3-5x your initial estimate. Hetzner Cloud and Vultr both support online volume resizing without stopping your instance.

Operating system: Any modern 64-bit Linux distribution works. Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Debian 12 are the most commonly tested configurations. Ensure Docker Engine 24.0+ and Docker Compose v2 are installed — verify with docker --version and docker compose version. Avoid Docker Desktop on production Linux servers; it adds virtualization overhead and behaves differently from Docker Engine in ways that cause subtle networking issues.

Network: Only ports 80 and 443 need to be publicly accessible when running behind a reverse proxy. Internal service ports should be bound to localhost only. A minimal UFW firewall that blocks all inbound traffic except SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS is the single most effective security measure for a self-hosted server.

Backup and Disaster Recovery

Running Snikket without a tested backup strategy is an unacceptable availability risk. Docker volumes are not automatically backed up — if you delete a volume or the host fails, data is gone with no recovery path.

What to back up: The named Docker volumes containing Snikket's data (database files, user uploads, application state), your docker-compose.yml and any customized configuration files, and .env files containing secrets.

Backup approach: For simple setups, stop the container, archive the volume contents, then restart. For production environments where stopping causes disruption, use filesystem snapshots or database dump commands (PostgreSQL pg_dump, SQLite .backup, MySQL mysqldump) that produce consistent backups without downtime.

For a complete automated backup workflow that ships snapshots to S3-compatible object storage, see the Restic + Rclone backup guide. Restic handles deduplication and encryption; Rclone handles multi-destination uploads. The same setup works for any Docker volume.

Backup cadence: Daily backups to remote storage are a reasonable baseline for actively used tools. Use a 30-day retention window minimum — long enough to recover from mistakes discovered weeks later. For critical data, extend to 90 days and use a secondary destination.

Restore testing: A backup that has never been restored is a backup you cannot trust. Once a month, restore your Snikket backup to a separate Docker Compose stack on different ports and verify the data is intact. This catches silent backup failures, script errors, and volume permission issues before they matter in a real recovery.

Security Hardening

Self-hosting means you are responsible for Snikket's security posture. The Docker Compose setup provides a functional base; production deployments need additional hardening.

Always use a reverse proxy: Never expose Snikket's internal port directly to the internet. The docker-compose.yml binds to localhost; Caddy or Nginx provides HTTPS termination. Direct HTTP access transmits credentials in plaintext. A reverse proxy also centralizes TLS management, rate limiting, and access logging.

Strong credentials: Change default passwords immediately after first login. For secrets in docker-compose environment variables, generate random values with openssl rand -base64 32 rather than reusing existing passwords.

Firewall configuration:

ufw default deny incoming
ufw allow 22/tcp
ufw allow 80/tcp
ufw allow 443/tcp
ufw enable

Internal service ports (databases, admin panels, internal APIs) should only be reachable from localhost or the Docker network, never directly from the internet.

Network isolation: Docker Compose named networks keep Snikket's services isolated from other containers on the same host. Database containers should not share networks with containers that don't need direct database access.

VPN access for sensitive services: For internal-only tools, restricting access to a VPN adds a strong second layer. Headscale is an open source Tailscale control server that puts your self-hosted stack behind a WireGuard mesh, eliminating public internet exposure for internal tools.

Update discipline: Subscribe to Snikket's GitHub releases page to receive security advisory notifications. Schedule a monthly maintenance window to pull updated images. Running outdated container images is the most common cause of self-hosted service compromises.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Container exits immediately or won't start

Check logs first — they almost always explain the failure:

docker compose logs -f snikket

Common causes: a missing required environment variable, a port already in use, or a volume permission error. Port conflicts appear as bind: address already in use. Find the conflicting process with ss -tlpn | grep PORT and either stop it or change Snikket's port mapping in docker-compose.yml.

Cannot reach the web interface

Work through this checklist:

1. Confirm the container is running: docker compose ps
2. Test locally on the server: curl -I http://localhost:PORT
3. If local access works but external doesn't, check your firewall: ufw status
4. If using a reverse proxy, verify it's running and the config is valid: caddy validate --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

Permission errors on volume mounts

Some containers run as a non-root user. If the Docker volume is owned by root, the container process cannot write to it. Find the volume's host path with docker volume inspect VOLUME_NAME, check the tool's documentation for its expected UID, and apply correct ownership:

chown -R 1000:1000 /var/lib/docker/volumes/your_volume/_data

High resource usage over time

Memory or CPU growing continuously usually indicates unconfigured log rotation, an unbound cache, or accumulated data needing pruning. Check current usage with docker stats snikket. Add resource limits in docker-compose.yml to prevent one container from starving others. For ongoing visibility into resource trends, deploy Prometheus + Grafana or Netdata.

Data disappears after container restart

Data stored in the container's writable layer — rather than a named volume — is lost when the container is removed or recreated. This happens when the volume mount path in docker-compose.yml doesn't match where the application writes data. Verify mount paths against the tool's documentation and correct the mapping. Named volumes persist across container removal; only docker compose down -v deletes them.

Keeping Snikket Updated

Snikket follows a regular release cadence. Staying current matters for security patches and compatibility. The update process with Docker Compose is straightforward:

docker compose pull          # Download updated images
docker compose up -d         # Restart with new images
docker image prune -f        # Remove old image layers (optional)

Read the changelog before major version updates. Some releases include database migrations or breaking configuration changes. For major version bumps, test in a staging environment first — run a copy of the service on different ports with the same volume data to validate the migration before touching production.

Version pinning: For stability, pin to a specific image tag in docker-compose.yml instead of latest. Update deliberately after reviewing the changelog. This trades automatic patch delivery for predictable behavior — the right call for business-critical services.

Post-update verification: After updating, confirm Snikket is functioning correctly. Most services expose a /health endpoint that returns HTTP 200 — curl it from the server or monitor it with your uptime tool.

---

See all open source privacy and messaging tools at OSSAlt.com/categories/messaging.