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Comparison · Comms
Matrix vs Synapse
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Matrix and Synapse — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Matrix vs Synapse: at a glance
What is Matrix?
Matrix ships spec, not product — v1.19 restores encrypted history sharing
This feed is almost entirely This Week in Matrix, the project's community newsletter: Matrix Live episodes, meetups and workations, conference logistics, and a weekly roll of Matrix Spec Change proposals moving through the process. The one actual release in the window is Matrix 1.19, which merged six MSCs and landed encrypted room history sharing and custom emoji alongside smaller clarifications. Spec activity is steady, with roughly five to seven new MSCs proposed per week across moderation, push rules, sliding sync, and federation.
What is Synapse?
Synapse alternates release candidates with security patches on a tight two-week cycle
The feed is a straight release stream on a roughly two-week rhythm: a release candidate, a final, then point releases as needed. Recent substance sits in 1.157.0 — limits on scheduled delayed events, backward movement of fully read markers, time filters on the user-redaction admin API, and a configuration option to stop presence routing between users who merely share a room. 1.157.2 followed as a security release covering eleven advisories, six of them high severity.
Matrix vs Synapse: editorial side-by-side
Matrix
5.0COMMS
Matrix ships spec, not product — v1.19 restores encrypted history sharing
◆ Current state
This feed is almost entirely This Week in Matrix, the project's community newsletter: Matrix Live episodes, meetups and workations, conference logistics, and a weekly roll of Matrix Spec Change proposals moving through the process. The one actual release in the window is Matrix 1.19, which merged six MSCs and landed encrypted room history sharing and custom emoji alongside smaller clarifications. Spec activity is steady, with roughly five to seven new MSCs proposed per week across moderation, push rules, sliding sync, and federation.
◆ Where it's heading
Development here runs on protocol time rather than release time — three months between 1.18 and 1.19, with the intervening weeks visible as proposals rather than shipped features. The MSCs accumulating in the newsletter point at where the next releases go: moderation via policy servers, homeserver decentralisation, sliding sync extensions, and a global spec version scheme. Governance and community work occupy as much of the feed as engineering does.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next spec release in roughly a quarter, drawing from the moderation and sliding-sync MSCs currently in flight; the weekly newsletter will keep carrying proposals rather than shipped changes in between.
Synapse
5.0COMMS
Synapse alternates release candidates with security patches on a tight two-week cycle
◆ Current state
The feed is a straight release stream on a roughly two-week rhythm: a release candidate, a final, then point releases as needed. Recent substance sits in 1.157.0 — limits on scheduled delayed events, backward movement of fully read markers, time filters on the user-redaction admin API, and a configuration option to stop presence routing between users who merely share a room. 1.157.2 followed as a security release covering eleven advisories, six of them high severity.
◆ Where it's heading
Development is tracking the Matrix specification process rather than a product roadmap of its own — most features arrive as implementations of numbered MSCs, several contributed from outside. The operational theme underneath is load and blast radius: presence exclusion, caps on delayed events, and locked sliding-sync connections all reduce what a busy homeserver has to carry. Security handling is centralized and batched, shipped as one patch release rather than trickled out.
◆ Prediction
Expect 1.159.0 to follow its release candidate within roughly a week, continuing the MSC-implementation pattern. The recent removal of deprecated auth delegation suggests more cleanup of experimental configuration in the coming releases.
Alternatives to Matrix and Synapse
Other Comms products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Matrix or Synapse.
Canary Mail
Canary Mail ships maintenance across four platform lines; features have gone quiet since April.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is closing the gaps that used to require a support ticket
Beeper
Beeper stopped aggregating apps and started merging the people inside them.
Stalwart
Stalwart is shipping email's next-generation auth stack while the specs are still in draft.
Respond.io
respond.io is monetizing AI usage directly while putting an assistant that builds agents in every workspace.
See all Matrix alternatives → · See all Synapse alternatives →
Recent activity from Matrix and Synapse
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 10h agoSynapsev1.159.0rc1
- 4d agoMatrixMatrix Live on Continuwuity; local-first Matrix talk published
- 7d agoSynapsev1.158.0
- 11d agoMatrixCommunity workation in Krems set for 22 August to 13 September
- 12d agoSynapsev1.158.0rc1
- 14d agoSynapsev1.157.2
- 18d agoMatrixMatrix Live: Homeserver Decentralisation Working Group
- 20d agoSynapsev1.157.1
- 21d agoSynapsev1.157.0
- 25d agoMatrixWeekly spec update: seven new MSCs, global spec versioning
- 1mo agoMatrixWeekly spec update: moderation policy servers, rooms as pages
- 1mo agoMatrixMatrix 1.19 adds encrypted history sharing and custom emoji
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Matrix and Synapse?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Matrix and Synapse are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 5.0 vs 5.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Matrix better than Synapse?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Matrix and Synapse are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 5.0 vs 5.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Comms products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Matrix?
Top Matrix alternatives in Comms are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Matrix alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/matrix for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Synapse?
Top Synapse alternatives in Comms are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Synapse alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/synapse for the full list with editorial commentary on each.