Public Homeservers

The requirement regarding matrix.org blacklists will be suspended for currently listed homeservers until Friday, February 11, 2022.

List of public Matrix homeservers

This is a list of public Matrix homeservers as compiled by the author of this guide. Support for this list is provided at #public_servers:tchncs.de. Remember:

For long-term usage, choose a homeserver that you trust, is properly federated, has a high version number, has an environment suitable to your use, and is designed to last.
Any homeserver you choose gets to access all the unencrypted data about your account!
It bears reminding that all participants of public discourse should foster a respectful environment, and that homeserver operators should discourage disruptive behaviour. As such, this list excludes homeservers that are known to harbour bad actors. Refer to Criteria.

Disclaimer:

Inclusion does NOT imply any opinion (affiliation, endorsement, etc.) on individual homeservers, nor any guarantee regarding their availability.
This list is provided “as is.” Any dispute regarding your account on one of the homeservers should be resolved between you and the operator(s) of the homeserver.

See Legends for column explanations.

Open registration

Alphabetically-ordered by the homeserver name.

Homeserver name	Jurisdiction (and Server location)	Rules	Privacy Policy	Privacy concerns	Note	Registration method	Version
0wnz.at	Austria	No	No	reCaptcha; Email		In-house Element	1.49.2
activism.international	Germany	Yes	Yes		Left-wing; accounts serve as SSO for other services	In-house Element	1.50.1
alpenbunker.ch	Switzerland	No	No			In-house Element	1.51.0
altertek.org	France	Yes	Sort of			`matrix.altertek.org`	1.49.0
antifash.gay	US?	No	No		Left-wing	`antifash.gay`	1.30.1
arcticfoxes.net	US (UK)	Sort of	Sort of	reCaptcha		In-house Element	1.50.2
aria-net.org	Italy?	Yes	Yes	reCaptcha; Email	Throwaway email addresses forbidden	In-house Element	1.51.0 (b=aria-net)
arrayinamatrix.xyz	Canada	Yes	Yes		Residential	In-house Element	Error!!
asozial.org	Germany	No	No		In German; left-wing	In-house Element	Dendrite 0.5.1+e81ef164
asra.gr	Germany	Yes	No		18+; CCC-oriented	See here	1.51.0
awau.uk	UK (Germany)	No	Unclear	Cloudflare		In-house Element	1.51.0
bachgau.social	Germany	Yes	Yes		In German; region-specific	In-house Element	1.51.0
badstuebner.biz	Germany	No	Unclear		In German	In-house Element	1.49.2
baytech.community	Estonia (Switzerland)	No	No	Email	Accessory	`baytech.community`	Error!!
bdsm2.pl	Poland? (Sweden)	No	No		BDSM-oriented (implies 18+)	See here	Dendrite 0.5.1+16035b97
buyvm.net	US	No	No	reCaptcha	Accessory	In-house Element	1.50.2
catgirl.cloud	Germany	Sort of	Yes			In-house Element	1.51.0
chatcloud.net	Austria (Germany)	Yes	Yes	Web analytics; reCaptcha; Email	Relationship-oriented?	In-house Element	1.49.0
chrrreeeeesss.com	US	No	No	reCaptcha		In-house Element	1.50.2
club1.fr	France	No	No	reCaptcha; Email¹	In French	See info page	1.51.0
community.rs	US	No	No	Cloudflare		In-house Element	1.47.1
converser.eu	France	No	No		In French	See info page	1.49.0
crossbach.de	Germany	No	Yes		In German	In-house Element	1.50.1
cubebuilder.me	US?	Yes	No			See info page	1.49.2
cuum.space	Poland?	Sort of	No		NSFW-inclined	In-house Element	1.51.0
dalek.zone	Germany?	No	No			In-house Element	Error!!
danskungdom.dk	Denmark (Germany)	No	No		In Danish	In-house Element	1.41.1
dark.fi	Germany?	No	No		Accessory; crypto	In-house Element	1.45.1
das-labor.org	Germany	No	Sort of	Email	In German	In-house Element	1.51.0
davidberthel.de	Germany	No	Yes			In-house Element	1.51.0
decred.org	US?	No	No		Accessory; crypto	In-house Element	1.51.0
demoicracy.org	US?	Sort of	No		Diversity-oriented	In-house Element	1.39.0
disrule.org	? (Romania)	Yes	No		Left-wing	In-house Element	Error!!
e2e.zone	Germany?	No	No			In-house Element	1.49.2
egora.org	Finland?	No	No		Right-wing / libertarian-oriented	See here	1.34.0
envs.net	Germany	CoC and ToS	Yes	Email		In-house Element	1.51.0
erfurt.chat	Germany	No	Yes		In German; region-specific	In-house Element	1.0.0
exarius.org	France	No	Sort of			See info page	1.47.1
filik.eu	Czech Republic	No	No	reCaptcha or SSO²; Email		`chat.filik.eu`	Error!!
freiburg.social	Germany	Yes	Yes	Email	In German; region-specific	In-house Element	1.51.0
freitrix.de	Germany	No	Yes	reCaptcha; Email¹	In German	In-house Element	1.51.0
fulda.social	Germany	No	No	reCaptcha		`matrix.fulda.social`	1.49.2
g24.at	Austria	No	No	reCaptcha; Email	In German; region-specific (Graz, Austria)	In-house Element	1.50.1
gemeinsam.jetzt	Austria	No	Yes	Email	In German; activism-oriented	In-house Element	1.50.1
glasgow.social	UK	No	No	AWS; Email	Region-specific	See info page	1.46.0
grin.hu	Hungary	No	No	reCaptcha; Email		In-house Element	1.49.2
inetd.xyz	Netherlands	Sort of	Same as matrix.org	reCaptcha		In-house Element	1.51.0
jonasled.de	Germany	No	No	reCaptcha; Email	In German	`jonasled.de`	1.51.0
jupiterbroadcasting.com	US?	No	No		Accessory	See info page	1.47.1
kreatea.space	Turkey (Germany)	Yes	No			`matrix.kreatea.space`	1.51.0
ladiv.org	Switzerland	No	No		Residential?	In-house Element	1.50.1
liberta.casa	Germany?	Yes	No			In-house Element	1.47.1
libre.re	France	No	No		In French	In-house Element	1.48.0
librem.one	US	No	Unclear	Email		SSO	1.38.1
librosphere.org	France	No	No		In French	See info page	1.47.1
magaya.org	Australia	No	No			In-house Element	1.49.2
magdeburg.jetzt	Germany	Yes	Yes	Email	In German; region-specific	SSO	1.47.1
mailstation.de	Germany	CoC and ToS of matrix.org	No	reCaptcha		`mailstation.de`	1.49.2
mandragot.org	France?	No	No		In French	See info page	1.49.0
matrix.im	Germany	No	Yes	reCaptcha	In German	`matrix.im`	1.51.0
melroy.org	Netherlands	No	No	reCaptcha	Accessory	`melroy.org`	1.49.2
milkte.ch	Switzerland?	Yes	Yes			`matrix.milkte.ch`	Error!!
mint.lgbt	US?	Yes	Yes	Email	Left-wing	In-house Element	1.50.1
monero.social	US	Yes	No		18+; accessory; crypto	See info page	1.51.0
mtrx.nz	New Zealand	No	No	Email		In-house Element	1.51.0
mux.re	France?	No	No	reCaptcha	In French	In-house Element	1.50.1
nexunity.org	Germany	No	No			In-house Element	1.46.0
nibbana.jp	Japan	No	No		Oriented towards Japanese culture	In-house Element	1.51.0
nitro.chat	Germany	No	Yes	reCaptcha		In-house Element	1.51.0
nixbitcoin.org	Germany?	No	No	Email	Accessory; crypto	In-house Element	1.49.2
nltrix.net	Netherlands	Yes	Yes	Email	In Dutch	In-house Element	1.51.0
noagenda.chat	US?	No	No	reCaptcha		In-house Element	1.49.2
nolog.chat	Czech Republic	No	No		Left-wing	In-house Element	1.48.0
oblak.be	Germany?	Sort of	Sort of		SSO does not work	In-house Element	1.46.0
ohai.su	Germany	No	No	reCaptcha; Email		In-house Element	1.51.0
okash.it	US?	No	No	Email		In-house Element	1.48.0
ombreport.info	France?	No	No	reCaptcha	In French	In-house Element	1.51.0
pcriot.org	Germany?	No	No	reCaptcha; Email		In-house Element	1.49.2
perthchat.org	Australia	No	No	reCaptcha	Region-specific	In-house Element	Error!!
pettybickering.ca	Canada	No	No		Residential?	In-house Element	1.34.0
phillymesh.net	US	No	No		Accessory	In-house Element	1.38.0
planetdecred.org	US?	No	No	AWS	Accessory; crypto	In-house Element	1.51.0
poenisch.info	Germany	No	Unclear			See info page	1.24.0
privex.io	Belize? (Sweden)	No	No	reCaptcha	Accessory	In-house Element	1.47.0
pub.solar	Germany	No	Yes	Email		In-house Element	1.50.1
pwoss.org	US	Unclear	Unclear			In-house Element	1.50.1
qoto.org	US?	Yes	No	AWS	³	In-house Element	1.45.1
radicle.community	Switzerland	No	No		Accessory	In-house Element	1.48.0
renaissancemen.xyz	Germany?	Unclear	No		Catholicism-oriented	In-house Element	Error!!
ru-matrix.org	Russia	No	No	reCaptcha; Email	In Russian	In-house Element	1.51.0
rumatrix.org	Russia (Netherlands)	No	No		In Russian	`rumatrix.org`	1.50.1
scyldings.com	UK? (US)	No	No	reCaptcha		In-house Element	1.48.0
sene.ovh	France?	No	No		In French	In-house Element	1.50.2
socialnetwork24.com	Germany	No	No	Email¹	In German	In-house Element	1.50.1
studichat.de	Germany	No	No	Email	In German; student-oriented	In-house Element	1.51.0
sudo.is	Germany	No	No	Email		In-house Element	1.50.1
synod.im	Germany	Yes	Yes	Email¹	In German	In-house Element	1.50.2
tauasul.net	? (Germany)	No	No		In Arabic	`tauasul.net`	0.24.1
tchncs.de	Germany	Yes	Yes	reCaptcha; Email	Only stores messages for a year	In-house Element	1.50.2
techsaviours.org	Germany	Yes	Yes	Email		In-house Element	1.50.1
tedomum.net	France	Yes	Yes	Email	In French	SSO	1.51.0
the-apothecary.club	Germany?	Yes	No		Left-wing	In-house Element	1.50.1
trygve.me	Norway	No	No		In Norwegian	In-house Element	1.50.2
ungleich.ch	Switzerland	No	Unclear	Email		SSO	1.47.0
unredacted.org	US (Romania)	No	No	reCaptcha		In-house Element	1.48.0
utc.chat	China? (US)	No	No	Google Cloud	In Chinese; crypto	In-house Element	1.51.0
utwente.io	Netherlands	Yes	Yes	Email	Region-specific	In-house Element	1.50.2
virto.community	? (Germany)	No	No		Accessory; crypto	In-house Element	1.48.0
yatrix.org	Germany	No	No		In German	See here	Error!!
zinz.dev	France	No	No		In French	See info page	1.48.0

Conditional registration

Servers with technical restrictions first, then servers that require manual approval, and finally servers that require payment. Within each type, the servers are listed in alphabetically order by the homeserver name.

Homeserver name	Jurisdiction (and Server location)	Rules	Privacy Policy	Note	Registration method	Version
fachschaften.org	Germany	No	Yes	In German; requires a German university email address	SSO	1.51.0
pikaviestin.fi	Finland	Sort of	Yes	In Finnish; requires a Finnish email address	SSO	1.50.1
aletheia.moe	Iceland?	Yes	Yes		Contact	1.51.0
bitma.st	US	Yes	Yes		Contact	1.47.1
deuxfleurs.fr	France	No	No	In French	Contact	1.50.2
hingst.net	Sweden	Yes	Yes	In Swedish	Contact	1.50.1
libreon.fr	France	Yes	Yes	In French	Contact	1.49.2
hadoly.fr	France	Yes	No	In French	Membership (7~25€)	1.49.2
sans-nuage.fr	France	No	No	In French	Membership (15€)	1.42.0

Email address is said to be optional for registration, but is actually required. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
No reCaptcha needed if using SSO, but email address is used as MXID username (eg. @bob=40example.com:filik.eu). ↩
The rules for their Mastodon instance (which are believed to apply to the Matrix homeserver as well) states that a user “must be […] a S.T.E.M. student or professional to join,” however the operator’s stance is that the rule is only enforced on users who “appear to be anti-STEM” such as promoting anti-science conspiracy theories. ↩

Why?

Ideally you would host your own homeserver, but not everyone has the means… Anyway, you should use a homeserver other than the default matrix.org because…

It is overloaded at times, and
If everyone continues to register on the same homeserver, then it will become more centralized, thus shifting away from the original goal of Matrix.

Note for Homeserver Owners

Admins of listed homeservers are recommended to implement MSC1929 and/or join #alladmins:grin.hu.

Criteria

The absolute criteria are:

The homeserver is intended for public registration.
- Generally, inclusion is based on either my interpretation of information about the homeserver, or explicit consent from the homeserver operator(s).
- Homeservers that grant accounts on approval must have such process accessible to the general public.
The homeserver name must be a second-level domain (so example.com is acceptable, but matrix.example.com is not).
The homeserver does not operate through a free TLD, specifically those offered by Freenom (due to risks of takeover by fraudulent entities).
The homeserver is neither matrix.org nor operated by Element Matrix Services (previously known as Modular).
The homeserver does not have an ongoing Mjolnir server ban (m.room.rule.server) on:
- #matrix-org-coc-bl:matrix.org: matrix.org Code of Conduct ban list. It is used on many popular public rooms.
- #matrix-org-hs-tos-bl:matrix.org: matrix.org Homeserver Terms of Service ban list.

Some homeservers are excluded from this list on content grounds.

Legends

From left to right:

Homeserver name: This is the part that follows your username. For example, my ID is @austin:tchncs.de, where austin is my username and tchncs.de is the display name of the homeserver. See here for a technical explanation.
Jurisdiction (and Server location): The jurisdiction the homeserver is located within. The server location, if differs from the jurisdiction of the homeserver, is shown in the brackets. Note that generally, homeservers located in Germany are more actively moderated due to legal and social contexts.
Rules?: The existence of written rules/ToS for all users on the homeserver. Note that rules can only be considered if they apply to all activities (not just those in specific rooms) of a user, and if they are published in a webpage (including but not limited to /_matrix/consent). An “unclear” or “sort of” (colored yellow) means that the rules’ scope or wording is unclear.
Privacy Policy?: The existence of written privacy policy for all users on the homeserver. Generally, most parts of the “Understand how your data is used” notice apply network-wide. Note that a privacy policy can only be considered if it is explicitly applied to the Matrix homeserver, is published in a webpage (including but not limited to /_matrix/consent), and is not a copy of the aforementioned notice. An “unclear” or “sort of” (colored yellow) means the privacy policy’s scope or wording is unclear.
Privacy concerns?: Any remarks regarding the configuration of the homeserver that may be of concern for user privacy.
- “reCaptcha”: Registering on the homeserver requires filling out a Google reCaptcha. This does not apply to logins. Due to reCaptcha configurations, it may be necessary to register on the homeserver’s own Element client.
- “Email”: Registering on the homeserver requires an email address.
Note: Miscellaneous remarks. Note that a homeserver’s theme/orientation can sometimes be seen from the domain itself, in which case it will not be noted down here.
- Age restriction: Matrix is 16+. Homeservers that require users to be older are specified.
- “Accessory”: The homeserver is specifically intended for rooms related to the operator (usually a project), however the accounts can be used to access other federated rooms as well.
- “Residential”: The homeserver may be hosting on a residential internet connection.
- “…-oriented”: The homeserver is intended to serve the mentioned purpose.
- “…-inclined”: While the homeserver is not specifically intended to serve any purpose, it is nevertheless used for the mentioned purpose.
Registration method: Exact registration procedure. Those are tested (but not necessarily thoroughly) on the official Element web client and, in most cases, should work for other clients as well.
- “In-house Element”: You may register using the Element client hosted on the homeserver, which is linked. This is usually due to reCaptcha domain restriction.
- “See info page”: Refer to the page linked in the “server name” column.
- A domain: After clicking “Create Account” and “Edit,” enter the domain as specified in this column (without https://) to create an account on this homeserver. This discrepancy is usually due to the misconfiguration of .well-known.
- “SSO”: The homeserver requires single sign-on for authentication. You must create an account through the link prior to creating an account on the Matrix homeserver itself. Usually, the account can be used to access other services offered by the homeserver operator.
Version: The software version of the homeserver, updated daily by a GitHub Action.
- Unless indicated otherwise, the homeserver is running Synapse, where version >=1.47.1 (coloured green) is recommended to address a security issue. Homeservers running older versions are coloured yellow.
- Homeservers that use experimental implementations (ie. ones other than Synapse) are not coloured.
- “Error!!” (coloured red): The homeserver cannot be reached at the time of checking. This is usually occasional, as frequent downtime are grounds for exclusion from this list.

Other Matrix homeserver lists

asra.gr’s list: A raw dataset of homeservers that allows (but are not necessarily intended for) public registration.
German homeservers list: A list of homeservers hosted in Germany.

This list was originally located at AustinHuang.me.

This page is open source

Help improve its content by opening a Pull Request on GitHub.