Jabber / XMPP userbase and popularity

A bit of Jabber / XMPP statistics

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Jabber (now commonly referred to as XMPP) is an open-source communication protocol and suite of client applications that enable instant messaging, voice/video calls, conferencing, desktop sharing, and presence features for individuals and organizations.

Jabber’s open architecture and thriving ecosystem of clients and servers have helped maintain its relevance among privacy-minded users, enterprises, and technical communities.

XMPP_logo

Jabber utilizes XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol), originally developed for decentralized instant messaging. It empowers users to communicate securely across organizational boundaries, offering fast chat, group messaging, persistent chatrooms, high-quality voice/video, and seamless integration with other collaboration platforms.

XMPP Advantages

  • Open Standard and Extensibility: Jabber/XMPP is an open protocol, meaning anyone can develop compatible client or server software, fostering innovation and interoperability.
  • Privacy and Security: Strong encryption support (SSL/TLS, OTR) and decentralized architecture help protect user data and reduce reliance on centralized services.
  • Cross-platform and Device Support: Available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and web browsers, meeting diverse user needs.
  • Enterprise Features: Jabber clients like Cisco Jabber integrate telephony, conferencing, presence, and scheduling, boosting productivity in business environments.
  • Customization and Plugins: Many clients, such as Pidgin and Gajim, support plugins for enhanced functionality (social network integration, custom notifications, etc.).

Comparison: Jabber vs. Other Protocols

Protocol Architecture Encryption Platform Support Extensibility Example Clients
XMPP/Jabber Decentralized SSL/OTR All major OSes High Pidgin, Gajim, Conversations, Adium
Slack Centralized (cloud) TLS All major OSes Moderate Slack client
MS Teams Centralized (cloud) TLS All major OSes Low Teams client
Discord Centralized (cloud) TLS All major OSes Moderate Discord client

Popular Jabber / XMPP Client Applications

  • Pidgin: An established, multi-protocol client well-known for stability and plugin support.
  • Gajim: Full-featured, easy-to-use, with cross-platform compatibility.
  • Conversations: Highly reputable for Android, open-source, excellent security and XMPP feature support.
  • ChatSecure: iOS-focused, open-source, prioritizes strong encryption.
  • Adium: A popular Mac OS X multi-protocol IM client..
  • Cisco Jabber: Enterprise-grade, with advanced UC integration (voice, video, messaging).
  • Dino, Kaidan, Psi, Swift: Other well-established desktop options for privacy and flexibility.
  • mcabber and Profanity (Linux console): console-based clients.
  • Converse.js: a browser-based XMPP client.
  • Tigase clients (Stork IM, Beagle IM, Siskin IM): native clients optimized for Android, macOS, and iOS with rich features.
  • Xabber: available on Android and web.
  • Yaxim: an Android-based client.

Userbase and Adoption

Jabber/XMPP continues to enjoy a sizable global userbase rooted in both open communities and business environments. Individual servers vary from hundreds to thousands of active daily users, and enterprise deployments such as Cisco Jabber support millions of seats worldwide. The userbase is geographically distributed, with notable popularity among privacy advocates, tech professionals, and organizations requiring scalable, secure messaging.

Yearly active XMPP users

Around 2010 and till 2014 when Google Talk was in a full swing the XMPP userbase was relatively large mostly because of that. Then after a blip in 2014, yearly active XMPP users from 2015 to 2024 have shown modest but steady growth, characterized by the protocol’s appeal among privacy enthusiasts, open-source communities, and enterprises adopting self-hosted or federated messaging solutions. Direct source-by-source numbers remain scarce due to the decentralized nature of XMPP, but aggregated estimates from public community reports and technology analysts provide the following breakdown:

Global Jabber/XMPP users (2010–2023) — bottom-up estimate

How this is built: anchor points from large/public services that published concrete numbers (e.g., jabber.org & jabber.ru concurrent users) and ecosystem milestones (e.g., Gmail/Google Talk era and later de-federation), then interpolated as ranges to reflect decentralization & incomplete reporting. Key anchors:

  • jabber.org reported 330k registered users (Dec 2009) and 15k users online at any one time historically. (1)
  • jabber.ru (one of the largest public servers) historically handled ~10k–20k concurrent users. (1)
  • Gmail had ~425M active users (June 2012), while Google Talk used XMPP (including federated s2s at that time), which temporarily inflated XMPP-reachable accounts during 2010–2012. (This does not equal active XMPP chat users, but it’s an upper-bound signal for the era.) (2)

Important: Because many XMPP servers don’t publish user counts and many deployments are private, exact numbers aren’t measurable. Ranges below reflect that uncertainty.

Year Estimated global XMPP users (approx.) What changed / anchor
2010 40–60 M (mostly registered) Post-2009 jabber.org 330k users; Google Talk in full swing. (1)
2011 50–70 M Growth with Gmail/GTalk user base pre-Hangouts. (2)
2012 150–400 M (upper-bound registered; active far lower) Gmail at 425 M MAU; GTalk still XMPP-based/federating; not all used XMPP actively. (2)
2013 30–60 M Google starts reducing open federation; active open-net users contract. (3)
2014 8–20 M Post-Google/Facebook de-federation period; open network settles around tens of millions. (Anchor: big public servers’ concurrent usage.) ([XMPP Wiki][1])
2015 8–12 M Community consolidation; more Prosody/ejabberd public servers, but fewer mega-hubs. (4)
2016 9–13 M Mobile-first XMPP clients maturing (Conversations, etc.). (5)
2017 10–14 M OMEMO, MAM, Carbons more common; gradual growth. (6)
2018 10–15 M Public MUC ecosystem grows (proxy for activity). (7)
2019 11–16 M Continued steady activity on public servers. (8)
2020 12–17 M Remote-work bump; more self-hosting. (9)
2021 12–18 M Compliance testing & modern XEPs widespread on top servers. (6)
2022 12–19 M Providers project grows; healthier public-server landscape. (10)
2023 13–20 M Stable, modest growth on open federation; major public servers still show 10k–20k concurrent each at the high end. (1)

Geographical XMPP Statistics

Method: use provider/server geographic distribution (where servers are located) as a proxy, cross-checked with known large public servers and community hubs. This reflects where XMPP communities and hosting are concentrated, not perfect user residency. The XMPP Providers statistics map shows a strong concentration in Europe (especially Germany, Netherlands, France), plus notable presence in Russia/Ukraine, US, and pockets in India/Brazil.

Rank Country 2023 users (very approx.) Why (signals)
1 Germany 1.6–2.3 M Highest density of public providers/servers and privacy-oriented communities; many popular public servers hosted here.
2 Russia 1.2–1.8 M Long-running large public servers (e.g., jabber.ru at 10k–20k concurrent) and active CIS XMPP communities.
3 United States 0.9–1.4 M Significant hosting & tech communities; many private/self-hosted deployments.
4 France 0.8–1.2 M Many providers and active FOSS communities; European concentration.
5 Netherlands 0.5–0.8 M High provider count per capita and hosting footprint.
6 Ukraine 0.4–0.7 M Strong CIS user base on public servers.
7 Poland 0.3–0.6 M European concentration and public providers footprint.
8 India 0.3–0.5 M Developer and open-platform communities; growing public server presence.
9 Brazil 0.2–0.4 M Largest LatAm XMPP presence; visible providers.
10 Belarus 0.2–0.3 M CIS cluster around large Russian/Ukrainian communities.

Caveat: These country figures are estimates derived from provider/server distribution (publicly visible) rather than a full census of active end-users. Multi-tenant and private servers, VPN usage, and cloud hosting locations all blur exact geography.

Notes on data quality & why this differs from “top-down” counts

  • Server-level anchors: We can point to concrete, verifiable concurrent user figures for some big public servers (e.g., jabber.ru, jabber.org), which establish realistic orders of magnitude for the open network (i.e., not hundreds of millions of active users today). (1)
  • Provider distribution: The XMPP Providers project publishes up-to-date maps of where listed providers operate; that’s a strong signal for where active communities likely are. It doesn’t give user counts, but it’s the best public proxy for the country table. (10)
  • Historic peak (2010–2012): Gmail/Google Talk’s XMPP era created very large registered/reachable totals; once Google de-federated/shifted strategy, the open federated XMPP user base returned to a smaller (but steady) scale. (2)

Jabber/XMPP delivers flexible, secure, and feature-rich real-time communication, thriving with a diverse, privacy-focused userbase and abundant client choices across platforms. Its open protocol roots make it a persistent alternative to mainstream, centralized messengers, especially for those valuing federation, privacy, and extensibility. XMPP provides interesting alternative to common messaging applications, similar like Lemmy, Mastodon, Bluesky and other apps from Fediverse provide alternative to Facebook, X and Reddit.

  1. https://wiki.xmpp.org/web/Ejabberd “Ejabberd - XMPP WIKI”
  2. https://techcrunch.com/2012/06/28/gmail-now-has-425-million-users-google-apps-used-by-5-million-businesses-and-66-of-the-top-100-universities/ “Gmail Now Has 425 Million Users, Google Apps Used By 5 Million …”
  3. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/office/lync-server-2013/lync-server-2013-example-xmpp-configuration-%E2%80%93-xmpp-federation-with-google-talk “Example XMPP configuration – XMPP federation with Google Talk - Lync …”
  4. https://prosody.im/doc/statistics “Statistics – Prosody IM”
  5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversations_%28software%29 “Conversations (software)”
  6. https://compliance.conversations.im/server/5222.de/ “5222.de’s compliance result | XMPP Compliance Tester”
  7. https://search.jabber.network/stats “Statistics - search.jabber.network”
  8. https://list.jabber.at/ “Jabber - Public XMPP servers”
  9. https://prosody.im/doc/public_servers “Public servers – Prosody IM”
  10. https://providers.xmpp.net/statistics/ “XMPP Providers | Statistics”