Selfhosted

https://github.com/element-hq/synapse/blob/develop/contrib/docker/docker-compose.yml

If you're proficient it's 30minutes

Something like this for server.

generate config

docker run -it --rm \
    -v <your-data-path>:/data \
    -e SYNAPSE_SERVER_NAME=<your-public-address-subdomain> \
    -e SYNAPSE_REPORT_STATS=no \
    matrixdotorg/synapse:v1.136.0 generate

run

docker run -d \
  --restart=always \
  --name synapse \
  -e SYNAPSE_REPORT_STATS=no \
  -v <your-data-path>:/data \
  -p 8008:8008 matrixdotorg/synapse:v1.136.0

register user

docker exec -ti synapse register_new_matrix_user http://localhost:8008/ -c /data/homeserver.yaml -u <username> -p <password> --exists-ok

Proxy it using ex. openresty / nginx

location / {
        proxy_pass    http://127.0.0.1:8008/;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header    Upgrade         $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header    Connection      "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header    Host            $host;
        proxy_set_header    X-Real-IP       $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header    X-Forwarded-for $remote_addr;
        proxy_connect_timeout 600;
        proxy_read_timeout 86400;
    }

For UI if you want element on your domain, download and unpack tar.gz from.
https://github.com/element-hq/element-web/releases

Point this location to your proxy server ex. openresty / nginx

location / {
        root /opt/element-v1.11.109;
        index index.html;
    }

Modify config.json inside /opt/element-v1.11.109 to point location to <your-public-address-subdomain>

By default it's using sqlite if you want postgres or other database then modify homeserver.yaml to use postgres

Forget about synapse and the "official" method. Install Continuwuity a matrix server written in rust, much much more efficient than synapse.

I took some notes while installing it here https://wiki.gardiol.org/doku.php?id=matrix%3Aconduwuit

I didn't use docker but directly installation is very easy, it's a single executable.

Firstly, I wish you the best of luck in your community's journey away from Discord. This may be a good time to assess what your community needs from a new platform, since Discord targeted various use-cases that no single replacement platform can hope to replace in full. Instead, by identifying exactly what your group needs and doesn't need, that will steer you in the right direction.

As for Element, bear in mind that their community and paid versions do not exactly target a hobbyist self-hosting clientele. Instead, Element is apparently geared more for enterprise on-premises deployment (like Slack, Atlassian JIRA, Asterisk PBX) and that's probably why the community version is also based on Kubernetes. This doesn't mean you can't use it, but their assumptions about deployments are that you have an on-premises cloud.

Fortunately, there are other Matrix homeservers available, including one written in Rust that has both bare metal and Docker deployment instructions. Note that I'm not endorsing this implementation, but only know of it through this FOSDEM talk describing how they dealt with malicious actors.

As an aside, I have briefly considered Matrix before as a group communications platform, but was put off by their poor E2EE decisions, for both the main client implementation and in the protocol itself. Odd as it sounds, poor encryption is worse than no encryption, because of the false assurance it gives. If I did use Matrix, I would not enable E2EE because it doesn't offer me many privacy guarantees, compared to say, Signal.

I'd recommend using https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy.

Or try yunohost. Once installed yunohost is managing ssl, domains, install and update matrix and other things if wanted.

I completely support you moving off of Discord, and I completely support you setting up Matrix. I tried a lot, I think it has the most feature parity. That being said, the biggest thing I regret when setting it up is that I went with Synapse for my backend Matrix server, when there are others.

I've heard very good things about Conduit (https://conduit.rs/), mostly that it's easier to stand up and easier to maintain.

Either way, I think it's a smart move, and it's worth the investment. It's not the easiest to stand up, but operationally our communication should be our own. Expect trial and error, getting one piece up and running, then the next, and then the next. Celebrate small wins like "Today I got it running" and then "Today I got federation working", and then "Now I have voice working!". Otherwise it's going to feel overwhelming.

I believe in the cause, so feel free to DM me if you have any questions, or send me a DM on Matrix :)

Oh, and a very useful tool - https://federationtester.matrix.org/

This will tell you exactly what is wrong with your federation.

12 pages of detailed documentation

Home Gamer: Is this it?

See also https://element-hq.github.io/synapse/latest/setup/installation.html#docker-images-and-ansible-playbooks

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

[Thread #85 for this comm, first seen 12th Feb 2026, 01:20] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

https://hub.docker.com/r/jevolk/tuwunel

Helm is what is used for real world software deployments. It has its problems but it's better than Docker Compose.

If you decide to do this, make sure you block matrix[dot]org, as they host and share a lot of CSAM on that homeserver.