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Ferdium vs Pidgin: catalog facts
Ferdium	Pidgin
Free Free and open source under Apache 2.0. Unlike Franz, the project states it does not…	Free Free and open source under the GPL. The project states it is free and contains no ads.
Windows, macOS, Linux	Windows, macOS, Linux
Hundreds of services supported, with workspaces to group them No paid account or usage restrictions, unlike the Franz it forked from	Signs in to several chat networks at once from one window XMPP, IRC, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, GroupWise, Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE and Zephyr built in
Each service is a web view, so memory use grows quickly with many services Service integrations break when a provider changes its web app	The interface is unmistakably from another era Support for modern commercial networks depends on plugins that break when APIs change
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: Apache-2.0	License: GPL-2.0
No account needed	Account needed
Needs internet	Needs internet
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026

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