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