Session vs SimpleX Chat

Session is a private messaging app built and operated by a global community of privacy experts. It uses Account IDs instead of phone numbers or email addresses for signup, encrypts every message with the Session Protocol (built on libsodium), and routes conversations through onion-routed paths across thousands of community-run nodes so no single server can see both the sender and recipient of a message.

SimpleX Chat is an open-source, end-to-end encrypted messenger built around a network design with no persistent user identifiers of any kind, not even random ones. Messages are relayed through servers that see only noise, so there is no phone number, username, or account ID for anyone, including SimpleX, to tie back to a person. The app supports one-to-one and group chats, audio and video calls, file transfer, and multiple chat profiles, and it can run on self-hosted servers for organizations that want full control over their infrastructure. Its protocol and clients are fully open source and have been independently security-audited by Trail of Bits.

• No phone number or email required, reducing identity exposure at signup
• Decentralized onion-routed network avoids reliance on centralized servers
• Open-source code that can be independently audited
• Free to use across all supported platforms

• No user IDs of any kind, unlike most messengers that rely on phone numbers or usernames
• Fully open-source and independently security-audited
• Self-hostable servers for full infrastructure control
• Free to use across web, desktop, and mobile

• Decentralized onion routing can introduce more latency than centralized messaging services
• Lack of phone-number-based contact discovery makes finding contacts less convenient than mainstream messengers
• Project funding model is tied to the Session Token cryptocurrency, which some users may be wary of

• No central identity means account recovery works differently than typical messengers
• Smaller network effect than mainstream messaging apps
• Some features are more geared toward technical/privacy-focused users