$ cat ~/compare.md Measured

How Kursal compares

Same goal as the best private messengers. Without the servers, accounts, or trust in a company.

	Kursal	Signal	WhatsApp	Discord	Matrix	SMS
	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	no
Open source	yes	yes	no	no	yes	no
	yes	no	no	no	yes	no
	yes	no	no	no	partial	no
	partial	partial	no	no	partial	no
Not owned by Big Tech	yes	yes	no	no	yes	no
also worth knowing
Run your own relay	yes	no	no	no	yes	no
	yes	yes	no	no	no	no
	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
	no	yes	yes	yes	yes	partial
	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	partial

yes partial no

$ compare

~/benchmarks

Install size

Each desktop app as it sits on disk once installed.

Kursal

28 MB

Discord

499 MB

Signal

630 MB

656 MB

↳ Kursal uses 21× less disk space than the other three, on average. Measured on macOS, August 2026.