Cwtch vs Session

Cwtch is a free decentralized messaging app for Android, Linux, macOS, and Windows. Direct conversations use Tor v3 onion services to create anonymous peer-to-peer connections between profiles, and Cwtch says communication is end-to-end encrypted over those services. Both participants must be online for peer-to-peer chat. Group conversations and offline delivery use a third-party server designed to learn as little as possible about message contents or metadata. Group messaging is experimental: users must enable the Experiments and Group Experiment settings, and the project calls metadata-resistant group communication an active research area. Conversation history is not preserved between sessions by default, though it can be enabled for an individual conversation. The protocol is open, allowing bots, services, and interfaces to integrate with Cwtch; core library, Go bindings, and interface code are linked as open source. There is no global display-name registry, which the security handbook says increases impersonation risk. The project recommends version 1.17.2, released October 2, 2026, for security fixes. The plan costs nothing.

Session is a decentralized, end-to-end encrypted messaging app for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows. Account creation does not require a phone number or email address. Its onion-request routing is designed so no single server knows both the origin and destination of a message. The app supports disappearing messages and encrypted group chats for up to 100 people. Attachments can be up to 10MB; they are encrypted on the device and stored through the Session File Server. Communities are self-hosted public channels, but are not fully end-to-end encrypted. Voice and video calling are beta features for one-to-one calls only, using peer-to-peer networking; calls can expose a user’s IP address to the call partner and an STF-operated STUN/TURN server. The code is open source, and the desktop, Android, and iOS clients have been audited by Quarkslab. The free plan includes encrypted messaging and attachments up to 10MB. Pro costs $2.99 a month and adds messages up to 10,000 characters, unlimited pinned conversations, animated display pictures, and badges.