Nostr relay software compared
Most public Nostr relays run one of four programs: strfry (28%), nostr-rs-relay (16%), HAVEN (14%) and pyramid (6%). Together that's 64% of the 1,407 relays that say what they run.
By Leon Weber · Last updated
Counted from the NIP-11 documents of 1,429 public relays, as of 4 November 2026, 22:34 UTC. 22 don't name their software. Repository facts checked 2026-11-04.
| Software | Public relays | Up now | Median uptime, 30 days | Latest release | On latest | Language · licence | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| strfryFast, single binary, built for big public relays. Write-policy plugins and negentropy sync. | 39528% | 391 | 100.0% | 1.1.32026-09-04 (tag) | 17% | C++ · GPL-3.0 | Maintained |
| nostr-rs-relayA small, steady relay in Rust with a SQLite file. Official Docker image, whitelists and pay-to-relay built in. | 22216% | 216 | 100.0% | 0.10.02026-05-22 (tag) | 55% | Rust · MIT | Maintained |
| HAVENA personal relay: four relays in one (private, chat, inbox, outbox), media hosting, imports and backups. | 20114% | 121 | 95.5% | 1.2.22026-02-28 | 51% | Go · MIT | Maintained |
| pyramidA community relay where members invite members, set up from a web page after a one-line install. | 826% | 80 | 100.0% | 1.4.62026-11-01 | 10% | Go · Unlicense | Maintained |
| khatruA framework for writing your own relay in Go. HAVEN, pyramid and wot-relay are built on it. The GitHub repo is archived; it continues as fiatjaf.com/nostr/khatru. | 463% | 39 | 100.0% | — | — | Go · Unlicense | Archived, moved |
| wot-relayAccepts notes only from your web of trust: people you follow and the people they follow. | 262% | 9 | 92.9% | 0.2.12026-04-22 | 42% | Go · not stated | Maintained |
| nostreamThe most-starred relay on GitHub, but few public instances: it needs Postgres and Redis next to it. | 242% | 21 | 100.0% | 3.12.12026-11-04 | 8% | TypeScript · MIT | Maintained |
| zooidA multi-tenant relay from the Coracle team. The GitHub repo is archived; development moved to Coracle's own git server. | 161% | 15 | 100.0% | — | — | Go · — | Archived, moved |
| rnostrA high-performance relay in Rust. | 151% | 11 | 100.0% | — | — | Rust · MIT | Maintained |
| NosflareA relay that runs on Cloudflare Workers, so there's no server to look after. | 131% | 12 | 100.0% | 7.9.452026-06-18 | 54% | JavaScript · MIT | Maintained |
| nostr-relay-trayA relay that runs on your desktop (macOS, Windows, Linux) with no configuration. | 111% | 8 | 90.9% | 2.0.02025-03 | 100% | TypeScript · MIT | Maintained |
| chorusA personal or community relay in Rust by the author of the gossip client. | 81% | 7 | 100.0% | — | — | Rust · — | Maintained |
Which one fits
- A busy public relay: strfry. One binary, an LMDB database, write-policy plugins for spam, and sync with other relays.
- A small relay on a cheap server: nostr-rs-relay. A SQLite file and an official Docker image; whitelists and pay-to-relay are in the config.
- Your own relay and backup: HAVEN. Private, chat, inbox and outbox relays for one person, with media hosting and imports.
- A relay for a community: pyramid. Members invite members, and everything is set up in the browser.
- Your own rules, in code: khatru, the Go framework HAVEN and pyramid are built on.
- On your laptop or phone: nostr-relay-tray (desktop) or Citrine (Android). Handy as a personal copy of your notes, not as a public relay.
Whichever you pick, the software is the small part. A relay has to stay online, get its updates, keep spam out and be backed up for as long as people post to it. Running a relay goes through what that takes, the full setup on your own server, and our hosted relays for people who want a relay of their own without the server (opening soon; reserving is free).
Moved or archived
Three well-known projects have left GitHub or stopped: khatru's repository is archived and continues as fiatjaf.com/nostr/khatru; zooid moved to Coracle's own git server; relay29, a NIP-29 groups library, is archived. Relays still run them, so they show up in the counts.
How we count
Our relay monitor fetches every public relay's NIP-11 document and reads its software and version fields. We shorten the software URL to the project name (git+https://github.com/hoytech/strfry.git becomes strfry) and group versions by release: "1.1.2+" means a build from after 1.1.2, "pre-1.2.3" a development build before 1.2.3. "On latest" counts relays on the newest release or a build after it. Relays that don't publish NIP-11 software aren't counted, and a relay can say anything it likes about itself.
Uptime is the median, over the relays running that program, of each relay's share of successful hourly checks in the last 30 days.
A relay of your own, without running it
We keep it online, updated and backed up every night. Hosted relays aren't open yet: reserving one is free and commits you to nothing.
Sources
- NIP-11: Relay information documentgithub.com
- strfry repositorygithub.com
- nostr-rs-relay repositorysr.ht
- HAVEN repositorygithub.com
- pyramid repositorygithub.com
- khatru repositorygithub.com
- nostream repositorygithub.com
- wot-relay repositorygithub.com
- zooid repositorygithub.com
- Nosflare repositorygithub.com
- chorus repositorygithub.com
- rnostr repositorygithub.com
- nostr-relay-tray repositorygithub.com
- anchorman relay monitoranchorman.lol · the counts on this page