Ethora is an Apache-2.0 licensed chat, AI and messaging SDK monorepo that adds real-time messaging, prebuilt chat UI, bots and backend services to web, iOS and Android applications, and it is aimed at product teams that would rather integrate a messaging layer than assemble one.

What it is

Ethora is the SDK monorepo for the Ethora chat and messaging platform: a single place to discover, clone and navigate all Ethora SDKs, tools and sample apps. Each component lives in its own focused repository and is linked from the monorepo as a git submodule, including sdk-reactjs/ (ethora-chat-component), sdk-reactnative/ (ethora-chat-component-rn), sdk-android/ (ethora-sdk-android, Kotlin), sdk-swift/ (ethora-sdk-swift), sdk-wordpress/ (ethora-wp-plugin), app-reactjs/ (the App Builder frontend), playground/, backend-integration/, mcp-cli/ (ethora-mcp-server), rag-demos/, bots/ (ethora-bots) and setup/ (ethora-setup), with REST API documentation kept inline in api/ as Swagger/OpenAPI. The repository is JavaScript, licensed Apache-2.0, and currently shows 545 stars, 111 forks and 2 open issues.

The concrete problem it solves is the per-platform assembly of chat plumbing. Instead of each team wiring authentication, message history, group rooms, notification paths and bot infrastructure separately for web, Android and iOS, Ethora exposes those as SDK features: email/password and JWT/custom-token login, message history with MAM pagination, MUC group rooms, typing indicators, push notifications and an offline message cache. It sits in the React, React Native, Kotlin, Swift and WordPress ecosystems, and its topics name ejabberd and chat-engine, so an XMPP-based messaging stack is the layer it wraps rather than something each application reimplements.

Key capabilities

• Prebuilt chat UI across sdk-reactjs/, sdk-reactnative/, native Android (Kotlin) and native iOS (Swift), plus a WordPress plugin that provides a no-code chat widget.
• Group rooms (MUC), 1:1 messaging and a single-room embedded widget mode, with message history via MAM pagination and an unread counter.
• Rich media messaging: images, video, files and audio, with text messaging that supports send, edit, delete and reply.
• Authentication options spanning email/password and JWT/custom-token login on all four code SDKs, with OAuth/social login present in React.js, partial on React Native and iOS, and on the Android roadmap.
• setup/ ships the CLI npx @ethora/setup, while mcp-cli/ ships ethora-mcp-server, an MCP CLI for IDE and agent integration.
• bots/ (ethora-bots) is a bot framework covering XMPP, LLM and automation work; rag-demos/ and site_crawler cover RAG pipeline examples and website crawling for RAG ingestion.
• api/ documents the REST surface as Swagger/OpenAPI, backend-integration/ provides backend integration examples, and features/features.yaml backs the published per-SDK feature matrix.

Who uses it and how

• Web product teams embed ethora-chat-component into an existing React.js application, or start from app-reactjs/ as an App Builder frontend.
• Mobile teams pick the native path — ethora-sdk-android in Kotlin or ethora-sdk-swift in Swift — or use ethora-chat-component-rn to cover iOS and Android from one React Native codebase.
• WordPress site owners install ethora-wp-plugin for a no-code widget, typically in the single-room embedded mode that all five SDKs support.
• AI and agent teams use ethora-mcp-server for IDE/agent integration, run RAG experiments from rag-demos/, and ingest site content with site_crawler.
• Enterprises that outgrow the free ethora.com cloud can take the dedicated server plus SLA option; ethora-app-react-native remains available but is marked Legacy.

Getting started

Install Method: Run npx @ethora/setup from the setup/ component, or integrate an SDK manually by cloning the relevant submodule. The default server is the ethora.com cloud, which is free, with a dedicated server and SLA offered for enterprise customers.

How it compares

The facts provided list no paid products that Ethora replaces, and no directly comparable chat SDK is named in this registry. On that basis it stands alone among the entries described here.

When to use it — and when not to

A self-hoster takes on operating the messaging backend itself, since the SDKs list self-hosted server support but the platform still depends on an XMPP-style server and its storage, whether hosted on the ethora.com cloud or run in-house. The weakest surface is WordPress, where text messaging and 1:1 chat are only partial and reactions, typing indicators, media, message history and unread counters are absent, so a WordPress-only project expecting full parity should look elsewhere. Teams wanting React Native push notifications or social login should also expect partial support, and note that the React Native full app is Legacy while dark mode is currently an Android-only capability.

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/dappros/ethora.git
cd ethora

git submodule update --init --recursive

npx @ethora/setup

cd sdk-reactjs
npm install
# See sdk-reactjs/README.md for embedding instructions

cd sdk-reactnative
npm install
# See sdk-reactnative/README.md

cd sdk-android
# See sdk-android/README.md for Gradle setup

cd sdk-swift
# See sdk-swift/README.md for Swift Package Manager setup

cd mcp-cli
npm install
# See mcp-cli/README.md

Your App
  └── Ethora SDK (React.js / React Native / Android / Swift / WordPress)
        └── Ethora Platform API (REST + XMPP)
              ├── Chat (Ejabberd + custom services)
              ├── AI (LLM bots, RAG)
              ├── Users & Auth (SSO, JWT)
              ├── Files & Storage (S3/IPFS)
              ├── Push Notifications (FCM/APNs)
              └── Blockchain (EVM, optional)