Cwtch Server Self-Hosting VPS
Cwtch is a metadata-resistant group chat protocol built on Tor v3 hidden services. Unlike messaging that depends on central servers (Signal, Matrix), Cwtch lets users run their own untrusted infrastructure that cannot see message content or social graphs. Hosting your own Cwtch server on a VPS gives your community a stable rendezvous point without sacrificing the protocol's metadata properties.
Need this done for your project?
We implement, you ship. Async, documented, done in days.
Cwtch Server Role
The Cwtch server stores encrypted message blobs and relays them between group members without knowing who sent them or what they contain. The server is structurally untrusted - the protocol's security properties hold even if the server operator is hostile. This is unlike Signal's server design which requires user-identity registration.
Why Self-Host
Self-hosting gives your community a stable server identity (the .onion address) that they can configure once and use indefinitely. Public Cwtch servers come and go; a self-hosted server is under your control. The threat-model improvement is small (since the server is untrusted anyway) but the availability improvement is substantial.
VPS Setup
The Cwtch server daemon runs as a v3 hidden service. We ship a preconfigured cwtch-server binary plus systemd unit. The server's onion address gets published to your community out-of-band; users add it to their Cwtch client as a custom server.
Crypto Billing
BTC and XMR.
Related: Ricochet Refresh, XMPP over Tor, Matrix over Tor, Tor hosting parent, OnionShare.
Related Services
Why Anubiz Host
Ready to get started?
Skip the research. Tell us what you need, and we'll scope it, implement it, and hand it back — fully documented and production-ready.