Privacy by default
Messages live on your computer, where they belong. No central server holds everything. Matrix end-to-end encryption across every conversation.*
Your den. Your rules.
privden is a free Windows app that turns your PC into a private chat server, compatible with Matrix. Your messages, your data, your control.
Goals
Three things we refuse to compromise on.
Simple enough for anyone
Install, create an account, chat. Five minutes, no IT skills. No port forwarding, no config files, no DNS knowledge required. The app speaks English, French, Spanish, Russian and Hungarian.
Data sovereignty
Your chats, files, and keys stay on your machine, in a folder that is yours to copy, move, or delete. Nobody else needs the key.
* Messages are end-to-end encrypted unless you switch encryption off yourself in your chat app. A room created that way stays unencrypted.
Vision
A quiet space on the internet, and the key is yours.
A den is a small, comfortable, private room — the place where you are with people you trust. That is the feeling privden is built around: a private messenger tucked into your own computer, for your family, your friends, or your team.
The software is free and always will be. It turns a normal PC into a chat server that works on your home network out of the box — no subscriptions, no ads, and nothing reported back about how you use it. The one thing privden does send is a daily note that your reserved name is still in use; what that carries is written out below. privden itself is proprietary; the Matrix homeserver it runs on, Tuwunel, is open source, and the protocol is open — so your data is never locked to us.
The paid part is infrastructure, and what it buys is specific: your server answers to its own name in any Matrix app, it works even on networks you don't control, everything is encrypted in transit rather than just the message text, and your home address stays private from the people you chat with.
Free forever
- Windows installer
- Local Matrix server
- Accounts created from the tray app
- Chat on your home network, end-to-end encrypted*
- Direct messages, group rooms and file sending
- Your name
yourname.privden.chat, reserved for good
privden Connect planned
- Your name goes live:
yourname.privden.chat - Works on networks you don't control, no router config
- Encrypted in transit, not just message text
- Invite links you send yourself: each person chooses their own password and opens the app
- Reliable mobile push notifications
Your name
One name, reserved for you on the first run.
The first time you start privden it asks for a short name and an
email address. A code arrives by mail, you type it back, and
yourname.privden.chat is yours. It costs nothing and it
is not a subscription. Uninstalling privden does not release it, and
confirming the same address on a new PC gives it back to you.
Matrix bakes the server's name into every user ID, room ID and device key, and it has no rename operation — so the name has to be settled before the first message, not when you need it. Reserving it now is what makes privden Connect a change of address rather than a migration later.
Two things follow from that, and neither is buried here. Setup needs to be online once, because a name has to be reserved somewhere to be yours rather than anyone else's; the server does not start without one. And privden then checks in with us about once a day to say the name is still in use. That request carries two things: the token for your reservation and privden's version number. No messages, nothing about them, nothing about the accounts on your server. Your chatting never touches the internet at all.
The name does not make your server reachable from the internet — not today. Inside your own network you connect by IP address, and the name is what Connect will use to reach you from outside.
With privden Connect, which is planned and not available yet, your server's traffic will reach you through us — that is what will make your name work from outside. We will measure one thing: how much passed, for your name, so we can bill the plan you chose. We will not keep what passed, who you talked to, or where you connected from.
Roadmap
What's next.
A rough order, not a schedule. We ship when it's solid.
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Shipped
Windows, and a name of your own
Installer, local server, accounts from the tray app, direct messages and rooms, files, end-to-end encryption* — working on your own network, in five languages. Every install reserves a permanent
yourname.privden.chatat setup, yours whether or not you ever pay. The PC also stops falling asleep while it is serving. -
Next
macOS
The Mac app is written and has been through its acceptance on real machines, Apple Silicon and Intel. What stands between it and a download is Apple: signing and notarization, without which a Mac will not run it. There is no macOS build to download yet.
-
Then
Connect: the name goes live
Your reserved name starts working in any Matrix app, on networks you don't control and even behind carrier-grade NAT — nothing to configure on your router. Everything encrypted in transit. Invite links you send yourself: each person chooses their own password and opens the app with your server already filled in. Mobile notifications that arrive even when your PC sleeps.
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Later
privden Network
Private federation for teams and organizations with multiple locations. Central dashboard, managed certificates, one-click server enrollment and revocation.
-
Later
Cloud backup & hosted version
Encrypted backups for your chat history and keys. For users who want 24/7 availability without leaving their PC on, a hosted privden with one-click migration.
We're being honest about where we are.
This release does text, rooms, and files. No voice or video yet, no federation with other Matrix servers, no bridges to WhatsApp or Telegram — those come later. We'd rather ship something that actually works than a pile of half-features.
Your apps reach the server by the PC's address on your home network, and that connection is not itself encrypted — your messages are, by Matrix end-to-end encryption*, but the link is plain HTTP inside your own network. Anyone already on that network can see traffic metadata. Type the IP address rather than a name: a name sends modern Matrix clients looking for HTTPS on port 443, which this release does not serve. Transport encryption is one of the things Connect adds.
privden serves while the computer is on and you are logged in. After a restart, somebody has to log in before it starts serving again. While the server runs it keeps the machine awake, but only on mains power — on battery it deliberately does nothing. It is built for a computer that stays plugged in.