XMPP Standards Foundation

What XMPP Standards Foundation does

The XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF), founded in 1999 and based in Parker, United States, is a private non-profit organization that develops and maintains the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), an open XML-based communications protocol for real-time messaging, presence, and contact-list management. Its core products are the IETF-published core specifications (RFC 6120, 6121, 7622, 7590, 7395), the XMPP Extension Protocol (XEP) series covering multi-user chat, publish-subscribe, file transfer, OMEMO/OpenPGP end-to-end encryption, and Jingle WebRTC signaling, and compliance suites such as CS2023 that test interoperability across clients and servers. The foundation serves software developers, server operators, and organizations building IM, IoT, WebRTC, social, and gaming applications, as well as major platforms like Google and Apple that use XMPP as transport for push notifications reaching roughly two billion devices.

The XSF operates a community-led go-to-market model with no protocol licensing fees and no commercial product sales. Revenue, where any exists, is generated through individual membership dues, corporate sponsorships (ProcessOne, US Secure Hosting Center, Extensible Messaging Ltd, Tigase, Tygrys), grant funding (e.g., NLnet/NGI Zero), and community contributions. Distribution relies on a decentralized ecosystem of third-party clients, servers, and libraries published across app stores, package managers, and project websites, with xmpp.org serving as the neutral discovery and documentation layer. Engagement is sustained through XMPP Summits, regional sprints (e.g., Berlin, June 2026), a monthly multilingual newsletter, standards mailing lists, public chat rooms, and a presence at conferences such as FOSSY, FOSDEM, CLT, and FrOSCon, including the first fully online Summit 29 in September 2026.

Name

XMPP Standards Foundation

Legal name

XMPP Standards Foundation

Website

https://xmpp.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1999

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The XMPP Standards Foundation is a non-profit that develops and maintains the open XMPP messaging and presence protocol and its XEP extensions. It serves software developers, server operators, and platforms building federated real-time communications for IM, IoT, WebRTC, and social applications.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Parker

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Others, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Non-profit Standards Organization: The XMPP Standards Foundation is a non-profit organization that develops and maintains open standards for the XMPP protocol. The organization operates through member contributions, sponsorships, and voluntary work. Revenue is not generated from licensing or commercial activities.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

The XMPP Standards Foundation develops and maintains the open XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) standard, including IETF RFCs, the XEP (XMPP Extension Protocol) series, and compliance suites. It provides freely available protocol specifications, documentation, and a community software directory on xmpp.org that enable developers and organizations to build interoperable, federated, real-time messaging, presence, IoT, and WebRTC applications.

Product overview

The XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF) is an open standards organization that maintains the XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) messaging protocol. Rather than a commercial product company, the XSF provides the protocol specifications (XMPP RFCs and XEPs), compliance testing suites, and community resources through xmpp.org. The XMPP protocol enables real-time messaging, presence, IoT applications, WebRTC signaling, and social networking features. Software implementations (clients, servers, libraries) are developed by third parties and reviewed against XSF compliance suites. The XEP series provides extensions for multi-user chat, publish-subscribe, end-to-end encryption, file transfer, and other capabilities that build upon the core RFC specifications.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• XMPP Extension Protocols (XEPs) A comprehensive series of extensions to the core XMPP protocol, developed through a lightweight standards process. XEPs cover multi-user chat, publish-subscribe, file transfer, end-to-end encryption (OMEMO, OpenPGP), Jingle WebRTC signaling, and many other features. Targeted at developers and software projects integrating XMPP.
• XMPP RFCs (RFC 6120, RFC 6121, RFC 7622, RFC 7590, RFC 7395) Core XMPP specifications developed at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), including XMPP Core, XMPP Instant Messaging, XMPP Address Format, TLS usage in XMPP, and XMPP over WebSockets. Targeted at protocol implementers, developers, and standards participants.
• XMPP Compliance Suites
• xmpp.org Website and Community Resources The official XMPP website providing specifications, software listings (clients, servers, libraries), community resources, documentation, news/blog, event information, and getting-started guides for developers and users.

Quantifiable outcome

• 1.5 billion users served through Google push notifications
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe IETF develops the core XMPP specifications (RFC 6120, RFC 6121, RFC 7622, RFC 7590, RFC 7395). The XSF works with IETF to maintain the formal standards foundation for XMPP while developing extensions through the XEP process.
• JitsimajorTechnology or IntegrationJitsi Videobridge uses COLIBRI XEP (XEP-0340) to manage connections and conference mixing. Jitsi Meet is an open source instant videoconferencing web application that uses XMPP for signaling and chat alongside WebRTC for audio/video.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• IRC Foundation (ircv3.net / libera.chat): The IRCv3 working group and IRC-related foundations steward the IRC protocol, a long-standing open, federated real-time chat standard. Comparable to XSF as a small, volunteer-driven standards community maintaining a federated text-chat protocol with cross-server interoperability.
• Matrix.org Foundation: Matrix.org Foundation stewards the Matrix open protocol for federated real-time messaging — directly comparable to XSF as an open-standards body for decentralized messaging, with overlapping use cases (IM, VoIP signaling, IoT) and active bridge integration (Matridge) with XMPP.
• OASIS Open: OASIS is a non-profit standards organization that develops open standards for security, IoT, cloud, and messaging (e.g., AMQP, MQTT). Comparable to XSF as a vendor-neutral, member-funded standards body producing royalty-free protocols for real-time and machine-to-machine communication.
• Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF): The IETF is XSF's core standards-body partner that publishes XMPP's foundational RFCs. Comparable as a non-profit, volunteer-driven standards organization with a lightweight process for producing internet specifications, governing interoperability for global network protocols.

Broad incumbents

• Linux Foundation: The Linux Foundation hosts and funds a wide portfolio of open-source and open-standard projects across networking, cloud, and messaging. Comparable to XSF as a non-profit that provides governance, sponsorship infrastructure, and IP frameworks for community-developed technology standards.
• Apache Software Foundation: ASF is a large non-profit that stewards open-source software projects including messaging infrastructure (Apache Kafka, Apache Pulsar). Comparable as a vendor-neutral, member-supported organization that maintains open technology through community-driven governance processes.
• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): W3C is a much larger, established standards organization that develops open web standards (HTML, CSS, WebRTC) used by billions. Comparable as a non-profit standards body with a member-funded governance model and community working groups producing interoperability specifications.
• Eclipse Foundation: The Eclipse Foundation stewards a large portfolio of open-source projects including IoT and messaging tooling (Paho, Mosquitto). Comparable to XSF as a non-profit, member-supported organization that hosts open development communities and IP frameworks for collaborative technology projects.
• Mozilla Foundation: Mozilla is a non-profit foundation stewarding open internet technologies (Firefox, Mozilla Messaging initiatives) and advocating for open standards. Comparable to XSF as a mission-driven, donor- and sponsor-supported non-profit promoting open, interoperable web and messaging infrastructure.
• IEEE Standards Association: IEEE SA is a large, established standards organization developing consensus-based standards across networking and communications. Comparable to XSF as a member-funded, governance-driven non-profit that produces interoperability specifications accepted across the global technology ecosystem.

Market position

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/xsf/xmpp.org
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCf3Kq2ElJDFQhYDdjn18RuA
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/xmpp-standards-foundation
• Xx.com/xmpp

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about XMPP Standards Foundation