DISCORD VS ELEMENT
They differ on 4 of the things we checked: open source, you can host it yourself, custom emoji, no ads.
| Fact | DISCORD | ELEMENT |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Stable | Stable |
| Founded | 2015 | 2017 |
| Hosting | Cloud only | Cloud or self-host, Federated |
| Encryption | TLS in transit; voice and video calls are end-to-end encrypted, text is not. | TLS in transit; private rooms and DMs are end-to-end encrypted by default, public rooms are not. |
| Pricing | Free; Nitro Basic $2.99/mo and Nitro $9.99/mo; server Boosts sold separately | Apps and matrix.org accounts free; Element Server Suite Community free to self-host; Enterprise priced per seat and Sovereign per deployment (quote only) |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Official cloud service | Yes | Yes |
| You can host it yourself | No | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iPhone | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| In a browser | Yes | Yes |
| Text channels | Yes | Yes |
| Voice channels | Yes | Yes |
| Video calls | Yes | Yes |
| Screen share | Yes | Yes |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Roles and permissions | Yes | Yes |
| Bots or an API | Yes | Yes |
| Custom emoji | Yes | No |
| One account, many communities | Yes | Yes |
| Export your data | Yes | Yes |
| No ads | No | Yes |
| Members pay nothing | Yes | Yes |
| Imports a Discord server | No | No |
| Bridges with Discord | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
In short
Discord. The row everything else is measured against. Discord runs sponsored Quests, Orbs and, since Sep 2026, rewarded Video Quests plus a self-serve Ads Manager. Since Sep 22 2026 every account is sorted into Adult, Teen or Unconfirmed from account signals, with the rest confirming via credit card, app-store age range, on-device selfie or ID scan. Voice and video calls are end-to-end encrypted; text is not. Users can request a Data Package of their own messages, but there is no server-level export for admins without bots. It does everything; the argument for leaving is who holds your community.
Element. The mature, decentralised option: pick any homeserver (or run Synapse yourself), E2EE is on by default for private rooms and DMs but off for public rooms, and threads, power-level roles, bots, chat export and Element Call screen sharing all exist. Expect a Slack-like rather than Discord-like UX (Spaces instead of servers, no custom emoji), a learning curve around device verification and key backup, and no Discord importer (only bridges such as matrix-appservice-discord). Element the company monetises hosting and enterprise, so the consumer apps stay free.
Something wrong here? Tell r/LeavingDiscord.
I build Probed, one of the destinations here. It gets the same facts as the rest.