ELEMENT VS PROBED
They differ on 4 of the things we checked: open source, you can host it yourself, android, export your data.
| Fact | ELEMENT | PROBED |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Stable | Stable |
| Founded | 2017 | 2026 |
| Hosting | Cloud or self-host, Federated | Cloud only |
| Encryption | TLS in transit; private rooms and DMs are end-to-end encrypted by default, public rooms are not. | TLS in transit only. The host can read messages. |
| Pricing | Apps and matrix.org accounts free; Element Server Suite Community free to self-host; Enterprise priced per seat and Sovereign per deployment (quote only) | Free plan with no card; Premium $19/mo; Business $99/mo. Members never pay. |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Official cloud service | Yes | Yes |
| You can host it yourself | Yes | No |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iPhone | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | No |
| 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 | No | No |
| One account, many communities | Yes | Yes |
| Export your data | Yes | No |
| No ads | Yes | Yes |
| Members pay nothing | Yes | Yes |
| Imports a Discord server | No | No |
| Bridges with Discord | Not confirmed | Yes |
In short
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.
Probed. Closed source and hosted only: you cannot read the server code or run your own copy. Messages are readable through the public API on paid plans but there is no one-click export yet, and no custom emoji. It can mirror channels with a live Discord server, so a community can run both during a move. Android is in development, not released.
Something wrong here? Tell r/LeavingDiscord.
I build Probed, one of the destinations here. It is on the board with the same facts as the rest, including the ones that count against it. If anything here is wrong, say so on r/LeavingDiscord and it gets fixed.