Self-hosted Discord alternatives
Self-hosting means running your own copy of the app on a server you control. Nobody can delete your community, change its terms or put it behind a paywall. The trade-off is that you are now the one keeping it up.
Most of these also offer a hosted version, so you can start on theirs and move to your own server later.
| Destination | Open source | Hosting | Encryption | Voice | Video | Threads | Members pay | Runs on | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DISCORDleaving | No | Cloud only | TLS + E2EE voice | Yes | Yes | Yes | Free | PCMACLINUXIPHONEANDROIDWEB | STABLE |
| ARMADA | Yes | Cloud or self-hostDecentralized | E2EE everything | Yes | Yes | Yes | Free | PCMACLINUXIPHONEANDROIDWEB | BETA |
| ELEMENT | Yes | Cloud or self-hostFederated | TLS + E2EE private rooms | Yes | Yes | Yes | Free | PCMACLINUXIPHONEANDROIDWEB | STABLE |
| FLUXER | Yes | Cloud or self-host | TLS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Free | PCMACLINUXIPHONEANDROIDWEB | STABLE |
| STOAT | Yes | Cloud or self-host | TLS | Yes | Yes | No | Free | PCMACLINUXIPHONEANDROIDWEB | STABLE |
What self-hosting actually takes
A small community fits on a cheap virtual server. Expect to handle updates, backups and the occasional outage yourself.
Voice is the hard part. Several of these run voice through a separate media server, and self-hosted voice has lagged behind the hosted version for some of them. Read each app's notes before you commit.
Federated and decentralized
Element runs on Matrix, which is federated: your server talks to other Matrix servers the way email servers talk to each other, so members on other servers can still join.
Armada is decentralized: identities are keys people own, and communities live across independent relays rather than one server.
More ways to narrow it down
- Open source Discord alternatives
- Encrypted Discord alternatives
- Discord's age checks, and where people are going
- How to move a Discord server
- Discord alternatives for businesses
Something wrong? Tell r/LeavingDiscord.