Rowe (@kurai0okami.bsky.social)

Discord Alternatives. I have had a Discord account since October 19th 2015. It completely transformed how I spoke with friends on the internet. Before discord we used a bunch of different small voice and text platforms. I remember using a combination of _Skype_ , _Ventrillo_ , _Teamspeak_ , _Mumble_ and _mIRC_. All of these platforms had various strengths and weaknesses. _Skype_ was sluggish and used a lot of resources on my computer. Yet, that did not matter since it was free. My friends and I had a Skype call that was active for weeks if not months at a time. We ended up using it because none of us wanted to pay for _Ventrillo_ or _Teamspeak_ anymore. _Ventrillo_ was the cheaper of the two but it was super limited in features. I paid a hearty fee of $5.99 in my lawn mowing money to host my own _vent_ server. Eventually, we moved to a self hosted _Teamspeak_ server hosted by someone we played with. Sadly, that server up and vanished one day and the owner went dark. That is why we ended up using _Skype_. Even though _Mumble_ was still an option __ at the time. None of us wanted to install it. I'd mostly given up on the concept of group chats since I had stopped playing multiplayer games by late 2014. I had replaced that source of social interaction online with _Reddit_ discussions and _Twitch_ chats. I myself was building a small community on _Twitch_ and was keeping multiplayer games as far from reach as possible. When I first heard about _Discord_ I was skeptical. How could something be as useful as _Teamspeak_ but not cost an arm and a leg? While being more reliable than an _IRC_ client. After a little bit of convincing I took the plunge and was an early adopter during the _Discord_ beta period. The positives were instantly obvious, When I went live I'd share my stream. People tuned in and chat took off instantly. Instead of having to wait for minutes if not hours for my humble audience of 5 to tune in and start talking. As of 2026 I manage five different _Discord_ servers. I talk in a few dozen with relative frequency and my primary _Discord_ server sits at 3600 members with 300+ weekly users chatting. Sadly, all good things come to an end. In 2023 _Discord_ announced it was sun setting the Partner program after a significant cull in partners that started in 2021. Since I was an early _Discord_ partner I feel that I provided a huge amount of free marketing for the platform in exchange for some of the most important community building and networking I have done in my career online. Since ending that program Discord has made changes that have started leaving an increasing bitter taste in my mouth. From their questionable monetization options to the weird ways they are using your data. They'd attempted other strange things in the past such as when they tried to compete with steam. It is a well known fact that if a platform is free then you are the product. Data is a high value product and aesthetic monetization is just icing on the money cake. With _Discord_ dreaming of becoming publicly traded I expect this anxiety to get worse. It is a fact that people like me have a say in the future of the internet and what people use to connect. Ethically building a community without promoting platforms that I feel are not being fair with their user base is something that is becoming increasingly important in my decision making. Its a primary reason I moved away from Twitter and focused on Bluesky and mastodon. It's why I started this blog and lowered my focus on Patreon. I want the same for my community that exists on _Discord._ * * * ## Fluxer ](https://fluxer.gg/l1Dz3hcT )I know it looks like discord. [https://fluxer.app/ I have tested a number of different platforms. Every single option has issues. None of them fully fill the void that _Discord_ would leave if there was an exodus. My goal in testing these platforms has been to find one that is close enough in feature set that includes a few specific requirements. * Can be self hosted. * Lets users easily download and delete their data. * Clear policy on ID verification. * Open Source. * Not backed by venture capital. Fluxer seems to tick off all these boxes. It recently launched in public beta at the start of 2026. https://fluxer.app/ Up until just a few weeks ago it was worked on by a solo developer from Sweden. Based on posts I've seen he has since hired a second developer. Like _Discord, Fluxer_ has a subscription model. But this is made completely optional as servers that are self hosted are not limited by their free-mium limitations. Reading through their privacy policy it is professional and well thought out. Including clauses that'll keep it free and open. With logical policies with their plans for ID verification. Block the region and never block VPNs. Having passed my requirements I set up a server and have started playing around with it. It feels familiar. But was initially a bit unstable. The platforms public server was not ready for the 150,000 reported sign ups that they have obtained since the end of Febuary. But they have since migrated to a much more robust infrastructure with many servers globally. While it will time out once in a while it is more or less reliable at this point. Moderation is comparable to Discord albeit a few years behind. Tools for people who manage servers seem robust and well thought out. It even has a few features I wish other platforms had. Such as the ability to link directly off platform. Links to my blog, YouTube and Twitch. Combine the well thought out familiar interface and the ability to self host and full control of your data. Fluxer seems to be the most likely replacement for _Discord_ as the platform slowly enshittifys. If you want to join my space on Fluxer. You can do that by simply clicking this link. I'll still be on discord for the foreseeable future. But I think its completely irresponsible to not have a backup plan when you rely on a closed platform as the place for your community. ## What about the others? Matrix, Stoat, Root.app etc. This is a subject I have been thinking about for a while now. The first alternative protocol I tried and tested was _Matrix_ _._ It is a privacy focused protocol that allows users to build apps on top of it. This leads to a lot of confusion. You might know of _Matrix_ as _Fluffychat_ or _Element._ Both are chat apps that are built on top of _Matrix._ But why did I shy away from these as an option? The first reason was complexity and confusion. It is extremely open and that leads to a lot of conflicting apps. Not every client works on every system. They don't all play nice with one another. Moderation is an absolute mess. _Matrix_ is a largely peer to peer network, with a central account server. You could host your own account server but then people need to specifically sign up for your app. Moderation is handled on a room to room basis. Because instead of every server being a singular thing. Every _room_ that is linked to a _space_ are all separate parts on the larger network. Meaning if someone posts a rude image in _room_ A and you ban them they will still be able to post in _room_ B an C. This requires the server moderation team to script their own banning rules. Combine this with a large selling point of _Matrix_ being fully end to end encrypted. Means the level of trolling people are willing to commit can be a bit grim. It is a cool platform that is complex and over my head in a lot of ways. Not likely to be a good fit for a community of my scale. I could see myself using it for a small group of friends. But that is about it. * * * The other two options I looked at were _Teamspeak_, _Stoat_ and _Root_. _Teamspeak_ was quickly skipped over due to expensive hosting costs. Its just not my use case. _Stoat_ seemed like an option initially. It ticked some of my boxes. Open source, self hosting is an option and it had a simple user interface. Quickly I ran into stability issues and after doing a bit of investigating into the maintainers. I saw a lot of immaturity and noticed a lack of coherent goals and communication. They were also in the middle of a rebrand and were changing the name of the platform from _Revolt to Stoat_. Thanks to a cease and desist. The nail in the coffin for me is the complete lack of real moderation ability on servers and no clear way to delete your own data off the platform. I have seen a few people talking about _Root_ I went to the website and attempted to install it. I was not able to get it working on my Debian system. I decided to test it using the web ui instead. While it feels like a really developed option the platform is funded by venture capital and has no clear path to delete your user data and no ability to self host. I don't see the point in using a less developed platform with all the same caveats as _Discord_ when I am trying to get away from those issues in the first place. tl;dr. Here is a link to my Fluxer instance. https://fluxer.gg/l1Dz3hcT ## Schedule. I am working on a few video projects right now. I plan to stream Tuesday - Thursday. I'm considering streaming on Friday but it depends on how much progress editing I am able to complete this week. https://www.blindirl.com/discord-alternatives/