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Discord Alternatives, Ranked

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Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#461

Post by iwontberude »

erxam wrote: post #452
RandomGerm4n wrote: post #451

I think it would be a mistake to reject Matrix outright. Even if it's not perfect, it would still be a good starting point from which to build something better. Besides, you don't have to replace Discord with the perfect solution, just with something that's better than Discord and where there's no company behind it that can steer it in a negative direction again, as happened with Discord.

>just with something that's better than Discord I mean, that's the entire issue. There's very little tangibly better than Discord. I like the idea of Matrix, but it's complete garbage in practice. At least for now, the solution lies more in mass outrage and action rather than any technological migration. The post raises this and I think it's a good point.

Element is way better these days. Not many people know this but Matrix team upgraded synapse last year to support hundreds of simultaneous voice/video users without the need for that shitty jitsi. They aren’t advertising bullshit to you all the time. The ACLs for spaces and rooms more granular and expressive. Your data isn’t training AI models used by people that want to enslave you. You have control where your data resides for protections by jurisdiction. Element has web embeddings for links now, it has all the platforms supported, it’s easy to verify sessions and backup your key. They support SSO external auth. What more can you want?

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#462

Post by OkayPhysicist »

RandomGerm4n wrote: post #451

I think it would be a mistake to reject Matrix outright. Even if it's not perfect, it would still be a good starting point from which to build something better. Besides, you don't have to replace Discord with the perfect solution, just with something that's better than Discord and where there's no company behind it that can steer it in a negative direction again, as happened with Discord.

The writer of this blog is a cryptographer. They're primarily focused on security, first and foremost, and when people ask for their advice, they're probably concerned about security, too.

The Matrix devs demonstrated an alarmingly cavalier attitude towards fundamental security issues that the writer pointed out in the past, so they are naturally not going to encourage its use.

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#464

Post by gussuarez092 »

Here are some of the most popular and viable Discord alternatives as of early 2026. People seek replacements for reasons like better privacy, no mandatory age/ID verification, open-source options, self-hosting, lower resource use, or specific features (gaming voice chat, team productivity, etc.).No single app has fully replaced Discord's massive user base and polish for casual/gaming communities yet, but several come close depending on your needs.Top Discord-Like Alternatives (Closest UI/Features)Stoat (formerly Revolt) Open-source, designed as a near-clone of Discord's interface with servers, channels, voice/text chat, and custom emojis. It's lightweight (built in Rust), privacy-focused, free (donation-supported), and avoids heavy monetization like Nitro spam. Great for gaming groups wanting something familiar without Discord's ecosystem lock-in. Self-hosting is possible too.

Guilded

Built specifically for gamers and communities, with calendars, scheduling, tournaments, voice chat, and rich server customization. It's very similar to Discord but adds gaming-focused tools. Completely free with no premium tiers required for core features. Matrix (via clients like Element) Decentralized, open-source protocol with end-to-end encryption by default. Supports rooms (like servers), voice/video calls, bridges to other platforms, and self-hosting. It's more privacy-secure and federated (you can join servers across instances), though the UI/learning curve can feel less "fun" than Discord for casual use.

Strong Voice-Focused / Gaming AlternativesTeamSpeak

Classic low-latency VoIP with excellent audio quality, strong encryption, and server customization. Still popular among gamers for performance. Self-hostable or use public servers; very lightweight compared to Discord.

Mumble

Open-source, extremely low-latency voice chat with positional audio (great for games). Minimalist but high-quality; excellent for privacy-conscious groups. Self-hostable and free.

Other Notable OptionsSlack or Microsoft Teams — Better for professional/work teams with integrations, file sharing, and structured channels. Less ideal for casual gaming hangouts.

Signal or Telegram — Great for secure, encrypted messaging (Signal especially), but voice/video is more basic and lacks full server/channel structures.

Zulip — Threaded conversations (unique UI), good for organized discussions, open-source, and supports voice.

Rocket.Chat — Open-source, self-hostable Slack/Discord hybrid with video calls and integrations.

If privacy or avoiding centralized control/ID checks is your main concern, Stoat, Matrix/Element, or self-hosted Mumble/TeamSpeak stand out right now. For pure gaming similarity, Stoat or Guilded are the easiest transitions.What kind of community or features are you looking for (gaming, friends hangout, work, privacy-first, self-hosted)? That can help narrow it down further!

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#466

Post by Arathorn »

OkayPhysicist wrote: post #462
RandomGerm4n wrote: post #451

I think it would be a mistake to reject Matrix outright. Even if it's not perfect, it would still be a good starting point from which to build something better. Besides, you don't have to replace Discord with the perfect solution, just with something that's better than Discord and where there's no company behind it that can steer it in a negative direction again, as happened with Discord.

The writer of this blog is a cryptographer. They're primarily focused on security, first and foremost, and when people ask for their advice, they're probably concerned about security, too. The Matrix devs demonstrated an alarmingly cavalier attitude towards fundamental security issues that the writer pointed out in the past, so they are naturally not going to encourage its use.

The devil is in the details on this. The core concern was that libolm (the obsolete C impl of e2ee in Matrix) used crypto primitives which don’t protect from timing attacks.

However, in practice, this was not exploitable: the only way to exercise these primitives was over the network, where network latency and request rate limiting mitigates such attacks.

Meanwhile, we had already rewritten and replaced libolm with vodozemac, a pure rust implementation using robust primitives, shipped in the major Matrix SDKs and implementations like Element and Element X.

I’m not sure this counts as alarmingly cavalier. I do regret libolm ever going into production with substandard primitives from a hygiene perspective, but we fixed it as soon as we could via vodozemac, and meanwhile included the safety warning.

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#467

Post by price »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #386
BowBun wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have >200 million DAUs and guesses say they have >10K servers with >10K users. Assumptions from a tech crowd who were used to IRC should be taken with a grain of salt. Now if we're just looking for alternatives for ourselves, cool. But I think the reality is that most normal users do fully lean into the social aspects of Discord. A server like Marvel Rivals has literally millions of users. Players join that disc…

I have said many times, Discord isn't just chat, it is 100% a social media app. I think there's definitely more than 10 thousand servers... Unless they mean active? Even so... there's 3.2 million Discord servers with the Disboard bot installed, that's just Disboard, a way to advertise your Discord. There's likely millions more with no bots.

I think the gp is saying that out of those millions of total Discord servers, there are >10k of them that each have >10k users.

In other words there are >10k large servers, in addition to the much larger number of smaller servers.

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#468

Post by some_furry »

Arathorn wrote: post #466
OkayPhysicist wrote: post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The writer of this blog is a cryptographer. They're primarily focused on security, first and foremost, and when people ask for their advice, they're probably concerned about security, too. The Matrix devs demonstrated an alarmingly cavalier attitude towards fundamental security issues that the writer pointed out in the past, so they are naturally not going to encourage its use.

The devil is in the details on this. The core concern was that libolm (the obsolete C impl of e2ee in Matrix) used crypto primitives which don’t protect from timing attacks. However, in practice, this was not exploitable: the only way to exercise these primitives was over the network, where network latency and request rate limiting mitigates such attacks. Meanwhile, we had already rewritten and replaced libolm with v…

The part that was "alarmingly cavalier" was when you admitted to knowing about these problems for years and not fixing them or telling the ecosystem of competing clients about them so they could mitigate their risk. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41249371

You visibly deprecated Olm after my disclosures went public. When I last checked, only Element and its forks actually use vodozemac, so the rest of the ecosystem which still binds libolm was still vulnerable, and probably still is today.

That's alarmingly cavalier.

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#470

Post by tcfhgj »

erxam wrote: post #453
erxam wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>just with something that's better than Discord I mean, that's the entire issue. There's very little tangibly better than Discord. I like the idea of Matrix, but it's complete garbage in practice. At least for now, the solution lies more in mass outrage and action rather than any technological migration. The post raises this and I think it's a good point.

Also, the fetishism for federation has got to stop . It's only barely workable in asynchronous environments like the Fediverse, but on a live chat service it's ruinous. It's feels like it's half of what's suffocating Matrix.

It works fine in chat, been using it for years
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