Discord alternatives: 5 open source community chat apps

People look for a Discord alternative when a community outgrows its rules, when they want control of moderation and data, or when they are uneasy about age-verification checks, account requirements and future changes to the free service. No open source project yet matches everything Discord does, especially polished voice and video for thousands of people at once. But several come close for specific needs, and all of them let you run the server yourself. We checked each license and latest release on November 5, 2026.

Quick comparison

App	License	Closest to Discord in	Voice	Best for
Stoat (formerly Revolt)	AGPL-3.0	Look and feel: servers, channels, roles	Yes	Communities that want a familiar interface
Element on Matrix	AGPL-3.0	Rooms and spaces across many servers	Yes, through Element Call	Encrypted, federated communities
Spacebar	AGPL-3.0	The protocol itself	In development	Developers and tinkerers
Mumble	BSD-3-Clause	Voice channels only	Yes, very low latency	Gaming groups that mostly talk
Rocket.Chat	MIT (core)	Text channels and threads	Yes	Organizations that need administration and compliance

Stoat: the familiar layout, formerly Revolt

Stoat, the project previously called Revolt, copies the structure Discord users already know: servers with text and voice channels, roles and permissions, bots, custom emoji, and a home screen of direct messages. The backend is written in Rust and split into an API server, a WebSocket events server, a file server and several smaller services. There are web, desktop, Android and iOS clients.

The backend is AGPL-3.0 (individual crates can carry their own licenses), and backend version 0.16.2 shipped on October 19, 2026. You can join the hosted service or run your own instance. Self-hosted instances are separate islands, so members need an account on each one. Choose Stoat when you want the smallest change in habits for your members.

Element on Matrix: a federated, encrypted community

Element is the main app for Matrix, an open chat standard where servers talk to each other like email providers do. Spaces group rooms into something like a Discord server, rooms can be end-to-end encrypted, and people from any Matrix server can join your community without creating an account on yours. Bridges link Matrix rooms to Discord, Telegram, IRC and other networks, which helps during a migration.

Element and its Synapse server are AGPL-3.0, with a commercial license also offered by Element. Element Web 1.12.33 shipped on October 27, 2026. Large public rooms make heavy demands on a homeserver, so plan hardware and moderation tools before you announce your space.

Spacebar: a reimplementation of the Discord backend

Spacebar rebuilds the Discord server side, with an HTTP API, a WebSocket gateway, a media CDN and a WebRTC server, and aims to stay compatible with existing Discord bots, libraries and clients. In practice, some clients still do not connect, and the project has no tagged releases. It is AGPL-3.0.

Spacebar is a project to watch and to contribute to rather than one to move a large community onto today. Choose it if you are a developer who wants Discord’s protocol on hardware you control.

Mumble: voice chat that just works

Mumble has been the self-hosted voice chat of choice for gaming clans for more than fifteen years. It uses the Opus codec for low-latency, high-quality audio, supports positional audio in games, push-to-talk, fine-grained channel permissions and plugins. The client runs on Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and macOS, and the server, now called mumble-server (formerly murmur), runs almost anywhere and needs very little memory.

Mumble is BSD-3-Clause licensed and version 1.5.939 is the latest release. It has text chat, but no persistent channels with history and media like Discord. Many groups pair it with one of the text apps on this page.

Rocket.Chat: when the community is also an organization

Rocket.Chat is built for workplaces, but its channels, threads, roles, audio and video calls, end-to-end encrypted rooms and federation work for large communities too, especially ones run by a company, school or nonprofit that needs single sign-on, audit logs and administration tools. The core is MIT licensed, with enterprise features under a separate license. Version 8.9.0 shipped on October 5, 2026.

How to choose

• Your members expect something that looks like Discord: Stoat.
• You want encryption and a community that spans servers: Element on Matrix.
• You mostly talk while gaming: Mumble, alongside a text app.
• You need administration, compliance and single sign-on: Rocket.Chat.
• You want Discord’s own protocol and are happy to help build it: Spacebar.

Before you move, run a small pilot with your most active members and check that the moderation tools match your rules. Looking for a workplace chat instead? See our Slack alternatives. You can browse every project in the directory.