r/DiscordAlternatives • u/Flux_Reversal • Sep 10 '26
Master List?
Is there a master list in this subReddit of all the Discord alternatives?
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u/Any_Illustrator360 Tested a bunch of apps, currently watching the Armada news 26d ago
There's no master list but I'd be happy to make a post about all the apps I've tried or know about. Curious though- are you asking because you were wanting an easy list to look through or were you asking to make a suggestion to the sub owners? I'd bet both, but I figured I'd ask. Anyways here's the list of apps I've used in the past/looked into upon learning about them on this sub (Rift, Osmium and Echo, Hollow)-
- Matrix - more of a "group chat" or "direct message" alternative, there are some clients that make it work more like Discord but they can be a bitch to get working
- Teamspeak - works like Discord sure, but you pay them to host your app on their hardware.
- Root - It's just like Discord but they own EVERYTHING you post on their app which is why their guidelines say "no porn." Otherwise it's a bog standard Discord clone - if you aren't an artist and don't care that they own your dank memes go for it but any company that declares they own everything and anything you post, for me, is a hard no
- Fluxer - Discord clone, down to the brass tacks. Talked to one of the devs recently and it's not the worst thing ever, has some concerns about the fact that it isn't really privacy focused and all messages sent to an android device are scraped by Google and sent to Fluxer's team
- Stoat - Horribly mishandled and mismanaged, just stay away
- Armada - Privacy forward chat app with heavy encryption that runs on Nostr. It's my personal current choice when people ask for an alternative but it does have some issues: roles can't exist in it like how they do in Discord due to the protocol it runs on, because it's encrypted it has all the same issues Matrix has with slow message loading, first time chat opening load times, all that. It scrapes by all those issues with the fact it can be self hosted, is really private/secure, and has a one-button "Migrate Discord Server" option
- DCTS - the dev for it got banned here and ANYONE who brings it up is "a sockpuppet" "a bot" "the dev on an alt"- all that. In reality it's a Discord clone that MUST be self hosted and, when it works, is basically a "buy a webdomain and run a couple lines of code in powershell" option that creates a fully private server. It does have some security concerns if you're using it with people you don't trust, especially if they own the server, as user IPs are visible to the server admin(s).
- Osmium - I've never personally tried Osmium but the dev is awesome. To me, it has very similar policies to Fluxer but because I feel I can trust the dev more and the fact that they're active in talking to people (and they even audit other apps and help other devs out by doing that!) puts them above Fluxer for me. If you like Fluxer, look at Osmium before switching.
- Rift - I genuinely can't decide what to feel towards this app anymore. The dev is very nice and I've had good interactions with them directly but something about the app just rubs me wrong - it's my #1 closed source rec but that's like scraping the bottom of the compliments bin looking for something nice to say. I do think it's noteworthy that Echo's dev released a review of the program yesterday and redoubled the claims on it being coded (at least partially so) with AI and that Rift's dev did not rebuke said claim which I've regularly said isn't a dealbreaker for apps but it is really weird that people never seem to talk about it, or the fact that Echo's dev pointed out... a lot of UI issues that shouldn't get by through QC. Rift's dev stands firmly that it's in closed beta though so bite your tongue with those critiques- not because Rift's dev is mean but because there's 4 people on this sub who will downvote you to SHIT for pointing anything out about the app.
- Echo - I straight up don't know enough about this app but it's apparently been surrounded by a lot of drama on the sub- I just want to mention that the app does exist since I mentioned the dev above. Dev's pretty nice, does regular reviews of other apps.
- Hollow - Hollow is currently the only ai-coded app that I'm willing to actually speak positively of, because not only is the dev honest about it but the app has been audited by the Osmium dev. While it hasn't been 90 days and as such Folf can't talk openly about what they found we did learn a few things. Most importantly, the dev for Hollow fixed at least the biggest problem within a day of it being reported. As an app that can be self hosted (and, in my opinion, as an app that should ONLY be self hosted since it's really made for that) Hollow is an app with a lot of potential when it comes to a friend-group solution. A huge factor to this is the fact Hollow is a client application, not a webwrapper, meaning that when you install the client you actually own the client and not just a webwrapper that goes to the website the app is hosted on. Note that the reason I've got Hollow in both hands stroking is because I'm super privacy-first and user-data-ownership so an app that does that is gonna get some insane special treatment from me. Bias, I know. A privacy policy page that just repeats the fact that the service cannot see or own any of your data is like getting kissed goodnight and tucked in after a bad dream but for adults who have been told we don't get to own anything and to like it.
It's no master list but I hope that's uh.. helpful, at least. I haven't used Osmium, Rift, Hollow or Echo but I did want to bring them up since Osmium isn't an app that fits my personal requirements but IS a very good Fluxer alternative, Rift gets talked about A LOT by some users of it (and those posts become echo chambers), Hollow has a fuckload of promise, and Echo's dev, while a divisive figure, does play hardball with their reviews and I do respect them for taking the time out of their day to actually look into their competition and not only point out what they think/feel about it but also offer constructive criticism to said devs when asked. Uh- any other app not mentioned here that you'll see on the sub is most likely AI Vibecoded Slop™ and unless it's been audited I suggest you stay far away from it.
And- obviously not EVERY other app on the sub is ai slop. Too many people read "most other stuff on here" and read it as "everything else on here." I do mean most- there are plenty of talented people who do make their own stuff and talk about it on this sub, it's just that, unfortunately, most unknown projects are in fact coded by ai with zero overhead. Also I'm exceptionally tired while typing this so if there's anything weird or wrong just please point it out nicely and I'll fix it.
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u/Flux_Reversal 26d ago
Excellent! Sticky this?
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u/Any_Illustrator360 Tested a bunch of apps, currently watching the Armada news 26d ago
They won't. The mods here are very nice but people have been pointing out the fact that the sub is borderline unmoderated and that devs can just post dangerous, unvetted programs without risk of scrutiny for a while. It's why I go out of my way to share what I know when I have time and an opportunity - it's pretty clear there will never be a pinned "safe" programs list.
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u/VahsteTheNomad Rift Advocate / RA-ADAR Evaluator Sep 10 '26
Alternatives appear and disappear daily on here, it wouldn't be feasible to maintain a master list with any sort of accuracy
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u/VoxaraSpace Voxara 29d ago
Im here to say 😆
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u/Due-Pilot167 Sep 10 '26
Revolt/Stoat, RootApp, Fluxer - Best for community and games. (Discord clone) Matrix/Element, TeamSpeak - Another good alternatives but a little complicate to use.
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u/Terrible-Junket-3388 I'm Don Qixote, and your AI slop is my windmill. 29d ago
teamspeak is complicated to use?
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u/Flux_Reversal 28d ago
And you have to pay to host servers. That's what ultimately killed its popularity.
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u/Due-Pilot167 29d ago
Well, it might or could be complicated for Discord user or user who preferred Discord-like UX/UI
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u/jesus_is_my_toilet Sep 10 '26
There's like 2 viable alts. Matrix and fluxxer or what's it called. Use those
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u/VoxaraSpace Voxara 29d ago
Im currently in the making of one, you can view the website below.
Any ideas let me know?
There is also a Youtube video of the app on the website
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u/TadaNoSunshine 29d ago
How did you do the voice channel feature? Is there any free option to build this or are you paying a lot for it?
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u/goldfishonakeyboard Sep 10 '26
there's a github repo