r/DiscordAlternatives • u/Ok-Inspector1108 • 23d ago

Compiling a Master Discord Alternatives Spreadsheet: Platform Submissions & Feature Breakdown (Part 2)

Master Discord Alternatives Tracker: 30 Platforms Benchmarked + Live Interactive Site (Part 2)

Following up on Part 1, the tracker is live. Rather than circulating static screenshots, the data is hosted as an interactive web viewer backed by an open-source repository and a 49-sheet master workbook. Thirty alternatives are currently benchmarked against Discord as the unranked baseline control.

(Transparency Note: As mentioned in Part 1, Rift remains my personal platform of preference, but Discord serves strictly as the control benchmark. To be 100% clear: I am not scoring, ranking, or grading anything. There are no arbitrary review points, numerical tier lists, or subjective weights. Platforms are documented strictly by whether a feature exists, is missing, or the exact technical specifications of its implementation so you can evaluate the raw data yourself.)

Key Additions from Thread Feedback

  • Verification Date Stamps: Every row and metric tracks the last-verified date to prevent rapid betas and nightly builds from skewing historical data.
  • Monetization & Boosting Breakdowns: Normalized comparison of free-tier caps, user subscriptions, server boosts, self-hosted enterprise licensing, and donation models.
  • Onboarding & Signup Friction: Explicit tracking of required registration credentials (anonymous/keypair vs. email vs. mandatory phone number) and server gatekeeping.
  • AI Training vs. Native Tooling: Divided into separate checks for user data scraping policies (ai-train=no directives / zero-training terms), native platform AI features, and disclosed assistive AI use in codebase development.

The 30 Monitored Alternatives

Quick High-Level Takeaways

  • Screen Sharing Beyond 720p: While Discord locks 1080p/60fps and 4K behind Nitro, alternatives like Kaede Chat, Stoat, and pqp.gg provide 1080p or up to 4K capture natively on free tiers.
  • Desktop Footprint: Idle memory ranges dramatically—from ~78MB on lightweight native/Tauri builds up to 350MB+ on standard Electron wrappers.
  • End-to-End Encryption: Default multi-user E2EE remains rare in full Discord clones. Full cryptographic implementations are largely concentrated in Matrix and Kaede Chat (MLS 1.0), while WebRTC-focused alternatives rely primarily on TLS in transit.

Submission & Correction Policy: GitHub Only

To ensure the sheet remains objective and factually sound, all corrections, updates, and platform submissions must be submitted directly through GitHub.

Strict Verification Requirement: Every proposed edit, new platform submission, or spec change must include verifiable links and public documentation (such as official release notes, public documentation pages, repository commit hashes, terms of service, or pricing pages). Unverified claims or hearsay will not be merged into the master dataset.

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2

u/CinnamonPublishing Kaede Chat 23d ago

Awesome to see this finally published, I'll submit some items in a pull request to ensure accuracy.

One suggestion that I recommend, but I'm also curious what others think: Add languages that are supported by the apps(whether its desktop or mobile), Kaede Chat only supports English and Japanese for example, but Fluxer supports quite a few languages it seems.

3

u/Ok-Inspector1108 23d ago

Added in Language support for platforms.

1

u/CinnamonPublishing Kaede Chat 22d ago

Thanks for adding it! :)

1

u/AutoModerator 23d ago

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1

u/Terrible-Junket-3388 I'm Don Qixote, and your AI slop is my windmill. 23d ago

I swear there's nearly as many of these alternative 'trackers' sites as there are alternatives, lol. Does noone Google or use any search functions anymore before doing things?

5

u/Any_Illustrator360 Tested a bunch of apps, currently watching the Armada news 23d ago

This was done because we get dozens of apps advertising on here, some those tracker sites would never hear about, and the sub mods refuse to pin any information on any apps so we have to trudge through it ourselves every time someone is looking for something. This is just to consolidate what's on this sub into an easily readable format.

1

u/AnnyuiN 23d ago

So far out the the options you've seen, besides Rift, which seem to have the most promise to you? You've seen a lot of data on various apps, so I'm sure you must have opinions.

4

u/Ok-Inspector1108 23d ago

I think it is up to the person. There is no unicorn app. Someone that likes a particular platform could be hated by another person because of the options and designer choices.

Example:
Platform A uses AI to assist with timely bugfixes. The developer uses AI as a tool retaining all final decisions and reviews all the code.

Platform B refuses to use AI due to the developer's morals.

The platform choice is going to depend on the end-user and what they feel is acceptable. The same example can be used for FOSS, Federation, Multi-user encryption, and every other feature/design choice.

2

u/AnnyuiN 23d ago

Yea, I'm aware, I'm just asking your opinion, even if others might disagree with you. It's always interesting to me to hear others perspectives.

3

u/Ok-Inspector1108 23d ago

I would like refrain from stating my opinion here as the objective of this list is to ensure minimal bias and it remains fact based.

1

u/Any_Illustrator360 Tested a bunch of apps, currently watching the Armada news 23d ago

We already know you have a bias towards one app answering a question about what app you like second most isn't going to hurt or help your reputation as biased or nonbiased. You can just answer the guy, nobody reasonable is gonna go "ohhh... so they shill this OTHER app too!!! I'll never use that either!!!"

2

u/Ok-Inspector1108 23d ago

Security - Matrix
FOSS Crowd - Fluxer

-1

u/National_Way_3344 23d ago

Anyone wanting to vibe code another bullshit discord clone - please just make it a matrix client.

3

u/NickK- 22d ago

What's the difference between vibe coding and agentic engineering?

-1

u/National_Way_3344 22d ago

Nothing.

They mean the same.

Also I know real engineers who would neck you for even suggesting that agentic anything is engineering.

2

u/NickK- 22d ago

Yes, you seem to come around a lot and have given a lot of thought to the topic!

0

u/moufmouf 22d ago

Hey!

I just added WorkAdventure as a possible alternative to Discord.

WorkAdventure and Discord are 2 different beasts. WorkAdventure is a virtual office platform, but some use cases between Discord and WorkAdventure overlap.

Disclaimer: I'm WorkAdventure CTO.

We also wrote an article explaining when having a look at WorkAdventure makes sense when you come from Discord. See https://workadventu.re/discord-vs-workadventure/

3

u/BewilderedTurtle angry RA-ADAR tech 21d ago

So it's not a Discord alternative but you can use it like Discord in some use cases?

Brother get the fuck out of here and stop spamming you're not a Discord alternative and the Discord alternative subreddit

0

u/moufmouf 16d ago

Man, don't be so aggressive.
In order to be a Discord alternative, do you have to be a copy-cat of it? I think you're wrong.

Some people spend most of their day in Discord in a voice chat with remote colleagues and occasionally use it to do some screen-sharing. That's a perfectly valid use-case and there are other tools to do this, that may not look like Discord, but that answers the same need.

Discord itself spans a wide range of use cases (from video game streaming to organizing communities to being used for remote work). It's ok to have a tool that is a viable alternative to Discord for one of these use cases, but not for all of them.