Self-Hosted Alternatives to Discord
Why Replace Discord?
Discord collects extensive data — message content, voice chat metadata, usage patterns, device information, and behavioral analytics. Their privacy policy grants broad rights to use this data. For communities that value privacy, this is a dealbreaker.
Beyond privacy:
- No data portability. Discord makes it effectively impossible to export your community’s message history, files, or member data.
- Account bans affect all servers. A ban on one server can cascade to account suspension, losing access to every community.
- Nitro costs add up. $9.99/month for features like larger uploads, higher streaming quality, and custom emoji. Server boosts cost $4.99/month per boost.
- No self-hosting. Discord is a proprietary, centralized platform. There is no “Discord Server” you can run on your own hardware.
- Terms of Service changes. Discord has changed its ToS multiple times, including adding arbitration clauses and expanding data collection. You have no control over these changes.
The tradeoff: Discord’s voice chat quality, screen sharing, and community discovery features are best-in-class. No self-hosted alternative fully matches the combination of low-latency voice, video, and text that Discord offers. If real-time voice chat is your primary use case, the self-hosted alternatives lag behind.
Best Alternatives
Matrix/Element — Best Overall Replacement
Matrix is a decentralized protocol, and Element is its flagship client. Together, they offer the closest thing to a Discord replacement: text channels (rooms), direct messages, voice/video calls (via Jitsi or native WebRTC), E2E encryption, and communities (Spaces). The key advantage over Discord: federation. Your Matrix server can communicate with every other Matrix server in the world.
Element’s UI has improved significantly — it now supports Spaces (similar to Discord servers), threads, voice messages, and rich media. The experience is not identical to Discord, but it covers the same ground.
Strengths: Federation, E2E encryption, Spaces for community organization, bridges to Discord/Slack/Telegram/IRC, active development, multiple client options.
Weaknesses: Higher resource usage (Synapse is RAM-hungry), voice/video quality is not as polished as Discord’s, no built-in screen sharing quality matching Discord’s, initial sync can be slow.
Best for: Privacy-focused communities, open-source projects, and anyone who wants to communicate across organizational boundaries via federation.
[Read our full guide: How to Self-Host Matrix Synapse]
Rocket.Chat — Best Feature-Complete Alternative
Rocket.Chat offers channels, threads, DMs, voice/video calls, file sharing, and custom emoji — covering most of Discord’s text and voice functionality. It also adds features Discord lacks: livechat widgets, omnichannel support, and enterprise compliance tools.
The community is large and active. Mobile apps are available for iOS and Android. The interface is closer to Slack than Discord, but the functionality overlaps significantly.
Strengths: Built-in voice/video, livechat, extensive integrations, large community, E2E encryption.
Weaknesses: Some features paywalled in v7.x+, heavier than Mattermost, MongoDB complexity, UI is more “enterprise” than “community.”
Best for: Teams and communities that also need customer support tools alongside chat.
[Read our full guide: How to Self-Host Rocket.Chat]
Mattermost — Best for Team Communication
Mattermost is designed for team communication rather than public communities. It handles channels, threads, DMs, file sharing, and has a built-in Calls plugin for voice/video. The interface is clean and polished.
While it is not designed as a Discord replacement (no public server directory, no community features), it works well for private communities, gaming clans, and friend groups that want a private space.
Strengths: Clean UI, built-in calls, lightweight, easy setup, strong plugin ecosystem.
Weaknesses: No community/discovery features, no public servers concept, designed for teams rather than communities.
Best for: Private groups and teams that want a simple, private chat server.
[Read our full guide: How to Self-Host Mattermost]
Mumble — Best for Voice Chat Only
If your primary Discord use case is voice chat during gaming or meetings, Mumble is a lightweight, low-latency voice server that has been around since 2005. It uses its own protocol optimized for low latency and high audio quality. No text chat beyond basic messaging — it is purpose-built for voice.
Strengths: Extremely low latency, minimal resource usage (~30MB RAM), positional audio for gaming, encrypted by default, runs on anything.
Weaknesses: Voice only — no text channels, no file sharing, no rich media. Dated UI. Smaller community than it once was.
Best for: Gaming groups and communities where voice chat is the primary activity.
Comparison Table
| Feature | Discord | Matrix/Element | Rocket.Chat | Mattermost | Mumble |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text channels | Yes | Yes (rooms) | Yes | Yes | Basic only |
| Voice channels | Yes | Via Jitsi/WebRTC | Built-in | Built-in (Calls) | Yes (core feature) |
| Video calls | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Screen sharing | Yes (high quality) | Yes (basic) | Yes | Yes | No |
| E2E encryption | No (DMs only) | Yes (protocol-level) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Federation | No | Yes (native) | Matrix bridge | No | No |
| Communities/Spaces | Servers | Spaces | Channels | Teams | Servers |
| Bots | Yes (rich API) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Limited |
| Custom emoji | Yes (Nitro) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| File sharing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Mobile apps | Native | Element (native) | Native | Native | Plumble (Android) |
| Self-hosted cost | N/A | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| RAM requirement | N/A | 2-4 GB | 2 GB | 4 GB | 128 MB |
Cost Comparison
| Discord (Nitro) | Self-Hosted | |
|---|---|---|
| Basic use/month | $0 (with limits) | $0 (existing server) |
| Nitro/month | $9.99/user | $0 |
| Server boosts/month | $4.99/boost | N/A |
| 10 Nitro users/year | $1,199 | $0-60 (VPS share) |
| Storage limit | 500 MB (free) / 25 GB (Nitro) | Your hardware |
| File upload limit | 25 MB (free) / 500 MB (Nitro) | Configurable |
| Data ownership | Discord owns it | You own it |
What You Give Up
- Voice quality and latency — Discord’s voice infrastructure is purpose-built and globally distributed. Self-hosted voice (via Jitsi or WebRTC) is good but has higher latency, especially for geographically distributed groups.
- Screen sharing quality — Discord’s screen sharing is smooth at high resolution. Self-hosted alternatives are functional but less polished.
- Server discovery — Discord’s public server directory helps communities grow. Self-hosted platforms do not have equivalent discovery mechanisms.
- Rich presence and game integration — “Playing [game]” status, game-specific overlays, and activity status. No self-hosted alternative replicates this.
- Stickers, GIF integration, and Nitro features — Discord’s media integration (Tenor GIFs, sticker packs) is tightly integrated. Self-hosted platforms support media but less seamlessly.
- Massive community scale — Discord servers can handle 500,000+ members. Self-hosted solutions typically max out at a few thousand without significant infrastructure.
For most private communities (gaming clans, friend groups, project teams), the self-hosted alternatives work well. For large public communities that rely on Discord’s discovery and scale, migration is harder to justify.
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