The Best Alternatives to Discord by Category

With Discord’s recent announcement of mandatory ID and face scans, searches for “Discord alternatives” have increased by 5000% compared to 2025*. It’s likely that the “platform for gamers” will continue its path of enshittification with its plan to IPO in 2026 or 2027.

Luckily, I’ve found that there are actually many viable alternatives available.

In my search for a Discord alternative, I’ve broken up the use cases for Discord into the following:

• Text/group chat: Real-time messaging with friends, community, or interest groups
• Voice chat: Real-time voice messaging with friends and community members
• Screen sharing/streaming: Collaborating or watching content together
• Community building: For interest groups, creators, and communities

I’ve found that the best alternative is actually determined by how you use Discord, since, while starting as a “chat for gamers”, the platform has evolved quite a bit since its first release on May 13, 2015.

Below are the best alternatives that I’ve found, grouped by category.

Clones

These platforms are basically clones of Discord, similar to how X and BlueSky work.

Stoat (formerly Revolt):

Description: A self-hostable and open-source alternative to Discord with a similar UI/UX. Great if you’re looking for familiar text chat and channels. However, voice chat is not fully available yet.

What I love: It’s open source and familiar to Discord users.

Site: stoat.chat

Matrix

Description: An encrypted federated, alternative to Discord. The best description I’ve heard for federation is “think of it like email, you can host it on your own server, but still talk to people on other servers (like Gmail emailing Outlook users)”. Great if you are into decentralization, but it has the same drawbacks as other decentralized and federated platforms (hard to get started, fragmented features etc.)

What I love: It’s a federation network.

Site: joinmatrix.org

Guilded

Description: Honorable mention since Guilded was the direct 1:1 competitor to Discord for years; however, they’ve recently shut down as of December 19th, 2025. RIP.

What I love: 😭

Site: http://guilded.gg/

Best for Community Building and Growth

These platforms are best for growing your community. Unlike Discord’s chat, the conversations on these platforms are public and can be discovered by Google.

OddsRabbit

Description: A newer platform designed for community builders and creators looking to grow and earn from their community. Similar to Reddit, OddsRabbit allows your community discussions to be listed in search engines (for SEO), meaning new users can find you and your community via Google. It also offers unique features such as ad-revenue sharing and built-in community newsletters to help you reach your audience.

What I love: OddsRabbit donates a meal to a child in need for every new user signup, and 10% of their ad revenue to the charity nominated directly by you.

Site: oddsrabbit.com

Discourse

Description: An open-source community platform similar to Reddit and OddsRabbit. You can self-host or pay for your own community (starting at $20/mo). Good for building knowledge bases and support hubs, where the content can also be indexed by Google and AI.

What I love: The customizability to match your brand’s style.

Site: discourse.com

Best for Voice Chats

These platforms excel at voice chat, with some like Ventrilo being considered the father of modern voice chat by some.

TeamSpeak

Description: Great for guilds and gamers looking to chat with their friends. Was previously the voice supplier of the Overwatch league, and long trusted by competitive gaming communities.

What I love: Truly one of the OGs in voice chat.

Site: teamspeak.com

Mumble

Description: A light-weight open-source voice chat that is most similar to Ventrilo. Solid alternative if you only require voice chat.

What I love: It was free when Ventrilo used to cost money.

Site: mumble.info

Ventrilo

Description: Old school throwback. It’s not a great modern alternative, but Ventrilo servers are still alive and nostalgic if you’re looking for a private and intimate voice chat with friends.

What I love: The nostalgia.

Site: ventrilo.com

Best for work

Platforms that are the best Discord alternatives for teams and work (though you should not have been using Discord for work anyway).

Slack

Description: I am not sure I even need to describe Slack, so I am going to save 5 minutes and not.

What I love: The industry standard for corporate chat.

Site: slack.com

Rocket.Chat

Description: An open-source, self-hostable version of Slack, secure enough to be used by the US Army and Air Force.

What I love: Seems very reputable and data-secure if it’s trusted by the US government.

Site: rocket.chat

Pumble

Description: A competitor to Slack that offers a more generous free plan with unlimited users and unlimited chat history.

What I love: Unlimited chat history for the free plan is a difference maker for small businesses.

Site: pumble.com

Zulip

Description: A Slack meets email hybrid, where conversations are grouped into unread messages in your inbox. Interesting take and differentiation that separates itself from the other Slack/Discord alternatives.

What I love: The inbox approach to organizing conversations is truly interesting.

Site: zulip.com

Honorable mentions

Telegram

Description: Chat app widely used by crypto enthusiasts and in parts of the world. Lacks channels and other features to be more properly considered an alternative to Discord.

What I love: Likely already installed on your phone.

Site: telegram.org

Signal

Description: The gold standard for privacy. All chats are encrypted end-to-end. Best for 1-on-1 or small group chats. Same issue with Telegram, where it’s more of a chat app, and lacks the features to be properly considered a Discord alternative.

What I love: The security and privacy.

Site: signal.org

Steam Chat

Description: For gamers who need to simply chat with friends, Steam chat is likely the easiest option. However, it’s similar to Signal and Telegram in that it’s just direct chat messaging, and lacks the other features such as channels etc.

What I love: Easy to use, and already installed on most PCs.

Site: store.steampowered.com

Did I miss any alternatives? Let me know!

* Data from Google Trends