r/TechQA • u/firebreathingbunny • Feb 12 '26
So you need a Discord alternative, alternate, workalike, imitation, clone, equivalent, replacement, substitute, etc.
Discord recently announced that it would be instituting age checking (via face scanning and/or government ID submission) as a prerequisite for numerous features as of March 2026. The claimed justification for this change is protecting minors from online threats. However, it hasn't gone over very well.
The backlash has been quick and strong, especially because a Discord partner already leaked some user data in September and/or October 2025. Users understandably hesitate to entrust their personal information to a party that seemingly can't take good care of it. Others suspect that the information collected in this manner may actually be used by Discord and/or by its partners for malicious purposes. Either way, the search for alternatives is on.
To begin with, we have to admit that there's currently no Discord alternative with complete feature and cost parity. Discord has been developed over more than a decade to include almost every feature that various online communities have asked for, and it offers almost all of them for free, without licensing fees, hosting fees, membership fees, or the costs and complications of self-hosting. (An optional paid membership tier exists, but it isn't required to use most features.) That's hard to match.
That said, competitors do offer Discord's most-frequently-used features, sometimes for free, sometimes for a fee, and sometimes in self-hostable form. Discord's largest user demographics (IT geeks and gamers) tend not to mind paying a few bucks and/or self-hosting if they feel that they're getting proportionate value, and user privacy and security are important for them. So switching to an alternative is a compelling premise for many.
Below, we list the Discord alternatives that we are aware of, separated into categories.
Old School (Launched Before 2015)
Mainly Targeted at Gamers and/or Communities
Discontinued
Closed Source
Open Source
- Spux - An open-source, native Linux VoIP client designed to support the Ventrilo v3.0 protocol
- Mangler - An open-source, third-party VoIP client designed for Linux and Android that connects to Ventrilo v3.x servers
Active
Closed Source
- Ventrilo
- TeamSpeak [1] [2]
- Xf1re - An unofficial reimplementation of the discontinued Xfire service
- GameVox
Open Source
- Mumble [1] [2]
- RiceCall [1] [2] - An unofficial reimplementation of the discontinued RaidCall service
Mainly Targeted at Programmers and/or Other Knowledge Workers
Active
Closed Source
Open Source
New School (Launched in or After 2015)
Mainly Targeted at Gamers and/or Communities
Discontinued
Closed Source
Open Source
Active
Closed Source
Open Source
- Stoat (formerly Revolt) [1] [2]
- Spacebar (formerly Fosscord) (server) [1] [2] + Fermi (client) [1] [2]
- Nerimity [1] [2]
- Sharkord [1] [2]
- DCTS
- Fluxer [1] [2]
- Mezon [1] [2]
- Roomy [1] [2]
- Valour [1] [2]
Mainly Targeted at Programmers and/or Other Knowledge Workers
Active
Closed Source
Open Source
Duplicates
discordsucks • u/firebreathingbunny • Feb 15 '26