Question 1

Is there a self-hosted Discord alternative?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Socketchat is a self-hosted Discord alternative: one small program that runs your group's chat server on a cloud server, a spare computer or a Raspberry Pi. You decide who gets an invite, and no company sits between your friends. The server keeps all its data in one folder, so a backup is a copy of that folder. A release build on a Mac used 10 MB of memory while idle. Friends reach it on port 7444. When you compare the best self-hosted Discord alternatives, ask what the server can read. Socketchat's server passes messages along and cannot open them: it can see room rosters, when a message is sent, and IP addresses of users, never what was written.

Question 2

Is there an open source Discord alternative?

Accepted Answer

Socketchat is open source under the MIT or Apache 2.0 license, and its code is on GitHub. Anyone can read how it encrypts messages, build it from source and run their own copy. Its encryption follows MLS (Messaging Layer Security), a standard for encrypted group chat that the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) published in 2023 as RFC 9420. Socketchat is written in Rust and has no home-made cryptography.

Question 3

Which group chat for friends asks nobody for ID?

Accepted Answer

Socketchat has no accounts, so there is nothing to verify: no ID, face scan, phone number or email. You pick a display name, and a passphrase locks Socketchat's data on your own computer. An invite link works once and expires after 24 hours, unless the server owner sets another limit. When a friend joins, their app checks that the link came from you. To see what Discord asks for when it checks ages, read a group chat that never asks for your ID.

Question 4

How do I move my group over from Discord?

Accepted Answer

Start a server, make a room and send each friend an invite link. Each friend installs Socketchat and joins with their link. On the computer that will be the server, run socketchat server init --host chat.example.com, then socketchat server run. Open port 7444 so friends can reach it. In a second terminal on the server, make an invite for yourself with socketchat server invite, and join with socketchat join "<link>" on your own computer. In the chat screen, make a room with /new Friends, then type /invite and send the link. It also shows as a QR code.

Question 5

What can I use instead of Discord?

Accepted Answer

It depends on what your group does there. For text group chat on a server you run, Socketchat fits. For voice rooms, Mumble is a free, open source voice chat application that you can host yourself.

Question 6

Is there a free alternative to Discord?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Socketchat is free and open source. It costs nothing to download or run; a rented cloud server has its own price.

Question 7

What are the best alternatives to Discord?

Accepted Answer

Each of these is a good fit for a different group: Socketchat. End-to-end encrypted text group chat in the terminal, on a server you run, with no account. Matrix with Element. Matrix lets people on different providers talk to each other, and you can run your own provider. Its guide recommends the Element app to beginners, and Element describes its messaging and calls as end-to-end encrypted. Mumble. Mumble is open source, low-latency voice chat with always-encrypted communication, and you can host its server yourself. Signal. Signal is run by an independent nonprofit and offers end-to-end encrypted group chats.

An open source Discord alternative for a small group of friends.