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7 self-hosted options

Open-source alternatives to Discord

The best open-source alternative to Discord is Rocket.Chat (MIT, 46,329 GitHub stars, Docker image). Zulip stands out for the most commits in the last 12 months (5,095), and Lemmy stands out for its Rust codebase.

About Discord: A voice, video and text chat platform built around communities and servers.

Updated · data from GitHub, refreshed daily

Top picks

  1. Rank 1:

    Rocket.Chat

    RocketChat/Rocket.Chat

    Communications platform that puts data protection first (alternative to Gitter.im and Slack).

    Active · last commit Oct 26, 2026

    Team ChatTypeScriptDocker

    Stands out for the most GitHub stars.

  2. Rank 2:

    Zulip

    zulip/zulip

    Zulip is a powerful, open source group chat application.

    Active · last commit Oct 26, 2026

    Team ChatPython

    Stands out for the most commits in the last 12 months (5,095).

  3. Rank 3:

    Lemmy

    LemmyNet/lemmy

    Link aggregator for the fediverse (alternative to Reddit).

    Active · last commit Oct 23, 2026

    Social & ForumsRustDocker

    Stands out for its Rust codebase.

At a glance

Discord alternatives compared

Open-source apps come first, then source-available ones and apps whose license appsgit could not verify; within each group, projects with at least 12 commits in the last 12 months come before less active or archived ones, then by GitHub stars.

Discord alternatives compared, data as of 2026-10-26
AppStands out forLicenseGitHub starsCommits (12 mo)Last commitDocker image
Rocket.Chatthe most GitHub starsMIT46,3292,441Oct 26, 2026Yes
Zulipthe most commits in the last 12 months (5,095)Apache-2.026,1145,095Oct 26, 2026No
Lemmyits Rust codebaseAGPL-3.014,647332Oct 23, 2026Yes
Element–AGPL-3.013,6143,188Oct 23, 2026No
Fluxerthe most recent release (fluxer-release@2026.1026.5027, October 2026)AGPL-3.010,6593,002Oct 26, 2026Yes
Mumble–BSD-3-Clause8,365599Oct 25, 2026No
Stoat–AGPL-3.02,67733Oct 7, 2026Yes

Full list

All 7 Discord alternatives

Open any app for live stats, license details and a deploy option.

  1. 1

    Rocket.Chat

    Communications platform that puts data protection first (alternative to Gitter.im and Slack).

    Stands out for the most GitHub stars. Rocket.Chat has 46,329 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 2,441 commits in the last year.

  2. 2

    Zulip

    Zulip is a powerful, open source group chat application.

    Stands out for the most commits in the last 12 months (5,095). Zulip has 26,114 GitHub stars, uses the Apache-2.0 license and had 5,095 commits in the last year.

  3. 3

    Lemmy

    Link aggregator for the fediverse (alternative to Reddit).

    Stands out for its Rust codebase. Lemmy has 14,647 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 332 commits in the last year.

  4. 4

    Element

    Fully-featured Matrix client for Web, iOS & Android.

    Element has 13,614 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license and had 3,188 commits in the last year.

  5. 5

    Fluxer

    Instant messaging and VoIP platform built for friends, groups, and communities (alternative to Discord).

    Stands out for the most recent release (fluxer-release@2026.1026.5027, October 2026). Fluxer has 10,659 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 3,002 commits in the last year.

  6. 6

    Mumble

    Low-latency, high quality voice/text chat software.

    Mumble has 8,365 GitHub stars, uses the BSD-3-Clause license and had 599 commits in the last year.

  7. 7

    Stoat

    Stoat is a user-first chat platform built with modern web technologies.

    Stoat has 2,677 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 33 commits in the last year.

FAQ

Discord alternatives: FAQ

Still curious? Email info@appsgit.com.

Is there a free alternative to Discord?

Yes. All 7 apps on this page are open source and free to self-host, so you can replace Discord without per-user fees. You pay only for the server.

Can I self-host an alternative to Discord with Docker?

Yes. 4 of the 7 apps here publish a Docker image, including Rocket.Chat, Lemmy and Fluxer, so you can run them on a home server or VPS with Docker Compose.

Which Discord alternative is the most actively developed?

Zulip (Apache-2.0), with 5,095 commits in the last 12 months. Activity is a good sign that bugs and security issues get fixed.

How is this list ranked?

Open-source apps come first, then source-available ones and apps whose license appsgit could not verify; within each group, projects with at least 12 commits in the last 12 months come before less active or archived ones, then by GitHub stars.