Top Discord Alternatives

Discord, a popular communication app among gamers, allows users to interact with each other in a variety of ways, including calling and chatting, sharing gameplay screens, and creating communities. Discord has announced that it will be restricting users to minors by default, requiring them to take a photo of their face or scan their ID to verify their age. Such major changes could lead to users abandoning Discord, so cybersecurity analyst Michael Taggart has compiled a list of the best alternatives to Discord .

Discord Alternatives, Ranked: Taggart Tech
https://taggart-tech.com/discord-alternatives/#score-breakdown

Taggart's criteria for a Discord replacement app is 'a platform on which online communities can be built.' He then listed the following five elements necessary for an online community platform and rated them on a scale of 1 to 5.

Functionality: Does it perform all the functions you need in a platform for building, organizing, and sustaining a community?
Openness: Can I access all of the tool's features and code without paying?
Security: How secure are your servers and user data against common threats?
Safety: What features are available to manage the community and protect it from malicious or unwanted behavior?
Decentralization: How dependent is the service on a single point of failure?

◆ Discord

Taggart lists the drawbacks of Discord as 'difficulty in looking back,' 'not open,' 'messages are not end-to-end encrypted,' and 'user data is provided to law enforcement agencies.'

Functionality: 4
Openness: 1
Security: 3
Safety: 4
Decentralization: 1
Overall score: 13

◆ Signal

Taggart said Signal is a great app if you just want to chat. However, he pointed out that Signal lacks many of the elements needed to build a community online, such as no channels or threads to organize conversations, no ability to pin posts, and very limited search functionality.

Functionality: 2
Openness: 4
Security: 5
Safety: 2
Decentralization: 1
Overall score: 14

◆ Matrix

Taggart cites communities that should use Matrix as 'communities that value independence above all else, and security and privacy secondarily.'

Functionality: 3
Openness: 4
Security: 3
Safety: 1
Decentralization: 4
Overall score: 15

◆ Rocket.Chat

Taggart cited Rocket.Chat as a suitable platform for communities that want a smooth Slack-like experience and are willing to pay for independence. He described the Rocket.Chat experience as being just like self-hosting Slack. However, Taggart pointed out that the only drawback is that the price is simply too high.

Functionality: 5
Openness: 3
Security: 4
Safety: 3
Decentralization: 3
Overall score: 18

◆ Zulip

Regarding Zulip, Taggart said, 'I've used Zulip a little, but I'm not sure how to evaluate it yet. From one perspective, it feels like it has a blurred identity, whether it's a forum or a chat platform. From another perspective, this dual identity is its greatest strength. You can interact in real time when you need to, and asynchronously when you don't.' However, he also pointed out that although it has a wealth of excellent features, the management and usage fees are quite high.

Functionality: 4
Openness: 4
Security: 2
Safety: 2
Decentralization: 2
Overall score: 14

◆ Mattermost

Taggart describes Mattermost as 'a tool that Fortune 100 companies and government agencies should use' and 'a highly focused, integrated workflow that blends human communication with machine automation.' He also points out that pricing is quite high, starting at $10 (about 1,550 yen) per user.

Functionality: 4
Openness: 2
Security: 4
Safety: 2
Decentralization: 1
Overall score: 13

◆ Discourse

When asked what Discourse's ideal use is, Taggart listed 'anything other than real-time chat,' saying, 'I honestly love Discourse.' One major difference from other Discord alternatives is that 'Discourse is primarily a forum, not a real-time chat app.' While Discourse may not be suitable if you're looking for instant communication, Taggart praised its excellent UI, which makes it very easy to move between categories and topics and displays clear signals when something is happening. Searching is also easy. Taggart also praised Discourse for being 100% open source and easy to self-host.

Functionality: 3
Openness: 5
Security: 3
Safety: 5
Decentralization: 3
Overall score: 19