hunting for alternatives
I've heard people mention Matrix, but I've not tried it yet.
this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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So they're going to turn everybody into teenagers. Last I checked, teenagers can't buy things like nitro right? Doesn't that completely fuck up their own business model?
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So far, I have stumbled upon Stoat, a project called Sharkord, the Matrix network and the XMPP network.
Xmpp is both secure and snappy. Stoat doesn't federate but the interface is really Discord-like.
Some kind of XMPP based Stoat would be nice.
Potential alternatives:
Guilded
Element
Revolt
Telegram
Mumble
Session
Revolt is now called Stoat Chat. Some sort of legal issue apparently.
Anyway, for those who don't know, it's basically an open source clone of Discord. Definitely worth a look, probably where I'll my stuff now.
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Revolt is now Stoat
Guilded is dead. Their website redirects to a thank-you page of some sort. I remember trying it out ages ago and I thought it was pretty decent competition for Discord and had a lot of the same features, but ultimately it would have been susceptible to the same kind of fuckery that Discord is giving us right now. These private companies only want to extract value out of their users.
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I am already learning about matrix protocol which is seeming like a good alternative. https://matrix.to/#/#all-topics:matrix.org
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So anyone who knows some good altenatives that are either FOSS or EU based?
Stoat (formerly Revolt), is a strong FOSS competitor with a Discord-like feeling
https://stoat.chat/
https://github.com/stoatchat
I'm liking it, but there is a lot of work left to do there. I joined today and replicated the small server I run for video game nights with my friends. That part all worked; channels, roles, voice. but the application layer seems to need the most attention. iOS is not there yet and Android needs notification integration. The desktop client has a memory leak. I hope it gets there, but it will be a tough sell to normie friends who can't handle rough edges. The self hosted version is also behind on the release so it takes some effort to get working (looking to do this but I don't know if I have the chops to make it work as is)
The bones are there though and hope they get an influx of help given the writing on the wall about Discords imminent continued enshittification.
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In no particular order, and not all are EU or FOSS But most are FOSS. I think only the first 6 are both EU and FOSS clients. I may not have marked all of the Self Hosted ones, but I think I did.
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https://fluxer.app/ (self hosted)
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https://sharkord.com/ (self hosted)
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https://stoat.chat/ (self hosted)
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Making you aware that the age requirement probably comes from the EU. Seeking another EU based solution might introduce the same requirement.
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I've been floating the idea of running Matrix on my NAS anyway, so thanks to Discord for finally pissing me off enough to prioritise getting off of the shitty platform.
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I'm truly surprised that lots of people don't like it. I expected most will just silently obey the new orders of our overlords.
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Oh right, another account to delete.
The EU has apparently decided that this has to be done for most public platforms by July 2026, so Discord may not have much of a choice and other platforms will likely follow: (Edit: I forgot, the EU strict age verification stuff seems to be limited to EU DSA's definition of "platforms" so as a text messenger I'm not sure Discord is part of it. But this'll still likely be coming to more services near you and perhaps Discord is just voluntarily joining the chaos..)
I could be wrong I’m not a lawyer, assume everything I write from here is bullshit, but see here:
https://www.mlex.com/mlex/articles/2368265/online-services-get-up-to-12-months-to-apply-age-verification-eu-guidelines-say “Online services get up to 12 months to apply age verification, EU guidelines say” This was in July 2025.
EU guidelines in question seem to be: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/commission-publishes-guidelines-protection-minors + https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/redirection/document/118226 Quotes:
“[…] the Union legislature enacted Article 28 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and the Council (6). Paragraph 1 of this provision obliges providers of online platforms […] to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security of minors, […]”
“Self-declaration is not considered to be an appropriate age-assurance measure as further explained below.”
“In the following circumstances, […] the Commission considers the use of access restrictions supported by age verification methods an appropriate and proportionate measure to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security of minors: […] an online platform accessible to minors has identified risks to minors’ privacy, safety, or security, including content, conduct and consumer risks as well as contact risks (e.g., arising from features such as live chat, image/video sharing, anonymous messaging)”
“Age estimation methods can complement age verification technologies and can be used in addition to the former,” (AKA the alternative to a literal gov ID check seems to be big data AI sucking up all user data to estimate user age.)
The in my opinion horrible solution the EU seems to have found to avoid sharing the physical ID for services that don't want to request one, is apparently this app: https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet/av-app-android-wallet-ui Which from what I can tell 1. it requires Google device attestation so all custom ROMs are out and to be a citizen you can apparently no longer own your device, 2. unless you use iOS or Android you're apparently not a citizen, 3. once everyone is used to using some citizen app like that, I feel like a fascist government could easily tie it to a social score or other authoritarian measures bewyond the age verification. 4. There is a privacy friendly alternative approach anyway, that most governments seem to conveniently be ignoring: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/13/california-law-online-age-checks-00606115
Anyway, I'm not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice. But spread the word, somehow press seems to be ignoring this.