how do you think this compares to the other options out there? Stuff like Stoat for instance? I suppose that's a cloud based thing, so maybe not comparable, but still...

Matrix is too complex and problematic for anyone ...

I'm not really familiar with all the others.

Quoting: Jarmerhow do you think this compares to the other options out there? Stuff like Stoat for instance? I suppose that's a cloud based thing, so maybe not comparable, but still...

Matrix is too complex and problematic for anyone ...

I'm not really familiar with all the others.

I either tested or took a good look at the other options that I know of. Sharkord appears to be in the lead.

Stoat appears to be behind and like Fluxer, I think it's trying to become Discord 2.0 in brand image and monetisation which is a no go for me.

Matrix is indeed complex and daunting as you said, add to that it's not as lightweight as Sharkord, which is something I forgot to mention in the post, so hosting costs add up to.

I want to make it clear, as laid out somewhere in their github, Sharkord is not attempting to be a Discord clone, it instead is developed for the specific use case of being a solid, lightweight RTC solution for small groups. Community chatting or being a knowledge base is out of scope, look elsewhere if that's what one is looking for.

There should be a conversation about how people over relied on Discord for far too many uses. It's all the following a forum, knowledge base, gathering for communities, RTC solution, and instant messenging. People have put all their eggs in one basket. A wiser approach would be to use multiple applications for the different use cases, not limiting oneself to just 1 where it all comes down when it fucks up.

And of course, if that's too much work for the average user, then go ahead and get those government IDs ready I guess. Live free or die.

Last edited by Pyrate on 19 Feb 2026 at 7:12 am UTC

I did gone with Fluxer for my favorite Discord alternative

Quite keen on Fluxer myself.
Currently I begrudgingly use Matrix, and bridge Discord DMs to it for the 99% of my friends who won't leave Discord if it saved their life. I get that, I wouldn't make them use Matrix either, it really is so unnecessarily complex and tedious to use, and I consider myself quite technical, hosting my own Synapse homeserver and the Discord bridge on top.

Stoat is promising, but I'm wary of them after the vibe-coding incident, even if they removed that code they never promised to not do it again.

Also, until Stoat's new client gets theming support again, it's not very nice to use. I seriously dislike Google Material design.
Just to be sure, don't take this as me saying I hope Stoat dies and never recovers, I hope it thrives (without the AI guff) and provides some much needed competition.

Fluxer is one platform I'm hoping will gain some adoption, because it's very promising so far.
Contrary to my endless criticisms of Discord, I do really like its UX. I find the interface to be really easy to understand and navigate.

So having Fluxer as a platform that is just.. Discord's interface, but open source, open to third party clients, self-hostable and at some point federated (they are working on), is extremely nice.

The following is not a problem with Fluxer anymore, but one thing I criticised it for was how they were locking custom notification sounds behind a premium subscription, notably because I think that has a lot of overlap as an accessibility feature and also because it could be handled entirely locally without uploading the file (which it does actually do, apparently), so it wouldn't have to affect the main Fluxer server at all.
That has since been opened to everyone as a free feature, so that actually inspires some optimism in me.

And regardless, even if Fluxer is a bit heavy handed on the monetisation, that's something self-hosting and federation can easily fix. Lord knows they need that cash anyway.

/walloftext

Last edited by ridge on 19 Mar 2026 at 10:42 am UTC

I still don't like the "Discord but worse, with heavy monetization (hundreds of thousands of US Dollars in the bag already from what I read), promised but not currently available self-hosting" of Fluxer.

Personally, I'm still keeping an eye on Sharkord and TeamSpeak. TS appears to choose to stay dead with the slowest development time in existence. Meanwhile Sharkord is about to get improved plugins sdk. Plugins of which I really believe will be the killer feature and will make lots of people try it out and make all kinds of plugins, as is the case with any open source project with addon/plugin support.

Last edited by Pyrate on 19 Mar 2026 at 4:48 pm UTC

I'm just hoping that a clear winner emerges before Discord goes much further, because I'm the sole active moderator for one Discord group of queer vintage tech nerds, and some folks there are so tired of moving around already. I have no idea where to even attempt to steer the group, even after several discussions with members.

We're trying out Fluxer: https://fluxer.gg/HajTInMe

Quoting: Liam DaweWe're trying out Fluxer: https://fluxer.gg/HajTInMe

No offense, but the login page is exactly why I don't like Fluxer, like at all.

Right off the get-go, they want my DOB, and I spotted hyperlinks for ToS and Privacy Policy too ? Literally what is different from Discord here other than pretty promises ? it even looks the same as it rips the look of Discord off. I think I'm smarter than falling into the same trap twice.

I really think Matrix with Cinny client is what all those big discord communities should move to.

Quoting: Pyrate

Quoting: Liam DaweWe're trying out Fluxer: https://fluxer.gg/HajTInMe

No offense, but the login page is exactly why I don't like Fluxer, like at all.

Right off the get-go, they want my DOB, and I spotted hyperlinks for ToS and Privacy Policy too ? Literally what is different from Discord here other than pretty promises ? it even looks the same as it rips the look of Discord off. I think I'm smarter than falling into the same trap twice.

I really think Matrix with Cinny client is what all those big discord communities should move to.

Those are very normal things to ask. Even we ask for D.O.B on register. And literally any online service is required to have both ToS and Privacy Policy in most countries. Of all the things online to be bothered about - these are not it.

Quoting: Liam Dawe

Quoting: Pyrate

Quoting: Liam DaweWe're trying out Fluxer: https://fluxer.gg/HajTInMe

No offense, but the login page is exactly why I don't like Fluxer, like at all.

Right off the get-go, they want my DOB, and I spotted hyperlinks for ToS and Privacy Policy too ? Literally what is different from Discord here other than pretty promises ? it even looks the same as it rips the look of Discord off. I think I'm smarter than falling into the same trap twice.

I really think Matrix with Cinny client is what all those big discord communities should move to.

Those are very normal things to ask. Even we ask for D.O.B on register. And literally any online service is required to have both ToS and Privacy Policy in most countries. Of all the things online to be bothered about - these are not it.

Are you self hosting it ? I'd understand if so and it was your decision to include it, but as far as I'm aware they don't have self hosting available yet. And no, I will be bothered when I see the same PII crap plastered over any kind of centralized service, including this one (again, assuming this isn't self-hosted).

Last edited by Pyrate on 26 Mar 2026 at 3:27 pm UTC

No, our Fluxer is hosted by them on their main server. Suit yourself, but again - any online service needs to have policies in place.