Departures Checked 2026-11-03.
STOAT
An open-source, self-hostable Discord-style community chat app run by a small UK/EU team with no ads or investors; it was called Revolt until October 2025.
- Open source
- Yes
- Hosting
- Cloud or self-host
- Encryption
- TLS
- Voice
- Yes
- Threads
- No
- Phone apps
- Android
- Members pay
- Nothing
- Status
- Stable
Before you move a community here
Closest like-for-like Discord replacement that is fully free: servers, channels, roles, bots, custom emoji, and (since July 2026) video and screen share on desktop, web and Android. No threads, no E2EE, and no native iOS app on the App Store (iOS is a PWA via Safari 'Add to Home Screen'; a TestFlight build exists). No official Discord importer; the third-party DiscoReaper tool targets Stoat and Fluxer. Self-hosting is documented but voice on self-hosted instances has lagged the main instance.
Everything we checked
Where your members can run it
- ✓Windows
- ✓macOS
- ✓Linux
- ✗iPhone
- ✓Android
- ✓In a browser
What it does
- ✓Text channels
- ✓Voice channels
- ✓Video calls
- ✓Screen share
- ✗Threads
- ✓Roles and permissions
- ✓Bots or an API
- ✓Custom emoji
- ✓One account, many communities
- ?Export your data
Who holds the data
- ✓Open source (AGPL-3.0)
- ✓Official cloud service
- ✓You can host it yourself
- Encryption: TLS in transit only. The host can read messages.
- ✓No ads
- Architecture: centralized
Who makes it
- Statusstable
- Founded2021
- TeamSmall team at Revolt Platforms Ltd (England & Wales); no investors, no ad revenue; donation and community funded
- Newest release we found2026-10
- Incidents on recordOct 2025 trademark cease-and-desist forced the Revolt to Stoat rename; Feb 2026 repeated capacity outages when Discord's age-verification plan sent a ~10,000% search spike and a user influx
Cost
- Members payNothing
- PricingFree; no paid tier (custom emoji, animated avatars, 20 MB uploads all free)
Moving your server over
- ✗Imports a Discord server
- ?Bridges with Discord while you run both
Side by side
Sources
- https://stoat.chat
- https://stoat.chat/about
- https://stoat.chat/download
- https://stoat.chat/privacy
- https://github.com/stoatchat
- https://github.com/stoatchat/for-web/releases
- https://alternativeto.net/news/2025/10/chat-app-revolt-rebrands-to-stoat-keeps-all-services-features-and-core-values-unchanged
- https://www.techradar.com/computing/social-media/so-many-discord-users-are-flocking-to-this-alternative-platform-its-making-stoat-crash
I build Probed, one of the destinations here. It gets the same facts as the rest.