ARMADA VS DISCORD
They differ on 5 of the things we checked: open source, you can host it yourself, iphone, no ads, imports a discord server.
| Fact | ARMADA | DISCORD |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Beta | Stable |
| Founded | 2026 | 2015 |
| Hosting | Cloud or self-host, Decentralized | Cloud only |
| Encryption | Every message and call is end-to-end encrypted. | TLS in transit; voice and video calls are end-to-end encrypted, text is not. |
| Pricing | Free; no paid tier or ads; Soapbox is funded by grants and donations | Free; Nitro Basic $2.99/mo and Nitro $9.99/mo; server Boosts sold separately |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Official cloud service | Yes | Yes |
| You can host it yourself | Yes | No |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Not confirmed | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iPhone | No | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| In a browser | Yes | Yes |
| Text channels | Yes | Yes |
| Voice channels | Yes | Yes |
| Video calls | Yes | Yes |
| Screen share | Yes | Yes |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Roles and permissions | Yes | Yes |
| Bots or an API | Yes | Yes |
| Custom emoji | Yes | Yes |
| One account, many communities | Yes | Yes |
| Export your data | Not confirmed | Yes |
| No ads | Yes | No |
| Members pay nothing | Yes | Yes |
| Imports a Discord server | Yes | No |
| Bridges with Discord | Yes | Not confirmed |
In short
Armada. Open beta ahead of v1.0 with near-daily 0.x releases; the repo was created in June 2026. Discord import uses a bridge bot and brings channels, up to 99 roles, custom emoji and up to 10,000 messages per channel (servers of 100 members or fewer), with live bridging; members must re-join via invite and bridged channels are not E2EE. Community messages and DMs are E2EE (relays see ciphertext); voice runs over self-hostable LiveKit with client-side encryption. Release assets cover Windows, Linux and Android; macOS is claimed in the README but no macOS build was found in releases, and iOS is web-only with a native app in progress.
Discord. The row everything else is measured against. Discord runs sponsored Quests, Orbs and, since Sep 2026, rewarded Video Quests plus a self-serve Ads Manager. Since Sep 22 2026 every account is sorted into Adult, Teen or Unconfirmed from account signals, with the rest confirming via credit card, app-store age range, on-device selfie or ID scan. Voice and video calls are end-to-end encrypted; text is not. Users can request a Data Package of their own messages, but there is no server-level export for admins without bots. It does everything; the argument for leaving is who holds your community.
Something wrong here? Tell r/LeavingDiscord.
I build Probed, one of the destinations here. It gets the same facts as the rest.