Discord Alternatives 2026: 6 Free Options
Discord alternatives: Zulip, Element, Rocket.Chat, Slack and 3 more. Prices and licenses checked October 28, 2026.
•4 min read•Team Chat, Meetings & Phone
Verdict:Leave Discord when your community needs a workplace tool with records and permissions, or when you need a server you control. Zulip is the best fit for a work team. It is Apache-2.0 and self-hostable with all features free, and its cloud plan is $6.67 per user a month billed annually. Its topic threads keep long discussions readable in a way that channel-by-channel chat does not. Element suits teams that want to federate across servers, since it runs on the Matrix protocol. Its community server suite is free to self-host under AGPL-3.0 or GPL-3.0, and a paid commercial license exists for companies that need one. Rocket.Chat is MIT-licensed at the core, with a free self-managed workspace and quote-only commercial plans. It is a good match for company team chat with integrations. Mattermost is a business chat with a self-hosted option, but its pricing is sales-led and its license is mixed. Slack's free plan keeps 90 days of history and up to 10 apps, and Pro is $7.25 a month billed annually. It is the familiar choice for a company already paying per seat. The trade-off is community against workplace. Discord's free public server model has no mature equivalent in this list. Armada and Strafe are the closest in shape, open-source community chat with channels and voice, but both are young: Armada is in open beta before v1.0, and Strafe's site gives no stage, so test them before moving a community. Pick Element for federated control, Zulip for threaded work, and Rocket.Chat for self-hosted team chat.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zulip | Free (Cloud Free: 10,000 messages of search history, 5 GB storage; self-hosted free with all features); paid from $6.67 per user/month, Cloud Standard, billed annually ($8 billed monthly) | Web, Self-hosted | Threaded team discussion | Docs only |
| Element | Free (Element Server Suite Community: free front end and back end) | Web, Self-hosted | Federated and self-hosted chat | Docs only |
| Rocket.Chat | Free (Free self-managed workspace; no user cap stated) | Web, Self-hosted | Self-hosted team chat | Docs only |
| Slack | Free (90 days of message history, 1:1 huddles only, up to 10 apps); paid from $7.25 per user/month, Pro, billed annually ($8.75 billed monthly) | Web, Desktop, Mobile | Companies already paying per seat | Docs only |
| Mattermost | See pricing page | Web, Self-hosted | Business chat with self-hosting | Docs only |
| Armada | Free (free with no ads and no paid tier, per the maker's launch post) | Web, Android, Linux, Windows | Open-source, encrypted Discord-style communities | Docs only |
| Strafe | Free (no price or paid plan is shown on the site) | Web, Windows, macOS, Linux | Federated Discord-style communities | Docs only |
| Microsoft Teams | Free (Teams Free: group meetings up to 60 minutes and 100 participants) | Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | Video Meetings | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You want self-hosted chat for a team with integrations (Rocket.Chat is the pick)
- You want threaded topics for a work team (Zulip is the pick)
- You need federation across servers (Element is the pick)
- Your company already pays per seat for workplace chat (Slack is the pick)
- You want an open-source, Discord-style community server and accept beta software (Armada is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Discord features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Discord today: Free; paid from $2.99 per per month (Nitro Basic; Nitro $9.99); cost varies by country (Discord pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Why people look for Discord alternatives
Several features that communities lean on sit behind Nitro. Per Discord's Nitro page, Nitro Basic is $2.99 a month (50MB uploads, custom emoji anywhere, custom app icons) and Nitro is $9.99 a month, adding 1 GB uploads, animated emoji, HD video streaming and 2 Server Boosts. Prices vary by country, and the page does not list the free tier's limits, so check what your server actually needs before paying.
Zulip
Compared with Discord: Apache-2.0 and self-hostable with all features free. Cloud Standard is $6.67 per user a month billed annually. Its topic threads keep long work discussions in one place, where Discord's channel chat spreads them out.
Price: Free (Cloud Free: 10,000 messages of search history, 5 GB storage; self-hosted free with all features); paid from $6.67 per user/month, Cloud Standard, billed annually ($8 billed monthly) (Zulip pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. Apache-2.0 (open source).
Project activity: 26.1k GitHub stars · latest release 12.3 (Sep 21, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Threaded team discussion.
Worth knowing: Self-hosted Basic is $3.50 per user/month billed monthly.
Element
Compared with Discord: Free Community server suite you self-host, under AGPL-3.0 or GPL-3.0, with a paid commercial license also available. Built on Matrix, so it federates across servers, which Discord does not, at the cost of a more technical install.
Price: Free (Element Server Suite Community: free front end and back end) (Element pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. AGPL-3.0, GPL-3.0 or a paid commercial license (open source).
Project activity: 13.6k GitHub stars · latest release v1.12.33 (Oct 27, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Federated and self-hosted chat.
Worth knowing: Enterprise is priced per seat but the figure is not published.
Rocket.Chat
Compared with Discord: MIT core with a free self-managed workspace and no user cap stated. Commercial plans are quote-only. It suits a company team chat with integrations, though it is less built around public community servers than Discord.
Price: Free (Free self-managed workspace; no user cap stated) (Rocket.Chat pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. MIT core with a separate license for the ee folder (open source).
Project activity: 46.3k GitHub stars · latest release 8.9.0 (Oct 5, 2026) · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Best for: Self-hosted team chat.
Worth knowing: Commercial plan pricing is quote-only.
Slack
Compared with Discord: Free plan keeps 90 days of message history and up to 10 apps. Pro is $7.25 per user a month billed annually. It is a closed business tool with per-seat pricing, not a free public community server like Discord.
Price: Free (90 days of message history, 1:1 huddles only, up to 10 apps); paid from $7.25 per user/month, Pro, billed annually ($8.75 billed monthly) (Slack pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Desktop, Mobile. Proprietary.
Best for: Companies already paying per seat.
Mattermost
Compared with Discord: Mixed license, with a limited-use evaluation edition free and paid plans sold through sales with no price shown. A business chat with a self-hosted option, aimed at companies rather than public communities.
Price: See pricing page (Mattermost pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. Mixed: LICENSE.txt and LICENSE.enterprise; compiled releases under MIT per the repo README.
Best for: Business chat with self-hosting.
Armada
Compared with Discord: AGPL-3.0, free and built on the Nostr protocol, with servers, channels, voice and end-to-end encrypted communities. It is in open beta before v1.0, with no iOS app yet, so expect rough edges. Self-hosting is supported.
Price: Free (free with no ads and no paid tier, per the maker's launch post) (Armada pricing, checked 2026-10-28).
Platforms and license: Web, Android, Linux, Windows. AGPL-3.0 (open source).
Best for: Open-source, encrypted Discord-style communities.
Worth knowing: Open beta before v1.0 (version 0.x). Built on the Nostr protocol, with end-to-end encrypted communities; no iOS app yet, though the web app works on iPhone. Self-hosting is supported.
Strafe
Compared with Discord: Open-source, federated chat with text channels, voice and video calls and communities, with desktop apps and a web client. A young project: its site gives no stage, server code is AGPL-3.0 but the web client is GPL-3.0, and mobile apps are only planned.
Price: Free (no price or paid plan is shown on the site) (Strafe pricing, checked 2026-10-28).
Platforms and license: Web, Windows, macOS, Linux. AGPL-3.0 (open source).
Best for: Federated Discord-style communities.
Other popular options (paid)
Microsoft Teams
Compared with Discord: Free tier allows group meetings up to 60 minutes and 100 participants. A better fit for workplace chat, meetings and files than for community servers, with fewer public-community features than Discord.
Price: Free (Teams Free: group meetings up to 60 minutes and 100 participants) (Microsoft Teams pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Which one to pick
- You want self-hosted chat for a team with integrations: Rocket.Chat
- You want threaded topics for a work team: Zulip
- You need federation across servers: Element
- Your company already pays per seat for workplace chat: Slack
- You want an open-source, Discord-style community server and accept beta software: Armada
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Zulip, Element, Rocket.Chat, Slack, Mattermost, Armada, Strafe: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Discord. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
Related guides
More in Team Chat, Meetings & Phone
- Slack alternatives
- Mattermost alternatives
- Microsoft Teams alternatives
- Discord vs Mattermost 2026: Price, Free Plan & Verdict
Sources
Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked between 2026-10-22 and 2026-10-28: Discord, Zulip, Element, Rocket.Chat, Slack, Mattermost, Armada, Strafe, Microsoft Teams. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.