r/DiscordAlternatives

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share Drocsid, an open-source, fully self-hostable communication platform.

• Main Core Features

​

- Real-time Voice & Video Grid: High-performance WebRTC voice calls and video rooms (powered by LiveKit).
- Screen Sharing
- Rich Messaging & DMs
- Super Admin Dashboard
- Mobile app (in a separate project)
- Auth via google only

• The Tech Stack

​

- Frontend: React 18, Vite, Tailwind CSS, Socket.io-client.
- Backend: Node.js, Express, Socket.io.
- Database & Auth: Supabase (PostgreSQL, Realtime, Storage buckets, and Google OAuth).
- Media Server: LiveKit WebRTC.

• Self-Hosting

​

I’ve put together detailed step-by-step guides so you can create your own secure private instance.

Check out README.md, SUPABASE_SELF_HOSTED.md & LIVEKIT_SELF_HOSTED.md in the repo for setting up everything.
There is also INFRASTRUCTURE_OVERVIEW.md if you want to have a clear view on the architecture of the solution.

The UI is intentianaly close to Discord, I didn't want to recreate something that everybody is familiar with.

I used AI (mainly Gemini) to speed up the implementation and documentation. The architecture decisions and the global system design were done manually. The whole codebase has been reviewed and structured to remain understandable and maintainable.

• Supported platforms

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- Browser version
- PC (Electron) :
  . Windows
  . Linux
  . macOS version could be possible

- Mobile (React Native)
  . Android
  . iOS (not tested)

• Supported languages

​

Drocsid uses `i18next` and currently supports:
- English
- French
- Spanish

• Github links

​

- Backend + PC version : https://github.com/dr0csid/drocsid
- Mobile version (React Native) : https://github.com/dr0csid/drocsid-mobile

I got tired of watching the big platforms treat our group chat like a product — mining our conversations, changing the rules whenever it suited them — so I built OutPost for us: private, self-hosted comms for the crew with text, voice, HD video, screen share, GIFs and a soundboard, all running on my own server with no middleman, no data mining, and no corporate looking over our shoulders. You don’t even have to download anything — just check out the site and jump straight in from your browser, and if you want the desktop app you’ve always got the option. It’s free to join and I’ll give you your first week of Premium on the house, and if you’re one of the first 50 through the door you’ll become a Founding Member — a permanent badge on your profile, and if you decide to stay, 30% off your first 3 months. Not sure yet? Just swing by the site to find out more about what OutPost is and how it all works. Come hang out with us. 🎮 → https://bushwookiesunited.com

I've been working on a small side project called ChumiChat.

It's an anonymous end-to-end encrypted messaging app where users can start chatting immediately without creating an account or providing an email address.

Some of the design decisions:

• End-to-end encrypted messages
• Anonymous accounts generated automatically
• No email, password, or phone number required
• Messages disappear 5 minutes after being opened
• Accounts automatically expire after 24 hours
• All chats and messages are permanently deleted when an account expires
• Private encryption keys never leave the user's browser

I also recorded a short demo showing how the application works.

Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKFehmx6rYY

Live application: https://chumichat.com

Frontend: https://github.com/Abula28/chumichat-front

Backend: https://github.com/Abula28/chumichat-back

I'd appreciate any feedback on the implementation, UX, or security design.

I got completely fed up with how bloated Discord has become.Between the constant Nitro ads, the cluttered shop tabs, the endless pop-ups, and the massive RAM usage, it stopped feeling like a simple chat app So, I spent the last few months locked in my room custom-building my own alternative from scratch. No corporate bloat, no ads, just pure performance.I call it Outpost Built the desktop client using **Tauri v2 + React** so it's incredibly lightweight, and engineered a custom backend on **Postgres and Valkey** to handle lightning-fast routing.Here is a sneak peek at the core interface layout. Let me know what you think.

Disclosure: I’m the creator of Yapper.

I’ve been working on making the self-hosted setup easier for people who want a Discord alternative they can run on their own server.

Yapper is a self-hosted voice and chat platform for communities that want more control over their server, data, and rules. The install flow is meant to be approachable even if you only have basic VPS experience.

The current setup is:

fresh Linux server → add your domain → get a free self-host license → copy one generated command → Yapper installs and runs as a systemd service

Install guide:
https://yapper.gg/install-guide

The guide now covers:

• connecting to your Linux server over SSH
• adding your domain
• generating the install command
• running the installer
• checking firewall ports if needed
• testing the server from Yapper

For the tutorial, I used a DuckDNS domain as the example, so people can follow along without buying a domain first.

I’m mainly looking for feedback on the install experience, not trying to post this as a changelog.

For people here who have self-hosted Discord alternatives before: does this look simple enough for someone with basic VPS experience who does not want to spend hours configuring services manually?

You can also try Yapper without creating an account using this invite link:
https://yapper.gg/invite?invitation=d13d9b05-6fe5-4af5-9adc-bc003e160a9a

Every social app out there is built to keep you hooked - followers, comment threads, endless scrolling. None of it is designed to help create connections. It's bugged me forever. It's performative, so you end up with clout chasing, attention seeking posts that are clever, but do nothing to connect its users.

Reddit's make friends subreddits, Discord #introduction channels ... people are posting About Me bios that get glanced at and forgotten about in 20 minutes. People want to find connection - it's arguably the entire point of the internet. But there's so many unnecessary obstacles in the way of that.

Dayoff allows you to post as an invitation for a DM. There's no followers, no comment threads, and no clout chasing. You post when you want to chat with someone. If you don't know what to post, but still want to chat, you can post a mood or a song. All of it is an instant conversation starter. No dumb "hey what's up? where are you from?" conversations. You build a profile with all of that. If you only want people in a certain age range to see your posts, you can set that. If you only want DMs from women? You can set that. If you want DM requests to be 30 words minimum? You can set that.

And now all of the sudden, you can start finding people you actually want to have conversations with.

Stop posting into the void. Start posting on Dayoff. Make friends, not followers.

https://dayoff.io/

Disclosure: I am the creator of this app.

Soooo, I built Phantom because I was bothered that even "private" messengers route everything through a central server you have to trust. I wanted to see if a chat app could work with no server at all, so I fired up my pc, and began researching some tech stack to actually help me make it come to life.

Fast forward 3 months, Phantom is ready to be shipped, and how it works (technical side lol): peers announce a room topic to the public Hyperswarm DHT, find each other, and connect directly. The DHT only helps with discovery and it never sees message content. Once connected, it's end-to-end encrypted (X25519 key exchange, XSalsa20-Poly1305), with voice over WebRTC. History is stored locally in SQLite. There's no central database, no account, no telemetry, and no server I run.

The hardest part by far was NAT traversal but Hyperswarm's UDP holepunching handles the common NAT types; symmetric NAT and CGNAT are the genuine weak spot of any pure-P2P design, mine included, and falling back gracefully there was most of the pain. Voice over those direct connections nearly broke me. (around...20 tests...)

It's a free desktop app (Windows now, more coming), download and run it, no signup and no account. Pay-what-you-want if you'd like to support it, but it's fully functional free. I'm the only person on this and I'm here to answer anything.

Link here: https://crtnoise.github.io/Phantom-Land/

Voice calls now work cross device.

Linux desktop to android phone.

Very nice, great success. I hope you read that in Borats voice.

To get this shit to work, had to learn about different ssl packages that get used in rust.

Webrtc uses openssl while SQLcipher uses boringssl. I didnt want to build webrtc from source since it would be a multihour process.

So the only way forward was to link both to one package. I ended up opting for openssl everywhere.