Stoat and Element try to sidestep Discord’s age checks

open-source Discord – As Discord delays its identity-heavy teen verification rollout, many users are hunting for open-source alternatives they can self-host. Stoat and Element stand out for staying closer to the familiar Discord experience while avoiding the kind of mass, platform-

The annoyance can start small: a familiar chat becomes harder to use, settings change, new prompts appear. Then it becomes something else entirely—especially when age verification enters the picture.

For many communities, that’s been the turning point. Discord. long a go-to for friend groups. fan communities and online organizations. has leaned harder on subscriptions. ads and age-verification policies meant to keep members safe. In practice. that combination has pushed some users to look for a different place to talk—one where they control their own server instead of relying on a platform-wide system.

Discord announced a new set of teen safety features in February 2026. designed to follow the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act and a broader wave of laws requiring age verification to stop children from accessing adult content. Its approach. branded as the “Teen Default Experience. ” introduces new default settings for teenagers aged 13 and older. plus an age verification system for any user that Discord’s inference model suspects could be underage.

Under the plan. users are expected to provide a video selfie and submit identity documents to one of Discord’s partners to confirm their age. Discord says the selfies never leave the device running Discord. and that its partners don’t keep copies of any uploaded identity documents. Still, the backlash was swift because the process involves collecting identifying information.

That risk was given extra urgency when one of Discord’s third-party service providers was hacked in October 2025. possibly exposing up to 70. 000 Discord users’ government IDs. Discord later postponed its rollout to the second half of 2026 so it could adjust its approach. including adding more age-verification options.

The most direct way to avoid Discord’s problems right now is either to use smaller group chats—or take the big step of hosting your own server. And while there’s a growing number of Discord alternatives. the ones that tend to attract attention first are open-source platforms where you have complete control over your data and where you don’t face features locked behind a subscription.

Not all open-source apps feel identical to Discord, but most can cover the core needs: text chat plus voice and video calls. Where things narrow is the self-hosting part. To run a server on your own hardware, options become more limited.

Stoat. Element. Fluxxer and Cinny are among the apps that can be run with either a bespoke system or the open-source Matrix protocol. Matrix matters here because it’s a transparent, open standard that’s usually interoperable with other Matrix-based apps. Matching Discord’s look and feel is a different question. In that area, Stoat and Element are described as getting the closest.

Stoat. formerly known as Revolt. aims for a familiar look—an app that resembles Discord. just with the identifying details removed. It supports text. voice and video calls. and its GitHub says it began rolling out a screen-sharing feature earlier this year. designed to improve the experience for sharing games with friends. It also supports theming. custom emoji and a roles-based moderation system. making it relatively flexible for anyone porting a community over from Discord.

Stoat can host your server for you, but it can also be self-hosted with some setup. Whether you let Stoat handle the technical details or manage your own deployment, servers work with Stoat’s apps for the web, Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, iOS and iPadOS.

Element takes a different path. Compared to Stoat. it’s described as more buttoned up. with a free self-hosted option and a paid service aimed at enterprise and government customers. Element is end-to-end encrypted. It includes text chat. voice and video calls. screen sharing. file sharing and even location sharing when using the platform through a mobile app. Its “playful” differences show up in the details: Element doesn’t support custom emoji by default. though users can freely theme their app.

Element is built on Matrix. and it also benefits from Matrix’s built-in qualities: decentralization and interoperability with other Matrix apps. That doesn’t mean it supports every feature those apps might offer. but it’s positioned as a way to at least talk across them. Element is available for Linux, Windows, macOS, iOS and Android.

In the end, the choice between Stoat and Element comes down to what you want most: Stoat’s immediate familiarity or Element’s Matrix-based structure and broader development push. But for anyone trying to leave Discord, the hardest problem isn’t the software. It’s getting everyone else to move.

Discord became widely used because it’s free and because so many people were already there. That’s why the stakes feel so personal right now. It’s not just about choosing a new app—it’s about convincing friends and colleagues to step away from the place where the conversations already live.

Discord alternatives Stoat Element open-source chat Matrix protocol self-hosted messaging end-to-end encryption age verification teen safety features