Chat App Comparison List

There are a lot of chat platforms on the internet. This page attempts to document them and details about them. Note that most of the figures are approximates due to the lack of readily accessible information.

This pages details a list of community-oriented chat platforms, though any entry is welcome. There is a legend at the bottom indicating what each column means.

Name	Registered Users	Protocol	Protocol Type	Lifecycle	Active	FOSS	Voice	Servers	E2EE	Funding
Revolt	130,000	Revolt protocol	Centralised	Beta						Donations
Discord	350,000,000	Discord protocol	Centralised	Mature						VC / Monetised
Guilded	300,000	Bespoke	Centralised	Mature						VC
Nertivia	10,818	Bespoke	Centralised	Mature			P2P			Donations
Valour	2600	Bespoke	Centralised	Alpha						Donations
Root App		Bespoke	Centralised	Pre-launch						VC
Spacebar		Discord protocol	Centralised	Alpha						Donations
Gitter		Bespoke	Centralised
Cirlos	138	Bespoke	Centralised	Beta						Monetised
Lantern	24	Bespoke	Centralised	In Development						Donations
Nerimity	47	Bespoke	Centralised	In Development						Donations
Adapt		Bespoke	Centralised	In Development
Derailed		Bespoke	Centralised	In Development
Hyalus	600	Bespoke	Centralised	Beta
Mikoto		Bespoke	Centralised	In Development
Kaiheila		Bespoke	Centralised
Matrix		Matrix protocol	Federated	Mature				–
Cabal		Bespoke	Peer-to-Peer

Defunct Services / Projects

Name	Peak Registered Users	Protocol	Protocol Type	FOSS	Voice	Servers	E2EE	Historical Funding
Ferris Chat	33	Ferris protocol	Centralised
Memberset		Bespoke	Centralised					Monetised
Hiven	800	Bespoke	Centralised					Monetised
Octii		Bespoke	Centralised
Dust		Bespoke	Centralised
Harmony		Harmony Protocol	Federated
Accord (Mempler)
Plausch	5	Discord protocol	Centralised
Squirrel		Bespoke
Concord		Bespoke
Scintill		Bespoke
Morse REMI		Bespoke
Ansen		Bespoke

Legend

• Protocol Type: one of:
  • Centralised: a single authority is used to run the service.
  • Federated: multiple independent servers can join together and communicate between each other - learn more here.
  • Peer-to-peer: there is no central authority and all clients connect directly to each other.
• Lifecycle indicates either an official statement on progress or a rough estimation and is one of:
  • Mature: product has been released and is relatively stable.
  • Beta: product is yet to release but has surpassed its Minimal Viable Product stage.
  • Alpha: product is still rough around the edges and likely does not have an MVP yet.
  • In Development: product is still in early development.
  • Shelved: product has been delayed indefinitely.
• Active indicates whether the project is still in development or that the service is still online.
• FOSS indicates whether the project is "free and open source software" - learn more here.
• Voice indicates whether the project supports voice calls.
• Servers indicates whether the project supports creating communities or groups of channels.
• E2EE indicates whether the project supports creating end-to-end encrypted channels.