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
Discord	350,000,000	Discord protocol	Centralised	Mature						VC / Monetised
Guilded	300,000	Bespoke	Centralised	Mature						VC
Revolt	170,000	Revolt protocol	Centralised	Beta						Donations
Valour	3,500	Bespoke	Centralised	Alpha						Donations
Nerimity	700	Bespoke	Centralised	Mature			P2P			Donations
Cirlos	138	Bespoke	Centralised	Beta						Monetised
Hyalus		Bespoke	Centralised	Beta
Spacebar		Discord protocol	Centralised	Alpha						Donations
Adapt		Bespoke	Centralised	In Development
Mikoto		Bespoke	Centralised	In Development
Matrix	-	Matrix protocol	Federated	Mature				–
Kaiheila		Bespoke	Centralised
Gitter	-	Bespoke	Centralised
Cabal	-	Bespoke	Peer-to-Peer

Unreleased Projects

Projects whose service is not available for public access yet.

Name	Protocol Type	Registered Users	FOSS	Voice	Servers	E2EE	Funding
Travesty	Centralised	32
Strafe.chat	Centralised	30					Donations
Lantern	Centralised	24					Donations
Root App	Centralised

Defunct Services / Projects

Projects that no longer operate / are developed.

Name	Peak Registered Users	Protocol	Protocol Type	FOSS	Voice	Servers	E2EE	Historical Funding
Nertivia	10,818	Bespoke	Centralised		P2P			Donations
Derailed		Bespoke	Centralised
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.