Chat App Comparison List

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	350000000	Discord protocol	Centralised	Mature						VC / Monetised
Guilded	300000	Bespoke	Centralised	Mature						VC
Revolt	50000	Revolt protocol	Centralised	Beta						Donations
Nertivia	10818	Bespoke	Centralised	Mature			P2P			Donations
Root App		Bespoke	Centralised	Pre-launch						VC
Fosscord		Discord protocol	Centralised	Alpha						Donations
Cirlos	138	Bespoke	Centralised	Beta						Monetised
Lantern	24	Bespoke	Centralised	In Development						Donations
Ferris Chat	33	Bespoke	Centralised	Shelved
Hyalus	100	Bespoke	Centralised	Beta
Mikoto		Bespoke	Centralised	In Development
Valour	800 150	Bespoke	Centralised	In Development
Octii		Bespoke	Centralised	Shelved
Kaiheila		Bespoke	Centralised
Dust		Bespoke	Centralised
Harmony		Bespoke	Federated	Shelved
Element		Matrix Protocol	Federated	Mature
FluffyChat		Matrix protocol	Federated	Mature				–
Commune		Matrix protocol	Federated
Cinny		Matrix protocol	Federated
Cabal		Bespoke	Peer-to-Peer

Defunct Services / Projects

Name	Peak Registered Users	Protocol	Protocol Type	FOSS	Voice	Servers	E2EE	Historical Funding
Memberset		Bespoke	Centralised					Monetised
Hiven		Bespoke	Centralised					Monetised
Accord (theADAMJR)	75	Bespoke	Centralised
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.