Quiet

Quiet: Open Source Alternative to Slack and Discord

Quiet is an open-source, peer-to-peer team chat that takes a fundamentally different architecture from server-based tools: messages sync directly between members' devices over Tor, with no central server, no phone number, and no email required to create a community. It's GPL-3.0 licensed.

Important: Quiet's own site currently states it is in beta and "shouldn't be used for activities requiring security." Several features common to chat apps — direct messages, user profiles, @mentions, message deletion, and account recovery — are listed as "coming soon" rather than shipped. Evaluate it as an early-stage project, not a finished product.

Core features

• Peer-to-peer sync over Tor — no central server, messages travel directly between team members' devices.
• No phone number or email required — a community can be created without either.
• Channels for organizing conversation, similar to Slack.
• File sharing with no stated file-size limit, plus drag-and-drop and copy/paste for images.
• End-to-end encryption between member devices.
• Cross-platform — desktop (macOS, Windows, Linux) and mobile (Android via Google Play/F-Droid, iOS via TestFlight beta).

What is Quiet?

Quiet is built for people who want maximum metadata privacy and zero server infrastructure — there's literally nothing to host, because the network is peer-to-peer over Tor. That's a very different tradeoff from a self-hosted server like Rocket.Chat: you gain metadata privacy and no hosting bill, but currently give up basic features like DMs and always-on delivery when peers are offline.

Use cases

• Small groups experimenting with metadata-resistant communication, where avoiding a central server matters more than feature completeness.
• Privacy researchers and activists evaluating P2P/Tor-based messaging designs.
• Not yet a good fit for teams that need reliable direct messages, account recovery, or production-grade security guarantees — see the limitations below.

Limitations

• Quiet explicitly labels itself beta software not ready for security-critical use, by its own project's wording.
• No direct messages, user profiles, @mentions, message deletion, or account recovery yet — these are roadmap items, not shipped features.
• Being peer-to-peer with no server means message delivery depends on peers being online; there's no always-on server holding messages for offline members the way Rocket.Chat or Slack do.

Which one should you choose?

• Curious about P2P/Tor-based chat and comfortable with beta software? Quiet is a genuinely different architecture worth exploring.
• Need dependable DMs, offline delivery, and account recovery today? Quiet isn't there yet — Rocket.Chat, Campfire, or Slack are the dependable choices.
• Want strong privacy with a more finished product? Element or Wire offer end-to-end encryption with far more mature feature sets.

Quiet: The P2P Experiment

Quiet isn't a team chat platform in the traditional sense. It's a proof-of-concept for peer-to-peer messaging over Tor, where every participant runs the app and messages sync across overlapping-online peer chains.

The Reality of Quiet

Deployment tested

Aspect	Details
Method	Desktop/mobile app install (Tor bundled)
Time	≈3 minutes
Required services	None (Tor is bundled)
Difficulty	Trivial — just install and run

The catch: Message delivery depends on peer availability. If a sender and receiver aren't both online, messages queue across peer bridges. There's no "always-on" guarantee. Quiet explicitly states it's not audited and should not be used for security-critical comms.

Hidden limitation: Quiet is explicitly beta and unaudited. The project flags its own status: "Quiet is not audited and should not be used when privacy and security are critical." Use this for low-stakes internal comms, not for anything resembling production deployments.

OSSBase Take

Quiet is fascinating as a pure P2P experiment. The ease of setup is genuine—no server, no DevOps, no infrastructure. But the stability guarantees are not there.

Use Quiet if:

• You want to experiment with P2P messaging concepts
• Low-stakes chat is acceptable
• Offline delivery is not required

Avoid if:

• You need guaranteed message delivery
• Your organization requires security audits
• You have compliance requirements

Sources

• Quiet GitHub
• FAQ
• Releases