Stoat

Stoat: Open Source Alternative to Discord

Stoat (formerly Revolt) is an open-source, self-hostable group chat platform built as a Discord alternative — servers, channels, voice chat, file sharing, and moderation tools — with no ads or data mining, developed in Europe under strict privacy law. Its backend is AGPL-3.0 licensed and ships with Docker Compose for self-hosting.

Core features

• Servers and channels in the familiar Discord-style layout.
• Voice chat alongside text channels.
• Moderation tools for community management.
• Custom theming for reskinning the client.
• Docker-based self-hosting — the backend repository ships a Dockerfile and a compose.yml file for straightforward deployment.

Stoat vs Discord and Rocket.Chat

	Stoat	Discord	Rocket.Chat
Price	Free	Free, Nitro subscription for extras	Free community edition; paid enterprise tiers
Hosting	Self-hosted (Docker)	Cloud only, no self-hosting	Self-hosted or Rocket.Chat cloud
License	AGPL-3.0 (backend)	Proprietary	MIT (community edition)
Encryption	Not end-to-end encrypted	Not end-to-end encrypted	Optional E2E
Focus	Gaming/social communities	Gaming/social communities	Workplace + community

Use cases

• Gaming and social communities that want the Discord layout without a third party owning their data or serving ads against it.
• Privacy-conscious groups in the EU who want a chat platform developed under EU data-protection law.
• Communities migrating away from Discord who want a self-hosted, non-commercial alternative rather than another proprietary cloud service.

Limitations

• Stoat is not end-to-end encrypted — don't treat it as a secure/private messenger; it's aimed at open community chat, not confidential communication.
• It's a comparatively young project (post-rename from Revolt), with a smaller bot/integration ecosystem than Discord's.
• Self-hosting is Docker-based but still requires you to operate and maintain your own server — there's no indication of a maintained, official hosted-cloud alternative for people who don't want to self-host.

Which one should you choose?

• Want a Discord look-alike you fully own, without ads or data mining? Stoat fits, as long as you don't need end-to-end encryption.
• Need a workplace-oriented tool with more enterprise features? Rocket.Chat is the more mature choice.
• Need default end-to-end encryption? Neither Stoat nor Discord provide it — look at Element or Wire instead, though both are workplace-collaboration oriented rather than community/gaming tools.

Stoat: The Discord Alternative Experiment

Stoat (Revolt rebranded in October 2025 after a trademark dispute) is a genuine attempt at a self-hostable Discord alternative with a real Docker Compose path. The code is open-source, the deployment is documented, and early adopters have real deployments running.

Reality Check

Deployment tested

Aspect	Details
Method	Docker Compose (7+ containers)
Time	≈20 minutes (with manual DNS/firewall config)
Required services	MongoDB, Redis, RabbitMQ, MinIO, Caddy, push daemon
Difficulty	Intermediate — standard Docker Compose patterns

What we found: Most official Stoat clients are built assuming you're connecting to stoat.chat (the official instance). Self-hosting works, but only the web client/PWA is reliable against self-hosted servers. Desktop clients often can't authenticate. Mobile apps are labeled "early access" on the Play Store.

Hidden limitations: Stoat has published multiple security advisories (2024–2026). These aren't deal-breakers for a pre-1.0 project, but they require active review before production use.

Stoat also saw real infrastructure strain during signup surges (500k+ after Discord bans in Turkey/Russia, Oct 2024). This tells us: deployment bottlenecks exist, even in the reference setup.

OSSBase Recommendation

Stoat is a real Discord alternative with functional self-hosting. But it's pre-1.0, official client support is incomplete, and security advisories require ongoing review.

Use Stoat if:

• You want to experiment with a Discord alternative
• You're willing to self-host early-stage software
• The web client/PWA is enough for your team

Avoid if:

• You need mature, fully-supported native mobile apps
• You require production-grade stability guarantees
• Security audits are mandatory

Sources

• Stoat GitHub server
• Self-hosted setup guide
• Releases