BROARchat vs Discord, honestly.
Discord is a polished, free, hosted service with apps everywhere. BROARchat is software you run yourself, so the data and the rules are yours. Here's where each one wins.
Choose BROARchat if…
you want your community's messages and voice on hardware you control, without ads, data mining or ID checks. Also if you want Discord-style features without paying per user, and you're comfortable running (or having someone run) a small server.
Stay on Discord if…
you need native iPhone, Android and Mac apps, a huge bot and app ecosystem, Stage and Forum channels, or someone else handling uptime. It's also the better fit if you want to be discoverable by millions of strangers.
| BROARchat | Discord | |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership & privacy | ||
| Where your data lives | Your server (home PC, VPS, NAS box) | Discord's cloud |
| Who sets the rules | You. Your server, your terms | Discord's Terms of Service and Community Guidelines apply to every server |
| Ads, telemetry, data mining | None. The server doesn't phone home with your messages | Discord runs ads and promotions (e.g. Quests) and collects usage analytics |
| Phone / ID verification | None. Accounts exist only on your server | Servers can require a verified phone; age verification is required in some regions |
| Platform can shut your community down | ✗ Nobody but you can delete your server | ✓ Servers and accounts can be banned |
| End-to-end encrypted calls | ✗ Encrypted in transit (TLS / WebRTC), on a server you control | ✓ E2EE for voice and video calls (DAVE protocol) |
| Cost | ||
| Free tier | Up to 5 users, with chat, voice, video and screen share | Free for any size |
| Paid model | $7 to $99/mo per server (founder pricing), not per user | Nitro, paid per user; server boosts per server |
| Hosting cost | Your hardware and electricity, or a VPS | None |
| Chat | ||
| Channels, categories, DMs, replies, reactions, pins, search | ✓ | ✓ |
| Markdown, code blocks, spoilers, link previews | ✓ (new in 11.5) | ✓ |
| Custom emoji, GIF search | ✓ Paid tiers | ✓ (using emoji across servers needs Nitro) |
| Self-destructing messages | ✓ 1h / 24h / 7d | ✗ |
| Threads & forum channels | ◐ Replies only, no threads or forums yet | ✓ |
| Stage channels, Activities (games in voice) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Voice & video | ||
| Voice rooms, video, screen share | ✓ Free tier included | ✓ |
| High-res screen share | ✓ Up to 4K/60 with the desktop app (hardware H264) | ◐ 1080p/60 and higher (source) quality need Nitro |
| Codec choice (H264 / VP9 / AV1) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Noise suppression | ✓ Browser noise suppression | ✓ Krisp-powered |
| Soundboard | ✓ Paid tiers | ✓ |
| Built-in music bot | ✓ Paid tiers | ✗ Third-party bots only |
| Voice changer, spatial 3D audio | ✓ Paid tiers | ✗ |
| In-game overlay | ✓ Desktop app, paid tiers | ✓ |
| Moderation | ||
| Roles, per-channel permissions, invites, audit log | ✓ | ✓ |
| Kick / ban / timeout, slow mode, voice moderation | ✓ (full set in 11.5) | ✓ |
| AutoMod (keyword filters), verification levels | ✗ | ✓ |
| Apps & platforms | ||
| Web app (any browser) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Windows desktop app | ✓ | ✓ |
| macOS / Linux desktop apps | ✗ Use the browser | ✓ |
| Native iOS / Android apps | ◐ Installable web app (PWA) only | ✓ |
| Bot / app ecosystem, public API | ✗ No third-party bot platform | ✓ Huge ecosystem |
| Works on a LAN without internet | ✓ Server runs locally (paid tiers check in with the license server) | ✗ |
| Operations | ||
| Who keeps it running | You: updates, backups and uptime | Discord |
| Scale | Up to 500 users per server on Business (more on Enterprise) | Hundreds of thousands per server |
Discord details reflect its public plans and features as of October 2026 and may change. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll fix it.
The short version
If what bothers you about Discord is that it isn't yours (the ID checks, the bans you can't appeal, a company reading the room), BROARchat gets you most of the same features on a server you own. You give up native mobile apps, the bot ecosystem and zero-maintenance hosting.
Want the long-form take? Read BROARchat vs Discord on the blog, or how to move a community off Discord.
See it on your own hardware
The free Community tier covers 5 users with chat, voice, video and screen share. No card, no key.