Revolt

Revolt is a free, open-source chat platform that launched in 2021 as a direct response to growing concerns about Discord's privacy practices, data collection, and centralized control over online communities. Primarily led by UK-based developers, Revolt was designed from the ground up to replicate the familiar Discord experience -- servers, channels, roles, bots, and voice chat -- while giving users complete transparency through open-source code and the option to self-host the entire platform on their own infrastructure. For communities, gamers, and organizations looking for a privacy-respecting chat platform that does not track user behavior or monetize personal data, Revolt represents the most visually faithful open-source Discord alternative available.

The platform has gained significant traction, reaching over 500,000 registered users by late 2024, with notable growth spurts coinciding with Discord controversies including bans in certain countries and contentious policy changes around age verification. Revolt's codebase is written primarily in Rust for the backend and TypeScript for the frontend, resulting in a platform that is notably fast and lightweight compared to Discord's Electron-based client. The project's rapid community growth and active development demonstrate genuine demand for a free, community-owned alternative to the dominant proprietary chat platforms.

User Interface and Discord Familiarity

One of Revolt's strongest selling points is its interface design, which closely mirrors Discord's layout and navigation patterns. Users transitioning from Discord will immediately recognize the server sidebar, channel list, message area, and member panel. This deliberate design similarity significantly reduces the learning curve for new users, addressing one of the biggest barriers to adoption that other open-source chat alternatives face. The interface is clean, responsive, and supports both light and dark themes out of the box.

Beyond the familiar layout, Revolt offers extensive customization through its theming system. Users can create and apply custom CSS themes that completely transform the platform's appearance, going far beyond what Discord allows without third-party modifications. The platform supports custom emoji, server icons, and user profile customization. For communities that want their chat platform to reflect their brand identity, Revolt's theming flexibility is a significant advantage over Discord's limited customization options.

Text Channels and Messaging

Revolt's text messaging system supports all the features users expect from a modern chat platform. Messages support Markdown formatting, file attachments, image embeds, link previews, and emoji reactions. Users can reply to specific messages, pin important content, and search through channel history. The messaging experience is snappy and responsive, with the Rust backend delivering messages with minimal latency even under load.

Channels can be organized into categories within servers, with granular permission settings controlling who can read, write, and manage content. Private channels, announcement channels, and read-only channels are all supported through the role-based permission system. The platform also supports direct messages and group conversations outside of server contexts, providing flexible communication options for both community and personal use.

Voice Chat

Revolt includes built-in voice chat functionality that allows server members to join voice channels for real-time audio communication. While the voice implementation is functional and suitable for casual conversations and small group calls, it is still less feature-rich than Discord's voice system, which includes noise suppression, echo cancellation, and sophisticated audio processing. Voice chat in Revolt continues to be actively developed, with improvements being released regularly as the project matures.

For communities that rely heavily on voice communication for gaming, meetings, or social gatherings, the current voice implementation provides the basics but may not satisfy users accustomed to Discord's polished audio experience. The self-hosted option allows organizations to run voice infrastructure on their own servers, ensuring that voice conversations remain completely private and are not routed through third-party infrastructure.

Bot Platform and Automation

Revolt provides a bot API that enables developers to create automated bots for moderation, entertainment, information delivery, and custom workflows. The bot platform supports webhooks, message events, and programmatic server management, allowing bot developers to build sophisticated automation for their communities. Several community-created bot libraries are available in languages including JavaScript, Python, and Rust, making bot development accessible to a wide range of programmers.

While Revolt's bot ecosystem is growing, it is substantially smaller than Discord's mature marketplace of hundreds of thousands of bots. Communities migrating from Discord should expect to rebuild or adapt their bot functionality, though the most common bot categories -- moderation, music, welcome messages, and role assignment -- are already well-served by existing Revolt bots. The open-source nature of the platform means that bot developers have full visibility into the API and can contribute improvements directly to the platform.

Self-Hosting and Data Sovereignty

Revolt's self-hosting capability is one of its most compelling features for privacy-conscious users and organizations. The entire platform stack -- including the API server, message database, file storage, and web client -- can be deployed on your own infrastructure using Docker. This means that all messages, files, and user data remain entirely under your control, never touching third-party servers. For organizations in regulated industries, educational institutions, or communities with strict privacy requirements, self-hosting eliminates data sovereignty concerns entirely.

The self-hosting setup is well-documented and uses Docker Compose for straightforward deployment. The infrastructure requirements are modest compared to other chat platforms, thanks to Revolt's efficient Rust backend. A single modest server can comfortably host a community of several hundred concurrent users. Self-hosted instances operate independently and do not federate with the main Revolt instance or other self-hosted instances, which provides isolation but means users need separate accounts for different instances.

Privacy and No Tracking

Revolt takes a strong privacy-first stance. The platform does not track user behavior, does not serve advertisements, does not collect telemetry data, and does not sell or share user information with third parties. The open-source codebase means that these privacy claims can be independently verified by anyone who wants to audit the code. This transparency stands in stark contrast to Discord, which collects extensive user data including message content for safety purposes, usage patterns, device information, and IP addresses.

For the hosted version at revolt.chat, the platform collects only the minimum data necessary to operate the service: account information, message content for delivery, and basic connection metadata. For self-hosted instances, the operator has complete control over data retention policies and can configure the platform to collect even less information. This privacy-centric approach makes Revolt particularly attractive for communities discussing sensitive topics, activists, journalists, and anyone who values communication privacy.

Open Source and Community Development

Revolt's entire codebase is open source, with the server, client, and associated tools available on GitHub under permissive licenses. This open development model means that the community can inspect the code for security vulnerabilities, contribute bug fixes and features, and fork the project if needed. The development is community-driven with a core team of maintainers who review and merge contributions. Regular updates introduce new features, performance improvements, and bug fixes based on community feedback and priorities.

The open-source nature also means that Revolt is not beholden to investor pressures or corporate profit motives. Unlike Discord, which must grow revenue to satisfy venture capital investors, Revolt's development is guided by community needs and the principles of free software. The project is funded through donations and community support, ensuring that features are built for users rather than for monetization purposes.

Platform Availability

Revolt is available as a web application that works in any modern browser, providing instant access without installation. Desktop applications are available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, built on the Tauri framework which is significantly lighter and faster than Electron-based alternatives. Mobile apps for Android are available, with iOS support in development. The web client is fully responsive and works well on mobile browsers as an interim solution for iOS users.

The cross-platform availability ensures that community members can participate regardless of their operating system or device. The desktop applications are notably lighter on system resources than Discord's Electron client, consuming less memory and CPU, which is particularly appreciated by users who keep the application running alongside resource-intensive applications like games or development tools.

Limitations and Current State

Revolt is an actively developing project and does not yet have full feature parity with Discord. Notable gaps include the absence of video calling, screen sharing, stage channels, forum channels, and some of Discord's more advanced moderation tools like AutoMod. The voice chat implementation, while functional, lacks the audio quality features that Discord has refined over many years. The platform's notification system and mobile experience are still being polished and may not meet the expectations of users accustomed to Discord's mature client applications.

The biggest challenge Revolt faces is the network effect: people use Discord because their friends and communities are already there, and convincing entire communities to migrate is difficult regardless of Revolt's technical merits. However, for new communities making an active choice about their platform, or for organizations that specifically need open-source and self-hostable solutions, Revolt offers a compelling package that no proprietary platform can match. The project's continued growth and active development suggest a promising trajectory for users willing to adopt an evolving platform.