Fluxer
Hacker ApprovedRanked 6 of 11 team chat apps by recommenders
People recommend Fluxer as a Discord alternative that feels familiar and is open source and self-hostable. Critics say it has age verification and scaling problems.
People recommend Fluxer as a Discord alternative that feels familiar and is open source and self-hostable. Critics say it has age verification and scaling problems.
28 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 22
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 79%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 22 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Feels like Discord, familiar UI
“Fluxer is the first Discord competitor that when you show to someone they can't say "well Discord does X better"”
Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “Genie 4” “tries to be the most similar alternative to discord in terms of UI/UX so it should "just work"”
Comment from 6 Oct 2026 in “Open Source as We Know It Is Dead” “Fluxer is functionally equivalent to Discord from a users perspective.”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “Discord will soon let anyone find public server messages through Google” - Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “Discord will soon let anyone find public server messages through Google”
- Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “Discord Rival Gets Overwhelmed by Exodus of Players Fleeing Age-Verification”
- Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “Discord Rival Gets Overwhelmed by Exodus of Players Fleeing Age-Verification”
- Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “Discord will soon let anyone find public server messages through Google”
Open source and self-hostable
“Great initiative, it was about time we need something installable and lightweight”
Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “I built Fluxer, a Discord-like chat app” “Fluxer is open-source and self-hostable”
Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “Discord will soon let anyone find public server messages through Google” “self-hosting is ready to use already”
Comment from 8 Jul 2026 in “Chatto is now Open Source” - Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “Discord will soon let anyone find public server messages through Google”
Privacy-focused, no invasive age checks
“excellent most promising privacy focused Discord clone”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “Using AI to reverse engineer hardware” “rather than implementing invasive age verification”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Roadmap 2026 – Fluxer” Promising, gaining traction quickly
“the first one to inspire hope in me that maybe that won't always be the case”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Strafe: A new open-source, E2E Encrypted, and federated alternative to Discord” “Most people are moving to other alternatives like Fluxer.”
Comment from 22 Sep 2026 in “An update on how we confirm your age group on Discord” “I think Fluxer just became a more likely candidate.”
Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “In Search of a Discord Replacement” - Comment from 22 Sep 2026 in “An update on how we confirm your age group on Discord”
- Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “How I built Fluxer, a Discord-like chat app”
Other team chat apps people recommend
The four most recommended other team chat apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slack | 248 | 387 | 39% | 12 | 10 yrs10 owners | — |
| Microsoft Teams | 228 | 701 | 25% | 13 | 1.5 yrs11 owners | — |
| Zulip | 143 | 58 | 71% | 11 | 5 yrs10 owners | Approved |
| Chatto | 55 | 13 | 81% | 5 | — | Approved |
| FluxerThis page | 22 | 6 | 79% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 45 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Oh, that feels much nicer.”
“Fluxer is open-source and self-hostable”
“considering its abysmal failures to scale”
“Fluxer is the first Discord competitor that when you show to someone they can't say "well Discord does X better"”
“The difference is that luxer has a more modern UI maybe”
“Fluxer is functionally equivalent to Discord from a users perspective.”
“It's already self-hostable”
“Which is a much better approach for that issue than Discord”
“I really really strongly believe that people of HN should look into it more”
“excellent most promising privacy focused Discord clone”
“the first one to inspire hope in me that maybe that won't always be the case”
“the only Discord alternative tackling that problem”
“tries to be the most similar alternative to discord in terms of UI/UX so it should "just work"”
“I highly recommend trying out fluxer”
“Fluxer is gaining traction very quickly.”
“Most people are moving to other alternatives like Fluxer.”
“quickly became overwhelmed by the self hosting docs”
“best alternative so far, by a mile”
“Fluxer is an honestly good option as well”
“they're the best discord replacement imo”
“Fluxer figured this out and they're the best discord replacement imo.”
“Fluxer figured this out and they're the best discord replacement imo”
“I love Fluxer! Hampus is cool and what he's built is super impressive.”
“Another alternative that does have it would be”
“Imo the most promising Discord alternative so far.”
“self-hosting is ready to use already”
“fluxer has been sitting on that for a while”
“rather than implementing invasive age verification”
“fluxer is pointless now they have age verification as well.”
“Fluxer is looking to be a great option.”
“Open source Discord alternative that I found cool”
“Another product I found interesting like this was fluxer.gg(discord alternative)”
“My god, for a discord alternative is it good!”
“its also 100% fully restricted in Mississippi.”
“the closest thing to a Discord clone out there”
“I think Fluxer just became a more likely candidate.”
“by far the most discord like discord alternative”
“this have a bunch of potential”
“Great initiative, it was about time we need something installable and lightweight”
“Couldn't get past the registration flow because the captcha won't load.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.