Stoat
Shares rank 7 of 11 team chat apps by recommenders
Open-source chat app recommended as the closest Discord alternative, good enough for many common uses, and meeting the open-source requirement. Critics say it is barebones, lacks video calling, and has a weak iOS app.
Open-source chat app recommended as the closest Discord alternative, good enough for many common uses, and meeting the open-source requirement. Critics say it is barebones, lacks video calling, and has a weak iOS app.
32 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 16
- approval share
- 50%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1 recommender for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Closest alternative to Discord
“Stoat is basically the only thing here that actually competes on Discord and it's really barebones.”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Discord Alternatives, Ranked” “Stoat is the closest, but no video calling still”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally” “the closest alternative to Discord is Stoat”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month” Open-source, meets Discord requirement
“matches the "Opensource Discord" requirement perfectly”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month” “a good EU OpenSource alternative”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Lacks video calling, barebones
“Stoat is basically the only thing here that actually competes on Discord and it's really barebones.”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Discord Alternatives, Ranked” “Stoat is the closest, but no video calling still”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally” Slow or failed account verification
“it took hours for the verification email”
Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Welcoming Discord users amidst the challenge of Age Verification” “It's taken over 24 hours to try to register a new account.”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Discord Alternatives, Ranked” “My verification emails never showed up from Stoat or Root.”
Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Welcoming Discord users amidst the challenge of Age Verification” Screen sharing missing or buggy
“Screen sharing is still a work in progress. It's been a while since I tested it myself but you can still see plenty of reports of it being buggy and slow.”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “Stoat removes all LLM-generated code following user criticism” “One thing most of those lack is an easy way to share screen.”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month” Weak or missing iOS app
“Strafe, Chatto, Stoat all fall apart in the native iOS app requirement”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Strafe: A new open-source, E2E Encrypted, and federated alternative to Discord” “infinitely more buggy and the lack of iOS apps is causing problems”
Comment from 1 Aug 2026 in “A Week in Matrix”
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 |
| StoatThis page | 16 | 16 | 50% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
32 of the 34 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Matrix, Stoat, etc. are all simply sub-par user experiences”
“Strafe, Chatto, Stoat all fall apart in the native iOS app requirement”
“stoat did not have screen share capabilities”
“infinitely more buggy and the lack of iOS apps is causing problems”
“add your discord, matrix, fluxer, stoat links all in one”
“Matrix, Stoat, Telegram, etc are all missing something.”
“lead you to stoat, matrix etc. from other people too”
“Stoat looks pretty cool, though, hadn't seen much of it before!”
“It cant be worse than discord”
“it seems to be good enough to replace Discord for many common use-cases”
“Stoat does have a usable native mobile app”
“Screen sharing is still a work in progress. It's been a while since I tested it myself but you can still see plenty of reports of it being buggy and slow.”
“I have pretty low expectations for human code in that repository.”
“It rewards the loudest commenters and punishes maintainers.”
“Wastes of time like this are exactly why Stoat/Revolt is unlikely to ever be a serious Discord alternative”
“My verification emails never showed up from Stoat or Root.”
“it took hours for the verification email”
“you will also need to recompile the apps to use your URL and distribute them to your friends”
“It's taken over 24 hours to try to register a new account.”
“Stoat is basically the only thing here that actually competes on Discord and it's really barebones.”
“hasn't been anywhere near as bad as this writeup seems to suggest”
“Especially if you're an iOS dev with some free time as the iOS client could really use some love”
“a good EU OpenSource alternative”
“matches the "Opensource Discord" requirement perfectly”
“Stoat is the closest, but no video calling still”
“Looks like IRC but it's Electron. Total waste of time.”
“One thing most of those lack is an easy way to share screen.”
“Nevertheless, I don't like the new name either”
“the closest alternative to Discord is Stoat”
“Revolt's rename to stoat is probably worse than any rebranding MSFT done ever.”
“both of those have a long way to go to replace Discord”
“essentially less bloated slack/discord”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.