An index of deceptive Discord alternatives

slop.business is a public index of Discord-alternative projects whose public marketing collapses when you open the repo, the docs, or the page source. Each file is a full autopsy, with citations. Twelve files are open.

If a slop cannon can find this much contradiction, with citations, there is likely more under the hood.

Open files

A listing here means the public story is false or misleading in a way a self-hoster or a community would care about. Read the autopsy, then open the sources it cites.

1. DCTS: Exposed

Direct Communication Through Sockets · dcts.community

DCTS sells independence, encryption, and a network that cannot be taken down. The live homepage still ships four identical Latin filler reviews from John D. and Jane D., dated April 21, 2014. The comparison table grades rivals using the founder’s own Reddit smear posts as citations.

  • Dummy testimonials, live. Four identical lorem ipsum quotes, stock photos, and a leftover template date of April 21, 2014 sit on the homepage and on features.html.
  • Decentralized, with no instances. Marketing describes a resilient network. The project’s own principles doc says there are no known instances yet.
  • Self-cited smears as “transparency.” The homepage “trustworthy” column for Stoat and Spacebar points at r/dcts threads written by the DCTS founder.
  • Independent custom libraries. The pitch is no investors and custom-built code. The shipping package still depends on discord.js.
Read DCTS: Exposed Open the live site

2. Fermi: Exposed

Fermi / Harmony / Jank Client · fermi.chat

Fermi sells a Discord alternative for people who hate machines. The live homepage still greets you with the i18n key welcomeJank, asks you to “requestion features,” and sends the community to a discord.com guild. The anti-AI rule is the whole personality. The software is a Discord skin that forked its backend after a moderation fight.

  • welcomeJank, live. The homepage heading still carries the leftover i18n key welcomeJank. The Harmony contribute blurb still says “requestion features.” The same page asks people to point out typos.
  • A Discord alternative with a Discord guild. The header still links Harmony Guild. Harmony’s own docs send support questions to a discord.com guild. The official screenshot is Discord chrome: member list, GIF button, the lot.
  • Pick a license. LICENSE is AGPL-3.0. package.json said GPL-3.0 until 24 September 2026, then AGPL-3.0, a deprecated SPDX id. The README still says GPLv3 and “compatable.” The AI ban is still sold as a GPLv3 problem.
  • Join a community, empty room. The Open Graph pitch is “Join a community of people and start chatting!” The maintainer wrote that the main instance lacks users, so people do not want to join. instances.json displays one Harmony instance. Spacebar is still in the JSON with "display": false.
Read Fermi: Exposed Open the live site

3. Stoat: Exposed

Stoat / Revolt · stoat.chat

Stoat sells a Discord-shaped chat with no ads, no board, and every line of code public. The live homepage still says “not sketchy, not creepy” and “answers to you, not investors.” Messages sit in MongoDB in plaintext. The company is still Revolt Platforms Ltd, with one shareholder. The US node went up and came down for cost.

  • Not sketchy, plaintext. Users asked them to stop saying “Secure and Confidential.” There is no E2EE. The privacy supplement stores messages, IP, date of birth, and a device fingerprint.
  • No board to please. The homepage says it. Companies House lists Pawel Makles as the person of significant control of Revolt Platforms Ltd, 75% or more of the shares.
  • Every line is public. About copy still says 100% open source. Discover and Shield were kept off a libre license. The admin panel still has an open AGPL-violation issue.
  • Coming soon™. Financial transparency reports were promised 10 May 2024. iOS is TestFlight, “not yet ready for production.” An extra US node lasted two weeks in August 2026, then came down because of cost.
Read Stoat: Exposed Open the live site

4. Root: Exposed

Root Communications, Inc. · rootapp.com

Root sells limitless control and the Discord of the next generation. The live product is a venture-backed chat app with a Nitro clone, a privacy policy the founder later called a placeholder, and leftover Webflow copy that still says lorem ipsum. The name is the Unix superuser. The access you get is a subscription.

  • Named root. Ships sudo. Jesse told Ask Root the name means ultimate control. The same interview: you cannot self-host today. Sudo is HD streaming, a badge, and Cores that unlock the apps they raised the round on.
  • Placeholder, live. The February 2026 privacy policy collected messages, files, and voice, video, or screenshare calls, plus targeting cookies. Root called it a rumor, then a placeholder. The old text is still on archive.org.
  • $9M, closed source. Headline and Konvoy led a June 2025 seed. There is no public client source, no self-host path, no E2EE, and no export tool. Reverse engineering is a terms violation.
  • Make money on Root! Lorem ipsum. Live blog posts still end in leftover Webflow CMS chrome: Tag 1, Tag 2, and “What’s a Rich Text element?” The Licenses page is a heading with no licenses.
Read Root: Exposed Open the live site

5. Echo: Exposed

Echo · chat-echo.com · app-echo.net

Echo sells anonymity, AGPL source, and “no ID verification, ever.” The live app on chat-echo.com keeps messages in a form the operator can read. The public GitHub is a rewritten nightly dump of a private GitLab. The lead developer grades competing chat apps on Reddit as the only reviewer, then grades Echo 3.3 out of 9 and calls it a ghost town.

  • No ID verification, ever. Homepage copy says it. Terms of Service, 28 June 2026: they may require age or consent verification, including extra information from a parent or guardian, and suspend the account until that is confirmed.
  • Privacy-minded, plaintext in the database. The live privacy policy says text chat and group messages are not end-to-end encrypted. Operators of an instance, and anyone with database access, can read message bodies.
  • Open source, 23:00 Berlin dump. The README tells contributors to clone GitHub. The same repo says day-to-day history lives on private GitLab, and GitHub gets a rewritten release/1.0.0 branch so public SHAs never match internal ones.
  • Stable, linking to a browser tab. Windows, macOS, and Linux download buttons with a “Stable” badge all point at chat-echo.com. The public tag is 1.0.0. The in-repo rollup puts a full-feature platform at about 52 to 62 percent.
Read Echo: Exposed Open the live site

6. Kloak: Exposed

Kloak · kloak.app

Kloak sells a Discord alternative that does not watch you. The live homepage still says it. The FAQ says your messages sit on their servers, end-to-end encryption is future work, there is no registered legal entity, and the mobile app is “not yet.” Google Play lists the same product under Hedge Studio Labs, with a Data safety form that says no data is collected.

  • Does not watch you. Cookie policy: conversations should not pass through a dozen companies. The production CSP still allows hCaptcha, Giphy, Google Fonts, Bunny CDN, Fly.io, Pocketsflow, and kibun.social. The FAQ: they keep the messages. Encryption that would hide those messages from Kloak is future work.
  • Zero personal data. FAQ: GDPR barely applies because they collect no IP logs, no analytics, no tracking. The same FAQ: they collect your username, a hash of your secret key, your messages, optional profile information, and server membership. Play Store Data safety: “No data collected.”
  • Not a company. Terms: no registered legal entity, no jurisdiction, they do not generate revenue. Play Store developer: Hedge Studio Labs, Lakshika Gayal, Sri Lanka. Donations run through Buy Me a Coffee, including a $45 Titan plan.
  • Not yet, on Google Play. FAQ: the mobile app is not yet. Play Store lists Kloak anyway, 500+ downloads, updated 4 August 2026. Windows, Linux, and App Store still say Soon. The live feature icon is named calenders.svg.
Read Kloak: Exposed Open the live site

7. Rift: Exposed

Rift · therift.chat

Rift sells a private Discord alternative. The homepage says direct messages are end to end and that Rift can’t read them. The encryption page says that for 1:1 DM text and supported 1:1 calls, then names the rest: attachments, Shard channels, and Splinters use keys Rift holds, and Shard voice is mixed on their media server.

  • What is end to end. Homepage: DMs they cannot read. Lower block, 3 October 2026: attachments and Shard messages are encrypted at rest. Encryption page: Shard channels, Splinters, and file attachments (including attachments inside DMs) use keys Rift holds. Shard voice is plaintext on Rift’s media server. Web and desktop clients load their code from Rift’s servers.
  • Signal-style, with a second copy. Features heading now: Signal-style encryption for DM text, with history across devices, and they don’t hold the keys to read it. Encryption page: every stored DM still carries a second ciphertext under long-lived identity keys, so forward secrecy does not cover stored history. Lose the Rift Key, or the DM identity key on any device, and every message the server still holds can be decrypted, both directions.
  • Delete means gone. Homepage: the row leaves the database; limited moderation exceptions apply. Features: mods keep an encrypted review window, 12 hours for self-deletes and 14 days for mod removals. Privacy policy: rolling backups cover the previous seven days. If an account less than a day old deletes itself, administrators can still see the username, the Shards it joined, and up to 20 of its latest Shard messages for seven days.
  • Nobody upstairs. Copy says no investors, no board, no growth targets. The operator is Rift Communications LLC, a Wyoming LLC. The public record lists a registered agent at 30 N Gould St and keeps the members off the extract, matching the FAQ’s reason for a pseudonymous team. The terms let Rift assign the contract if the company is sold.
Read Rift: Exposed Open the live site

8. StrangR: Exposed

StrangR · strangr93.vercel.app

StrangR sells the safest place to talk to a stranger. The live app at strangr93.vercel.app calls itself anonymous, account-free, moderated, and 18+. The JavaScript and the signup API tell a plainer story: a 30-day account, a display name the server picks for you, an age field that starts at 13, and chat text the server can read.

  • No account required. Homepage checklist. Choosing a gender calls POST /api/auth/initialize and stores a user. The response sets a 30-day strangr_session cookie and a server-picked display name: Shrek, Batman, Sailor Moon. Settings: the username is your permanent identity.
  • 18+ Only. Homepage checklist. The age input is type="number" with min="13". No screen blocks a session with no age. The report form has a category for minors or underage behavior.
  • Encrypted in transit. Composer footer on 1-on-1 matches. send() does JSON.stringify and writes that string to wss://strangr-90k3.onrender.com/ws. TLS ends at that server. The bundle has no crypto.subtle and no end-to-end encryption library.
  • Community Guidelines. Homepage: by chatting, you agree to them. The link is /terms-and-conditions. The router has no such route. There is no privacy policy, no about page, and no named operator.
Read StrangR: Exposed Open the live site

9. Armada: Exposed

Armada · armada.buzz

Armada sells the encrypted Discord alternative with no host and no company in the middle. The live site at armada.buzz loads Soapbox’s relays, Soapbox’s voice server, Soapbox’s link-preview proxy, a Discord bridge that keeps an admin role, and a tracking script the privacy policy says is not there.

  • No host, on their host. Meta description: communities with channels, voice, and DMs that need no host. Derek Ross’s self-host guide, 30 July 2026: the web app, the default relays, and the voice server sit on Soapbox. Voice needs a real server. Out of the box those three stay theirs.
  • Every community, except the other kinds. Comparison essay: Armada encrypts every community end to end. Concord chat is sealed before publish. NIP-29 groups and Buzz workspaces are relay-hosted. The client’s voice code says a NIP-29 call has no media encryption. The Discord bridge copies channels in plaintext and keeps an admin role.
  • No analytics, in writing. In-app privacy policy, 11 July 2026: this build collects no analytics, no tracking cookies, and no telemetry. The HTML loads /_npanel/script.js, which starts Plausible for armada.buzz, and /_npanel/errors.js, which records clicks, navigations, and request URLs.
  • No company, and a for-profit LLC. Homepage: owned by no company, not even ours. Funding page: working toward a 501(c)(3), no shareholders. The trademark, Play listing, and copyright permission are Soapbox Technology, LLC, Watertown, South Dakota. The And Other Stuff fund recorded a $10,000,000 Startsmall grant. Through 9 September 2026 it paid $1,048,130.79 to soapbox.pub, an account Gleason has administered since 2021. Every row is on the ledger.
Read Armada: Exposed Open the live site

10. Pudu: Exposed

Pudu · pudu.chat

Pudu’s author posted, on 21 October 2026, that he was tired of Discord alternatives that copy Discord. The homepage screenshot is a Club rail, a channel list, a message pane, and a People sidebar. The same day’s privacy policy says messages and calls are not end-to-end encrypted, and that one person operates the service.

  • Something different, then he walked it back. The Reddit title says he is building something different. The hero image is Club channels, a conversation, and a People sidebar. Later that day he wrote that the familiar layout is intentional, and that the title set expectations he has not met.
  • Plus is for sale. He says it is not live. Pricing sells Pudu Plus at $6.99 a month and Club Plus at $19.99, including a Club Tag and a custom invite. In the app: “This beta cannot enable or purchase tags,” and “No boosting, payments or paid benefits are available in this beta.” On the thread: “Paid subscriptions aren’t live yet.”
  • One operator can read it. Privacy policy, 21 October 2026: Nikhil Kumar, using the name The Orb Company, in India. Messages and calls are not end-to-end encrypted. There is no independent audit and no complete audit trail of every dashboard or database read. Supabase holds the messages. LiveKit Cloud carries the calls.
  • 0.4.46, eight days in. The domain was registered 13 October 2026. The public desktop repo holds installers, not application source, and says so. Windows builds are unsigned. Mac builds are not notarized. The README still walks through a 0.4.7 update test. The live manifest is 0.4.46.
Read Pudu: Exposed Open the live site

11. Adieuu: Exposed

Adieuu · adieuu.com

Adieuu’s homepage says the operator cannot read a message and does not know you sent one, and that you can self-host the whole platform in your own AWS account. The same page’s diagram says the server sees that alias A wrote to alias B. The self-hosting guide puts the idle AWS bill at about $170 a month.

  • We don’t know you said it. The server sees the alias. Homepage: “we don’t even know that you said it.” The diagram under that line: the server “Sees only that Alias A sent to Alias B.” In the v0.4.41 tree, public Spaces cannot use encryption at all. Where the media stack is enabled, scanning defaults on. README_PII.md says a scan row can join an upload IP to an alias while the row exists.
  • 99.98 percent, and two failures. Same evening, same thread: “99.98% (yes, literally)” verified by email, and “of our current ~75 users, only 2 have failed email verification.” The email check is a lookup against “metadata available on the open web.”
  • Self-hosting is an AWS platform bill. Guide, last modified 29 August 2026: minimum cost “~$170 USD/mo on-demand,” optional pieces off, no traffic, early 2026. No other cloud. No smaller footprint. The stack is Fargate, a load balancer, NAT, ElastiCache, S3, CloudFront, and a WAF, plus a MongoDB you supply (Atlas M10 recommended) and a Font Awesome Pro licence.
  • Open source, under a noncommercial licence. Transparency heading: “Open Source.” The repo licence is PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0. Financials are “coming soon.” The roadmap item is Planned for 1 November 2026, “no guarantees” on the date or the data. Votes on the price table are “advisory only,” under staff discretion.
Read Adieuu: Exposed Open the live site

12. Howl: Exposed

Howl · howlpro.com

Howl’s homepage calls it the private Discord alternative: open source, no ads, and conversations that are nobody’s product. On 9 July 2026 a developer wrote that federation was in progress. The live Matrix comparison says federation is a long-term goal and is not being built. On 20 June 2026 he wrote that the app was functionally completely ready. On 15 October the Windows build was still trying to load app.example.com.

  • Federation, in progress and not being built. 9 July 2026: “Federation is currently in progress as well.” The compare page, still stamped 10 July 2026: “Federation is a long-term goal, not something being built today.” A search of the public tree finds that sentence in the marketing docs.
  • The Windows app loaded example.com. Commit 8f222c2097, 15 October 2026: release builds tried to open app.example.com and failed with ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED. The same day he wrote that he had not seen the bug, then that the installer was “all good now.”
  • No ad networks, and a price on the call. About page: “No ad networks” and “Pro adds flair, not access.” Terms: “currently Google AdSense.” The price table gates upload size, voice bitrate, resolution, and frame rate. This tree’s UI never reads the AdSense client id, and the content security policy does not allow an AdSense host.
  • Completely ready, then a public snapshot. 20 June: “Functionally Howl is completely ready” and “over 8 months.” The public schema starts 13 February 2026. The first public snapshot is 30 June. On 4 July: “We are going open source tonight.”
Read Howl: Exposed Open the live site

Method

This index is a table of contents. The argument lives on the case site, next to the URLs, GitHub files, and public posts used to write it.

What gets listed

Public marketing that is false or misleading: dummy social proof shipped live, independence copy that contradicts the lockfile, decentralization with no network, comparison tables that cite the author’s own hit pieces as evidence.

What we cite

The live marketing pages, the repo, the docs the project publishes, and posts the project itself put on the record. A subreddit the founder moderates is not an independent source for the founder’s claims.

How to read a file

Start here for the charge sheet. Follow the autopsy for the full record. Then open the original pages and decide whether the product matches the pitch.

Further files will be added as the record is assembled. slop.business is a public index of Discord-alternative projects. It is not a chat platform and not a community.