I did some digging into stoat.chat and honestly… it delivers a lot (>▽<)
it looks a lot like Discord, just without that annoying company controlling everything and trying to get our money
stoat is basically a Discord clone, except it's open source and lets you do a bunch of stuff Discord charges for on Nitro (o^▽^o)
we're talking custom emojis, animated avatars, profile banners, and a 20 MB file upload limit — all without paying a thing.
Customization without the fear of getting banned
another thing that's just sugoi, you can use custom themes or even your own CSS without getting banned. We all know how much Discord cries about modified clients. stoat on the other hand is totally cool with it — their philosophy is to let users tweak whatever they want.
it's got voice calls, text and voice channels, and everything we already use day to day. Plus, if you want full control, you can self-host your own server. that means your conversations stay on your own terms, not some big tech company's.
Privacy
when it comes to privacy and free features, it absolutely destroys Discord (￣ω￣)
the code is open and you can even host your own server.
- custom emojis
- animated avatars
- profile banners
- file uploads up to 20 MB
- custom themes and free CSS
- self-hosting (run on your own server)
- no data selling
Discord either charges for these on Nitro or outright bans them.
The Achilles' heel
now, whether it's actually better… that really depends (￣ω￣)
the problem isn't technical, it's social.
everyone's already on Discord.
getting people to switch apps is always the hardest part, because stoat's user base is still smaller. it doesn't matter how good the platform is if your friends aren't there.