Selfhosted messenger/community software like discord

Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨crony@lemmy.cronyakatsuki.xyz⁩ to ⁨selfhosted@lemmy.world⁩

Hello, I would like to hear your opinions about a good selfhosted messenger like discord.

To list exactly what I mean by that is:

No need for federation ( only will be used by friends )
E2EE
Support for direct messages
Support for discord like server management by which I mean the ability to set rooms and topics for such rooms.

From what I know, this seems to be more similar to slack alternative’s but wanted to hear opinions of others.

I have been thinking about either matrix, mattermost, rocket.chat or revolt chat.

I already have a XMPP server, but setting up encryption and client’s has turned away quite a few people I would like to get onto this platform.

source

Comments

Sort:hotnew top

MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Do you even need E2EE if it’s a private server with no federation? It seems like transport encryption would be fine which almost everything has.

source
- crony@lemmy.cronyakatsuki.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  That’s a fine but, as long as the server was hosted at my personal devices, which it isn’t but on a hetzner dedicated box. Which is still better than on shared pc’s.
  
  Don’t really need it, it’s just nice to have.
  
  source
  - Vent@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    If you’re worried about unauthorized access to the physical machine, you could always just do disk-level encryption instead or store the app’s data in something like a Veracrypt virtual disk. They’d still be able to access the data if they go through your OS/user, but wouldn’t pick anything up by accessing the drive directly.
    
    Nothing short of E2EE can truly stop someone from accessing your data if they have physical access to the server, but disk encryption would require a targeted attack to break, and no host is wasting their time targeting your meme server. I seriously doubt they’d access it even if you had no encryption at all, since if they get caught doing that they’d get in a heap of legal trouble and lose a ton of business.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- BearOfaTime@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  It still has to transit networks, and I’m assuming they’re using the internet.
  
  Anymore, all comms (even local), should be encrypted.
  
  source
  - poVoq@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    That is what transport encryption does.
    
    source
  - MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yeah most things support transport encryption, SSL for example with HTTPS.
    
    source
haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Matrix is pretty user friendly imo but you will not get data-gobbler‘s levels of convenience because they have billions to invest in the software, FOSS doesnt. It works out of the box mostly but you as admin need to be quite adept.

source
RayJW@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Revolt is self-hostable. It isn’t E2EE but if you’re controlling the users anyways transport encryption should be enough since you have control over the data anyway.

source
- jul@feddit.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I tried to set this up recently but failed. I wish there was a up to date noob friendly guide for this. IIRC some containers, mongodb was one of them, didn’t go healthy.
  
  source
  - RayJW@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I never actually tried myself, but it seems like the documentation certainly could be improved. I saw that they provide a Docker compose, so perhaps that could be of help if you didn’t use that the last time around. They are currently in the process of cleaning up the projects to make things more maintainable and easier to get an overview, so let’s hope things might improve a bit. I think for me personally, this certainly seems like the most promising Discord replacement because it feels like a set and get solution for non-techy people trying to switch instead of relearning everything like with Matrix.
    
    source
halm@leminal.space ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
OTOH, may not fit all your criteria:

SimpleX

Databag

Zulip
source
crony@lemmy.cronyakatsuki.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Update: Ended up setting up a mattermost server.

Main reason cause it’s the easiest to setup as it only need 2 containers.

source
cyclohexane@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
For XMPP, have you looked into using snikket? It does most things you’d want out of the box without having to setup extensions yourself.

source
cypherpunks@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Mattermost isn’t e2ee, but if the server is run by someone competent and they’re allowed to see everything anyway (eg it’s all group chat, and they’re in all the groups) then e2ee isn’t as important as it would be otherwise.

If you’re OK with not having e2ee, I would recommend Zulip over Mattermost. Mattermost is nice too though.

I could write a book about problems with Matrix, but if you want something relatively easy and full featured with (optional, and non-forward-secret) e2ee then it is probably your best bet today.

source
CarlosCheddar@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I remember setting up a TeamSpeak server back in 2012 before Discord took over. Worked for us at the time.

source
- poVoq@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Mumble is the go-to solution for that these days. Even has a nice Android client.
  
  source
- IGuessThisIsForNSFW@yiffit.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  My friend group uses discord just for screen sharing. All voice comes are still in TS. It’s funny to boot up discord and see 9 people in the same channel all muted with streams going.
  
  source
helenslunch@feddit.nl ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Matrix is okay but very slow.

I would highly recommend Revolt, for sure.

source
menas@lemmy.wtf ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Pretty bad experience with matrix here. Many users have issues with decrypting messages or having some conversations unable to open. Sometimes we have to disable the encryption, and in some case it don’t work either. In all cases, we couldn’t find too old messages. Usually you have to balance between safety and archives; both are unreliable. Migrating a community to a specific protocol is not something you could repeat a lot.

I don’t know if it’s related with the servers, or with the protocol itself. I suspect that things get ugly when your conversations are too big, but it could be the latency between servers, or lack of ressources from server side. If so, you have consider to selfhost a matrix server, or to consider it as not federated, and use the server matrix.org like everyone (which seems to work fine).

source
- lemmyreader@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  use the server matrix.org like everyone (which seems to work fine).
  
  Suggesting to use matrix.org as “everyone” uses it ? There are other choices instead of making a big flagship instance bigger.
  
  I have a Matrix account on tchncs.de since years. Though I don’t use it often, the admin seems to do a good job and provides bridges.
  
  source
- crony@lemmy.cronyakatsuki.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Yea, matrix is too much for that I need, an dhave seted up a mattermost server for my needs.
  
  Planning to create a selfhosted team on it for the people of this communitty to talk real time about selfhosting and help each other fix issues in a more timelly and easier manner.
  
  source
Madiator2011@lm.madiator.cloud ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
For me it’s very hard to convince my friends to move from discord. I myself run matrix server on dedicated machine.

source
impure9435@kbin.run ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Revolt will be perfect for you it perfectly mimics the Discord UI/UX, and you don't need E2EE if you are in control of the server

source
jelloeater85@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Matrix is nice and Mattermost is basically self hosted Slack. Probably better off with Matrix, if you don’t need voice. Mattermost I’d you do. Rocket chat seems nice as well. I’d probably run Matrix and Mumble?

source
- monomon@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Matrix does support voice, and I found the quality to be amazing.
  
  source
- stewie410@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  We ran RocketChat at work for a few years before migrating to Teams.
  
  RC could be good, but maintaining it long-term was an enormous pain. Maybe it’s better now, certainly if you’re using docker… But a manual install was always a laborious task on upkeep for us. Also worth making sure you don’t need commercial features, as they’ve removed free features in the past to drive sales…
  
  source
  - jelloeater85@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yeah, for business I use both and Slack is quite nice to work with. Everyone forgets the hidden cost of running your own chat server. It’s fine for a hobby, but I’d always have a larger company run critical back end services. They have the time and the money to invest in keeping things working when it matters most.
    
    source
- Kimusan@feddit.dk ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Slack is crap and matter most has mimicked all its worst parts.
  
  source
BentiGorlich@gehirneimer.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Zulip is pretty nice and I think it resembled discord the most out of the software I know

source
- whynotzoidberg@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I’ve just started a Zulip POC and it’s been decent so far. Definitely resembles Discord.
  
  source
poVoq@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
If you run things on your own server and have no federation there is no point in e2ee.

If you already have an XMPP server, maybe add an easy to use Movim web-client to it. People that are used to Discord seem to have little trouble adapting to it, but it isn’t a full feature equivalent to Discord obviously.

source
- lemmyvore@feddit.nl ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  If you run things on your own server and have no federation there is no point in e2ee.
  
  Just because they run the server doesn’t mean the users want them to be able to access the messages.
  
  source
  - poVoq@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Then just don’t?
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
Lemmchen@feddit.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
If you need E2EE there’s only Matrix. I wish it wasn’t the only option, but it is. For setting up rooms and so on you can use their Spaces feature, I think.

source
TheRealCharlesEames@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Sorry to hijack — does Matrix have support for voice channels now? I know it has support for voice calls, but I’d like to just join a designated voice channel and allow other members to join as they please.

source
- kevincox@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Element is running a beta for Video Rooms which is basically exactly this. However it isn’t standardized yet and I haven’t tried it.
  
  source
- poVoq@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  No. I don’t think any of the here proposed solutions other than Mumble (and Teamspeak) does. Maybe Revolt?
  
  source
- fossphi@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Pretty sure it integrates with Jitsi, so that’s one option for calls
  
  source
- nimmo@lem.nimmog.uk ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I’ve got my instance of matrix working with voice calls. It’s not built in, but it’s just another service in my compose file alongside the bridges I use to have my unified chat app.
  
  I’m using coturn and it just works when doing voice and video calls with federated users.
  
  I think I’ve seen people using jitsi as well, so it seems there are many options available
  
  source
barbara@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Matrix 👍🏻

source
terminal@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I’ve recently been testing Mattermost for a family communication platform. I also tried matrix/element and Rocket.Chat. I’m leaning towards Mattermost since the mobile apps (essential for my family) feels the most intuitive.

Element required knowing what features existed and then finding them which isn’t going to work for grandma.

Rocket.chat was good too just leaned towards Mattermost for some reason.

I really wish matrix had a well polished iOS app. The best I found was FluffyChat but even then it felt…not right.

source
- Lemmchen@feddit.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  From the ones you mentioned only Matrix supports full E2EE.
  
  source
  - terminal@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    You are correct. Matrix is the only one that has an option to use e2ee. Rocket chat has it it beta but that may take some time to roll out.
    
    source
jelloeater85@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Neat! I’ll check it out!

source
Redditrefuge@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
What about Zulip?

source

Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters	More Letters
HTTP	Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web
HTTPS	HTTP over SSL
SSL	Secure Sockets Layer, for transparent encryption
XMPP	Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (‘Jabber’) for open instant messaging

[Thread #711 for this sub, first seen 24th Apr 2024, 22:35] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

source