this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2026
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I suspect fluxer is gonna be where all the discord users inevitably flee to, should that come to pass... But I've always been bothered by the project for some reason.
I feel like the vibes are off on the whole thing, which makes me super suspicious of it even if I don't have an obvious answer as to why that may be.
It feels corporate and the essential features like self hosting and federation are roadmapped, which is just a promise. I really get that there's serious issues with Matrix, but in the "leaving discord" wars it doesn't feel fair for them to carry baggage of years of real world concerns and issues, only for a project like this to present a clean slate as superior rather than untested.
Selfhosting is not roadmapped, it's available today, and has been for months.
While I do agree, it is also just a single developer making this. I’m definitely disappointed with the priorities, but I respect how much work he’s been putting into it
It was originally. Lots of people bought Plutonium and he has now added additional developers.
Hmm, to my knowledge he is still the only active dev, maybe you’re right though
He is not, and has not been for quite some time.
What a lousy reason not to break free from Discord.
Fluxer provides Open Source freedom. It's full AGPLv3, no community edition bullshit: https://github.com/fluxerapp/fluxer/blob/main/LICENSE
Like, Real Open Source ™️ freedom because they don't require a CLA, like a lot of fake Open Source projects: https://www.reddit.com/r/FluxerApp/comments/1r8724q/heads_up_fluxer_has_a_big_red_flag_it_requires/
They promised self-hosting... and it's HERE (it's on the frontpage!): https://docs.fluxer.app/operator/get-started/
Yes, they optionally ask for money, which is GOOD. Hosting fluxer.app costs money. Infrastructure costs money. Hiring more devs costs money. Food costs money. Rent costs money. If the devs can't pay their bills, then they'll have to get some other job, which is BAD for the project.
Have you guys used Stoat?? It's slow as hell. Last time I checked, they purposely disabled some of the calling features because they couldn't afford the bandwidth on their public instances. Getting money is GOOD!
I guess some of the Matrix folks are a little miffted that Fluxer is eating their lunch, but dudes and dudettes, Matrix has a LOT of work to do on UI/UX to get people to use it. I convinced my programmer friends to switch to Matrix. We used Element. It sucked ass. Sure the encryption and tech is cool, but at the end of the day, if I can't receive my friend's messages because of some encryption roadblock, then it's not useful. After a few days, everyone got fed up with Matrix and went back to Discord.
Fluxer has a familiar UI that people already know and like. It looks pretty, which matters. It's true Open Source. They provide self-hosting. They're working on federation (unlike Stoat). Mobile apps are just coming out. They're getting funding so they can continue to focus on the project. It's a real viable chance to take back some power from Big Tech that your friends would actually move to.
P.D. If you can actually convince your friends to switch to Matrix, then great. I managed to convince my small group of friends to try out Fluxer and we're still on Fluxer, so I guess we moved. Let's just get off of Discord!