Run your own server. Own your data.
No accounts, no cloud, no subscriptions. E2E encrypted DMs built in.
Windows 10/11 · Requires .NET 8 Desktop Runtime · PolyForm Noncommercial
Built to replace Discord for real groups. Not stripped down. The full thing, running on your hardware.
Push-to-talk or voice activation. WebRTC peer-to-peer with TURN relay fallback for friends behind strict NATs. Noise suppression via RNNoise. Per-user volume control.
Call anyone directly from a DM conversation. Accept or decline with a popup, mute mid-call, see a live timer. No separate app, no phone number. Just click and you're talking.
Markdown, image embeds, file uploads, reactions, edits, pins, threads, polls, GIF search, @mentions, reply quotes, link previews. History stored as plain .jsonl files. No database.
Two layers: IskraID relay DMs are always E2E encrypted — zero-knowledge, the server sees only ciphertext. Local alias DMs can be encrypted with a passphrase-protected key stored only on your device. AES-GCM 256, ECDH P-256. The server operator cannot read either.
Five role tiers: guest, member, trusted, admin, owner. Per-channel read and write role requirements. Three auth modes: open, registered+guests, or verified-only. HWID-based identity tracking for bans.
Server-to-server private conversations with read receipts, unread badges, edit and delete. No separate channel needed. Right-click any user and message them.
Share your screen or webcam to anyone in a voice channel. Includes system audio. No plugins, no browser extension, no third-party service involved.
Gallery button in any channel shows every image and video shared, all at once. A link icon on any message copies a direct deep link. Clicking it smooth-scrolls and flashes the message.
Add your own clips (.mp3, .wav, .ogg) and play them straight into a voice channel. The sound mixes with your mic. Everyone in the channel hears it.
Post to any channel via HTTP webhook. Build bots that connect as a regular WebSocket client using a named token. No rate limits, no approval process, no platform rules to navigate.
Every admin action is logged. Download a full backup ZIP from the admin panel: chat history, roles, bans, avatars, uploads, all of it. Restore by unzipping.
Server owners can opt in to be listed publicly. Anyone can browse and join without an account. A directory you actually control. You choose who finds your server.
Use Iskra however suits you. The two modes are not tiers. Neither is better. They are just different scopes.
Register at account.iskra.foo if you want cross-server identity. The relay is zero-knowledge: it stores only encrypted ciphertext and cannot comply with a decryption order. Your private key is derived from your password on-device and never sent anywhere.
Add anyone by alias. Message them even if you're not on the same server. Read receipts show when your message was seen.
ECDH P-256 + AES-GCM 256. The relay stores blobs it cannot decrypt. Your key never leaves your device.
Link your Neocities, GitHub Pages, or Cloudflare Pages site. Anyone can view it by clicking your name. Rendered in a sandboxed iframe. Scripts stripped, your HTML intact.
Server owners can opt in to be listed at iskra.foo/findservers. Public listing, no account needed to browse.
Discord charges $10/month for an animated avatar and a banner color. That's the product. That's Nitro.
Iskra profiles are a full HTML page you write and host yourself. Embed your best fragvideo. Drop in a music player. Put a Spotify widget, a custom layout, a photo gallery, a manifesto. Whatever you actually want to be known for. No feature tiers, no "profile effects" to unlock, no badge shop, no currency. Just a URL and whatever you put on it.
Host it on Neocities, GitHub Pages, or Cloudflare Pages. All free. Link it to your Iskra ID. Everyone who clicks your name sees it.
Your best clip, a fragvideo, a highlight reel. Drop a YouTube embed, add autoplay with muted audio, style it however you want. It shows up right in your profile.
Spotify widget, SoundCloud embed, an audio tag pointing at your own file. Let people know what you're listening to without asking anyone's permission.
Custom fonts, animations, layouts, colors. Write it like a webpage because it is one. Rendered in a sandboxed iframe so it can't reach outside your profile.
No content team reviewing it. No strikes, no "violates community guidelines," no waiting for review. Update it whenever, however you want.
Two example profiles: full HTML, self-hosted on free platforms, linked to an Iskra ID. Nothing to unlock. Embed video? Yes.
Please show us your creations, there might even be a contest!
Ten themes ship with Iskra. Write your own in JSON and import it in Settings. Every color, radius, and accent is a variable you control. No mods, no ToS violations, no BetterDiscord workarounds.
Discord is a VC-funded product optimizing for engagement and monetization. Iskra is a tool you run yourself. The difference is who's in charge.
No installer, no cloud setup, no account creation. Just unzip and run.
Extract iskra_server.exe, drop a server.json next to it, and launch. It's online in under a minute.
Forward one TCP port on your router. Send friends your IP. That's it. No domain, no SSL cert, no dashboard, no DNS to configure.
Friends unzip the client, enter your address, pick any name, and they're in. Voice, text, files. Everything works immediately.
Same binary everywhere. The difference is where it runs, who needs to reach it, and whether you want TURN handled for you or by you.
The cleanest setup for a friend group. One cheap VPS ($6-10/mo, 1-2 GB RAM) runs everything: Iskra server, coturn for TURN relay, and nginx for SSL. Server.json points TurnUrls at the VPS's own public IP. CGNAT-proof for every friend on any ISP. Always-on, no port forward, no home hardware required. Spin it up once and forget about it.
Run iskra_server.exe on any machine on your network. Everyone connects by local IP. No router config, no internet, no TURN needed. Fastest latency possible. Good for LAN parties, offices, or homes where everyone is on the same router.
Forward one TCP port on your router to the machine running the server. Friends connect using your public IP. Clients only need outbound TCP to reach your server, so the connection works fine with a port forward. Voice is a different story: WebRTC P2P requires both sides to have a reachable IP. Most ISPs hand out CGNAT by default today - a real public IP costs extra and you have to ask for it. If any friend is behind CGNAT (likely most of them), voice will not punch through without TURN. See Mode 3.
CGNAT is the default on most ISPs worldwide. If your friends haven't specifically requested and paid for a real public IP, they're behind it, and P2P voice will fail silently without TURN. Add TURN and voice works for everyone regardless of what ISP they're on. Point the server at the community TURN relay at turn01.ams.iskra.foo or run your own (Mode 4). The credential for the community relay is available from your server account.
Run your own TURN server on a cheap VPS ($4-6/mo is enough). Full control over bandwidth and credentials. No dependency on any third-party relay. Install coturn, open UDP 3478 and TCP 5349, configure /etc/turnserver.conf, then point your server.json at it.
Run the server binary on a Linux or Windows VPS. Open the port in your firewall, point a domain A record at the VPS IP. No nginx, no SSL - plain WebSocket on port 8080. Works fine for private groups. The connection is encrypted at the application layer (TLS is optional via nginx, not required).
The proper production setup. nginx proxies WebSocket connections to the Iskra server running on localhost:8080. certbot handles Let's Encrypt. Users connect to yourserver.com with no port number in the URL, full SSL, looks clean. Spin it up in 5 minutes, port forward is not needed.
Everything in Mode 6, plus relay support enabled. Users with an IskraID (registered at account.iskra.foo) can send cross-server E2E encrypted DMs and maintain a global friends list across every Iskra server they join. Optionally list your server publicly at iskra.foo/findservers so anyone can discover and join without an account.
Free forever. No cloud. No bullshit.