Apps like Discord and Reddit, and which one fits you
Apps like Discord and Reddit compared honestly: Telegram, Lemmy, Matrix, Slack, Facebook Groups and Hashti rooms, plus who each one is really built for.
If you want something like Discord and Reddit, first decide which half you actually miss. Discord is live talk: servers, channels, voice. Reddit is slow talk: threads, votes, comments that stay up for years. For live group chat, Telegram groups and Matrix (through an app like Element) are the closest. For Reddit style threads without Reddit, Lemmy is the most direct copy. For work-like communities, Slack. For local and family-age groups, Facebook Groups still wins. And if what you want is a public room you can walk into and talk to adults you do not know yet, with real identity checks, that is what I built Hashti for. None of these does both halves perfectly. Here is how I would choose.
Why people look for something between Discord and Reddit
I am Armenian-Iranian, I live in Los Angeles, and I spent years in both places. Discord was where my friends gamed and talked at night. Reddit was where I went to read what strangers thought about everything else. The search "apps like Discord Reddit" usually comes from one of three feelings, and the right answer depends on which one is yours.
The first is "Discord is too closed." You have to find a server, get an invite, learn its rules, and the good talk is buried in fifty channels. The second is "Reddit is too slow and too loud." You post, you wait, someone downvotes you, and nobody actually talks to you. The third is "both feel anonymous in a way I no longer trust." Anyone can make a new account in a minute, so bans do not mean much.
Keep your reason in mind while you read the rest.
The closest apps to Discord
Telegram groups
Telegram is the closest thing to Discord for people outside gaming. Groups can be very large, there are public groups you can find and join, and there are voice chats inside groups. In the Iranian and Russian speaking worlds, a lot of community life lives on Telegram.
What I like: it is fast, it works on bad connections, and big public communities already exist. What I do not like: moderation depends entirely on the group's admins, and spam accounts are a constant in big public groups. You sign up with a phone number, which helps a little, but it is not an identity check.
Matrix and Element
Matrix is an open network for chat, and Element is the best known app for it. It looks and feels a lot like Discord or Slack: rooms, spaces, voice and video. The difference is that nobody owns the whole network. Anyone can run a server.
What I like: it is open, and it is a real option if you care about not depending on one company. What I do not like: it is less polished, onboarding confuses non-technical people, and finding active public rooms takes effort. In my opinion it suits tech-minded groups better than casual ones.
Slack
Slack is Discord for work. Some hobby communities run on it too, mostly professional ones like design or programming groups. If your group is people who already use Slack at their job, it is comfortable. For anything casual, the free plan's limits and the work feel get in the way. I would not pick it for a social community.
The closest apps to Reddit
Lemmy
Lemmy is the most direct Reddit replacement. It has communities, posts, comments and votes, and it is part of the fediverse, which means many independent servers that talk to each other. Lots of people tried it during Reddit's API fight in 2023.
What I like: if you want Reddit's shape without Reddit the company, this is it. What I do not like: you have to choose a server first, the communities are much smaller than Reddit's, and some niche topics are empty. It is good for tech and open-source topics, thinner elsewhere.
Facebook Groups
Nobody under thirty wants to hear this, but for local communities, parents, neighborhoods, diaspora groups and anything with older members, Facebook Groups is still where the people are. Threads, comments, events, all in one place. Accounts are tied to a real-ish profile, which keeps some behavior in check.
What I do not like: the feed pushes things you did not ask for, and many groups are quiet until someone posts drama. But if you want your mom's generation in the same place as you, nothing else is close.
Staying on Reddit, differently
An honest option: keep using Reddit, but only the small subreddits. Most of what people hate about Reddit lives in the giant default communities. A subreddit with a few thousand members and strict moderators can feel like a small forum from 2008. Before you switch apps, try leaving the big ones.
Where Hashti fits, and where it does not
Hashti is a free app for adults, 18 and up, out now on the App Store. Android is in closed testing. It is closer to Discord than to Reddit: public rooms with names and topics, plus private chats, calls and a walkie-talkie. There are no upvotes and no long threads. It is for talking now, not for posts that live for years.
The part I built it around is trust. Every account checks its identity once against a government document. The photo is deleted after the check, but a fingerprint of the document stays, so the same document cannot open a second account. Unverified accounts cannot host rooms, cannot speak in voice rooms and cannot message strangers. Twelve verified reports closes an account permanently, and because of the document fingerprint, that person cannot just make a new one. You can read the full safety rules and how verification works.
That answers the third feeling above: "anyone can make a new account." On Hashti, they cannot.
The other thing Hashti does is live translation in 29 languages, so a room can have a Farsi speaker and an English speaker actually talking. That part is Hashti Plus, $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. Everything else is free.
Now the limits, because a comparison that only flatters my app is useless to you:
- Hashti is young. Discord and Reddit have millions of active communities. Hashti has far fewer rooms, and at some hours a room you like may be quiet.
- If you want long threads, archives and votes, Hashti is the wrong app. Use Lemmy or a small subreddit.
- If you are a gamer who wants screen sharing and bots, stay on Discord. That is what it is great at.
- Some people will not want to show a government document to any app. I understand that. If that is you, Telegram or Matrix will suit you better.
- The app's own interface is English today. A Farsi interface is being built.
How I would choose, in one minute
- You miss Discord's live talk, but want open public groups: Telegram.
- You want Discord without a single company owning it: Matrix with Element.
- You want Reddit's threads and votes without Reddit: Lemmy.
- Your group is local, family or older: Facebook Groups.
- Your group is professional: Slack.
- You want to walk into a room and talk to adults you do not know, and you want bans to stick: Hashti.
- You just hate the giant subreddits: stay on Reddit and go small.
A few habits that help on any of these apps
Whatever you pick, the app matters less than the room. A good moderator beats a good feature list. Before you settle into a community, read the rules, watch for a day, and see how the admins handle the first argument you witness. If they ignore it, leave.
Keep your personal details out of public rooms on every one of these apps, including mine. Move to private chat only with people you have talked with for a while in public. And do not judge a whole app by its first empty room. Try three rooms at different times of day before deciding.
My honest bottom line
There is no single app that is "Discord plus Reddit." The two do different jobs, and most people end up using one app for live talk and another for reading. If you tell me you want threads, I will send you to Lemmy or a small subreddit. If you want live rooms with strangers who cannot hide behind a fresh account, I think Hashti is worth a try, and if it is not for you, that is fine too. Pick the one that fits the reason you started searching.
Hashti is free, and it is 18+. Hashti Plus — live translation, writing help and catch-ups — is $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year, and nothing else costs anything. How rooms work is on the rooms page, and how reports and the ID check work is on the safety page.