⬡ HAVEN

A private Discord alternative that runs on your own machine. No cloud, no company account, no telemetry, no paid tier. Free forever.

!Version !License !Node !Platform

One person runs the server. Everyone else joins with a code. Messages, files and voice never touch anybody else's infrastructure.

Get started in about a minute

Docker

docker run -d -p 3000:3000 -v haven_data:/data ghcr.io/ancsemi/haven:latest

Windows, no Docker: download the zip, unzip it, double-click Start Haven.bat. It installs Node.js for you if you do not have it.

Linux / macOS, no Docker: chmod +x start.sh && ./start.sh

Then open https://localhost:3000, register with the username admin, make a channel, share the code. The certificate warning on first load is expected, click Advanced then Proceed.

One-click cloud deploy on Zeabur · on RepoCloud · Full setup guide

Three ways in

| | | |---|---| | 🖥️ Haven Desktop | Windows and Linux. Per-app audio sharing (send one app’s sound, nothing else), device switching mid-call, native notifications, tray. It can also run the server itself. | | 📱 Haven for Android | On Google Play. Native, not a web wrapper. Full chat, voice and push notifications. Built by Amnibro. | | 🌐 Any browser | Nothing to install. Send a link, they are in. Works on phones. |

Apps and browser talk to the same server and see the same thing, so nobody has to install anything to be included.

Want to look around first? The community server is open, no code needed, just sign up. Volunteer-hosted, thanks MutantRabbit.

Why bother

| | Discord | Haven | |---|---------|-------| | Hosting | Their cloud | Your machine | | Account | Email and phone | No email, no verification | | Your messages | Stored by Discord Inc. | Never leave your server | | Cost | Nitro, boosts | Free, no paid tier | | Telemetry | Analytics and tracking | None | | Source | Closed | Open, AGPL-3.0 |

What you get

Coming from Discord

• Import your whole server history from inside Haven. Every channel, thread,

• Ferry, a two-way Discord bridge. Messages pass both ways between a Haven

Talking

• Voice chat, peer to peer so audio never routes through the server. Per-user

• Screen sharing, several people at once in a tiled grid. Watch parties work.
• Listen together with synced playback from Spotify, YouTube and SoundCloud, or a

• Threads, replies, reactions, pins, editing, mentions, polls, search, link

• Direct messages, end-to-end encrypted. Private keys never leave the browser,

• Rich presence for what people are playing and listening to, via Steam, Last.fm or

Making it yours

• 26 built-in themes, a colour picker, an RGB cycle, and stackable visual effects

• A plugin and theme system, so you can drop in your own without forking anything.
• Custom stickers, custom emoji, personas (send as an alternate character),

• Server branding, sidebar layout options, font size and density controls.
• 8 languages out of the box, community translated.

• One-click updates from inside the app. Haven takes a pre-update backup and

• Built-in backups, scheduled or on demand, with restore.
• Single sign-on via OpenID Connect, so Authentik, Keycloak, Authelia and Auth0

• Bots and webhooks with a REST API. Send messages, play soundboard sounds,

• Roles with per-channel permissions. Kick, timed mute, ban, IP bans, slow mode,

• Guest accounts, invite links, per-channel join codes with automatic rotation.
• Push notifications, including UnifiedPush if you would rather leave Google out.
• Built-in Cloudflare and LocalTunnel support, so friends can reach you without

• Bcrypt passwords, JWT auth, HTTPS, MFA, rate-limited logins, and a disk reserve

Documentation

Everything in detail lives in GUIDE.md: setup, Docker, remote access (port forwarding, Tailscale, Cloudflare Tunnel, reverse proxies), themes, voice and TURN, Discord import, Ferry, encryption, backups, configuration, translations, the bot API, and troubleshooting.

Release notes are in CHANGELOG.md.

Contributing

Issues and PRs are welcome, including translations and themes. If you are reporting a bug, the version number from https://your-server:3000/api/version helps.

License

AGPL-3.0. Free to use, modify and share. If you deploy a modified version as a network service, you have to publish its source. See LICENSE.

⬡ Haven. Because your conversations are yours.