Your Chat Server, Your Rules: Meet Haven
You've probably been in a Discord server where the admin starts talking about "the new terms of service" and everyone gets a little nervous. Or maybe you've just wondered where all those messages and voice calls actually live. Haven takes that question and answers it directly: they live on your machine, and nowhere else. It's a private Discord alternative you host yourself, with no paid tier and no telemetry.
What It Does
Haven is a self-hosted chat platform. One person runs the server, and everyone else joins with a code. Messages, files, and voice never touch anybody else's infrastructure—not a cloud provider, not a company account, not an analytics pipeline. The repo is licensed AGPL-3.0, runs on Node 22 through 26, and works on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
The setup is deliberately low-friction. You can spin it up with Docker in a single command, or on Windows just unzip a file and double-click Start Haven.bat—which installs Node.js for you if you don't have it. Once it's running, you open https://localhost:3000, register with the username admin, make a channel, and share the code. There's a certificate warning on first load, which is expected; click Advanced, then Proceed.
Beyond the web client, there are native apps: Haven Desktop for Windows and Linux (which can also run the server itself), a macOS build, an Android app on Google Play or via Obtainium, and an iOS version in TestFlight. Apps and browser all talk to the same server, so nobody has to install anything to be included.
Why It's Cool
The hosting model is the whole point. Discord stores your messages on their servers. Haven stores them on yours. There's no email or phone verification, no Nitro, no boosts, no analytics. The comparison table in the README is blunt about it, and that bluntness is refreshing.
The onboarding is genuinely simple. A lot of self-hosted tools assume you enjoy reading YAML at midnight. Haven's pitch is closer to "one person runs the server, everyone else joins with a code." The Docker one-liner and the double-click Windows launcher make it feel like something you could hand to a friend who doesn't do sysadmin work.
The migration path from Discord is real. You can import your whole server history from inside Haven—every channel, thread, forum post, reaction, pin, and attachment. Paste a token, pick a server, go. There's also Ferry, a two-way Discord bridge (the README gets truncated there, but the direction is clear: you don't have to abandon your existing community to try this).
Native apps, not web wrappers. The Android app is described as native rather than a web wrapper, with full chat, voice, and push notifications. The desktop client supports per-app audio sharing—send one app's sound and nothing else—plus device switching mid-call and native notifications. Those are the details that separate a weekend project from something you'd actually use daily.
A community server exists. If you want to look before you leap, there's a volunteer-hosted community server you can join with no code, just a signup. That's a nice touch—it lets you kick the tires without committing to running anything.
How to Try It
The fastest route is Docker:
docker run -d -p 3000:3000 -v haven_data:/data ghcr.io/ancsemi/haven:latest
Then open https://localhost:3000 and register as admin. Expect the certificate warning—click Advanced, then Proceed.
If you're on Windows and prefer no Docker, download the zip, unzip it, and double-click Start Haven.bat. On Linux or macOS without Docker:
chmod +x start.sh && ./start.sh
There are also one-click cloud deploy options on Zeabur and RepoCloud, a full setup guide in GUIDE.md, and short video tutorials if you'd rather watch than read. Grab the repo at github.com/ancsemi/haven and check the releases page for the desktop and mobile clients.
Final Thoughts
Haven won't replace Discord for a thousand-person public community—that's not what it's for. It's for friend groups, small teams, and anyone who wants their conversations to stay on hardware they control. The tradeoff is obvious: you're responsible for uptime, backups, and the server itself. In exchange, you get no paid tier, no telemetry, and no company account standing between you and your own messages. If that trade sounds reasonable to you, Haven makes it about as painless as self-hosting gets.
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