---
title: "Fluxer vs Matrix (Element): which one fits your community?"
description: "Fluxer is built around Discord-style communities, with voice channels and custom emoji, and has federation and end-to-end encryption on its roadmap. Matrix is federated, and Element encrypts DMs and private rooms by default."
url: "https://fluxer.com/help/fluxer-vs-matrix"
language: "en"
last_updated: "2026-11-02"
category: "About Fluxer"
---

> Index of Fluxer's official pages for AI agents: https://fluxer.com/llms.txt
> Links to Fluxer pages go to their Markdown versions when they have one. For other Fluxer help, policy or blog links, remove any #section part and add .md to the end.

# Fluxer vs Matrix (Element): which one fits your community?

Fluxer is built around Discord-style communities, with voice channels and custom emoji, and has federation and end-to-end encryption on its roadmap. Matrix is federated, and Element encrypts DMs and private rooms by default.

Fluxer and Matrix are both open source, and you can self-host either one for free. Fluxer is built around Discord-style communities, with voice channels that have a text chat and up to 500 custom emoji per community, and its layout is familiar to people coming from Discord. Fluxer uses the AGPL with no contributor license agreement.

Matrix is a federated network, and Element, its best-known app, turns on end-to-end encryption by default in DMs and private rooms. Fluxer plans optional federation with a stable release in 2027, and end-to-end encryption with no setting to turn it off, for calls in 2026 and for DMs and group DMs with a stable release in 2027.

## How do Fluxer and Matrix (Element) compare at a glance?

The table below is as of November 2026, and the Matrix and Element details come from matrix.org, element.io and Element's own documentation.

| | Fluxer | Matrix (matrix.org and Element) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | [Free](https://fluxer.com/help/how-does-fluxer-make-money.md), with optional [Plutonium](https://fluxer.com/plutonium) from US$4.99 a month | [Free on matrix.org, Premium price not published yet](https://matrix.org/homeserver/pricing/) |
| Free upload limit | [25 MB per file](https://fluxer.com/help/file-upload-limit.md) | [10 MB per attachment and 100 MB a day on matrix.org](https://matrix.org/homeserver/pricing/) |
| End-to-end encryption | [Planned for calls in 2026 and DMs in 2027](https://fluxer.com/help/is-fluxer-end-to-end-encrypted.md), with no setting to turn it off | [On by default for DMs and private rooms in Element](https://github.com/element-hq/element-web/blob/develop/docs/e2ee.md) |
| Federation | [Planned, with a stable release in 2027](https://fluxer.com/help/federation.md) | [Yes](https://element.io/features) |
| Voice channels and custom emoji | [Yes](https://fluxer.com/help/voice-and-video.md), with up to 500 custom emoji in each community | In some apps, such as [Cinny](https://github.com/cinnyapp/cinny), and [not prioritized yet in Element](https://matrix.org/blog/2026/02/welcome-discord/) as of February 2026 |
| Contributor license agreement | [None](https://fluxer.com/help/open-source.md) | [Required for Synapse](https://element.io/blog/element-to-adopt-agplv3/) |
| Free self-hosting | [Free, with no paid tier](https://fluxer.com/help/is-self-hosting-free.md) and an optional [Operator Pass](https://fluxer.com/help/operator-pass.md) | [Free and open source, and Element also sells paid editions](https://element.io/pricing) |
| iPhone | Web app, and [coming to the App Store in early November 2026 (TestFlight on hold for now)](https://fluxer.com/help/fluxer-app-store.md) | [App Store](https://element.io/download) |
| Android | [Google Play beta](https://fluxer.com/help/apps.md) | [Google Play and F-Droid](https://element.io/download) |
| Minimum age on the main instance | [13, or older where a country sets a higher age](https://fluxer.com/help/minimum-age.md) | [18 on matrix.org](https://matrix.org/legal/terms-and-conditions/), and other homeservers set their own |
| Export your account's data yourself | ✓ | [By request to the Foundation on matrix.org](https://matrix.org/legal/privacy-notice/) |

## Is Fluxer free like Matrix (Element)?

Yes. An account on fluxer.com is free, and so are communities, messages, voice and video calls, screen sharing and [running your own instance](https://fluxer.com/help/is-self-hosting-free.md). [Plutonium](https://fluxer.com/help/plutonium.md) is optional and raises the limits on your own account, for example uploads up to 500 MB per file.

An account on the matrix.org homeserver is also free, and its Free plan allows 10 MB per attachment, 100 MB a day and 500 MB every 28 days. Its [pricing page](https://matrix.org/homeserver/pricing/) says Premium raises that to 100 MB per attachment, and its price isn't final as of November 2026.

## Who funds Matrix and Element?

The Matrix.org Foundation is a UK non-profit.[^matrix-foundation] Its [2026 annual report](https://matrix.org/blog/2026/03/annual-report/) says memberships are its main income, with Automattic's membership making up half of it, followed by donations and events, and that the Foundation still depends heavily on support from Element. It started selling Premium accounts on matrix.org at the end of 2025.[^matrix-report]

Element, the company behind the Element app, is funded by investors and by selling [paid editions](https://element.io/pricing) of Element Server Suite to organizations, including in the public sector. In July 2021, it raised a US$30 million Series B led by Protocol Labs and Metaplanet.[^element2021]

## Is Fluxer more private than Matrix (Element)?

Fluxer shows no ads, doesn't sell, rent or license your messages or other personal data, uses no third-party analytics or browser fingerprinting and [never uses your content to train AI models](https://fluxer.com/help/tracking.md). The [matrix.org privacy notice](https://matrix.org/legal/privacy-notice/) says the Foundation doesn't profile users.

Fluxer counts sign-ups and active accounts from [its own records](https://fluxer.com/help/tracking.md), without using message content. The Foundation uses Plausible for its website and PostHog for aggregate account analytics, both without cookies, and it keeps the PostHog data in the EU.

In Matrix, a copy of each room goes to every homeserver with someone in the room, and in an encrypted room those servers store the messages encrypted. The same notice says matrix.org can't guarantee that other homeservers forget your data. When you deactivate a matrix.org account, messages that only your account could see are deleted within 30 days, and messages you shared stay in other people's copies.

Element's [features page](https://element.io/features) says conversations have default end-to-end encryption, and [Element Call](https://element.io/blog/end-to-end-encrypted-voice-and-video-for-self-hosted-community-users/) encrypts calls end to end. Fluxer plans end-to-end encryption with no setting to turn it off, for calls in 2026 and for DMs and group DMs with a stable release in 2027. Until encrypted calls are out, [nothing on Fluxer is end-to-end encrypted](https://fluxer.com/help/is-fluxer-end-to-end-encrypted.md).

Fluxer is a Swedish company, and we're moving fluxer.com's stored data from [US hosting](https://fluxer.com/help/is-fluxer-hosted-in-europe.md) to [our own hardware in Sweden](https://fluxer.com/help/servers-in-sweden.md), with a provider that Mullvad VPN also uses. A government outside the EU can't enforce an order for data against Fluxer Platform AB without [going through Swedish authorities](https://fluxer.com/help/foreign-government-requests.md). Until the move, which has no date set yet, US authorities can also send orders directly to our US hosting provider, as [our CLOUD Act article](https://fluxer.com/help/cloud-act.md) explains.

You can use fluxer.com from age 13, or from the higher age that some countries set, such as 16 in Germany, as [our minimum age page](https://fluxer.com/help/minimum-age.md) lists. The [matrix.org terms](https://matrix.org/legal/terms-and-conditions/) say you must be 18 or older, and other Matrix homeservers set their own rules. In [February 2026](https://matrix.org/blog/2026/02/welcome-discord/), the Foundation wrote that it's looking at privacy-preserving ways to check age where the law requires more than a self-declaration, such as paying for Premium with a card.

Fluxer asks only for your date of birth and [never asks for ID, selfies or face scans](https://fluxer.com/help/age-verification.md), and where a law demands more, Fluxer [restricts access in that region](https://fluxer.com/help/age-verification.md).

## Can you self-host Fluxer and Matrix (Element)?

Yes, and both use the AGPL. Fluxer is under [AGPL 3.0 or later with no CLA](https://fluxer.com/help/open-source.md), and Element moved Synapse, the main Matrix homeserver, to AGPL 3.0 or later in 2023. Synapse contributors sign a [CLA based on Apache's](https://element.io/blog/element-to-adopt-agplv3/), which lets Element also offer Synapse under a commercial license to organizations that don't want to use it under the AGPL.

Self-hosting Fluxer is free with no license key, and its setup tool rexctl installs it with one command. rexctl also upgrades and backs up your instance, and it makes a backup before each upgrade by default. You need a 64-bit Linux, macOS or Windows machine with at least 4 GB of memory and a domain name, as [the self-hosting guide](https://fluxer.com/help/self-hosting-fluxer.md) explains.

Synapse and Element Web are open source, and anyone can run them on their own server for free with no user limit. Element also packages them as Element Server Suite, with a free AGPL Community edition that its [pricing page](https://element.io/pricing) aims at "non-professional deployments and evaluations" of up to 100 users, and paid Enterprise and Sovereign editions.

Element's [ESS Community guide](https://github.com/element-hq/ess-helm#readme) says that 100 users is a guide and not a hard limit, and that the edition installs with Helm charts on a Kubernetes cluster.

On a self-hosted Fluxer instance, every account gets Plutonium's features and higher limits by default. Admins can change those limits, or give premium only to accounts with a subscription or gift code and [sell subscriptions with their own payment account](https://fluxer.com/help/is-self-hosting-free.md).

Element Call on a self-hosted Matrix server needs a separate MatrixRTC backend that uses LiveKit. As of November 2026, Element's pricing page says its free Community edition includes Element Call, and people who run Synapse without Element Server Suite can add the backend themselves, as Element [explained in April 2025](https://element.io/blog/end-to-end-encrypted-voice-and-video-for-self-hosted-community-users/).

## Does Matrix have voice channels and custom emoji like Fluxer?

The Matrix.org Foundation wrote in [February 2026](https://matrix.org/blog/2026/02/welcome-discord/) that "none of the Matrix clients available today provide a full drop-in replacement for Discord yet". It said Element has had to focus on public sector work, and it listed voice channels, push-to-talk, custom emoji and richer hierarchical moderation among the features that haven't been prioritized yet.

It also said apps like Cinny or Commet may feel much closer to Discord. [Cinny](https://github.com/cinnyapp/cinny) can now create voice rooms and has custom emoji and sticker packs.

On Fluxer, [every voice channel has its own text chat](https://fluxer.com/help/voice-and-video.md), and each community can have up to 500 custom emoji and 500 stickers. Fluxer also has [threads and forums](https://fluxer.com/help/threads-and-forums.md) in early beta.

Fluxer can [import a Discord server template](https://fluxer.com/help/import-discord-server-template.md), which brings over your channels, your roles and the permissions of each role. Its API is compatible with large parts of Discord's, and many Discord bots that use prefix commands [can be ported with small changes](https://fluxer.com/help/discord-bots-on-fluxer.md).

Fluxer communities have an audit log, timeouts, timed bans, "Pause invites", verification levels and slowmode, and a community can require moderators to use two-factor authentication, as [our moderation tools article](https://fluxer.com/help/automod.md) lists. Fluxer has no built-in AutoMod or word filter, and many communities add a moderation bot instead.

Element has [threads and polls](https://element.io/app) and [Spaces for grouping rooms](https://element.io/features), and Matrix has [bridges to other chat networks](https://matrix.org/ecosystem/bridges/). Fluxer has no polls and [no official bridges](https://fluxer.com/help/is-fluxer-based-on-matrix.md).

## Which has better apps, Fluxer or Element?

Element's [download page](https://element.io/download) lists apps on the App Store, Google Play and F-Droid, desktop apps for Mac, Windows and Linux and a web app. As of November 2026, its main mobile app is Element X, and it also has Element PRO for workplaces. Element says support for the older Classic Element mobile apps [ends at the end of December 2026](https://docs.element.io/latest/element-server-suite-pro/migration/).

Fluxer has a web app and desktop apps for Windows, macOS and Linux, and its [iOS and Android apps](https://fluxer.com/help/apps.md) are native and open source. Fluxer's [TestFlight beta for iOS is on hold for now](https://fluxer.com/help/ios-testflight.md), and we expect Fluxer to be on the App Store in early November 2026. On Android, Fluxer is in the Google Play beta. The official apps [connect to any instance](https://fluxer.com/help/self-hosting-fluxer.md).

## Is Fluxer as stable as Matrix (Element)?

Matrix has been around much longer than Fluxer. Its [first public release](https://matrix.org/blog/2014/09/03/hello-world/) was in September 2014, more than 11 years before fluxer.com opened to everyone in January 2026.

fluxer.com opened to everyone in January 2026 and [had outages in February 2026](https://fluxer.com/help/stability.md), when more than 100,000 accounts were created in 16 days and it still ran on a single server. Since then it has been stable, apart from short disruptions during denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on our network or problems with our hosting, as [our stability page](https://fluxer.com/help/stability.md) says, and [fluxerstatus.com](https://fluxerstatus.com) shows the current status. fluxer.com has [no uptime guarantee](https://fluxer.com/help/stability.md).

In September 2025, [a database failure](https://matrix.org/blog/2025/10/post-mortem/) kept the matrix.org homeserver offline for about 24 hours without losing any data, and [self-hosted Matrix servers kept working](https://www.heise.de/en/news/Matrix-main-server-down-millions-of-users-affected-10630524.html).

## What makes Fluxer different from Matrix (Element)?

Fluxer is built around Discord-style communities, with voice channels, custom emoji and stickers, [threads and forums](https://fluxer.com/help/threads-and-forums.md) in early beta and an API that is compatible with large parts of Discord's. Forum channels will get an optional [public web mode](https://fluxer.com/blog/roadmap-2026.md) that anyone can read without an account, with an experimental draft planned before the end of 2026.

Self-hosting Fluxer is free, and the official desktop and Android apps connect to your instance. On a self-hosted instance, [Fluxer has none of its messages, files or accounts](https://fluxer.com/help/self-hosted-instance-privacy.md).

When [federation](https://fluxer.com/blog/roadmap-2026.md) comes, the plan is that a community's messages are stored only on the instance that hosts it, which has [trade-offs](https://fluxer.com/help/is-fluxer-based-on-matrix.md), and that you can move your account to another instance. The Matrix.org Foundation wrote in [February 2026](https://matrix.org/blog/2026/02/welcome-discord/) that it's also working on account portability, which would let you move a Matrix account to another server.

You can [export your account's data](https://fluxer.com/help/data-export.md) yourself at any time with "Export my data" and delete your own messages in bulk with ["Delete my messages"](https://fluxer.com/help/auto-delete-messages.md) under "Privacy" in "User settings". Fluxer has [no outside investors](https://fluxer.com/help/who-runs-fluxer.md), and fluxer.com is paid for by Plutonium, donations and the optional [Operator Pass](https://fluxer.com/help/operator-pass.md), a one-time purchase you never need to self-host.

## Where is Matrix (Element) ahead of Fluxer?

Element has end-to-end encryption by default in DMs, private rooms and calls, and the servers that store an encrypted room can't read its messages. Fluxer plans it for calls in 2026 and for DMs and group DMs with a stable release in 2027, and until encrypted calls are out, [nothing on Fluxer is end-to-end encrypted](https://fluxer.com/help/is-fluxer-end-to-end-encrypted.md). One Matrix account can join rooms on any Matrix server, and Fluxer's [federation](https://fluxer.com/help/federation.md) has a stable release planned for 2027.

Element's mobile apps are in the App Store and Google Play, and Matrix has a [public specification](https://spec.matrix.org/latest/client-server-api/) with many independent apps and [bridges](https://matrix.org/ecosystem/bridges/) to other chat networks.

## How do I try Fluxer?

You can [download Fluxer](https://fluxer.com/download) or open [fluxer.com](https://fluxer.com/app) in your browser and make a free account. If you want to run Fluxer on your own machine, start with [self-hosting Fluxer](https://fluxer.com/help/self-hosting-fluxer.md). When your community is on Discord, [moving a community from Discord](https://fluxer.com/help/move-from-discord.md) explains what comes over, and [why Fluxer isn't based on Matrix](https://fluxer.com/help/is-fluxer-based-on-matrix.md) explains the plan for federation.

## Sources

[^matrix-foundation]: [Introducing the Matrix.org Foundation (Part 1 of 2)](https://matrix.org/blog/2018/10/29/introducing-the-matrix-org-foundation-part-1-of-2/), Matrix.org, 2018-10-29, accessed 2026-11-02.
[^matrix-report]: [The first Public Annual Report is out!](https://matrix.org/blog/2026/03/annual-report/), Matrix.org, 2026-03-27, accessed 2026-11-02.
[^element2021]: [Element raises $30M to boost Matrix](https://matrix.org/blog/2021/07/27/element-raises-30m-to-boost-matrix/), Matrix.org, 2021-07-27, accessed 2026-11-02.

---

Canonical page: https://fluxer.com/help/fluxer-vs-matrix

Last updated on November 2, 2026