Fluxer and Mumble are both free and open source, and you can run either one on your own machine. Fluxer keeps text chat history with search and has video calls and screen sharing, and fluxer.com works in your browser with nothing to run yourself. Mumble is a voice chat app that has been around since 2005 and is built for clear, low-latency voice.
How do Fluxer and Mumble compare at a glance?
The table below compares Fluxer with Mumble as of November 2026, and Mumble's details come from its own website, its GitHub repository and Wikipedia.
| Fluxer | Mumble | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, with an optional Plutonium subscription | Free and open source, with no paid version |
| License | AGPL 3.0 or later | BSD 3-Clause |
| Hosted service | fluxer.com, or your own instance | No official hosted service. You run or rent a server, or join a public one from Mumble's public server list |
| Text chat history | Kept until you delete it | Not saved on the server, and you miss messages sent while you're away |
| Video and screen sharing | Not in any release | |
| File uploads | Up to 25 MB per file on a free account, with up to 10 files in one message | Images inside text messages, and file transfer is an open feature request |
| Web app | Yes, at fluxer.com | None listed on its downloads page |
| Mobile apps | iOS coming to the App Store in early November 2026 (TestFlight on hold for now), and an Android beta on Google Play | Official iOS app, last updated in 2017, and Android apps from other developers such as Mumla |
| First release | Public beta since January 2026 | 2005 |
Is Fluxer free like Mumble?
Yes. An account on fluxer.com is free, and so are communities, messages, voice and video calls, screen sharing and running your own instance. Plutonium is optional and raises the limits on your own account, for example screen sharing up to 4K at 60 fps where free accounts get up to 720p at 30 fps outside peer-to-peer calls.
On your own Fluxer instance, every account has Plutonium's features and higher limits by default, and you can change those limits as the admin of the instance.
The Mumble software is free, and there's no paid version of it. You can run your own Mumble server or Fluxer instance on a computer you already have or on a server you rent, and a Fluxer instance also needs a domain name that points to it.
Who makes Mumble?
Mumble is open source and built by volunteer developers from several countries.1 Its sponsors give it services like a CDN, build machines and a password manager.2
Can you self-host Fluxer like Mumble?
Yes. Self-hosting Fluxer is free, with no license key, paid tier or reduced edition, and the setup tool rexctl installs it with one command and 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, and the self-hosting guide has the details.
The official Fluxer apps connect to any instance by its address. Mumble's server, mumble-server, has official builds for Windows and macOS and comes from distribution packages on Linux, and Mumble's website says it has a low resource cost for hosting.
On your own instance, rexctl can add voice servers on other machines and in other regions, which puts calls closer to the people in them and spreads them over more hardware. Running one Mumble server across several machines is an open feature request.
Is Fluxer more private than Mumble?
When you use Mumble, your data goes to the server you connect to, and Mumble's privacy page points you to that server provider's privacy policy. Mumble always encrypts the connection between your app and the server and uses key-based sign-in by default.
On fluxer.com, Fluxer has no ads, no third-party analytics, no browser fingerprinting and no data sales, and it never uses your content to train AI models. Fluxer encrypts messages, files and calls in transit, and your data is encrypted on our servers and in backups.
Because nothing on Fluxer is end-to-end encrypted yet, fluxer.com's servers can access your messages and calls when they deliver them, and they store your messages, as our encryption article explains. Mumble's server software doesn't store text chat history. On a self-hosted Fluxer instance, Fluxer has none of its messages, files or accounts.
End-to-end encryption is planned for Fluxer with no setting to turn it off, for calls in 2026 and for DMs and group DMs as an experimental draft in 2026 and a stable release in 2027. Until encrypted calls are out, nothing on Fluxer is end-to-end encrypted.
Fluxer is a Swedish company, and we're moving fluxer.com's stored data from US hosting to our own hardware in Sweden, 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. 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 explains.
What can Fluxer do that Mumble can't?
Fluxer keeps your messages, with message search and file uploads, and has video calls, screen sharing with audio in the desktop app, threads and forums in early beta and custom emoji. Fluxer bots use an API compatible with large parts of Discord's, and Mumble server admins can run bots and scripts that connect to the server or use its Ice interface.
On fluxer.com, a free account can upload files of up to 25 MB each, with up to 10 files in one message, and self-hosted admins set their own limits. Mumble can show images inside a text message, and sharing files in a channel is an open feature request.
Mumble doesn't save chat history on the server. In February 2026, one of its maintainers said they were positive about persistent chat and called it "a huge undertaking" that isn't at the top of their priority list right now. Video and screen sharing for Mumble are in an open draft pull request from a contributor, and they aren't in any release yet.
How do Fluxer's apps compare with Mumble's?
Fluxer works in your web browser at fluxer.com and has desktop apps for Windows, macOS and Linux. Its iOS TestFlight beta is on hold for now, and we expect the app on the App Store in early November 2026. Android is in the Google Play beta. Mumble's downloads page lists desktop apps for Windows, macOS and Linux and no web app. It says the official iOS app hasn't been updated since 2017, and it lists Android apps made by others.
Your Fluxer account works on any device where you sign in with your email, and "Forgot your password?" emails you a reset link. Mumble identifies you to servers with a certificate on your computer. Its certificate wizard can export it for use on another computer, and it asks you to keep a backup, because without one you "will no longer be able to authenticate to any server you are registered on" after a reinstall or a hardware failure.
Is Fluxer as stable as Mumble?
Mumble has had about two decades of releases. Its latest stable version, 1.5.939, came out in October 2026, and a 1.6 release candidate is in testing. fluxer.com opened as a public beta in January 2026 and had outages in February while it ran on a single server.
fluxer.com has been stable for months, but short disruptions still happen sometimes during denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on our network or problems with our hosting. We're working toward excellent uptime in 2027, and moving to our own hardware and network in Sweden is how we aim to remove most of those disruptions. You can check its current status at fluxerstatus.com. fluxer.com has no uptime guarantee.
What makes Fluxer different from Mumble?
Fluxer is a full chat app for communities, with text channels, threads and forums in early beta, custom emoji and role icons. Forum channels will get an optional public web mode with an experimental draft planned before the end of 2026.
You can use fluxer.com or run your own instance for free, and the official desktop, Android and iOS apps connect to both. Optional federation is planned with a stable release in 2027, including a way to move your account to another instance. Neither exists yet.
You can export your data yourself at any time with "Export my data" and delete your own messages in bulk with "Delete my messages" under "Privacy" in "User settings".
Where is Mumble ahead of Fluxer?
Mumble is the better pick if your group mostly wants voice and cares most about low latency, which Mumble is built around. Its website also says people record podcasts with its multi-channel audio recorder. It has positional audio and an in-game overlay for games, and Fluxer has neither of them today. Mumble's detailed permission system is built for setups such as two separate groups whose leaders can talk to both groups.
Mumble's BSD license is also more permissive than Fluxer's AGPL. You don't need an account with the Mumble project to use it, and fluxer.com needs a Fluxer account.
How do I try Fluxer?
You can download Fluxer or open fluxer.com in your browser and make a free account. If you want to run it yourself, start with self-hosting Fluxer. When your group is also on Discord, you can import a Discord server template to bring its channels, roles and permissions over, and moving a community from Discord explains what comes over.
Sources
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About Mumble, Mumble project, accessed 2026-11-02.
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Mumble sponsors, Mumble project, accessed 2026-11-02.