[ 01 ] lightweight voice
Mumble
Open source, low latency, positional audio, ~20 MB RAM at idle. The pick for serious gaming and ops comms where you want the lightest thing that just works.
self hosted voice & chat
Ditch Discord.
Ditch Discord.
Run your own voice server.
A VPS and ten minutes gets you a Mumble or TeamSpeak server you actually own. No data harvesting, no Electron bloat, no account bans, no outages. Just crystal clear voice that stays up because you control it.
pick your weapon
Three servers. Zero middlemen.
Every alternative on this site runs on a VPS you rent and control. No lock in, no subscription, no company reading your channels. Self hosting is the whole point. Pick the shape that fits your group.
[ 02 ] classic community server
TeamSpeak 3
The server browser era vibe. Channels, permissions, file transfer, query interface. Lighter than Mumble in some ways and used by clans for nearly two decades.
[ 03 ] Discord shaped, self hosted
TeamSpeak 6
The new client. Channels and categories, text chat, friends list, voice. Discord's layout, except it lives on your server. Heavier than Mumble, full community platform.
tl;dr
Self hosting beats Discord on the stuff that actually matters.
Discord is convenient. It is also a closed, for profit US platform that scans your channels, ships its own locked down client, and can nuke your community overnight. Self hosting flips all of that.
You own it
No ToS clause that hands your community to a third party. The box is yours. The data is yours. The uptime is yours.
No data harvesting
No telemetry firehose to a US data center. Your voice and chat stay between you and the people you invited.
Lowest latency
Pick a VPS next to your players. Mumble and TS hit sub 30 ms where Discord routes you through whoever its edge picks that day.
Any client you like
Open protocols and open clients. Mumble has a dozen clients across desktop and mobile. No Electron, no forced update that breaks your setup.
Full control
Granular permissions, custom channels, links to your site, whitelists, recording, whatever. Nothing is behind a "Nitro" paywall.
Dirt cheap
A VPS that runs all three servers costs less than a single Discord Nitro sub. One Contabo or Kamatera box for the whole community.
side by side
How they actually compare
No marketing fluff. The real differences that change which one you pick.
| Feature | Discord | Mumble | TeamSpeak 3 | TeamSpeak 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self hosted | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Own your data | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Voice latency | med | very low | very low | low |
| Text chat | yes | basic | basic | yes |
| Categories / channels | yes | tree | tree | yes |
| Friends / presence | yes | no | manual | yes |
| Server RAM at idle | >300 MB | ~20 MB | ~40 MB | ~120 MB |
| Open source server | no | yes | no | no |
| Open source clients | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Account bans affect you | yes | no | no | no |
| Fits on a $5 VPS | n/a | yes | yes | tight |
where to run it
Two VPS hosts worth your money
You do not need anything fancy. A basic Linux box with 1 GB of RAM runs Mumble or TeamSpeak 3 with room to spare. These two are the picks I use.
Contabo
Best price per GB on the market. Loads of RAM for big communities and multiple servers on one box.
vCPU4
RAM6 GB
Storage400 GB NVMe
From$6/mo
Kamatera
Hourly billing, 13 data centers, custom configs. Great when you want a tiny box or a region close to your players.
vCPU1+
RAM1 GB+
StorageSSD / NVMe
From$4/mo
Disclosure: the host links above are affiliate referrals. They cost you nothing and keep this site running.