Self-Hosted Voice & Chat — Now Available

Your Server.
Your Rules.

Run your own private voice and text chat server on your hardware. License a Phonation server, deploy it wherever you want, and keep full ownership of your data.

Acme Corp
Text Channels
# general
# engineering
# design
Voice Channels
🔊 Team Standup
🔊 Dev Room
Sarah Chen
Just deployed the new build to staging 🚀
Marcus Rivera
Looking good! The latency improvements are noticeable
Alex Kim
Hop on the Dev Room voice channel when you're free — let's go over the API changes
Type a message...
Online — 5
Sarah Chen
Marcus Rivera
Alex Kim
Jordan Lee
Taylor Nguyen
Self-
Hosted
Run Anywhere You Want
<50ms
Voice Latency (Opus/WebRTC)
0
Data Sent to Third Parties
100%
Your Data, Your Control

Join the Community

Follow our official Bluesky account for development updates, patch notes, and behind-the-scenes engineering deep dives.

Follow @phonationvoice

Everything Your Team Needs

Built from the ground up for teams that value privacy, performance, and simplicity.

🎙

Crystal-Clear Voice

Opus codec with WebRTC for ultra-low latency voice chat. Voice activation or push-to-talk — your choice.

💬

Rich Text Chat

File sharing, image paste, message editing, pinned messages, and full message history with configurable retention.

🔒

End-to-End Privacy

Your server, your data. No analytics, no tracking, no third-party access. HTTPS everywhere with TLS 1.3.

👥

Role-Based Access

Granular permissions with custom roles. Control who can create channels, upload files, manage users, and more.

📱

Desktop & Web Client

Native Windows app plus a web client that works in any browser. Connect from anywhere, on any device.

Self-Hosted Freedom

Run Phonation on your own hardware — a home server, a VPS, or bare metal. You control where your server lives and who can access it.

Built Secure from Day One

No shortcuts. No afterthoughts. Security is baked into every layer of the stack.

🛡️

Your data never leaves your server

Unlike Discord, Slack, or Teams — there is no central server reading your messages. Each Phonation instance is completely isolated. We can't see your data even if we wanted to.

🔐

TLS 1.3 Encryption

All traffic is encrypted in transit with the latest TLS 1.3 protocol. WebSocket connections, API calls, file transfers — everything is encrypted end-to-end between client and server.

🏗️

Self-Hosted Isolation

Your server runs on your infrastructure with its own storage. No shared databases, no cross-tenant access. Your data never touches anyone else's system.

🔑

Argon2id Password Hashing

Passwords are hashed with Argon2id — the winner of the Password Hashing Competition and the gold standard for resistance against GPU and ASIC brute-force attacks.

👮

Role-Based Access Control

Granular permissions with custom roles. Control who can create channels, upload files, manage users, mute others, and access admin settings. No all-or-nothing access.

🚦

Flood & DDoS Protection

Built-in rate limiting prevents message spam and connection floods. Configurable thresholds and cooldowns protect your server from abuse without impacting legitimate users.

📋

Enforced Password Policies

Require minimum length, uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and special characters. Set policies that match your organization's security requirements.

🎫

Secure Session Tokens

Cryptographically random session tokens with automatic expiry. Sessions persist across page refreshes but expire after inactivity, preventing session hijacking.

🚫

Zero Telemetry

No usage tracking, no crash reporters, no analytics. The server runs self-contained. The only external connections the server makes are to securely validate your license (if one is installed) and to check for optional software updates.

0
Third-party trackers
0
Analytics scripts
0
Ad networks
0
Data shared externally

Up and Running in 3 Steps

Get your own Phonation server running in minutes, no DevOps experience needed.

1

Purchase a License

Create an account and choose a plan based on how many users you need. Your license file is ready to download immediately after payment.

2

Download & Deploy

Download the Phonation server, drop in your license.key and public key, and start the server. Available as a standalone executable — no runtime required.

3

Invite Your Team

Share the server address with your team. They connect using the desktop app or web client. You're in full control — always.

Get Phonation

Download the standalone server to host your own, and the desktop client to connect to communities. Servers are free up to 12 slots without a license.

💻

Desktop Client

Connect to any community-hosted server and chat with your friends.

Windows (.exe) Linux (.tar.gz) (Experimental)

Standalone Server

Host your own fully-featured voice network. Requires no runtime installation.

Windows (.zip) Linux (.tar.gz) (Experimental)

Simple License Pricing

Every license includes every feature — voice, text, file sharing, and more. Pick the number of user slots your team needs.

Free
$0/forever
No license required
  • 12 user slots
  • Voice & text channels
  • File sharing
  • TLS 1.3 encryption
Download Now
Small
$9/mo
$0.60 per slot · Growing teams
  • 15 user slots
  • Voice & text channels
  • File sharing
  • TLS 1.3 encryption
  • Heartbeat validation
Get Started
Large
$22/mo
$0.44 per slot · Organizations
  • 50 user slots
  • Voice & text channels
  • File sharing
  • TLS 1.3 encryption
  • Heartbeat validation
  • Priority support
Get Started
Enterprise
$38/mo
$0.38 per slot · Large teams
  • 100 user slots
  • Voice & text channels
  • File sharing
  • TLS 1.3 encryption
  • Heartbeat validation
  • Priority support
Get Started

💡 Self-hosted = no surprise costs

Unlike hosted solutions that charge for bandwidth and storage, your Phonation license covers everything. Host it on hardware you already own — your only cost is the license (or use our 12-slot limit completely free forever).

What's New

Recent updates and improvements to Phonation.

2026-04-25

v0.5.67 Feature Update

  • Unlicensed Slot Limit Increase: The default, unlicensed server limit has been raised from 8 slots to 12 slots.
  • Website Updates: The main landing page and pricing tiers have been updated to reflect the new 12-slot free tier. The obsolete Starter tier (10 slots) has been removed.
2026-04-12

v0.5.66 Major Feature Update

  • Friends System: Send requests, accept/decline, and manage your friends list entirely within the client. Your list and pending requests are globally synced.
  • Direct Message Privacy: New security toggle to strictly restrict incoming Direct Messages to recognized friends. Unsolicited DMs are blocked with rate-limit protections applied.
2026-04-03

v0.5.58 Feature Update

  • Slash Command Autocomplete: Type / in the chat box to instantly view and navigate available slash commands (like /me, /spoiler). Use arrow keys to select, and Enter or Tab to auto-complete.
  • UI Polish: Right-click context menus (Messages, Users, Channels) now dynamically calculate their coordinates to prevent rendering off-screen.
2026-04-03

v0.5.57 Security Hotfix

  • Impersonation Vulnerability Patched: Fixed a critical privilege escalation flaw in the message handling system. Message edits and deletions now strictly verify authorization against permanent account System IDs, preventing attackers from spoofing their identities to mutate innocent users' chat history.
  • Desktop Client Polish: The Linux and Windows desktop clients no longer automatically open the developer tools panel on startup.
2026-03-17

v0.5.0 Major Feature Release

  • /me Action Command: Type /me does something to display action text inline with your username.
  • /spoiler Command: Hide text or images behind a "Click to reveal spoiler" overlay.
  • Code Blocks: Triple backticks now render auto-highlighted code blocks securely.
  • Security Hardening: Added AES-256-GCM session encryption at rest, account lockouts for brute force protection, and strict CSP headers.

Common Questions

Everything you need to know about Phonation licenses.

What do I need to run Phonation?

Just a Windows, or Linux machine. Phonation ships as a standalone executable — no Node.js or other runtimes needed. Download it, drop in your license files, and run it.

What does the license control?

Your license file sets the maximum number of concurrent users (slots) on your server. Every feature is included in every plan — there are no feature tiers.

How is the license validated?

Your server contacts our heartbeat server every 6 hours to confirm the license is valid and paid. If it can't reach the heartbeat server temporarily, it continues running with a grace period.

Can I upgrade or downgrade?

Yes. Change plans anytime from your portal dashboard. You'll get a new license file with updated slot limits. Downgrades take effect at the end of your billing cycle.

What happens if I cancel?

Your license remains valid until the end of the current billing period. After that, the server will stop accepting new connections until a valid license is provided.

Do you host the server for me?

Not yet — Phonation is currently self-hosted only. We're planning a managed hosting option for teams who want a fully hands-off experience. Stay tuned!

Ready to own your
team's communication?

Get your license today and run a private, secure voice and text server — on your terms.

Get Your License