What is Flotilla?

Part of our guide to running an online community you actually own.

Flotilla is a platform for building and running online communities — chat, voice, video, threads, and events, all in one place. Think of it as an alternative to Discord or Slack, with one important difference: the community you build is one you truly own, and nobody can take it away from you.

It’s built on the open Nostr protocol, which makes a few things possible that ordinary platforms can’t offer:

• Run your community on your own server, or on any hosting provider you choose.
• Set your own moderation policies, roles, access controls, and integrations.
• Let members own their identity, so they can move between communities — or even to another app — without losing their people or their history.

You don’t need to understand any of that to use Flotilla. It’s designed to feel familiar from the first minute, even if you’ve never heard of a relay or a cryptographic key.

Why we built it

Most social and community platforms make their money by holding your attention and selling it. The feed is tuned to keep you scrolling, your data is the product, and the company owns your account, your members, and the off switch. That arrangement works right up until the rules change or the doors close — and then there’s nowhere to take your community.

We think it should work the other way around. Flotilla is built for real communities — the group chats, clubs, congregations, and teams where people actually know each other — not for manufacturing engagement. There are no ads and no surveillance, and no single set of values handed down from above: every community sets its own rules and shapes its own space.

Owning your community is what keeps those incentives honest. Because your identity and your data aren’t locked to Flotilla, you’re never trapped here. If we ever stop serving you well, you can leave and bring your people with you. That freedom to walk away is the point — it means we have to keep earning your trust rather than simply keeping you captive.

Ready to see it in action? Learn how to run a community of your own, or get started in a few minutes.