Stoat
by Stoat · Open-source group chat for friends and communities
BenchRank score
Screenshots of Stoat
Homepage
Overview
Stoat is an open-source group chat app with servers, channels, voice chat, file sharing and markdown support. Communities are run with role-based permissions, moderation tools and bots, and accounts and settings sync across Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS and the web. A public API powers the official apps and is open to bots and custom clients, and servers can be self-hosted.
- Best for
- Friends and online communities wanting a self-hostable, open-source group chat app
- Pricing
- No prices are shown on the captured page; the app is described as free and open source, with custom emojis, animated avatars, profile banners and a 20MB upload limit available without a subscription.
- Runs on
- AndroidmacOSWindows
Strengths and trade-offs
Strengths
- Open source, and you can run your own server for free
- No ads and no data mining; short, readable privacy policy
- Apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS and the web
- Custom emojis, themes and profile banners with no subscription
Trade-offs
- File uploads are capped at 20MB
- Group DMs are limited to 50 members
- Support runs through an open issue tracker and community server
- No pricing page captured, so any paid options are unclear
How Stoat markets itself
A structured read of the promise, proof and page design on Stoat’s captured homepage.
Homepage capture
“Find your community.”
- Angle: Contrarian / anti-incumbent
- Hero: Product screenshot
Pricing
Published plans and prices from Stoat’s own pricing page.
How this score is made up
Each dimension is scored out of 100 and combined into the headline score using fixed weights.
MCP support
Whether an agent can drive the product through the Model Context Protocol, and how much setup that takes.
API quality
Public API surface: machine-readable spec, official SDKs, documented auth, errors, rate limits and versioning.
Documentation
Publicly reachable docs — coverage, freshness, code samples and machine readability.
Agent friendliness
How readable the site is to an automated client: llms.txt, structured data, server-rendered content, crawler access.
Changelog
A public, dated record of what shipped and when — the clearest signal that a product is still alive.
Marketing site structure
Whether the site answers a buyer's questions: clear positioning, the pages that matter, and accessibility.
Page speed
How fast the site loads for real visitors: Chrome UX Report 75th-percentile LCP, INP and CLS, with a Lighthouse mobile run standing in where a site has too little traffic for field data.
Operational trust
Status page and incident history, security disclosure, compliance and data-processing documentation.
Measured, but not part of the score
Useful to know, but not a mark for or against the product — so these do not affect the ranking.
Openness
Source availability, self-hosting, data export and open standards. Scored and shown, but not part of the composite — paid SaaS is not worse for being paid SaaS.
Maintenance
Release cadence and repository activity. Scored and shown, but not part of the composite — it is only measurable for open repositories.
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Where this comes from
The Stoat pages BenchRank reads when it scores the product — its documentation, release notes, status and security pages, and its repository where there is one.
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Is this your product?
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