FAQ & Troubleshooting

Quick answers to the things people ask most, and fixes for the few things that can trip you up.

General

How is Garrison different from Discord?

Three things: it's featherweight (a native app that idles around ~15 MB of RAM, not a browser engine eating your frames), it's self-hosted and private (your data on your box, no telemetry, real end-to-end encryption), and the guild toolkit is built in (ranks, a raid scheduler, granular permissions) instead of stitched together from bots.

Do I have to self-host it?

No. You can use the hosted web app, or join a server someone else runs. Self-hosting is there for guilds who want full ownership of their data, and it's a single command. See Self-Hosting.

Is it free?

Garrison is free for up to 100 users, forever, with no subscription and no per-seat fees, and a free instance phones home nothing. Self-hosting the software is always free, your only cost is the box it runs on. Communities that grow past 100 users will have paid tiers, see Pricing & tiers below.

What platforms are supported?

Web (any modern browser), a native Windows desktop app, and an Android APK. iOS is on the roadmap. See Getting Started.

Is it really end-to-end encrypted?

Yes, channels you mark encrypted use real MLS group encryption, and the server only ever stores ciphertext it can't read. Normal channels and DMs aren't E2E-encrypted (they're protected by TLS in transit and live on your own server). Full details on the Security & Encryption page.

Can I move my community over from somewhere else?

You can set up your servers, channels, roles, and the rank ladder in minutes and invite your members. There's no automated message import, communities typically start fresh and bring their people across.

Pricing & tiers

The first 100 users are always free

Every Garrison instance runs free for up to 100 user accounts, permanently. No card, no subscription, no per-seat fees, and a free instance makes no network calls home at all, no activation, no telemetry, and gamer sign-ups stay email-optional (no personal data collected).

Larger communities: paid tiers (coming)

To run an instance with more than 100 users, you'll buy a license key that raises the user cap, with tiers scaling by the number of users your instance supports. The specific tiers and pricing will be listed here once they're finalized, the 100-user free tier is staying free regardless.

How it will work once implemented

• Self-hosted, online-activated. You enter your license key, your instance activates with the Garrison license server, then quietly checks in about once a day to stay valid.
• Outages never break your chat. Activation carries a grace window, so if the license server is ever unreachable, your instance keeps running normally, your community never depends on us being up.
• We never lock out your members. If an instance ends up over its cap (say a license lapses), everyone already using it keeps working; only new sign-ups pause until you're back under the cap or renew. A paying community is never held hostage.
• Free stays private. Leave the key blank and nothing changes, no activation, no check-ins, nothing leaves your server. The phone-home only exists for paid, licensed instances.

Using the app

How do updates work?

The desktop app auto-updates: it checks on launch, downloads the signed update, and installs it. The web app is always current. For Android, install the newer APK over the old one. If you self-host, upgrade the server by re-running the installer (details).

Can push-to-talk work while I'm in a game?

Yes, but only in the desktop app, which uses a low-level keyboard hook so the key registers even in exclusive-fullscreen games. Browsers can't capture keys while another app is focused. Bind your key in Settings → Alerts.

Why can't the server search or translate my encrypted channel?

Because it can't read it, that's the point of end-to-end encryption. Translation in encrypted channels happens on your device instead, and search skips them entirely.

Troubleshooting

Voice connects but I can't hear / be heard

If you're self-hosting, this is almost always firewall/port-forwarding. LiveKit needs TCP 7881 and UDP 7882 reachable on the server, in addition to 80/443. Confirm those are open and forwarded to the box.

The site shows a certificate warning

On a LAN-only install the certificate is self-signed by a built-in CA, that warning is expected on a private network; trust it once. On a public install, make sure your domain has only the A/AAAA record pointing at your server (leftover parking/forwarding DNS records will break certificate issuance and serve the wrong page).

I'm seeing an old version of the page after an update

That's browser caching, not the server. Hard-refresh with Ctrl + F5. If a domain still resolves to an old address, clear your browser's DNS cache (e.g. chrome://net-internals/#dns → Clear host cache) and fully restart the browser.

I lost access to my two-factor device

Use one of the recovery codes you saved when enabling 2FA, each works once. If you've also lost those, a server owner/admin can help recover the account on a self-hosted instance.

I forgot my backup passphrase for encrypted channels

Encrypted history can't be recovered without your device keys or the backup passphrase, by design, nobody, including the server operator, can decrypt it for you. New messages going forward will work once you're back in the group; only the old encrypted history is unrecoverable.