Arcane earned its reputation on Discord servers because voice XP works on the free tier and the rank cards look sharp out of the box. The trouble starts once a community grows past a few hundred active members. Custom rank card backgrounds, faster command response, deeper analytics, and larger role-reward stacks all sit behind Arcane Premium at a per-server price, and the leveling curve on the free tier is rigid enough that admins running quieter niches or hyperactive hubs both hit its limits fast. The Arcane alternatives in this list keep the leveling experience readers signed up for and remove at least one of those walls, whether that means a fully free tier, a cheaper paid plan, or a self-hosted deployment nobody can pull.
Quick comparison
| Bot | Best for | Free tier | Voice XP on free | Self-hosted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lurkr | Fully free leveling with unlimited role rewards | Full | Yes | No |
| MEE6 | Multipurpose bot with the most polished dashboard | Capped | No | No |
| Tatsu | Cross-server profiles and a light economy layer | Full | No | No |
| AmariBot | Minimal, community-participation leveling | Full | Yes | No |
| ActivityRank | Deep activity stats alongside leveling | Full | Yes | No |
| ProBot | All-in-one leveling, welcome flows, and moderation | Partial | Yes | No |
| OpenPolaris | Self-hosted open-source leveling you fully control | Free code | Yes | Yes |
Why people leave Arcane
The most common complaint on Discord admin forums is the shape of Arcane Premium. Rank card customization, priority command response, deeper analytics, and larger role-reward stacks are Premium features, and the per-server pricing adds up quickly for anyone running more than one community. Owners who liked Arcane’s default rank cards but want branded backgrounds are effectively told to pay per server, not per user, which does not scale for network operators or growing brands.
The second reason is curve rigidity. Arcane’s XP formula on the free tier is fine for medium-sized general servers, but tighter niches want a slower curve so early members feel rewarded, and hyperactive gaming or trading hubs want the opposite. Custom curves are a Premium feature, and rebuilding a curve mid-season resets member expectations in ways that hurt retention.
The third reason is the free role-reward ceiling. Servers that want to gate more than a handful of tiers behind level thresholds run into the free-plan cap and pick a bot with no ceiling instead. Lurkr, Amari, and OpenPolaris are the usual landing spots.
Lurkr - Best fully free leveling replacement
Lurkr is the most direct Arcane replacement for teams that refuse to pay a per-server fee. Message XP, voice XP, a web leaderboard, rank cards, no-XP channels and roles, XP multipliers, and role rewards are all in the free tier, and the team has publicly committed to keeping core leveling out from behind any paywall. Role rewards are effectively unlimited, which is the single most common reason servers migrate from Arcane’s capped free plan.
Where it falls short. The ecosystem is smaller than MEE6’s or Arcane’s, so tutorials and community screenshots are thinner on the ground when a mod runs into a config question. The dashboard is functional but plainer than Arcane’s.
Pricing. Free tier covers the full leveling surface. An optional paid tier adds cosmetic upgrades and priority hosting; verify the current rate on the Lurkr site.
Migrating from Arcane. Rebuild your XP curve and role-reward table in Lurkr’s dashboard. Member XP does not port automatically between bots, so announce the reset with a schedule and a short amnesty period.
Download. Invite from lurkr.gg. Runs from the Discord desktop client on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Bottom line. The pick for any server that hit Arcane’s free-plan role-reward cap and does not want to pay to lift it.
MEE6 - Best multipurpose bot with a polished dashboard
MEE6 is the bot most Discord admins recognize on sight. Its dashboard is the most approachable in the category, the slash-command surface is well-documented, and the leveling module covers text XP, per-channel multipliers, welcome messages, and reaction roles inside one interface. For an admin who wants leveling to sit next to moderation and automod in the same UI, MEE6 remains the default.
Where it falls short. Voice XP is Premium-only. Custom XP curves, unlimited role rewards, and reaction role message expansion also require Premium, and the MEE6 Premium tier has drawn steady criticism for its per-server price point.
Pricing. Free tier available with capped features. MEE6 Premium unlocks voice XP, unlimited role rewards, and custom curves; check the current rate on the MEE6 site before committing since pricing has changed several times.
Migrating from Arcane. MEE6 vs Arcane on the free tier is close on messaging leveling but weaker on voice, so if voice is the reason your community engages, budget for MEE6 Premium or keep Arcane. Rebuild role thresholds in MEE6’s dashboard and communicate the switch to members.
Download. Invite from mee6.xyz. Runs from the Discord desktop client on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Bottom line. The right pick when the dashboard, ecosystem, and moderation stack matter more than free voice XP.
Tatsu - Best for social profiles and a light economy
Tatsu bundles leveling with cross-server profiles, badges, and a virtual economy where members earn and gift currency. The economy layer is the differentiator against Arcane: instead of only chasing a rank number, members build a profile they carry between servers, and gifting mechanics keep social loops active outside pure XP grinding.
Where it falls short. Voice XP sits behind the Supporter tier, and the economy layer becomes noise if all you want is level roles. The profile-first design is a distraction on servers that only care about role gating.
Pricing. Free tier includes full leveling and the base economy. Tatsu Supporter is a monthly subscription that adds voice XP and dashboard extras; confirm the current price on the Tatsu site.
Migrating from Arcane. Tatsu vs Arcane suits social communities better than gaming ones. Rebuild role thresholds first, then decide whether to activate the economy features so members do not encounter them mid-migration.
Download. Invite from tatsu.gg. Runs from the Discord desktop client on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Bottom line. Pick this for social servers where profiles and gifting are part of the culture, not for gaming hubs that just want XP.
AmariBot - Best minimalist community leveling
AmariBot grew inside communities that use activity-gated roles as their whole participation model. The bot stays deliberately lean: message XP, voice XP, rank cards, leaderboards, and role rewards, with granular control over which levels unlock which roles. Around 300,000 servers run it, and the reputation for staying focused on leveling rather than sprawling into other modules is the reason communities pick it.
Where it falls short. The dashboard is denser than MEE6’s and takes an afternoon to onboard a new mod. Fewer integrations than the larger multipurpose bots.
Pricing. Free tier covers full leveling including voice XP. An optional paid tier adds cosmetic and API extras; check the AmariBot site for the current price.
Migrating from Arcane. AmariBot vs Arcane is a close swap on the leveling surface, and Amari’s free plan avoids the role-reward ceiling. Rebuild your thresholds and multipliers, then export any existing rank cards you want to reference visually.
Download. Invite from amaribot.com. Runs from the Discord desktop client on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Bottom line. The pick for communities where activity gating is the whole point, and everything else is a distraction.
ActivityRank - Best for detailed activity stats
ActivityRank pairs a leveling system with the kind of server statistics tooling most admins used to run in a separate analytics bot. It tracks message velocity, voice minutes, per-channel activity, and role-reward triggers, and every stat is available inside the same dashboard as the level configuration. More than 100,000 servers use it, and the analytics surface is what pulls admins away from bots that only expose a rank command.
Where it falls short. The UI density that comes with the analytics is intimidating for a small server. Some admins prefer to keep leveling and analytics in separate bots for clarity.
Pricing. Free tier includes leveling, role rewards, and the core analytics dashboard. Optional paid tiers add longer stat history and additional customization; verify current pricing on the ActivityRank site.
Migrating from Arcane. ActivityRank vs Arcane trades polished rank card design for depth of insight. Rebuild your XP structure inside ActivityRank, then use the analytics to spot which channels drive real activity versus which ones only inflate raw message counts.
Download. Invite from activityrank.me. Runs from the Discord desktop client on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Bottom line. The pick when an admin wants to know why a leaderboard looks the way it does, not just what it looks like.
ProBot - Best all-in-one with generous moderation
ProBot is the free-first pick for admins who want a leveling module inside a bot that also handles welcome images, moderation, automod, and logging. The leveling system supports text XP, voice XP, role rewards, and level-up notifications with variable placeholders, and the module lives in the same dashboard as everything else, which keeps setup fast.
Where it falls short. Some of the newer leveling features and cosmetic upgrades have shifted behind ProBot Premium, so free-tier admins should confirm which controls are available before betting on ProBot as a full Arcane replacement. Music and a handful of anti-raid tools also sit behind the paid tier.
Pricing. Free tier covers most needs including leveling and welcome flows. ProBot Premium unlocks advanced anti-raid, extra cosmetic options, and priority hosting; verify current pricing on the ProBot site since some leveling features moved paid in a recent update.
Migrating from Arcane. ProBot vs Arcane is closer to a full stack swap than a pure leveling swap. Rebuild your leveling thresholds first, then bring over welcome messages, moderator commands, and automod rules in that order.
Download. Invite from probot.io. Runs from the Discord desktop client on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Bottom line. The pick when leveling is one of several modules an admin wants to consolidate under one bot.
OpenPolaris - Best self-hosted open-source pick
OpenPolaris is the original open-source release of the Polaris leveling bot, kept on GitHub for anyone who wants to run their own instance. The full leveling engine, rank cards, and role reward logic ship in the repo, and running it on a small VPS puts the whole system under a single admin’s control with no per-server subscription and no takedown risk. It is the only pick in this list that removes third-party dependency entirely.
Where it falls short. Requires developer time. Deploying, hosting, updating, and maintaining a Discord bot is real work, and a hobby-scale server owner without command-line comfort will spend more energy on ops than on the community itself. The hosted Polaris bot exists for that audience; OpenPolaris is for admins who want the code.
Pricing. Free and open source. Cost is only the hosting bill for the machine that runs it, which for a small server can be a spare Raspberry Pi or a low-tier VPS.
Migrating from Arcane. Clone the repo, create a Discord application, configure the leveling rules in the config file, and deploy. Member XP does not carry over, so plan the switch during a quiet period and announce a fresh start.
Download. Clone from GitHub. Runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux with Node.js installed. Deploy on your own VPS or home server.
Bottom line. The pick for technical admins who want leveling nobody else can pull, at the cost of running their own infrastructure.
How to choose
Start by naming the reason Arcane stopped fitting the server. If the answer is the role-reward ceiling on the free plan, Lurkr or AmariBot solves it cleanly and both keep voice XP free. Migrate the role thresholds first, then rebuild the XP multipliers, and communicate the XP reset in advance so members do not feel cheated.
If the reason is that Arcane’s rank cards or curves cannot be customized without paying per server, ProBot and ActivityRank are the closer swaps. ProBot suits admins who also want moderation and welcome flows under one roof, and ActivityRank suits admins who want the stats to justify every leveling decision.
If the reason is that the whole third-party dependency model feels fragile, OpenPolaris is the answer, and the trade-off is real ops work. Budget a weekend for the initial deploy, a monitoring plan for the bot process, and a small VPS or spare machine to run it on. The upside is that nobody can take the bot away from the server.
If the reason is dashboard polish or ecosystem depth rather than any specific limitation, MEE6 remains the safest default despite its Premium pricing. Every experienced Discord mod has used it before, and the onboarding cost is close to zero.
If leveling is the visible surface but social culture is the actual goal, Tatsu is worth the try. Profile cards, badges, and gifting change how members interact in ways a rank number alone does not.
Whichever swap the server makes, test it in a private staging server for a week before touching the main community. Command collisions, permission surprises, and role-hierarchy issues are easier to fix when no members are watching a level board flicker.
FAQ
Is there a fully free Arcane alternative? Yes. Lurkr and AmariBot both offer full leveling, including voice XP and unlimited role rewards, on their free tiers. OpenPolaris is also free if you can host it yourself. MEE6’s free tier exists but caps several leveling features that Arcane and its free-tier competitors include out of the box.
Does XP data transfer from Arcane to another bot? Direct XP imports between Arcane and other leveling bots are not standard. Most admins announce a reset, schedule the switch during a quiet period, and offer a short catch-up bonus for early members. Some bots offer MEE6 import specifically; Arcane import support is rarer, so plan for a fresh start.
Which Arcane alternative is best for voice XP? Lurkr, AmariBot, ActivityRank, ProBot, and OpenPolaris all track voice XP on the free tier. MEE6 and Tatsu require a paid subscription for voice XP. Arcane itself is competitive here because voice XP is free by default; the reason to switch is usually role reward limits or curve customization, not voice tracking itself.
Does Arcane still work in 2026? Yes. Arcane remains active, and the free tier still covers message and voice XP. Reasons to look at alternatives are cost per server, curve rigidity on the free plan, and the free role-reward ceiling, not that Arcane has been shut down.
Can a Discord leveling bot be self-hosted? Yes. OpenPolaris is the direct open-source pick, and other open-source leveling bots exist on GitHub for admins willing to deploy their own. Self-hosting removes takedown risk and per-server fees, at the cost of running the bot process, keeping it updated, and monitoring for downtime.
Do these bots work on macOS and Linux Discord clients? Yes. All seven live inside the Discord server, not on the local machine, so any desktop Discord client on Windows, macOS, or Linux interacts with them without extra installers. The only client-side requirement is the Discord desktop app itself.
