Every Discord bot advertises a free plan. The difference is whether that plan can actually run a server. We compared the exact free-tier limits of eight widely used bots: the published numbers, not the marketing copy.
Key takeaways
- Vetox has the broadest free tier of the bots compared here: moderation, leveling, welcome, tickets, starboard, applications and all 8 notification platforms at $0.
- MEE6 has the narrowest. Its free plan is effectively three plugins plus a search command; moderation, leveling and welcome messages all require Premium.
- Free does not mean unlimited. Dyno caps reaction-role menus and forms at 3 each; Arcane caps custom commands at 5; Vetox caps ticket panels at 3.
- Language access is a hidden paywall. Vetox includes all 21 languages free; several bots here are English-only regardless of what you pay.
- Figures verified 2026-08-24 against each vendor’s own pricing or documentation page.
What "Free" Actually Buys You
There are three distinct free-tier strategies among Discord bots, and knowing which one you are looking at predicts most of your experience.
- Broad and usable: the bot gives away most of its functionality and charges for scale, automation depth or premium modules. Vetox, ProBot and Dyno work this way.
- Complete but narrow: everything the bot does is free, because the bot deliberately does fewer things. Sapphire is the clearest example: strong moderation and logging, but no leveling, tickets, giveaways or economy.
- Demo-shaped: the free tier exists to show the dashboard, and the features people actually install the bot for sit behind a subscription. MEE6 is the clearest example.
The practical question is not "is it free" but "how many bots will I still need". A free tier that covers moderation but not leveling, tickets or stream alerts means installing three more bots, each with its own permissions, dashboard and failure mode.
Free Tiers Compared
VetoxBest overall | MEE6 | Dyno | ProBot | Sapphire | Arcane | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moderation | 1 | Premium | 2 | |||
| Auto-moderation | 3 | Premium4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |
| Leveling / XP | 8 | Premium | Premium9 | 10 | ||
| Tickets | 11 | Premium12 | 13 | |||
| Welcome messages | 14 | Premium | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| Social notifications | 19 | Premium20 | Premium21 | —22 | 23 | Limited24 |
| Starboard | 25 | 26 | 27 | |||
| Applications | 28 | — | 29 | — | ||
| Giveaways | 30 | Premium | 31 | — | ||
| Custom commands | 32 | Premium33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 |
| Platform | ||||||
| Languages | 21 | 10 | Not published | 10 | 1 | Not published |
| Web dashboard | ||||||
| Developer API | ||||||
Moderation
Vetox
MEE6
Dyno
ProBot
Sapphire
Arcane
Auto-moderation
Vetox
MEE6
Dyno
ProBot
Sapphire
Arcane
Leveling / XP
Vetox
MEE6
Dyno
ProBot
Sapphire
Arcane
Tickets
Vetox
MEE6
Dyno
ProBot
Sapphire
Arcane
Welcome messages
Vetox
MEE6
Dyno
ProBot
Sapphire
Arcane
Social notifications
Vetox
MEE6
Dyno
ProBot
Sapphire
Arcane
Starboard
Vetox
MEE6
Dyno
ProBot
Sapphire
Arcane
Applications
Vetox
MEE6
Dyno
ProBot
Sapphire
Arcane
Giveaways
Vetox
MEE6
Dyno
ProBot
Sapphire
Arcane
Custom commands
Vetox
MEE6
Dyno
ProBot
Sapphire
Arcane
Table notes
- 1Vetox — Moderation: Active punishment registry plus classic auto-mod, free
- 2Sapphire — Moderation: Case management, reason aliases, custom DM notices
- 3Vetox — Auto-moderation: Classic rules free; AI-powered semantic and image moderation requires Black
- 4MEE6 — Auto-moderation: Moderator plugin
- 5Dyno — Auto-moderation: Custom responses and multiple log channels are Premium
- 6Sapphire — Auto-moderation: 10+ modules, condition-based punishments
- 7Arcane — Auto-moderation: Discord AutoMod integration
- 8Vetox — Leveling / XP: Base leveling free; XP multipliers from Basic, reset schedules from Max
- 9Dyno — Leveling / XP: Standard tier and above
- 10Arcane — Leveling / XP: Voice XP, custom XP values, rank-card backgrounds and leaderboards are Premium
- 11Vetox — Tickets: 3 panels free, 200 concurrent tickets, 1 per user
- 12MEE6 — Tickets: Free tier gets 0 panel embeds
- 13Dyno — Tickets: Linked panels; extra form fields and custom buttons are Premium
- 14Vetox — Welcome messages: Welcome, greet and goodbye messages with generated images
- 15Dyno — Welcome messages: Custom welcome images are Premium
- 16ProBot — Welcome messages: Image-based welcome cards
- 17Sapphire — Welcome messages: Join/leave/boost/role DMs
- 18Arcane — Welcome messages: Custom background and colors are Premium
- 19Vetox — Social notifications: All 8 platforms — Twitch, YouTube, Kick, Reddit, Bluesky, Steam, RSS, Podcasts — free and unrestricted
- 20MEE6 — Social notifications: 10 networks: Reddit, Twitch, X, YouTube, RSS, Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, Kick, podcasts
- 21Dyno — Social notifications: YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, Kick paid; Reddit is free
- 22ProBot — Social notifications: Only a marketing phrase on /intro; no commands, no module page, no dashboard docs
- 23Sapphire — Social notifications: Twitch, YouTube and TikTok, all free
- 24Arcane — Social notifications: YouTube only — no Twitch or TikTok plugin documented
- 25Vetox — Starboard: 1 free, more on Basic+
- 26MEE6 — Starboard: Included free
- 27Dyno — Starboard: Extra customization is Premium
- 28Vetox — Applications: 1 panel free, more on Basic+
- 29Dyno — Applications: Forms module, 3 free
- 30Vetox — Giveaways: Entry conditions by role and account age, plus a blacklist, template editor and logs
- 31Dyno — Giveaways: 3 active free
- 32Vetox — Custom commands: 25 auto-responders free
- 33MEE6 — Custom commands: 500 commands, 50 automations
- 34Dyno — Custom commands: 25 commands and 10 autoresponders free
- 35ProBot — Custom commands: Auto-responder
- 36Sapphire — Custom commands: Commands plus keyword-triggered Messages
- 37Arcane — Custom commands: 5 free, 100 Premium
Why Vetox Has the Strongest Free Plan
Vetox’s free tier is unusual because it spans categories rather than depth within one. A server on the free plan gets moderation and auto-moderation, a full leveling system with rank cards and role rewards, welcome/goodbye/greet messages, a working ticket desk, a starboard, an application form with a review queue, 25 auto-responders, 3 server stat channels, and creator notifications from all 8 supported platforms.
Vetox free plan — published limits
- Ticket panels
- 3 panels, 3 options each
- Concurrent open tickets
- 200 per server, 1 per user
- Auto-responders
- 25
- Server stat channels
- 3
- Starboards
- 1, with 1 emoji
- Application panels
- 1, with 5 questions
- Notification platforms
- All 8: Twitch, YouTube, Kick, Reddit, Bluesky, Steam, RSS, Podcasts
- Languages
- All 21, unrestricted
The notification module is where the gap is widest. All 8 platforms are free and unrestricted on Vetox. Carl-bot covers 2, Arcane covers 1 (YouTube), and MEE6’s 10 platforms sit entirely behind Premium. For a server that announces streams and video uploads and an RSS feed, that difference alone usually decides the stack.
The Other Free Options
Sapphire takes the most unusual approach here: every functional module is free, and the only paid product is cosmetic custom branding. That makes it excellent value for what it covers: moderation with case management, 10+ automod modules and 80+ log types. It covers a narrower set of systems, though: no leveling, tickets, giveaways or economy, and the interface is English-only. Servers that need those add a second bot.
ProBot and Dyno both have genuinely usable free tiers spanning welcome, levels, logs, automod and tickets. Dyno’s caps bite sooner than most realise: 3 reaction-role menus, 3 forms, 3 active giveaways and 3 embeds, and social alerts beyond Reddit need a paid tier. YAGPDB gives away a lot (100 custom commands, 25 automod rules, 20 Reddit feeds) but is configured through a Go-template scripting engine rather than a visual dashboard, which suits technical owners and frustrates everyone else.
MEE6 is the outlier. Its free plan is the Search command, the Achievements plugin, the Starboard plugin and one timed message. Moderation, leveling and welcome messages — the three things most servers install MEE6 for — all require Premium. If you are on MEE6’s free plan today, see MEE6 Alternatives for a feature-by-feature migration comparison.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources
- Vetox — official siteaccessed 2026-08-24
- Vetox — official documentationaccessed 2026-08-24
- Vetox — Server Premium pricingaccessed 2026-08-24
- MEE6 Premiumaccessed 2026-08-24
- MEE6 Free vs Premium Plans Comparisonaccessed 2026-08-24
- Dyno Premiumaccessed 2026-08-24
- Dyno Docs — Dashboard Settingsaccessed 2026-08-24
- ProBot Docs — Premiumaccessed 2026-08-24
- Sapphire — official siteaccessed 2026-08-24
- Sapphire Docs — General Settingsaccessed 2026-08-24
- Sapphire Docs — Custom Brandingaccessed 2026-08-24
- Arcane Premiumaccessed 2026-08-24
- YAGPDB Premium Perksaccessed 2026-08-24
- Carl-bot — Get Premiumaccessed 2026-08-24