Top 5 Free Discord Moderation Bots

With the rise in users on Discord, it makes sense that server owners would want to employ bots to assist with moderation. With the hundreds of moderation bots out there though, how do you know which one to choose?

Well, I’ve tested a lot of different bots and let’s just say, they are not all created equal. So, to help those who might be new to Discord or new to server management on Discord, I reviewed some of the top bots that I’ve used to help you get a better idea of which one to choose.

What is a moderation bot?

Moderation bots perform automated tasks when specific trigger events occur within your server. Moderation bots can perform a wide range of tasks and each bot has different tasks that others might not. Here are some standard automations that you typically see with moderation bots:

• Assist with gatekeeping servers to reduce spam by only granting new server members a role once they have agreed to the server rules.
• Monitor for foul language, hate speech, or other toxic behavior on the servers, delete any messages, and warn/kick/ban the offending member.
• Send custom messages when someone joins or leaves the server.
• Play games or send role playing messages via the bot such as hug, kiss, slap, fight, etc.
• Reccurring messages (also know as feeds) for reminders and/or Birthday notifications
• Activity levels to grant additional features to active members.
• Log activity such as deleted messages, join/leave, moderator actions, etc.

Those are just some of the features that a moderation bot can automate on your server. Most bots include additional fun commands such as a music player for voice channels, social media notifications, server economy to earn points to purchase specific items in your economy store, and so much more.

Best Features & Bot Rankings

When testing each bot, I reviewed four different areas to determine their rank: free features, ease of use, customization options, and their dashboard capabilities.

Best Overall: Sapphire
Best for Beginners: Maki
Best for Free Features: Dyno
Best Dashboard: Probot
Best for Advanced Customization: Carl-Bot

Along with their ranking, I highlighted the key features of each below to help you find the one best for you. Keep reading to find out the specifics of each to see which one will be best for your server!

Best Overall: Sapphire

Free Features: 4.5/5

Ease of Use: 3.5/5

Customization Options: 4/5

Dashboard: 4/5

Overall Score: 16/20

Sapphire’s Best Features

• Completely free. The only thing you would need to pay for is if you wanted to change the look of the bot itself (such as profile picture and name in the server) but most people just getting started usually wouldn’t need that.
• Easy to use dashboard with all of the commands available in the dashboard
• Through message kits, you can have the bot do nearly anything (they have message kit templates available on the Sapphire server also!)
• Auto-Moderation of user activity in the server
• Customizable messages for users who join/leave the server
• Join Roles, Reaction Roles, and connected roles can be set up
• Comprehensive Logging of the server (best I’ve seen yet!)
• Social Notifications for YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok
• ….and more basic server moderation functionalities

Cons

• No fun features on the app
• Moderation actions can be confusing when setting up (I managed to make it so that even I couldn’t post links on my server on accident. Fixable though!)
• Editing message kits can be confusing if you aren’t familiar with variables.

Overall Sapphire is a great bot with all the features needed for moderation available for free. The developer is responsive on the bots discord server if any issues arise. I highly recommend this bot to those who want a great bot for their server. You can check out Sapphire’s website here.

Best for Beginners: Maki

Free Features: 3.5/5

Ease of Use: 4.5/5

Customization Options: 2.5/5

Dashboard: 4/5

Overall Score: 14.5/20

Maki’s Best Features

• One of the easiest dashboards to use.
• Welcome messages allow for large images to be attached.
• Create your own server economy and reward your server members!
• Can play music on voice channels
• Moderation capabilities
• Logging of server activities
• Ticketing feature for server member support
• Join and Reaction Roles
• Roleplaying commands
• Repeating messages, Birthday reminders and booster thank you messages
• Suggestion Commands

Cons

• Requires subscription for many of the regularly used features such as social media notifications, embedded messages, giveaways, server stats, etc.
• Some of the ticketing features require a premium subscription
• Lacks customization options overall

I used Maki for a very long time for the welcome messages. They are the only one that I could find for free that would allow the size of custom image to be sent with each message. I usually had the rest of the features turned off however, but that was because I used a different bot for most of my moderation.

Maki is perfect for beginners because of how user friendly their dashboard is. If you are just getting started with discord and aren’t familiar with commands, this would be the one that I would use. You can learn more about Maki here.

Best for Free Features: Dyno

Free Features: 4.5/5

Ease of Use: 3.5/5

Customization Options: 3/5

Dashboard: 3/5

Total: 14/20

Dyno’s Best Features

• Standard moderation tools including auto moderation
• Dashboard is pretty easy to use
• Lots of features available for free
• Run giveaways
• Create custom forms to use in channels
• Several different fun features
• Free server listings on their website for servers using the bot
• Reminders & server announcements
• Message purging (mass deletion of messages) on command
• …..and more.

Cons

• A lot of ads on their website that pop up and get in the way
• Social media notifications are only available on paid plans
• Channel slowmode isn’t available on the free plans
• Website doesn’t list all of the available commands

Overall, Dyno is a great bot. I used it for a long time when I first got started. I just found the web dashboard to be a bit clunky and to have too many ads, but that’s also the reason they are able to offer so many free features. If you are looking for a free bot that does it all, I would definitely consider this one. You can check out the Dyno bot here.

Best Dashboard: ProBot

Free features: 3/5

Ease of Use: 4/5

Customization Options: 3/5

Dashboard: 4.5/5

Total: 14.5/20

ProBot’s Best Features

• Standard moderation commands
• Very easy to use dashboard
• Leveling feature to increase engagement on your server
• Customizable welcome messages with images (they even have a few templates!)
• Color roles built in with multiple color palettes to choose from
• Message autoresponder based on trigger words
• Starboard
• Highly customizable embedded messages
• Paid plan offers anti-raid and VIP protection for large servers

Cons

• Not a lot of features
• Self-assignable roles are limited
• Custom emojis are only available on their top premium plan
• Social media notifications only available for twitch
• Don’t see anyway to add your own color palettes to the color roles

Probot has a very easy to use dashboard that includes templates for the different customizations you can do. This bot likely would’ve scored higher if it had a few more features or easier to use functions. Still a very solid bot, however, especially for beginners. You can add ProBot to your server by visiting their website.

Best for Advanced Customization: Carlbot

Free features: 4/5

Ease of Use: 3/5

Customization Options: 4/5

Dashboard: 3.5/5

Total: 14.5/20

Carlbot’s Best Features

• Very customizable and lots of free features
• Standard moderation features
• Suggestions module
• Can play some games through the bot (see their dashboard for more info)
• Tag templates in the bot’s documentation (for additional features like goals, individual social profile links, slots game, duck hunt, etc.)
• Great wiki on how to use the bot

Cons

• Can be difficult to use for some
• Social notifications are limited to Twitch and Youtube
• Dashboard can be confusing for new users
• Learning curve for advanced customization

Carlbot was my go-to bot for a long time, but it took me quite a while to learn to use it. For people who are just starting with discord, this likely wouldn’t be my recommendation just because of that learning curve. Regardless, it’s a great bot with a lot of features that I used often and really enjoyed. You can learn more about Carlbot by visiting their website.

Deciding Which One to Use

As you can see, all five bots are very similar with their core features. Which one you decide to go with is entirely based on user preference, your familiarity with running commands, and your servers needs.

If you plan to have multiple moderators on your server, make sure your mods are either trained on how to use the bot or are familiar with using them. Bots are incredibly helpful for moderators!

Where to Find Other Bots

This list doesn’t even but a dent in the number of Discord bots out there, it just touches on the more popular moderation bots. There are bots out there that are game specific, ones that will run group games like truth or dare, bots to play music, and much more. If you want to explore other bots, you can do so from your server settings or by going to top.gg and exploring the bot listings there.

Hopefully this article gave you a bit of insight on what to expect from a moderation bot, its capabilities, and maybe even helped you decide which one to use. However, if you need help getting your server set up, I can help build you a custom server tailored to your communities needs. You can contact me on Discord by adding me as a friend, reddington2995, or by sending me an email at [email protected]

P.S. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out my other articles about using Discord for your business for tips on how to make this social platform work for you.

8 Ways to Use Discord for Your Business

Article 2 in the Discord for Your Business Series. This article discusses some of the unique features you can use your Discord server for.

Killer Strategies for Discord Marketing Success

For part 3 of the series discussing using Discord for your business we discuss ways to market your server.

If you liked this post be sure to subscribe to the newsletter for more tips, resources, and adventures from me.

Want to learn more about me? Check out my website or follow me on social media 👇🏼

Instagram: @reddsadventure
X: @redd2995
Linked In: Click Here
Medium: @reddsadventure

I’m currently planning my dream trip: backpacking through Europe! 🛫🗼 If you found this post helpful, consider buying me a coffee to help me cross everything off my bucket list and then tell you guys all about it!

Disclaimer: The content of this article is provided for informational purposes only. The author is not affiliated with Discord or any of the specific bots mentioned. Any views, opinions, or endorsements expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent the views or opinions of Discord or the developers of the mentioned bots. Users are encouraged to conduct their own research and exercise discretion when using any third-party applications or services, including Discord and all Discord bots. The author disclaims any responsibility for the actions or experiences of individuals using Discord or the mentioned bots.