flat.social vs TrueMetaverse

flat.social is a browser-based virtual meeting and events space where people move around shared rooms and talk with nearby participants. Audio volume and video connection respond to proximity. A flat can combine Open Spatial rooms for mingling, Conference rooms for presentations, and Chat rooms for text. Participants can draw, write and add images to shared whiteboards and sticky notes; built-in activities include football, chess, surfing, dice and arcade cabinets. Conference rooms support screen sharing and speaker or gallery layouts. Guests can join from a link, and the service runs in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. The Free plan costs nothing and allows up to five people at once with unlimited session length. A Day Pass costs $2, paid once, billed at $2 per seat for 24 hours, requires at least 10 seats and supports up to 100 people. Monthly costs $6 a month, billed at $6 per seat per month, with 10 to 100 seats, attendance insights, branding removal, roles and advanced access control, and priority support. Larger capacity can be discussed with the company. Slack users can start a flat with /flat and schedule recurring weekly events.

TrueMetaverse is a free, MIT-licensed, self-hosted realtime 2D world for studying, meetings, presentations, games, and shared online time. Users create or join pixel-art spaces with realtime presence, grid movement, collision-aware maps, and short room codes. Five maps are included, along with a server-controlled Hide & Seek mode for 3–12 players per room. Shared activities use LiveKit audio and video rooms, screen sharing, and a synchronized Excalidraw whiteboard controlled by its creator. Study sessions provide persistent timers and daily, weekly, monthly, and all-time leaderboards. The product runs in a browser, with keyboard controls on desktop and joystick and zoom controls on touch devices. Docker deployment can place the frontend, APIs, realtime server, database, media services, TLS, and TURN on one VPS. The README describes JWT authentication, salted scrypt password hashing, per-IP failed-login limits, and server-side validation. Restarting the single WebSocket process clears room, whiteboard, and active game state.