How Toskr Works
What this is, in plain English — then the technical details.
Toskr gives your team or community its own private group chat — think of it like a Slack or Discord channel, except you actually own the server it runs on. We host it, keep it patched and backed up, and can't read what's inside your encrypted rooms even if we wanted to.
Under the hood, Toskr runs on Matrix, an open messaging standard — similar to how Gmail and Outlook both just use email underneath. You don't need to know anything about Matrix to use Toskr. If you do, the questions below go deeper.
Basics
What's Matrix?
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An open chat protocol. Same one matrix.org uses. Anyone can run a server, and users across different servers can talk to each other (like email). Toskr Chat is our client, and any Matrix app works too.
What happens to my data if I ever leave?
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Matrix is an open, portable protocol — the same account and message history work with other Matrix apps and servers, not just Toskr's. If you ever leave, your data isn't stuck in a proprietary format that only we can read.
For the technically curious
What does Toskr actually handle for me?
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A lot of the tedious infrastructure work: DNS setup in the right order (several records have to exist before you can even request a certificate), auto-renewing TLS on every domain you add, the federation discovery files other Matrix servers use to find yours, and the first admin account — normally created through a command-line tool, not a signup form. Daily backups and patching run in the background, forever, without you thinking about it.
What is federation, and can I control it?
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Federation is what lets your server talk to other Matrix servers — matrix.org, another company's Toskr instance, anyone's self-hosted Synapse — the same way any email provider can reach any other. It's on by default, but you can restrict it to specific servers or turn it off entirely if you want your server fully closed off.
Can I use my own domain?
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Yes. You set it up when creating your server.
Can I bridge to Discord or Slack?
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Yes — bridges connect your Matrix rooms to other chat networks so messages flow both ways. Community and Org plans include bridges built in (Community: 2, Discord and Signal to start; Org: unlimited). Starter doesn't include any by default, but you can add them individually as an add-on.
How does this compare to running Synapse myself?
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You get the same open-source Synapse server and the same Matrix protocol — nothing proprietary. The difference is everything above: DNS, TLS, federation files, admin bootstrap, backups, patching, uptime. Doing that by hand is a real, ongoing second job. Toskr does that part so you get the server without the maintenance burden.
Where are the servers located?
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US-based. Adding more US regions and international locations.
Pricing & billing
Is there a free trial?
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No — plans are billed starting the day you subscribe. There's no free tier.
What happens when I cancel?
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Your access continues through the rest of the billing period you already paid for. No partial refunds.
Security & privacy
Can you read my messages?
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End-to-end-encrypted rooms: no. We don't hold the keys. Unencrypted rooms: we have the technical access any host would. See the Security page.
What if there's a legal request for my data?
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We comply to the extent required by law. We can only hand over what we have. For encrypted rooms that's ciphertext.