StarChat against the two closest paid alternatives in the Minecraft chat space. Feature presence based on public listings as of 2026-05.
StarChat
€9.99 · One-time, lifetime updates
Pricing
Price€9.99
Server IPs per licence3
Lifetime updates
Free 7-day trial
Moderation
Similarity-based spam detection
Anti-caps · anti-flood · cooldown
URL · IP · domain blocker
Spaced-domain detection (m c . hypixel . net)
Coordinate-share protection (X Y Z patterns)
Escalating point-based punishments
Engagement
Chat minigames (trivia · math · unscramble · type-race)
[item] · [inv] · [ec] in-chat previews
Smart mentions with sound + title
Automated rotating announcements
Custom death messages (30+ causes)
Communication
Multi-channel staff chat (admin · mod · helper)
Private messages with /spymsg admin tool
Persistent staff-mode actionbar
Customization
In-game /chatcolor GUI
Custom join · leave · first-join · MOTD
Custom placeholders (:) → ☺, [bal] → balance)
Clickable command replacer ([/spawn] → button)
Performance
Folia native (region-aware scheduling)
Async-safe filter pipeline
Integrations
PlaceholderAPI
LuckPerms (groups + weights)
Vault economy hooks
DiscordSRV (native channels)
Support
Active development (last 90 days)
Direct Discord support
AI configuration assistant (reads your YAML)Nebula AI
AdvancedChat
€19.99 · One-time, premium
Pricing
Price€19.99
Server IPs per licence1
Lifetime updates
Free 7-day trial
Moderation
Similarity-based spam detection
Anti-caps · anti-flood · cooldown
URL · IP · domain blocker
Spaced-domain detection (m c . hypixel . net)
Coordinate-share protection (X Y Z patterns)
Escalating point-based punishments
Engagement
Chat minigames (trivia · math · unscramble · type-race)
[item] · [inv] · [ec] in-chat previews
Smart mentions with sound + title
Automated rotating announcements
Custom death messages (30+ causes)
Communication
Multi-channel staff chat (admin · mod · helper)
Private messages with /spymsg admin tool
Persistent staff-mode actionbar
Customization
In-game /chatcolor GUI
Custom join · leave · first-join · MOTD
Custom placeholders (:) → ☺, [bal] → balance)
Clickable command replacer ([/spawn] → button)
Performance
Folia native (region-aware scheduling)
Async-safe filter pipeline
Integrations
PlaceholderAPI
LuckPerms (groups + weights)
Vault economy hooks
DiscordSRV (native channels)
Support
Active development (last 90 days)
Direct Discord support
AI configuration assistant (reads your YAML)
ZelChat
$14.99 · One-time, BuiltByBit
Pricing
Price$14.99
Server IPs per licence1
Lifetime updates
Free 7-day trial
Moderation
Similarity-based spam detection
Anti-caps · anti-flood · cooldown
URL · IP · domain blocker
Spaced-domain detection (m c . hypixel . net)
Coordinate-share protection (X Y Z patterns)
Escalating point-based punishments
Engagement
Chat minigames (trivia · math · unscramble · type-race)
[item] · [inv] · [ec] in-chat previews
Smart mentions with sound + title
Automated rotating announcements
Custom death messages (30+ causes)
Communication
Multi-channel staff chat (admin · mod · helper)
Private messages with /spymsg admin tool
Persistent staff-mode actionbar
Customization
In-game /chatcolor GUI
Custom join · leave · first-join · MOTD
Custom placeholders (:) → ☺, [bal] → balance)
Clickable command replacer ([/spawn] → button)
Performance
Folia native (region-aware scheduling)
Async-safe filter pipeline
Integrations
PlaceholderAPI
LuckPerms (groups + weights)
Vault economy hooks
DiscordSRV (native channels)
Support
Active development (last 90 days)
Direct Discord support
AI configuration assistant (reads your YAML)
Capability
StarChat€9.99One-time, lifetime updates
AdvancedChat€19.99One-time, premium
ZelChat$14.99One-time, BuiltByBit
Pricing
Price
StarChat is half the price of AdvancedChat and a third cheaper than ZelChat at today's rates.
€9.99
€19.99
$14.99
Server IPs per licence
Spigot ToS and BuiltByBit defaults are 1 IP per licence. StarChat triples that out of the box — run a survival, an SMP and a test server on a single key.
3
1
1
Lifetime updates
Free 7-day trial
Moderation
Similarity-based spam detection
Anti-caps · anti-flood · cooldown
URL · IP · domain blocker
StarChat ships dedicated rules per category. AdvancedChat groups them under a generic 'anti-advertising' rule. ZelChat needs a hand-written regex.
Spaced-domain detection (m c . hypixel . net)
StarChat exclusive. Neither competitor ships a rule for spaced-out URL bypasses out of the box.
Coordinate-share protection (X Y Z patterns)
StarChat exclusive. AdvancedChat and ZelChat have no equivalent rule.
Escalating point-based punishments
ZelChat has per-rule actions but no automatic warn → mute → ban escalation timeline.
Engagement
Chat minigames (trivia · math · unscramble · type-race)
AdvancedChat ships math, unscramble and type-race as scriptable examples — but no built-in trivia. ZelChat has no minigames at all.
[item] · [inv] · [ec] in-chat previews
AdvancedChat only ships [item] as a custom-variable example. StarChat ships all three with a 60-second cached GUI snapshot.
Smart mentions with sound + title
AdvancedChat needs a custom variable to play a sound on mention; StarChat and ZelChat ship it.
Automated rotating announcements
Custom death messages (30+ causes)
StarChat exclusive — including warden sonic boom, dragon breath, freezing, hot floor.
Communication
Multi-channel staff chat (admin · mod · helper)
StarChat ships per-rank sub-channels with separate permissions and formats. AdvancedChat has a single staff channel. ZelChat has staffchat plus a Towny addon.
Private messages with /spymsg admin tool
Persistent staff-mode actionbar
Visible reminder while staff chat is toggled on, so nobody leaks a public message thinking they're in #staff. StarChat exclusive.
Customization
In-game /chatcolor GUI
ZelChat has a permission node for colour codes but no GUI.
Custom join · leave · first-join · MOTD
Custom placeholders (:) → ☺, [bal] → balance)
Clickable command replacer ([/spawn] → button)
Performance
Folia native (region-aware scheduling)
AdvancedChat's wiki and product page don't declare Folia support. ZelChat shows up in BuiltByBit's Folia-compatible filter but its own docs don't mention it. StarChat ships the FoliaScheduler natively and is verified.
Async-safe filter pipeline
Integrations
PlaceholderAPI
LuckPerms (groups + weights)
Vault economy hooks
DiscordSRV (native channels)
ZelChat doesn't ship native DiscordSRV — there's a third-party MultiChat-DiscordSRV-Addon, not maintained by ZelChat itself.
Support
Active development (last 90 days)
Direct Discord support
AI configuration assistant (reads your YAML)
AdvancedChat's 'AI' moderates player messages, not your config. StarChat's Nebula reads the live wiki and your YAML schema to answer setup questions in plain English.
Free chat plugins cover one slice — formatting OR moderation OR channels. Running a real server, you stack 3-4 of them and spend a weekend wiring them together. StarChat is one config tree, one update cycle, and Folia-native end-to-end.
ZelChat is a solid lightweight filter+format plugin. StarChat ships everything ZelChat does plus chat minigames, in-game /chatcolor GUI, custom death messages, multi-channel staff chat (admin / mod / helper), coordinate-share protection, native DiscordSRV, automated announcements, and the Nebula AI configuration helper — at a similar price and with a 7-day free trial.
AdvancedChat is a strong format/moderation plugin with extras like chat bubbles and OpenAI moderation. It doesn't ship minigames out of the box, doesn't have full [inv] / [ec] sharing, doesn't ship a death-message module, doesn't declare Folia support, and doesn't have a coordinate-protection rule. If you need polished formats + cloud-based moderation, AdvancedChat is the move. If you need an all-in-one chat suite for a Folia server, StarChat is the simpler call.
We ship migration helpers in the wiki. Hex codes, MiniMessage tags, and PlaceholderAPI placeholders carry over verbatim. /chatcolor GUI is opt-in if you'd rather keep your existing color command.
Each row above was verified against the vendor's own documentation, wiki, GitHub repo or product page on 2026-05-03. Cells marked 'partial' link to the documentation reason in the tooltip. We re-audit quarterly; if you spot something stale, ping us on Discord and we'll update + credit you.