Built by People Who Actually Chat
We're not a corporation trying to maximize revenue per user. We're chat enthusiasts who got tired of watching our favorite platforms sell out.
Our Story
How a group of nostalgic chat addicts decided to build something better
Remember the early 2000s? When chat rooms were about actual conversation, not virtual gift economies and subscription tiers?
We do. Many of us on the H2KTalk team spent our formative years in MSN Chat, Yahoo Chat, Paltalk, and IRC. We made real friends. We had meaningful conversations. We built communities that lasted years.
Then something changed.
One by one, our favorite platforms either shut down or transformed into something unrecognizable. MSN Chat disappeared. Yahoo Chat closed. Paltalk introduced premium tiers that locked basic features behind paywalls. The gift economy turned rooms into popularity contests where the loudest voice belonged to whoever spent the most money.
The platforms that survived did so by prioritizing profit over community. Free features became premium. Simple chat rooms became cluttered with ads and microtransactions. The focus shifted from fostering genuine connections to maximizing ARPU (average revenue per user).
We got tired of complaining and decided to do something about it.
H2KTalk started as a side project in 2024. A few developers, designers, and long-time chat enthusiasts got together and asked a simple question: "What if we built the chat platform we actually want to use?"
Not a platform optimized for investor returns. Not a platform designed to extract maximum revenue from users. Just a clean, functional, community-driven video chat platform that anyone can use for free.
No colored nickname paywalls. No gift economy. No premium tiers. No ads. Just chat.
What We Believe
The principles that guide every decision we make
Community First, Always
Every feature decision starts with the question: "Does this benefit the community?" Not "Does this maximize revenue?" We build for users, not investors.
Transparency & Trust
Our development roadmap is public. We're honest about our limitations and goals. We believe in transparency because trust is earned, not demanded.
Free Means Free
No bait-and-switch. No "free tier" with crippled features. When we say free, we mean everything is free. Forever. No asterisks.
No Ads, No Tracking
We don't sell your data. We don't show you ads. We don't track your behavior to optimize engagement metrics. Your privacy matters.
Conversation Over Commerce
No virtual gifts. No premium badges. No pay-to-win mechanics. The best conversations happen when everyone's on equal footing.
Built With Love
This isn't a job for us. It's a passion project. We're building the platform we wish existed because we genuinely care about online communities.
"But How Is This Sustainable?"
The question everyone asks
Great question. We're transparent about this because we have nothing to hide.
Our Funding Model
- Community Donations: Users who appreciate what we're building can contribute what they can afford (optional, not required)
- Volunteer Development: Many of our contributors work on H2KTalk in their spare time because they believe in the mission
- Efficient Infrastructure: Modern cloud infrastructure and optimization means we can serve thousands of users affordably
- No Corporate Overhead: We don't have investor expectations, marketing budgets, or executive salaries to worry about
Will this scale to millions of users? Maybe not without significant donations. But we're not trying to build the next unicorn startup. We're building a sustainable community platform that serves its users, not its shareholders.
And if donations cover our server costs? Perfect. If they don't quite get there? We'll figure it out. Because this matters to us.
Modern & Reliable
Built with proven technologies that scale
Frontend
- Native apps for Windows & macOS
- React for UI components
- WebRTC for video/voice
- Mobile apps (iOS & Android in development)
Backend
- Node.js signaling server
- PostgreSQL database
- WebSocket for real-time messaging
Who's Behind H2KTalk?
A distributed team of chat enthusiasts, developers, and nostalgic internet veterans
We're not a traditional company with a corporate hierarchy. H2KTalk is built by a community of contributors from around the world who share a common frustration with modern chat platforms.
Some of us are software engineers. Some are designers. Some are community moderators who've been running chat rooms for 20+ years. We all share one thing in common: we genuinely care about preserving authentic online community spaces.
Want to contribute?
Whether you're a developer, designer, moderator, or just someone with good ideas — we'd love your help. Join our Discord community to share feedback and get involved.
We're building this for all of us — the people who remember when the internet was about connection, not commerce.
Growing Every Day
Free Forever
Ads Shown
Chat Time (No Limits)
Always Online
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Help us bring back genuine conversation to the internet
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