Arkanis vs Carl-bot
A fair side-by-side. Where Carl-bot is the better pick, where Arkanis is, and where you might want both.
We make Arkanis. This page is our attempt at a fair comparison. If anything here is wrong about Carl-bot, tell us and we will fix it. We do not benefit from anyone choosing Carl-bot over Arkanis, but we would rather you pick the right tool than feel mis-sold.
A well-engineered utility bot versus a governance platform.
Carl-bot has a strong reputation for being one of the few Discord bots that feels carefully built. Reaction roles, tags with variables, polls, autoresponders, welcome flows, an embed builder, and detailed logging. It is polished and configurable.
Arkanis sits in a different lane. We are a Discord governance platform built around staff workflow: cases with a Support Inbox, modmail, identity verification, capability-based permissions, an audit trail with reason text and actor identity, an enforcement rules engine, risk scoring, REST API, Claude Control, and game-server ops. We do not have tags, polls, or autoresponders. Pick Carl-bot if those community-engagement utilities are central. Pick Arkanis if structured staff workflow and a real audit trail are.
- ·Reaction roles are core to how your community self-organises.
- ·Tags and custom commands with variables matter to you.
- ·You use polls, suggestions, and autoresponders to keep the channel alive.
- ·You want generic welcome and leave banners with variables.
- ·Detailed message-edit and delete logs are important.
- ·Your moderation needs are standard. Warns, kicks, mutes, bans, AutoMod.
- ·You are not running a game server alongside Discord.
- ·You need real staff workflows. Cases, case panels, modmail cases from member DMs, all handled in the Support Inbox.
- ·You need a complete audit trail. Who did what, why, when, with the reason text.
- ·You enforce by rules that have consequences. Strike weights, escalation, sanctions.
- ·You verify identity beyond Discord. Steam, Xbox, Alderon, game-server IDs.
- ·You manage three or more staff with different permission scopes.
- ·You run a game server. Pterodactyl or Pelican, RCON, SFTP log ingestion.
- ·You want REST API and Claude Control (MCP) for automation.
Feature by feature
We rated both honestly. Carl-bot has features Arkanis does not, and vice versa. Categories that are not central to either product are not on this table.
Pricing
Both have generous free tiers. Carl-bot Premium is per-server; Arkanis Pro is per-guild.
Per-server tier that unlocks more reaction-role limits, automod, embed-builder slots, tag slots, and other quality-of-life expansions. Free tier covers most of the core feature set.
Current numbers on carl.gg.
£79.99 per year if billed annually, which works out to two months free compared to monthly. Per-guild pricing. Free plan is genuinely free forever with no member-count caps.
See the full Arkanis pricing pageCommon questions about switching
Can I run both Arkanis and Carl-bot in the same Discord server?+
Yes. Communities often keep Carl-bot for reaction roles, tags, polls, and welcome flows, and add Arkanis for moderation workflow, cases, identity, audit, and game-server ops. They do not collide.
Will Arkanis import my Carl-bot tags or reaction roles?+
No. The data shapes are different. Arkanis does not have a tags or custom-commands system, so there is nothing to import for those. Reaction roles in Carl-bot are similar in spirit to Arkanis role panels, but the configurations do not translate one-to-one.
Will Arkanis replace Carl-bot entirely?+
It depends on what you use Carl-bot for. If Carl-bot is mainly your moderation, AutoMod, modlog, and role-assignment layer, Arkanis covers that and more. If you also rely on tags, polls, autoresponders, or generic welcome banners, you would keep Carl-bot alongside Arkanis or pick a separate bot for those.
Does Arkanis have a free tier like Carl-bot?+
Yes. Free covers rule enforcement, basic support cases, AutoMod, identity verification, full dashboard access, and complete audit logging. Modmail cases from member DMs, unlimited AutoMod, the risk-scoring board, enforcement rules, REST API access, Claude Control, and game-server features sit behind Pro.
Is Arkanis cheaper than Carl-bot Premium?+
Arkanis Pro is £7.99 per month, or £79.99 per year. Carl-bot Premium pricing is published on the Carl-bot site, so check both pricing pages for current numbers. Arkanis is per-guild; Carl-bot Premium has historically been per-server with multi-server bundles.
Worth a closer look?
Arkanis is free for the core moderation, AutoMod, identity, and audit features. Sign in with Discord, add the bot, and judge for yourself.
See also: Arkanis vs MEE6 · Arkanis vs Dyno