Free ProBot Alternative: Welcome Banners, Levels, Moderation

ProBot is a well-known bot, and plenty of servers install it for the same trio of features: a good-looking welcome message, a leveling system and solid moderation commands. It does those jobs well. Still, admins go looking for alternatives for a few recurring reasons: some features they want sit in paid tiers, they would rather manage everything from one web dashboard, or they also need tickets, temporary voice channels or stream alerts and do not want to stack three more bots on top.

This article looks at those three core areas one by one and shows what MagnificBot does for each, including where it works differently. If you want a wider comparison of popular bots first, read our MEE6 vs Dyno vs Carl-bot vs MagnificBot comparison.

Quick feature map

What you use ProBot for	Where it lives in MagnificBot	Notes
Welcome image	Welcome module	Embed with your own banner or GIF, member avatar as thumbnail
Farewell message	Welcome module	Separate channel, text or embed
Levels and rank	Levels module	XP for text and voice, /rank, /leaderboard
Level roles	Levels module	Role rewards, stacked or replaced
Moderation commands	Moderation module	/warn, /timeout, /kick, /ban, /purge, cases
Auto moderation	AutoMod module	Spam, invites, links, caps, mass mentions, banned words
Self roles	Role panels	Buttons or a select menu

All of these modules are included in the free plan.

Welcome messages: banner or GIF instead of a generated card

Here is the most important difference, so it comes first. Some bots generate a personalised image for each new member, with the avatar and username drawn onto a background. MagnificBot does not draw that kind of card. Instead it sends a rich embed:

• a large image at the bottom, which can be a static banner or an animated GIF that you upload from your computer or link by URL;
• the member's avatar as the thumbnail (or a custom thumbnail);
• your own title, text, colour, author line and footer;
• variables such as {mention}, {username}, {server} and {count} so every message feels personal.

In practice, a well-designed banner with the member's mention and number ("You are member #1,204") does the same job: it looks branded and greets the person by name. A GIF often catches more attention than a static card. You can also send a private welcome DM with your rules or first steps, and a farewell message in a different channel.

Tip: design the banner as a wide image with the important text in the centre, because Discord crops and scales embed images differently on desktop and mobile.

Levels for text and voice

If your community spends a lot of time in voice channels, text-only XP leaves your most active people out. MagnificBot's Levels module gives XP for messages and for minutes in voice. You control:

• the XP range per message and the cooldown between rewarded messages, so spam does not pay off;
• XP per voice minute;
• channels and roles that do not earn XP (for example, a bot-commands channel);
• role rewards at specific levels, and whether members keep previous reward roles or swap them for the new one.

Members check their progress with /rank and compare with others using /leaderboard. Admins can fix mistakes with /xp, which gives, removes or sets levels manually. That last command is also handy if you are moving from another bot: MagnificBot does not import XP from other bots, but you can set key members' levels by hand so regulars do not start from zero.

Moderation that keeps a record

The moderation commands will feel familiar: /warn, /timeout, /kick, /ban (including temporary bans) and /purge. The useful part is what happens around them:

• every action becomes a case with a number, reason and moderator, which you can look up with /case or /warnings;
• moderators can add notes to a member's history;
• automatic escalation turns repeated warnings into a timeout or harsher sanction according to rules you set;
• sanctions done by hand through Discord's own menus are also recorded as cases, so your history stays complete even when staff forget the command.

Pair this with AutoMod to delete spam, invite links or mass mentions before a human needs to step in.

How to switch without breaking your server

1. Invite MagnificBot from the dashboard. It does not ask for Administrator.
2. Move its role above the roles it needs to manage (level rewards, self roles).
3. Recreate the welcome message in the Welcome module and send a test from the dashboard.
4. Set up level rewards with the same role names you already use.
5. Configure AutoMod and the moderation log channel.
6. Turn off the matching features in ProBot one by one, then remove it once nothing overlaps.

Running both for a day is fine, as long as only one of them greets members and gives XP. Otherwise people get two welcome messages.

What the free plan costs you

The free plan has no card and no expiry, and every module is included. The trade-offs: items that have a limit (for example automations, panels, level rewards or active giveaways) have starter limits per server, uploads go up to 25 MB, and the bot posts its own short promotional message every 8 to 16 hours in your most active channel. Premium (US$4.99/month) removes those messages, raises those limits and covers three servers. Details are on the pricing page.

FAQ

Can MagnificBot create welcome images with the member's avatar drawn in?

No. It sends an embed with your banner or GIF and shows the member's avatar as a thumbnail. Many servers find a custom GIF plus a mention just as welcoming.

Can I import my ProBot levels?

There is no automatic import. Admins can use /xp to set levels for members who should keep their progress.

Does voice time count towards levels?

Yes. You decide how much XP each minute in voice is worth, or set it to zero for text-only leveling.

Do I need to give the bot Administrator?

No. The invite asks only for the permissions its modules use. Just make sure its role sits above the roles it assigns.

Ready to try it? Set up the welcome and levels modules on app.magnificbot.com and compare the result side by side.