Guide · Updated June 2026
How to make a Discord bot — with or without code
There are two honest answers to this question. The traditional route runs through the Discord Developer Portal, a programming language, and a hosting bill. The new route is describing your bot in one sentence. This guide covers both, so you can pick the one that fits.
Route 1 · The manual way
Building a bot through the Discord Developer Portal
If you want to write the bot yourself, the path looks like this. First, you create an application in the Discord Developer Portal and add a bot user to it — that gives you a bot token, which is the credential your code uses to log in. You then enable the privileged intents your bot needs (message content, member events), generate an OAuth2 invite URL with the right permission scopes, and add the bot to your server.
Then comes the actual work: writing the bot in JavaScript with discord.js or Python with discord.py, handling events, registering slash commands, and testing. Finally — the part most tutorials skip — your bot only stays online while the code is running somewhere, so you need a host: a VPS, a Raspberry Pi that never sleeps, or a cloud platform, typically $4–$10/month plus the time to keep it patched and restarted.
This route is worth it if you want to learn bot development or need something deeply custom. Budget a few hours for a basic bot if you already know the language, and considerably more if you’re learning as you go.
Route 2 · The one-sentence way
Describe it. Hatchbot builds it.
- 01
Describe your bot in plain English
“A bot that welcomes new members, runs weekly polls, and times out spammers.” That’s the whole input. No token handling, no intents, no portal configuration.
- 02
Hatchbot writes and hosts the code
Real discord.js code is generated and deployed to managed hosting. You watch the build live — and the code is yours to download if you ever want it.
- 03
One click to your server
Invite the bot to your Discord server and it’s live. The first 24 hours on your real server are free, no card required. Keep it for $4/month hosted, or take the code for $3 and host it anywhere.
Side by side
Which route should you take?
FAQ
Common questions
Can I make a Discord bot without coding?
Yes. Tools like Hatchbot let you describe what you want your bot to do in plain English — for example "a bot that welcomes new members and runs a leveling system" — and generate, host, and deploy the bot for you. No code, no server setup, no Discord Developer Portal configuration.
Is the Discord Developer Portal free?
Yes, registering an application and bot in the Discord Developer Portal is free. What costs money (or effort) is hosting: a bot must run 24/7 on a server somewhere. That usually means renting a VPS, using a cloud host, or using a managed service that hosts the bot for you.
How long does it take to make a Discord bot?
Writing one yourself: a basic bot takes a few hours if you know JavaScript or Python, plus ongoing hosting and maintenance. With Hatchbot, describing the bot and deploying it to your server takes a few minutes, and the first 24 hours are free.
What programming language are Discord bots written in?
Most Discord bots are written in JavaScript (discord.js) or Python (discord.py / Pycord). Hatchbot generates real bot code for you — and you can download that code for $3 if you want to own and run it yourself.
How much does it cost to host a Discord bot?
Self-hosting on a small VPS typically runs $4–$10/month. Hatchbot hosts your bot for $4/month flat, including uptime monitoring — or you can take the generated code and host it anywhere.
Try the five-minute route
Describe your bot, watch it get built, run it on your real server free for 24 hours. If it’s not for you, the manual route will still be there.
Start building →