Slack vs. Discord: The Ultimate Comparison

Forrester’s report shows that companies focused on customer needs see better growth and retention.With more tools available than ever, now is a great time to build an online community.

The biggest question, though, is which platform is best to build your community on.  

If you're interested in choosing between Slack vs. Discord, this guide provides a thorough comparison to help you make the best decision. 

While there is no silver bullet to grow your online community, having the right all-in-one tool is critical.

This is where Bettermode simplifies and solves. Made to simplify community engagement, our all-in-one platform provides everything you need to engage your community. 

Ready to see the power of Bettermode's community platform? Talk to sales for a demo. Or keep reading to compare Slack vs. Discord.

What is Slack?

Slack is a communication platform that people can use to connect, chat, collaborate and keep in touch. 

You can access Slack through a browser, the mobile app or the computer app. Because of this flexibility, it's possible to use it across many different devices.

As a Slack user you can exchange instant messages, both direct messages or group messages — called Channels. Slack offers features like screen sharing, plus Slack app directory makes it possible to integrate with lots of other apps, such as Zoom, Trello and Google Drive. 

Slack key features

Slack's key focus area is instant messaging for businesses. It's not built for communities. You can message anyone inside or outside an organization and use dedicated spaces called ‘Channels' to bring people and information in your workspace together. 

Slack supports audio and video calls directly within the platform, which is useful for video conferencing or check-ins. Another feature called Slack Connect enables teams from different organizations to work together in real time within the Slack platform which makes business communication easier.

Integrations 

Slack supports integrations with over 2,000 third-party apps, including project management, productivity, communication, file sharing and more. Some popular integrations include:

• Google Drive: For file sharing and collaboration.
• Trello: For project management and task tracking.
• Zoom: For video conferencing and meetings.
• Asana: For task and project management.
• Salesforce: For customer relationship management

Pricing

When it comes to pricing, you can choose between Slack's free plan and Slack's paid plans.

Slack's free plan includes:

• Limited features
• 90-day message history limit
• 10 app integrations maximum

Paid plans include:

1. Pro plan:

• Unlimited message history
• Unlimited integrations
• Group video calls (up to 50 people)
• Price: $7.25 per user/month (billed annually) or $8.75 per user/month (billed monthly)
  
  

2. Business+ plan:

• All features of the Pro plan
• Enhanced security features, including SAML-based SSO
• Unlimited app integrations with additional compliance tools
• Advanced reporting and analytics
• Price: $12.50 per user/month (billed annually) or $15 per user/month (billed monthly)
  
  

3. Enterprise Grid plan:

• All features of the Business+ plan
• Designed for large organizations
• Advanced management and security features
• Price: custom pricing

Slack pros and cons

When it comes to community building, here are Slack's pros and cons:

Pros:

• Good for text-based group conversations and also supports group video calls.
• 10 integrations in Slack's free version, 100's more in the paid plans.
• Easy to share and collaborate in real-time.
• There are screen sharing options, and you can quickly respond with emojis.
• Advanced search to find messages and unlimited message history on Slack's paid plans.
• File sharing and pinning so you can quickly share documents and pin important messages in a Slack channel.

Cons:

• There is minimum file storage on Slack's free plan, and it slowly deletes files over time.
• Slack groups cannot be customized exactly based on the branding when building a customer community.
• Slack limits the search to the content created in the last 90 days.
• Slack notifications throughout the day can be hard to keep on top of. 
• Slack users say there is a lack of event management, moderation and gamification.

Comparison to Bettermode

Features are an essential part of any software solution, and they may have a huge impact on your decision. Bettermode and Slack have some features in common, but also some exclusive ones.

In short, Slack is an instant messaging tool for team communication, which is usually used for quick response conversations. 

In contrast, Bettermode is an all-in-one platform for all your community needs; private messaging, advanced search, moderation tools, gamification, and so much more — all in one place and under your brand. 

What is Discord? 

Discord is an instant messaging voice, video and text chat app — mainly used for gamers, private invite-only groups and other communities.

Discord is made up of spaces — called Discord Servers — and channels. These are usually dedicated to specific topics and can have different rules. 

The founders wanted to use Discord as a communication tool for voice calls with their gamer friends without depending on tools like Skype. And is still the go-to platform for gamers to communicate.

Discord core features

Discord's key focus area is instant voice messaging. While Discord is mainly focused on voice chats, it also supports video chat and text communication. The app developers are big fans of computer games, and they know how to build online gaming communities. Discord Nitro also offers more advanced features like extra storage. 

Integrations for Discord users

Discord integrations make it suitable for gaming, productivity and community engagement. Key integrations include:

• Bots: Automate tasks like moderation, music and notifications with bots like MEE6 and Dyno.
• Streaming: Integrates with Twitch and YouTube for live notifications and content sharing.
• Gaming: Connects with Steam, Xbox and PlayStation to display gaming activity and launch games.
• Spotify: Lets users share and listen to music together.
• Zapier: Automates tasks between Discord and apps like Google Sheets and Trello.
• Project management software: Tools like Trello and Asana help with task tracking and effective collaboration among community members.

Pricing

Discord offers a free version with many features, but it also has paid plans for additional perks. Here's a breakdown:

Free plan:

• Unlimited messages: Direct messages, voice call and video chat in servers.
• File sharing: Up to 8 MB per file.
• Voice channels: High-quality voice calls.
• Basic integrations: Access to bots, integrations and basic server management tools.

Discord's paid plans include:

1. Discord Nitro
   
   

• Increased upload limit: Up to 500 MB per file.
• Better video quality: HD video streaming and screen sharing.
• Server boosting: Gives special perks to your favorite servers, like better voice quality, more emoji slots and increased file limits.
• Custom tag: Customize your Discord tag (the number next to your username).
• Animated avatars: Use GIFs for your profile picture.
• Global emojis: Use custom emojis from any server in any chat.
• Price: $9.99/month

2. Discord Nitro Basic:

• Offers most Nitro features except server boosts and increased file upload size (still limited to 50 MB).
• Price: $2.99/month.
  
  

3. Discord Server Boosting:

• Users can boost a server to unlock higher-quality voice channels, more emojis, custom server banners and bigger file uploads.
• Servers need multiple boosts to unlock different tiers of perks.
• Price: $4.99/month per boost.

Discord pros and cons

So, how does Discord measure up when it comes to community building? Here are the key pros and cons you need to know:

Pros

• Personal messaging, group messaging, and server-based messaging
• Handles text, images, video, and audio calls fairly well. 
• Has in-browser and desktop capabilities with bot support. 
• There is a mobile version, and it has cross-platform use.
• AI chatbots help to automate repetitive actions, such as chat moderation or onboarding.

Cons

• Communities can't be white-labeled.
• Fewer customization options to make it fully synced with the branding guidelines.
• UI can get a bit cluttered, disorganized and confusing.
• Discord's post composer is not powerful enough for publishing rich content.
• Some Discord users say there is a lack of moderation and safety controls. 
• Lack of incentivization and gamification tools. 

Comparison to Bettermode

Unlike Discord, Bettermode is distraction-free. In fact, Bettermode has everything you need to run your community, all in one place — with spaces for different use cases such as forum discussions, ideation, help center, events, and product roadmap.

It couldn't be easier to get started. There are plenty of ready-made professional templates and a help centre with everything you need in one place. 

Interested to find out more? Here's a quick summary.👇

What is Bettermode? 

Bettermode — the all-in-one community forum platform — was built as a solution to simplify customer experience and help businesses build fully customized customer communities.

Here are some of the features we found were of utmost importance to community builders to help them to manage, moderate and monetize their communities in one powerful tool. 

Key features for community builders

Here's a breakdown of key features that you'll get:

• 100% community ownership: Your brand — not the platform brand — has complete control over your community. And constant notifications can’t distract your community from engaging. 
• Gamification: An ideal community management tool must have an in-built reward system. Our leaderboard is automatically populated with the most reputed members to build healthy competition and recognize quality contributions.
• Customization: As a community builder, you can showcase your own brand using Bettermode's powerful Design Studio, which includes the new section block feature. It simplifies layout creation with an easy interface, allowing you to adjust spacing and hide sections based on screen size. This means you can design your site to look great on desktops, tablets and mobile devices without any complicated steps.

• Embed tools: Embed tools let you embed your forum into your existing website or app.
• Apps and integrations: Integrations include Zendesk, Intercom, Zapier, Slack, MailChimp, Amplitude, Mixpanel, FullStory, Hotjar, and Google Analytics.
• Ease of use: Pre-made community templates help you create a forum that looks great and get it up and running fast. Plus, Spaces with built-in posting permission settings help you categorize content and structure your community.
• Effortless management: Featured answer function lets you highlight the best answers in the community. And with smart suggestions, previously asked questions are showcased when a customer asks a question.
• Custom domain: You can use your own domain for branding.
• Brand building: As well as having the ability to fully personalize your community with your branding, Bettermode also offers built-in SEO features like meta tags and schema markups to help optimize your community content and expand your audience.
• Event management: Host online events within the community.
• Easy moderation: Moderation tools, such as automation rules, help you keep your community safe and clean. Plus, the ability to build multilingual communities with support for languages such as French, Spanish, Italian, etc.
• Rich analytics: Analytics dashboards help you identify trending posts, given the number of replies, views, and reactions. 

In short, Bettermode clearly stands out as the best alternative for both Slack and Discord, as it solves all of their shortcomings, plus offers all the perks and so much more.  

Slack vs. Discord vs. Bettermode: The verdict

Today's fastest growing brands prioritize brand communities to earn engagement and loyalty. But they are going beyond merely building a social presence, to building an actively engaged community in the look and feel of their brand. 

While brands can dive into community building with basic tools, scaling successful brand-led communities requires the right technology.

Both Slack and Discord offer great features, and they both allow people to collaborate through instant messages, video, and sharing files. But they both prioritise building their own brands over promoting yours. 

In short, true community-building features are lacking, and notifications from other communities are a constant distraction.

Instead of building Slack of Discord's brand, Bettermode offers a way to bring together everything you need to build your communities and all under your brand. 

Here's a quick snapshot summary of the key differences at a glance. 👇

Slack vs. Discord vs. Bettermode comparison table

With all this in mind, how do you know when to choose between Slack, Discord, or Bettermode? 

When to choose between Discord vs Slack vs Bettermode

As community building grows in importance, choosing the right tool has become a business critical decision. You don't want to get it wrong. When businesses think of community apps, they often jump right into comparing the pros and cons of Discord vs Slack. 

But choose the wrong tool, and you'll be back to the drawing board in no time.  While Slack, Discord, and Bettermode all offer robust solutions, which tool is best for your needs? 

Here is a quick summary of each:

Slack: Best for real time text messaging for internal business comms

As we've seen, Slack is primarily a business messaging app designed to centralize all the internal communication for an organization. This is currently the app that most companies use for employee collaboration. It provides real-time messaging, and easy file sharing, offers channels to categorize discussions, and integrates with popular third-party tools. The free plan allows you to search for the most recent 10k messages. All these make Slack a good communication tool for internal business communications. 

Where it falls short: But it falls short when it comes to those looking to set-up a professional brand community. It can be highly distracting and lacks features such as moderation, gamification and event management. 

Discord: Best for real-time voice messaging and gaming communities 

Discord, on the other hand, started as a platform to host gaming communities and communications tool for gamers. However, recently the positioning has changed to showcase that it can be used to host any kind of discussion for a group of people with a shared interest, such as project management. The key difference is the superior voice messaging capability and a free plan with unlimited message history. 

Where it falls short: While it is an excellent app for voice messaging, like with Slack, it too can be highly distracting for your community and lacks the ability to fully white label a community for your brand. 

Bettermode: Best all-in-one community platform for brand-led communities 

On the other hand, Bettermode is a full-fledged, all-in-one community platform. Our fully customizable and white-label platform is for brands and creators to launch communities with social media best practices. You can get started for free (up to 500 members), host the community under your domain name, and customize it based on your branding.

Where it shines: The Section Block feature stands out for its ease and flexibility in creating websites. Users can choose from ready-made layouts or design their own, making it simple to organize content effectively. The Section Block supports various content types—such as text, images, videos and buttons—allowing for engaging, mixed content in one area. It allows anyone to quickly create beautiful and responsive pages for their online community.

In summary, when deciding which platform is right for you, take your time and consider which features are essential for you. Read up on each solution and look for trusted reviews. Then look at pricing plans and reach out to the teams behind the platforms to ask key questions. 

Conclusion

So there you have it. It's indisputable that Bettermode is the leading platform for brand-led community building. It provides everything you need in one easy-to-use community platform, solving the problems that come with team chat apps like Slack and Discord. Here’s why Bettermode stands out:

1. All-in-one solution: Bettermode solves Slack's and Discord's issues by offering a complete, secure and customizable platform. Unlike Slack, which needs extra apps for things like events and feedback, and Discord, which struggles with engagement and security, Bettermode includes all the necessary features in one place, making it easier to manage and grow your community.
2. Better engagement: It encourages meaningful interactions among community members.
3. Customization: With the section block feature and community templates, you can easily personalize the look of your community to match your brand.
4. Security: It provides a safe space for your members to connect.
5. User-friendly design: The updated layout is simple to navigate, making it easy for everyone to find what they need.
6. Easy login options: Members can sign in quickly using single sign-on or social media accounts.
7. Free plan available: Bettermode offers a freemium signup option, allowing you to start building your community without any upfront costs.

In short, if you want to set up a professional community where your members can engage, interact, and be rewarded inside your community, you should try Bettermode for free.

This article was originally published on March 2nd, 2023, and was updated on October 18th, 2024.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's better, Slack or Discord?

Slack is mainly designed for professional communication, making it a great option for businesses and teams that need organized ways to talk and work together. It has features like channels for different topics, text communication, easy file sharing and advanced search tools. Slack is perfect for team communication, increased productivity and collaboration in the workplace.

Unlike Slack, Discord is tailored more for community engagement and social interaction. It provides a flexible platform for text, video and voice channels, making it a popular online gaming chat app. Discord users include not only gamers but also hobbyists, students and professionals, as the platform supports a wide range of online communities.

Does Slack have roles like Discord?

No, Slack doesn’t have roles like Discord. In Discord, you can create customizable roles to manage permissions for members. When we compare Slack to Discord's interface, it uses channels to organize conversations instead. Slack lets you control who can access different channels, but it doesn’t have the same level of role management as Discord. Slack's interface is designed more for team collaboration and communication.

Why is Slack so popular?

Slack is popular because it simplifies business communication and collaboration for businesses and teams. It offers organized channels for focused discussions, direct messaging, file sharing, and integrations with numerous apps. Slack's interface also supports voice calls and video calls, real-time collaboration and powerful search tools, making it a go-to platform for teams looking to streamline their workflows.

Which is better than Discord?

If you are looking to build a brand-led community, then Bettermode stands out as a brilliant Discord alternative. Bettermode is an easy-to-use interface with a well-thought-out community structure, including content categorization, easy navigation and tags. Additionally, its extensive customization options allow you to create a unique experience tailored to your community's needs.

With a great variety of community collaboration tools on the market, it can be hard to choose the one that fits all your needs. This blog compares the top-rated platforms — Slack vs. Discord — to help you choose the best option for voice and video communication that's right for you.

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