10 Discord alternatives for effective communication

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2. Slack

While Discord has been largely associated with gaming communities, Slack prominently positions itself as a go-to chat for enterprise businesses. Its primary focus is on facilitating seamless communications with a range of productivity tools and integrations at its disposal.

What makes Slack a suitable Discord alternative?

• Organization and Productivity: Slack facilitates more organized conversations and lets users segregate discussions into different channels. It allows users even privately to save posts for future reference.
• Customization: Slack offers superior customization options compared to Discord. This allows users to organize their sidebar using folders, enhancing the user experience.
• File Sharing: Slack has an upper hand in file sharing—it offers up to 5GB of free storage overall with no restrictions on individual file size. It thus caters to business needs more efficiently compared to Discord, which limits file uploads to 8MB on the free version.
• Integration: Slack boasts thousands of integrations with essential business tools like Google Drive, Zoom, and Twitter.
• Security and Control: Slack is a secure cloud collaboration tool. It grants them greater control over the workspace and includes access to Direct Message logs in a paid setup.
• Text Chat: Slack has a more polished approach to text chat. It is designed with work efficiency in mind with an intuitive text formatting system. It has a special feature where you can easily view all the mentions and reactions to your posts in one place.

3. Flock

Flock competes directly with Discord in providing fast and reliable communication solutions for professional settings. With simple project management features included, this team chat makes alignment on critical tasks easy.

Why is Flock a Better Discord Alternative?

• Professional Focus: It is designed with business communications in mind and fosters a professional environment for teams to collaborate efficiently.
• Real-Time Communication: Flock ensures real-time interaction, which is perfect for agile teams needing to make quick decisions.
• Mobile Apps: The mobile apps allow users to carry their work on the go.
• Calendar Integration: Flock integrates seamlessly with calendars to help teams stay on top of their schedules and enhance productivity.
• Secure Communication: It offers a secure channel for communication. It ensures that sensitive business information remains protected.
• Customer Support: Flock has been reported to have timely and helpful customer support, aiding in smooth business operations.

4. Chanty

As you are seeking a reliable Discord alternative for seamless team communication, Chanty can be a strong contender. Designed for distributed workplaces, Chanty is a popular work chat solution, highly-rated on most review sites.

Why is Chanty a better Discord alternative?

• Business-focused Features: Designed with businesses in mind, Chanty facilitates both private and group conversations. It ensures productive communications within teams of all business segments. In contrast, Discord is primarily targeted at the gaming community.
• Teambook Menu: This feature stands tall, allowing users to organize messages, files, and links efficiently. This is a streamlined approach to keeping teams organized, which Discord lacks.
• Integration with Third-Party Apps: Chanty promotes elevated productivity levels through easy integration with third-party applications.
• Pricing and Packages: While both platforms offer free versions, they have different approaches to their premium packages. Chanty has devised a business plan that costs $3 per user per month. In contrast, Discord adopts a gamer-centric pricing strategy, which might not align well with all business needs. 
• File Sharing & Management: Chanty excels in file sharing and management, with ratings indicating a 10% advantage over Discord, aiding in smoother business operations.

5. Wire

Wire emerges as a sturdy Discord alternative specially designed for secure corporate communications as per European privacy laws. It ensures end-to-end encryption for messaging, file-sharing, voice calls, and video conferences.

Why is Wire a better Discord alternative?

• End-to-end Encryption: All messages, calls, and files are secured with end-to-end encryption, ensuring utmost privacy. Discord lacks end-to-end encryption, which potentially makes your data vulnerable.
• Compliance with European Privacy Laws: Wire follows strict adherence to GDPR and other European privacy laws. It assures users of legal protection in terms of data privacy. Discord has been scrutinized for its data privacy policies—particularly in terms of sharing data with third parties.
• Business-Oriented Features: Wire offers valuable features like secure guest rooms for external parties, making it a viable option for corporate communications. Discord might lack some advanced business functionalities as it is specifically designed for gaming.
• Ad-free Experience: Wire also promises an ad-free experience to ensure that the focus remains on communication rather than dealing with intrusive advertisements. Though not laden with ads, Discord doesn't explicitly guarantee an ad-free environment.
• No Data Selling: Wire firmly commits to not selling user data to any third parties—it fosters a secure communication environment. Discord faced backlash for its data management policies and its monetizing of user data.

‍When it comes to gaming, efficient communication is a key feature. Finding the right platform to chat, strategize, and share moments with your fellow gamers can elevate a user’s gaming experience to the next level. 

Several alternatives offer unique features and streamlined services for gaming enthusiasts. Let's delve into some of the best Discord alternatives to take your gaming communications to a whole new dimension.

6. Steam chat

Steam Chat offers a seamless messaging service crafted with gamers in mind. Just like Discord, it facilitates voice and text channels where users can join one voice channel at a time. 

The ease of setting up group chats through unique URLs and establishing roles with varied permissions, including adding or removing individuals, managing server data, and implementing chat restrictions, offers a tailored and secure gaming chat environment.

Top features of Steam Chat:

• Unique URL Sharing: It facilitates group chats swiftly by sharing unique URLs with potential participants.
• Role-Based Permissions: Steam Chat lets you define roles clearly, allocating different permissions to maintain a well-structured and managed server.
• Multi-Platform Support: Whether you are on Windows, macOS, or Linux, Steam Chat has got you covered.

7. Mumble

If you prioritize security and high-quality voice chat while gaming, Mumble might just be the Discord alternative for you. As an open-source platform, it boasts low latency and high-quality voice chat features. And this is exactly what sets it apart in the competitive market.

However, it comes with a steeper learning curve, lacking browser support — a feature cherished by Discord enthusiasts. But for those willing to forego browser convenience, Mumble offers encrypted chats for enhanced privacy and an authentication feature that keeps unwanted guests out of your online chat rooms.

Top features of Mumble:

• Chat Encryption: A haven for privacy enthusiasts, offering encrypted communications to secure your chats.
• Authentication Feature: Say goodbye to unwanted intrusions with an authentication process that keeps your chat rooms exclusive.
• High-Quality Voice Chat: Enjoy an immersive sound experience with high-quality voice chat and positional sound features.
• Wide Platform Support: Catering to users across Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows, it ensures no gamer is left behind.

8. Band

Band is more than just a group chat tool. It cultivates a rich environment for gamers, resembling a social network. Users can fabricate chat groups with ease, integrate their friends into the network, and even organize game nights through the handy integrated calendar feature. 

Its plethora of advanced functionalities, including file sharing, live streaming capabilities, and in-chat polls, is what sets it apart.

Top features of Band:

• Group Chat: It helps foster community and coordination through easy-to-set-up chat groups.
• Polling: You can engage your group with interactive polls to make collective decisions smoothly.
• Live Streaming: Band lets you share your gaming milestones live with your friends and community.
• Custom Privacy Settings: It ensures a safe environment with tailored privacy settings, including features to protect younger users.
• Enhanced User Profiles: Band creates custom profiles to share your gaming persona with the world.

9. TeamSpeak

When it comes to VoIP communication for online gaming, TeamSpeak stands tall as a reliable Discord alternative. This platform is known for delivering crystal-clear sound quality. Besides, it guarantees military-grade security that enables a lag-free performance with a track record of unparalleled reliability in the market.

Top features of Teamspeak:

• Lag-Free Communication: Experience seamless conversations with features like automatic microphone volume adjustment, background noise reduction, and echo cancellation.
• Military-Grade Security: Rest assured with integrated top-notch security, ensuring a safe communication platform.
• User Autonomy: Take charge with customizable settings, allowing you to control who can talk and join channels.
• Personalization and Add-Ons: Tailor your experience with over 100 add-ons, skins, and voice packs.
• Cloud-Based Service: Enjoy the ease of synchronizing your preferences across devices, making your gaming communications hassle-free.

10. Pinch

Pinch emerges as a dedicated voice chat platform crafted with mobile gamers at its core. It provides an intuitive space for players to connect with friends and strategize for winning gaming sessions. Its background operation feature ensures you can stay in a call while immersively playing popular titles such as Wild Rift, Brawl Stars, and Minecraft without a hitch.

Designed by the gamers, for the gamers, Pinch promises an uncompromised voice chat quality, bringing essential features to the table, like initiating party calls without exiting your current game.

Top features of Pinch:

• Seamless Multitasking: You can chat with your friends while playing, thanks to Pinch working efficiently in the background.
• Instant Party Calls: It allows you to easily hop into party calls and join your friends in the gaming session without leaving your game.
• Alerts on Friends’ Activity: Pinch sends notifications to alert you when your friends come online and start playing a game.

Choose the right Discord alternative for your team

The choice of a tool alternative to Discord depends on whether you're looking a workplace communication solution or another gaming chat.

In any case, we've got you covered with both lists above!

If you're looking for a workplace chat that complies with most important regulations in your industry and helps you ensure your sensitive business data, reach out to our team at Rocket.Chat for a quick showaround.