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Pros
Pro Supports mobile clients
Discord has a fully-featured mobile client with push notification support for Android and iOS, which makes it very easy to check in on the app and communicate while out and about.
Pro Free, infinite servers
You can create as many servers as you want, up to the server limit in the client. Creating servers takes less than 10 seconds.
Pro Can be used in browser
Users can invite others to join a Discord channel via a web link, which means no installation is required to use the software - which is one of the big typical barriers to entry for social software.
Pro Easy setup
You can quickly send invites to people and they can join in using the web client without having to create an account or install the app.
Pro User friendly
Discord follows the same type of interface design popularised by Slack, which is extremely clean and attractive, and doesn't clutter the interface with unnecessary chrome and cruft.
Pro Accessible to anyone
Discord is free to use, with a subscription plan that gives additional benefits such as animated avatars, the ability to use custom emojis across all servers, and an increased file upload limit.
Pro Simple & appealing UI
The interface is very easy to follow - you have three sections. On the left are the channels for your server, which you can quickly and easily switch between. The large section in the middle is the main chat area, where each message has the person's username, avatar (or image), and timestamp. On the right is a list of all the people in the chat, where it also ways what games each person is playing (if applicable and set up by the user).
Pro Ability to thread channels
Ability to create channel categories for channels to sit inside of.
Pro Cross-platform
Discord has native desktop apps for Windows, OSX and Linux, and mobile (Android, iOS) platforms and it's also accessible from the web.
Pro Supports video and text communication
Behaves and looks like Slack for regular text channels, but with the ability to create voice channels as well.
Pro Can be very simple, but also very complex
If you're just looking to chat with friends, then it's super easy and simple to use, but if you want to run a server with 500 people, then that can be a little more time consuming(while still easy to learn).
Pro Targeting of roles
Targeting roles allows for quickly requesting someone from a group e.g. artist, moderator, etc.
Pro Numerous controls for setting member roles
Deny access, Deny write message, Allow read messages etc.
Pro Good 1-click invite system
Discord allows inviting people to a specific channel with a link. Links can be set to expire.
Pro Not a generic "team chat" tool
All the UI and the features are aimed specifically at communicating with your gaming team/clan.
Pro Game integration
Discord shows which game each user is currently playing, which among other things helps users to form PUGs with minimal hassle.
Pro Excellent voice quality
Discord uses the Opus codec, specifically developed for low latency VoIP chat.
Pro Syntax highlighting and Markdown support
The support is limited but still exists. It's a killer feature for dev teams.
Pro Friendly payment policy
Free account have no tangible restrictions.
Premium account is just a way to say "thank you" to developers. And it work for all servers of discord (not as in slack). And it can be purchased by one who wants. In contrast to Slask, where all active members of the server should be "premium".
Pro Resource light
The desktop client isn't very demanding on system resources (like RAM), making it lightweight and ideal to have running alongside any game.
Pro DDoS user protection
Discord doesn't expose user's IP addresses to other users or community owners/admins, meaning they can't be harvested to be DDoSed.
Cons
Con No dedicated servers
You are sharing server bandwidth with every other discord user. Meaning if you are using discord and need voice coms for say example your guild is raiding something, and every other discord user on the planet decides to log on YOUR guilds raid is going to suffer because you don't have dedicated bandwith discords overall performance will suffer immensely.
Con No plugin system
Discord does not have a plugin system. For people who want to adjust a software to all their needs, something like TeamSpeak should be more up their alley.
Con It is closed source software
Even though it is made from open source technologies, cannot view the source code, unlike certain alternatives (Mumble).
Con Limited file transfers
With the free version of Discord, you can only upload files up to 8 MBytes. Getting Discord Nitro for $4.99 a month allows you to share files up to 50 MBytes.
Con Proprietary software
Discord is closed-source, meaning their code isn't available for inspection or reproduction
Con No positional audio
Positional audio means that different players/users sound like coming from different positions, sometimes even related to their actual position in the game. This helps especially for voice chats with more than two people.
Con Developer's previous company was sued for privacy violations, among other things
Con Push-to-talk only works in Desktop Client
If you favor using Discord in browser, push-to-talk is only available when the window is front and centre. Push-to-talk is great because it prevents accidental sounds that can be distracting to other chatters.
![[deleted]](https://avatars.slant.co/identicons/50/90635fc4-c65b-53f9-a897-48ce7e58d6e0)
Con Servers only in select regions
Servers are currently only available in the US, UK, Germany, Singapore, Brazil, Netherlands, Australia, Hong Kong, etc. This can mean poor latency for users located elsewhere.
Although server region range has since been boardened, the choice is still very limited.
Con Permission system is very basic
There is such a thing as being too basic. They claim it's easy to manage permissions, but many people find it to be very vague and elementary. No community or server owner could be flexible in this system.
Con Voice delay
Once you speak into your mic, there is a short delay and then you and your friends hear your voice again.
Con The area displaying the channel tree is too small and makes it hard to see where people are and who's talking
Con Spying
Discord logs every application running on your computer and sends it to their server. It even logs all your messages and analyzes them. Discord also has a close relationship with the Chinese government.
Con Does not work on older versions of Windows
If you're using Windows Vista or XP, Discord will not work on your system. According to one Vista user, Discord is confirmed to have text chat functionality, but voice servers do not function at all. They will not hear you, and you will not hear them. It's a shame they can't make it available on a wider variety of browsers and OS's.
Con No self-hosting avaliable
Discord is wholly hosted by Discord (the company), you cannot run private instances, and all servers are hosted on their infrastructure. For most people, this won't really impact their usage.
Con Focused on streamers and not communities
Discord focuses on streamers and not the communities, many implementations over the last year have been geared towards streamers and future updates they promise continue to be geared towards streamers.
Con Connection issues are severe
Many people have serious connection issues with Discord at one time or another, which occasionally requires a complete system reset or software reinstallation.
Con It does not save individual account preferences
This means that if you share your computer with a number of users(brothers), the notification settings(for example), will be the same for everyone, regardless of their account.
Con Privacy concerns
There are some privacy concerns one may raise when looking at their Privacy Policy.
From Discord’s privacy policy:
We collect information from you when you voluntarily provide such information, such as when you register for access to the Services or use certain Services. Information we collect may include but not be limited to username, email address, and any messages, images, transient VOIP data (to enable communication delivery only) or other content you send via the chat feature.
Data We Collect Automatically: When you interact with us through the Services, we receive and store certain information such as an IP address, device ID, and your activities within the Services. We may store such information or such information may be included in databases owned and maintained by affiliates, agents or service providers.
Con Financial scam
The owner and CEO of Discord Jason Citron has secured nearly 20 million in investment funds for Discord. Discord is something that is free it is not a money making machine. Currently the only way Discord is staying afloat is by continually securing new investor funds. Jason Citrons track record shows a pattern of starting a business attracting large investors then walking away with the company bankrupt or sold and his pockets filled. 20 million dollars would have produced a product light-years better than discord, something fishy is going on.
Recommendations
Comments
Flagged Pros + Cons
Con Bad voice quality
Some users have reported good voice quality, but compared to other software the voice quality is bad. The app is mostly made for simplicity of use and text channels.
Con It is non-free software
Cannot view the source code, unlike certain alternatives (Mumble).
Pro Low network consumption
You can use other online websites while this is still running without lag.
Pro Familiar for Slack users
For those that are used to the way Slack (a similar chat client) works, Discord will be familiar in its use, which lowers the learning curve quite a bit for those that have switched or tried Slack before.
Pro Numerous controls for setting member roles
Deny access, Deny write message, Allow read messages etc.
Pro User friendly
Discord follows the same type of interface design popularised by Slack, which is extremely clean and attractive, and doesn't clutter the interface with unnecessary chrome and cruft.
Pro Open source bots and management tools
Discord has a wide variety of bots for things from airhorn noises to automated server management, to leveling systems for chat. The bot API is open and there are dedicated sites for finding bots.
Pro Numerous controls for setting member roles.
Deny access, Deny write message, Allow read messages etc.
Pro Numerous controls for setting member roles
Deny access, Deny write message, Allow read messages etc.
Pro Numerous controls for setting member roles
Deny access, Deny write message, Allow read messages etc.
Pro Numerous controls for setting member roles
Deny access, Deny write message, Allow read messages, etc.
Pro Numerous controls for setting member roles
Deny access, Deny write message, Allow read messages, etc.
Con Customer support
Their customer support team is horrible they responded to me in 6 or 7 days and kept telling me the same thing. my account was permanently disabled for spam i didnt send and im trying to figure out if i got hacked but they wont say anything other than "due to our investigation this action is permanent and there is no plans of un-doing this action." Due to my investigation you can shove it up your --.
Con Discord isn't serious!
I mean Curse is way better and works 100% better than discord. For you fanboys, don't believe me? Go try it out for yourself!!
Pro Low RAM use
Discord doesn't affect the performance of the game you're running in parallel.
Out of Date Pros + Cons
Con Heavy on internet bandwidth, memory and processor
Utilize too many processes and does consume network bandwidth
Con Possible phishing issue
Discord does not own Discord.com, meaning it would be incredibly easy to set up a phishing website and steal information from unsuspecting gamers.
Con Poor voice quality
Discord sound quality is like something from the mid 90's. In addition to this, everyone's mic is hot at all times unless muted meaning you get to hear every background noise from every person at all times, because everyone knows everyone is to lazy to mute themselves.
Con Browser voice chat is buggy
Bugs such as not being able to hear the other person (or them you).
Con Voice chat service has lots of issues
It breaks up and drops data packets to the point of being useless in most cases.
Con No sub-channels or spacers
Discord does not provide sub-channels or spacers which makes it hard to organize the structure of your channels.
Con Limited text-chat features
While Discord promotes itself as a strong competitor to both Teamspeak and Skype, it simply does not match the text features found in Skype, Slack or most IRC clients.
For example, there is still no built-in way to search (Yes, CTRL+F) conversations. Additionally, there is no way to built-in way manually download and analyze conversation history.
