When comparing Adium vs Disa, the Slant community recommends Adium for most people. In the question“What are the best unified messenger apps?” Adium is ranked 3rd while Disa is ranked 11th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Easy-to-use interface
Pro OTR encryption
Pro Open source
Pro Supports file transfers
Pro Does what it's supposed to do, without bloatware
Pro Open source plugin API
Everyone can develop their own plug-ins.
Pro Easy to use
Disa is very easy to use and has an open source API, so many new services will be added soon.
Pro Customizable notifications
Ability to set different notification sound/vibration/led based on the plugin.
Pro Unified conversations
Ability to merge conversations from the same contact on different services.
Pro Friendly developers and generally good G+ community
Fast, decent replies to questions, even if they've been asked before.
Pro Many requested features
The developer team does actually listen to the community and adds requested features.
Pro Pushbullet support
Disa works great with Pushbullet, allowing you to answer from your PC.
Pro Many languages
Help and support in many languages.
Pro Disa takes privacy much more serious
Currently, the Disa team knows less about you than the website you're currently visiting.
Pro Great material design
With color-changing design with custom colors for each service.
Cons
Con Appears to be abandoned
Not Gatekeeper-compatible, SSL cert expired, social media presence is ancient.
Con Lack of OMEMO encryption
the de facto standard for Jabber Texting [xmpp]
Con Release version has old OTR
The current release, version 1.5.10.4 only does OTR version 2, and version 3 has been out for a long time.
Con Lack of multi-resource message capability
No carbon copy, for example.
Con No antispam (built-in or by plugin)
It has no challenge-like antispam (such as seen on github.com/jesobreira/box-sentry plugin for pidgin).
Con Doesn't support most messaging apps
Con Disa doesn't follow the Google Design Guidelines
Hamburger Menu/Navigation Drawer (Side Menu):
https://www.google.com/design/spec/patterns/navigation-drawer.html#navigation-drawer-contentNo Animations:
Empty Pages/States:
Maybe a Launch screen?:
Con Does not support Google SMS
Con Closed source
Disa is closed source, so the development speed is capped of their team, no external developer can help or add features that are not on the route of the team.
Con Doesn't support WhatsApp at the moment
Con Attaching pictures suddenly failed; no working solution.
Con Smaller development team leading somewhat slow implementation of requested features
Though the main development (framework, etc) is moving along fine, things like quick reply and sending multiple images at once should've been in quicker.