When comparing Disa vs Pulse SMS, the Slant community recommends Disa for most people. In the question“What are the best messaging apps for Android?” Disa is ranked 14th while Pulse SMS is ranked 16th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros

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.
Pro Multi-platform/Unified Messaging
Pro Open-source
Pro Per-Conversation Customization
Pro One-time fee
Pro Good Material Design UI
Pro Encrypted messaging content on devices
Pro You can use the iOS app as long as you know how to sideload it
It is on GitHub and there's a way to sideload it with Cydia impactor and appsigner.io
Cons
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.
Con Constantly asks to re-authenticate WhatsApp
Con Doesn't let you customize notifications per conversation or contact
Con No RCS support
But only Messages has that.
Con Inconsistent and intermittently unreliable syncing with web app.
Forgets password periodically - dev insists that it doesn't do this - but it does.
Despite syncing via cloud there is no backup option.
Con The web and pc clients haven't been updated in almost a year. No support for gifs in the web or pc clients. Sometimes the web and pc clients are unable to login or do not sync messages.
Con Lacks support for UWP on Windows 10
UWP apps aren't hard to build - Luke K could bring his app to the Windows Store easily and make a TON of people happy at work.
