In this blog, you’ll see a comparison between Slack vs. Discord and which one is the best platform for the online community. Is it between slack and Discord or do we have a new winner?
The most common tools for building an online community are Slack and Discord.
Over the years, these two “team chat” services have become increasingly popular, especially among authors trying to interact with their fanbase. That makes good sense on its own because finding an effective and substantial means for your community to participate is a crucial stage in every creator’s path.
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However, it can be challenging to distinguish between the differences between Slack and the Discord app and choose which one to use. Thankfully, we are available to assist you.
In the following paragraphs, we’re going to compare Slack and Discord, two community platforms. But let’s first examine why having a strong community platform for users to communicate on is crucial in the first place.
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Why are platforms for online communities essential?
The ability to connect your members and offer them distinctive experiences and information to engage with makes online community platforms crucial.
Let’s dissect it further. In the end, what exactly is a community? A community is made up of people who come together for a common purpose or interest. Communities used to be constrained by proximity, or how near one member lived to another.
However, you can interact with people from all over the world through online communities. Furthermore, they are significantly simpler to expand as your community grows.
Since you know the importance of online communities, let’s understand both platforms in detail.
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Who are Slack vs. Discord?
Before we split down the standards for this throwdown, we felt it might be worth explaining what Slack and Discord advertise themselves for. This is significant since there are numerous platforms for online communities, each of which places a distinct emphasis.
Slack
Slack positions itself as a quicker, simpler, and more effective alternative to standard email communication. Slack is a text-based tool that enables users to categorize subjects into “channels,” which makes it simpler to organize the diversity of communications you and your members are engaging in.
For example, you might have a chat room called “General” where all users can hang around and speak. Then, you would set up a separate channel called “Announcements” if you wanted to have a location for a certain subject like making an announcement.
Slack’s core functionality is a highly organized chat-based community platform for users to communicate with one another.
Discord
Discord and Slack are quite identical in that they both offer a text-based chat option for community members to connect with one another.
Discord and Slack are very close in terms of design and functionality. They enable channel makers to create distinct channels for various subjects. Discord can be compared to Slack in the same way that we did above.
Discord places emphasis on the fact that you’re establishing a gathering place for your users.
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Slack vs. Discord: Evaluation standards
It can be challenging to decide which software to choose when there are so many online community platforms available. That choice will be simpler thanks to some standards we’ve developed. Our three main standards are:
Functionality and customization
Your online community will thrive when you have a wide range of tools at your disposal. Why? since it provides your members with fresh ways to engage with your content and one another. For instance,
- Online course development,
- Paid memberships,
- Message boards,
- Polls,
- Q&As,
- Member profiles,
- Prepared video,
- Live Streaming,
- Video chat and more are
Availability
The most excellent online community platforms will distribute your work in as many different formats as they can. Members will be more engaged if they can join your community or course from different locations. It is essential to develop online community platforms that can be used on the web, iOS, and Android.
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Pricing
It matters how much you have to spend on an online community platform. Making sure you’re getting the best value for your money is vital when so many products provide comparable features.
Online community platforms can be assessed in various ways, but we think focusing on these three factors will be the most beneficial.
Slack vs. Discord: Features and customization
We think the greatest online community platforms provide you with a wide range of features to promote member involvement.
Consider it this way: By building an online community for your company, you’re doing more than just bringing your customers together. A network is also being built by you!
This implies that you need to be able to offer opportunities for members to communicate and form new interpersonal and professional bonds.
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Slack
Establish “workspaces” on Slack for various groups of people to communicate. This mostly relates to the corporate, business, and professional audiences that they are aiming for. In essence, your “workspace” will serve as the center for all of your interactions with the community.
You can establish the “channels” for the discussion subjects we previously discussed inside a workspace. Most of the rest are somewhat cosmetic aside from these customizable possibilities (like allowing you to change the color of the sidebar).
Users of a “channel” chat can start new threads and respond to individual messages. This aids in structuring conversations.
Slack does, however, provide more than 1,000 integrations in regard to functionalities. This implies that you could use tools like Zapier, Giphy, and Google Drive (because who doesn’t enjoy a nice gif?). If you want to conduct a video hangout outside of integrations, Slack provides voice and video calling.
Discord
You essentially receive the same customization and feature capabilities regardless of whether you choose Discord.
Discord offers “servers” (their version of Slack’s “workspaces”), but they are all available through a single account, which is one of the main contrasts between the two platforms.
One drawback of Slack is that if your team members are a part of numerous workspaces, they will want to have multiple logins. Members will find it much simpler to navigate between the various groups they are a part of and to view their direct messages from any location thanks to this.
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The focus of Discord is primarily on gamers. As a result, the platform provides powerful tools for voice chatting in more casual settings.
When you wish to audio chat on Slack, it basically works like a Skype call. On Discord, however, you can voice chat by clicking a button without opening any more windows. You could even give your users access to voice-only chat channels.
Discord’s communication tools are generally far more casual when compared to those of Slack.
Discord vs. Slack: Availability
People are currently using their mobile devices to interact with information and communities in an expanding number of ways. We think the greatest online community systems enable you to create a space that is reachable whenever and wherever your members are.
Slack
Slack provides a fantastic mobile app solution that is almost equivalent to everything you’ve on your computer in terms of availability. Your members will be able to communicate using any of their devices from wherever they are thanks to this.
Discord
Slack and Discord both offer a variety of available choices. Your members will be able to access the Discord mobile app and engage with the community wherever they are if you use Discord for your online community.
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Slack vs. Discord: Pricing
It’s critical to select a platform that offers a fantastic time for both you and your members whenever it comes to pricing. This means that the online community platform you select should have excellent features, be easily accessible, and be reasonably priced.
Slack
Slack’s pricing is one of its biggest flaws. Slack does offer a free plan, but it only allows for:
- One-on-one video meetings,
- Has few search options,
- Doesn’t allow you to share your screen or connect with external organizations, and
- Only allows you to interface with up to 10 other third-party applications.
You’ll probably choose a paid Slack plan if you’re looking to expand your online community.
Discord
Whereas, Discord has a pricing structure that is considerably more reasonable for what the majority of online groups will need.
Discord’s core functionality is available for no cost at all. You receive the following features with Discord:
- No end to the message archive.
- There are 9 API integrations (game, social media, and other applications).
- Video calls with screen sharing for groups.
- There is a 5,000 concurrent online user restriction by default, however, it can be increased.
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Which is superior, Slack or Discord?
As you can see from our comparison of Slack and Discord, the two services are extremely identical.
The size of your online community and your intended audience will likely play a major role in your decision between Slack and the Discord app.
Discord is a fairly informal platform that serves primarily as a gathering place for the community. Businesses are increasingly using Slack as a tool for connecting and interacting among employees. Although they won’t be ideal, they can still be useful for other things.
Hold on. Why take the low road?
Slack and Discord have been extensively discussed above, however, they aren’t the ideal options for online community platforms.
Graphy, in our opinion, offers a significantly better user experience than Slack or Discord. Discord and Slack are all just communication systems in the end. You limit your access to numerous features by choosing to create a community on these networks. Graphy comes with a tonne of features, some of which are listed below:
- Impose membership fees.
- Own a branded app that is available on Google Play and the App Store.
- You can even impose polls, surveys, pre-launch courses, quizzes, and many more.
- You can publish recorded videos, live stream to your community, integrate native live video in your online course, and more.
- You can charge for entry or offer free small groups.
- Construct online classes.
So no need to shove it in though, so we could continue on. Along with all of the above-mentioned extra features, Graphy is able to accomplish the majority of what Slack and Discord can.
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Even better, all of our features are compatible with iOS, Android, and the web, giving your members access and freedom in how they engage with your information and one another.
Sounds really awesome, no? Look us up!
