Discord Vs Slack? What would you use for a community of makers?
ayushp.eth
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Brian Daly@dalynewspaper
@jainaayush05
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FoxyApps
Discord or Slack? We asked the same question a few months ago when we started our private community of Indie Hackers (Lunadio.party).
We had a few hundred subscribers back then, so we decided to create a poll like this. The result was 70:30 for Discord, so we chose this platform.
Here are the pros & cons we saw at the beginning 👇
Slack
Pros: Most likely, you already have it.
Cons: History limited to 10k messages, no group calls. We would need to use Google Meet for calls.
Discord
Pros: Features similar to Slack, but with unlimited history and integrated voice channels for calls.
Cons: If you don't already use Discord, it's another app to install and have running.
👉 My 2 cents after using Discord as a communication platform for a few months:
Many people don't use Discord at the moment, and it's a big con. They need to install the app on their devices. If they use it only in a web browser, they aren't very active.
The other issue with Discord is the onboarding process. It's so complicated. There are many use-cases (user has/hasn't account, forgot email, signing from mobile/desktop...), and the process is slightly different each time. Like 25% of people weren't able to get to our main channel because of that (it's a huge number).
Discord claims they are working on Threads, but it's still missing. All Slack users will miss this feature for sure.
Summary: If I could take back time, I would think about choosing Discord twice. I know our members voted for it, but now I see many problems with activity and the onboarding process, and it seems to be worse than not having a history of conversations (free Slack limitation).
Writing Prompts
@ichangetheway Thank you so much for the detailed response. Very much appreciate it. Just one more question, did you choose to switch to Slack? Or areyou always going to keep it to Discord now?
FoxyApps
@ayush_pathak We keep Discord for now because it's linked to our website to sign in with Discord. Plus, we created some Discord bots to help us manage the community, so we invested big in this already.
huntFilter
If your goal is to build a community I would use Discord~ it offers a lot of power and is great for fostering groups. You can even add bots to help monitor your server.
I find Slack is great for productivity & getting work done but not necessarily the best place for "hanging out" imo.
It depends on your organization culture, but generally Discord wins for me.
@ayush_pathak I am talking about culture in this context https://hbr.org/2013/05/what-is-...
I pick Discord, because it is purely about gamifications!
Listenable 2.0
That largely depends. Slack is well-suited for private organizations/communities. Discord is best for open ones.
Slack is more structured with threads and replies, discored is more of a chaotic chat organized in channels.
OrgaNice
Some time ago, we did a comparison https://blog.upsilonit.com/slack...
TLDR both have pros and cons, but I would say free discord wins as it does not have a 10k messages limit
Suportal
Slack is okay for any work or productivity stuff but Discord is way better for communities, I mean even joining the platform is not hard, has great moderation tools and an option to add third party bots to help with that. Communities on Free tier, their messages don't get deleted :), streaming, calls and video calls are great and finally their community discovery search built in.
OneLine v2
Discord is so much better, its not even a question.
@graham_billington Why? Care to expand?
OneLine v2
@graham_billington @jimcanto As a gamer, I am 100% biased, but I'll share my reasoning. I run a community for developers on Discord, and it feels a lot more personable compared to Slack. Discord has so much customization (custom emojis, Discord nitro, etc). Another huge feature that I use all the time is the voice calls. You can turn on your video to make it act like zoom, or you can stream your screen. I'm pretty sure Slack can do that, but they don't allow multiple people to go live at the same time, which Discord does. We can have a few different people sharing their screens, teaching people how to code, at the same time. And I think Discord is more "fun" (as a company), compared to Slack, which seems super professional.
@graham_billington ... so sorry I missed your reply when you posted it. Thank you for your candid feedback.
Soooo, what would you say are the drawbacks of Discord if someone wanted to build a large, public-facing online community as a solopreneur with little-to-no budget?
I actually did a similar survey on my LinkedIn and I added Microsoft Teams as an option. Out of 34 votes so far, Slack is up by 65% with Microsoft Teams at 29%, and Discord at 9%. Which begs me the question, why is Slack loved so much more in the business world than Discord?
@szczepan_serwatka But what actual features make it so?
@andrew_kirima1 I do not know which features makes it. Maybe branding or marketing around product.
Discord has different position on the race due the fact that it has started like channel for gaming society... I personally use discord in my companies, but I am not gaming player.
@szczepan_serwatka Mmm so you are saying it's a branding/positioning thing?
I've used both but to be frank, I would probably use @mattermosthq