Overview

Skype

Stacks17.4K

Followers13.5K

Votes653

Discord

Stacks1.7K

Followers1.5K

Votes782

Zoom

Stacks1.8K

Followers1.9K

Votes155

Discord vs Skype vs Zoom: What are the differences?

Introduction

In today's digital world, online communication has become an essential part of our daily lives. Three popular platforms for communication are Discord, Skype, and Zoom. While all three platforms offer voice and video calling features, they differ in various aspects. Let us explore the key differences between Discord, Skype, and Zoom.

Ease of Use: Discord is primarily designed for gamers and has a user-friendly interface with straightforward navigation, making it easy to use even for beginners. Skype offers a simple and intuitive interface that is also easy to navigate. Zoom is known for its user-friendly interface, making it easy for people of all technical abilities to use the platform.
Target Audience: Discord is mainly used by gamers to communicate while gaming, but it is also used by communities and businesses for communication and collaboration. Skype is widely used by individuals and businesses for personal and professional communication. Zoom is primarily used by businesses and educational institutions for conferences, meetings, and webinars.
Features and Functionality: Discord offers features like server creation, text chat, voice calls, video calls, screen sharing, and file sharing. It also supports integrations with various gaming platforms. Skype provides features such as instant messaging, voice calls, video calls, screen sharing, and file sharing. It also allows conference calls with up to 50 participants. Zoom offers features like video conferencing, screen sharing, breakout rooms, recording, live streaming, and virtual backgrounds. It can accommodate large meetings with up to 1000 participants.
Privacy and Security: Discord provides end-to-end encryption for direct messages, but server messages are not encrypted. Skype offers end-to-end encryption for voice calls, video calls, and instant messages. Zoom provides encryption for meetings and data in transit, but the encryption for Zoom meetings is not end-to-end by default.
Platform Support: Discord is available as a desktop application, web application, and mobile app for iOS and Android devices. Skype is compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android devices. Zoom is available for desktop (Windows, Mac, Linux), mobile (iOS, Android), and web platforms.
Pricing: Discord, Skype, and Zoom offer different pricing models. Discord has a free basic plan, while additional features are available through a subscription-based Nitro plan. Skype offers both free and paid plans, with premium features available in the paid version. Zoom provides a free plan with limited features, but additional functionality is available through paid plans for individuals and businesses.

In summary, Discord is popular among gamers and communities, while Skype and Zoom cater to a broader audience, including individuals and businesses. Discord focuses on providing a user-friendly interface and integration with gaming platforms. Skype offers a simple and intuitive interface with a wide range of features for personal and professional communication. Zoom is known for its user-friendly interface, scalability, and features tailored for business and educational purposes.

Advice on Skype, Discord, Zoom

JutzMe

May 19, 2020

Decided

as many people say that you can only hold 30 to 10 people in one discord call if you were to make a server and add a chat or a VC you can hold up to 99 which is more than zoom and you can also use the text chat, general chat or anything else that you add and the best part you can hold pretty much infinite people I have personally seen servers with up to 100k people in it. One of the better parts is that you don't necessarily have to download it you can search it up on google and make an account it's as easy as that. Another thing is due to the original purpose of the website/app is that it's very customizable meaning that your students can customize heir profile pictures and names, but not to worry in a discord server you can have it where only you can change their nicknames so let's say things get too confusing or you want to be able to see who they really are you can just change it to their name. One last thing I will say is that you can have customizable ranks and so on so if you desire to split people into teams you can do so and with that, you can customize what they can do like give people ranks or de-rank them. Like I mentioned earlier about VC's you can also screen share and do videos so you can see their screen or their face.

320k views320k

Comments

Lisa

Mar 20, 2020

Needs advice

Hi, I am helping teachers in my kid's schools to set up distance learning and wanted to see what is better between Webex, Zoom, and Skype (although only putting this one in as most parents probably have it). The children are 8-9, so they won't be using it on their own and the parents have no experience using Webex or Zoom.

The main use will be for the teacher to explain what they will be covering in the week and enable some social interaction between the kids.

I need to be easy to use for about 20-25 people.

Thanks for your advice, Lisa

202k views202k

Comments

Mai

Aug 12, 2020

Needs adviceon

Discord

Zoom

I want to host an online Jeopardy game with less than 30 participants. During each round of the game, I'll stream some videos. The point is to gather friends together to play the Jeopardy game and watch random stuff. Please let me know if there's a more suitable platform other than Discord and Zoom. Thanks, everyone!

919k views919k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Skype	Discord	Zoom
Skype’s text, voice and video make it simple to share experiences with the people that matter to you, wherever they are.	Discord is a modern free voice & text chat app for groups of gamers. Our resilient Erlang backend running on the cloud has built in DDoS protection with automatic server failover.	Zoom unifies cloud video conferencing, simple online meetings, and cross platform group chat into one easy-to-use platform. Our solution offers the best video, audio, and screen-sharing experience across Zoom Rooms, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and H.323/SIP room systems.
Calling- Make free Skype to Skype calls or call mobiles and landlines home and abroad at low rates.;Video- Catch up face to face or get a whole group together on a video call.;Messaging- You're always in the loop with instant messaging, voice messaging and sending texts.;Sharing- Send photos, videos and files of any size.	-	Join anywhere, on any device; Powerful meeting security; Unparalleled usability
Statistics
Stacks 17.4K	Stacks 1.7K	Stacks 1.8K
Followers 13.5K	Followers 1.5K	Followers 1.9K
Votes 653	Votes 782	Votes 155
Pros & Cons
Pros 258 Free, widespread 147 Desktop and mobile apps 110 Because i have to :( 57 Low cost international calling 56 Good for international calls Cons 5 Really high CPU utilization during video/screenshare 3 Outdated UI 3 Not always reliable 3 Birthday notifications are annoying 3 The worst indicator noises of any app ever	Pros 64 Unlimited Users 58 Unlimited Channels 54 Easy to use 50 Voice Chat 48 Fast and easy set-ups and connections Cons 10 Not as many integrations as Slack 9 For gamers 5 Limited file size 4 For everyone 4 Sends data to US Gov	Pros 25 Web conferencing made easy 16 Remote control option 13 Draw on screen 12 Very reliable 11 In-meeting chat is pretty good Cons 20 Limited time if you are a basic member 14 Limited Storage 11 Hate how sharing your screen defaults to Full Screen 10 Quality isn't great (Free) 9 No cursor highlight on screenshare.
Integrations
No integrations available	No integrations available	Slack Okta Google Chrome Safari Firefox Microsoft 365 Gmail

What are some alternatives to Skype, Discord, Zoom?

Google Meet

It is the business-oriented version of Google's Hangouts platform and is suitable for businesses of all sizes. It allows users to dial in phone numbers to access meetings, thus enabling users with slow internet connection to call in.

Jitsi

Jitsi (acquired by 8x8) is a set of open-source projects that allows you to easily build and deploy secure videoconferencing solutions. At the heart of Jitsi are Jitsi Videobridge and Jitsi Meet, which let you have conferences on the internet, while other projects in the community enable other features such as audio, dial-in, recording, and simulcasting.

Webex

Collaborate with colleagues across your organization, or halfway across the planet. Meet online and share files, information, and expertise. Collaborate from wherever you are with Webex mobile apps for IPhone, iPad, Android, or Blackberry. If you can get online, you can work together.

Viber

It is a cross-platform instant messaging and voice over IP application provided as freeware for the Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS platforms.

Jami

It is a free software for universal communication which respects freedoms and privacy of its users. Its main goal is to provide a communication framework and end-user applications to make audio or video calls, send text messages and make generic data transfers. It makes this possible via multiple paradigms: a modern decentralized approach using a DHT to find peers or classical centralized SIP as a soft-phone.

WebRTC

It is a free, open project that enables web browsers with Real-Time Communications (RTC) capabilities via simple JavaScript APIs. The WebRTC components have been optimized to best serve this purpose.

TeamViewer

Its aproprietary software for remote control, desktop sharing, online meetings, web conferencing and file transfer between computers.

Hangouts

It is a communication platform which includes messaging, video chat, and VOIP features.

GoToMeeting

It is an online meeting, desktop sharing, and video conferencing software package that enables the user to meet with other computer users, customers, clients or colleagues via the Internet in real time.

Livestorm

It is the modern webinar solution for all customer training sessions, demo webinars and employee onboarding. Everything works inside the browser, in real-time, without any download.