Benefits over Discord compared to TeamSpeak

[kozarman1]

Ok guys... I've read a lot of these "Discord VS TeamSpeak" and "Discord is better than TeamSpeak" postings now and I can't help but posting my personal opinion on this topic... I'm using TeamSpeak since 2003 and I still think it's the best VoIP solution out there. Again... I'm not writing this as a representative of TeamSpeak Systems GmbH.

So... I've tested Discord for some time now and yes, I have to admit, that it's an eye-catcher with its modern UI and text chat capabilities. But apart from these two features, it simply can't compete with TeamSpeak 3. Here's why:

1. The desktop client is an Electron based web application written in JavaScript. This is a bummer on performance when you're joining servers with a lot of people online. The client almost maxed out the CPU of my MacBook Pro when I joined an Overwatch community server. I'd say their statement that Discord is not affecting the FPS of your game is simply a lie.
2. Almost half of my friends I was testing with had audio issues. We've experienced distortion, cracking sounds and lags. TeamSpeak worked out of the box for all of them.
3. With the free version of Discord, you can only upload files up to 8 MBytes. Getting Discord Nitro for $4.99 a month allows you to share files up to 50 MBytes. I'm sharing a lot of files with friends. Most of them even bigger than what Discord can do. TeamSpeak's file transfer is without limits and other people can already start downloading while you're uploading as the TeamSpeak Server will automatically adjust transfer rates.
4. Discord does not provide sub-channels or spacers which makes it hard to organize the structure of your channels. Also, I think the area displaying the channel tree is too small and makes it hard to see where people are and who's talking.
5. Discord does not have a plugin system. As a person who likes to adjust software to my needs, I really miss all the customization features TeamSpeak provides.
6. Discord does not allow me to join multiple voice servers and/or channels at once.
7. The iOS app is very unstable and constantly crashes on me. I did not test the Android version tho.

I could name more, but these were the main reasons why I stopped using it. Also, most people seem to forget that TeamSpeak with all its features is completely free for groups up to 32 people. I've not seen many Discord servers with that many people online so I think that comparing prices is quite unfair.

Just my two cents...

I so agree with you on all of these points. I'd like to add a few of my own.

1. STABILITY STABILITY STABILITY! Teamspeak's uptimes embarrass Discords. I am on a lot of servers for it and am constantly seeing problems with text messages posting quickly or at all, voice going in and out like crazy, not to mention servers completely failing. Whereas Teampseak so rarely crashes that most servers stay up a full year plus without breaking a sweat if a competent admin is at the con.

2. In this case you get what you pay for, Discord offers a lot of fancy promises and dreams for the future but they are short on competency and working builds. Their QA is virtually non existent and it's free services aren't going to last, eventually they will have to start charging for things. I'm an overqualified Sales Operations Specialist and I've run the numbers on their business model and eventually it will be similar if not more expensive than TS. While still having less than 50% of the power of TS. Yes Teamspeak costs you but you'd be crazy to think that the company isn't sacrificing a lot of profits by keeping it as cheap as it is for the features it offers. Teamspeak wins this one.

3. Customization. If you need an explanation then I think you should do some research first to see the difference. You will be astounded at the diffference.

4. myTeamspeak is far superior to a Discord account. And it's just barely been released and yet it's already better with all of it's bugs. I mean seriously, who makes an account locked to 1 name on all servers without being able to do anything more than this stupid nickname of theirs? I have 5 different names I use depending on the game genre and most people don't use the same name across genres. Talk about broke as hell and unintuitive.

5. Bots. LMAO! Who even creates a program that requires special connection instances to run scripts and shit? With TS you can simply connect a plugin or addon or extra coding on the server itself that doesn't require you to mooch off of your girlfriends pc to run a bot.

6. Roles in Discord is like trying to survive without all of your major organs in Teamspeak. I own a couple Discord servers and the two programs don't even function in the same universe of permissions excellence.

7. Administration of Teamspeak is the most powerful out there hands down, from a security perspective Discord bans and kicks are easily defeated. With Teamspeak you can easily lock your server down so that it's impossible for anyone to defeat a ban without spending an insane amount of time on it. In which case you're probably a loser with no life so you have fun getting back on a server while the rest of us have fun with ours. Also, who in their right mind makes an invitation link default to unlimited uses for 30 minutes only? As if everyone out there is paying attention to their DM's enough that they would always be online to accept the link in that amount of time. Give me a break guys, git gud if you want to compete with TS.

8. The only people I've ever met who believe that Discord is better know nothing of TS and have 0% experience in server administration on the front or back end. I consistently school Discord owners on knowledge and competency.

On that last point alone is plenty enough to rest my case lol.

Teamspeak will always be my jam until the entire staff decides to get high on crack one day and destroy everything, which has a 0% chance of happening. Oh wait, backups would prevent that from even happening. Shit, I just pulled a newb move like a Discord user would. I think I'll ban myself from the forums for 10 minutes lol.

Personally I think that Ventrilo is secretly backing Discord out of spite because they know they will never compete.

Can't wait to see what awesome new stuff the Teamspeak Team comes up with, keep up the good work peeps!

[fspower]

5. Bots. LMAO! Who even creates a program that requires special connection instances to run scripts and shit? With TS you can simply connect a plugin or addon or extra coding on the server itself that doesn't require you to mooch off of your girlfriends pc to run a bot.

Everyone. TS is behind on this. In Discord bots can be used from any channel, while in TS you have to have the bot in every channel you want interaction with it. Plugins or Addons are client side, while bots are available for everyone.

[Chris]

Everyone. TS is behind on this. In Discord bots can be used from any channel, while in TS you have to have the bot in every channel you want interaction with it. Plugins or Addons are client side, while bots are available for everyone.

Actually you could make bots on TeamSpeak listen to the server chat as well and use it from any channel by using server chat. It just cannot listen to channel chat if it's not in the channel. That's security/privacy related - we don't like the thought of having a bot somewhere that would log chat in every channel.

[Teknologist]

Actually you could make bots on TeamSpeak listen to the server chat as well and use it from any channel by using server chat. It just cannot listen to channel chat if it's not in the channel. That's security/privacy related - we don't like the thought of having a bot somewhere that would log chat in every channel.

Not liking it doesn't make it a bad idea. Users should have the choice of what a bot can or can't listen to. Make it a channel permission setting. I do use the Server channel for a bot for a project. It would be nice if the bot could be listening anywhere and respond to commands either directly to the user or the channel. The Bot access would be limited to chat prefixed with a command initiator like ! or / so all other chat would not be logged. This is something the TS team would have to add of course.

No reason you can't have both options. Add a disclaimer if necessary.

[Brady_The]

Not liking it doesn't make it a bad idea. Users should have the choice of what a bot can or can't listen to. Make it a channel permission setting. I do use the Server channel for a bot for a project. It would be nice if the bot could be listening anywhere and respond to commands either directly to the user or the channel. The Bot access would be limited to chat prefixed with a command initiator like ! or / so all other chat would not be logged. This is something the TS team would have to add of course.

No reason you can't have both options. Add a disclaimer if necessary.

I see where you are coming from, but I personally (as a user) wouldn't like that too much.

A disclaimer would definitely be necessary. Maybe you do have good intentions with your bot, but can you say that about every single server admin out there? Certainly not.

That makes a warning a necessity. If it is a necessity it needs to be communicated to the user in a way they cannot miss it, for example in the form of a popup window that requires conformation. Now, if it is a channel permission like you suggested, the warning message would have to be displayed every single time a user switches to a channel where those permissions are set. Personally this would get really annoying for me over time.

And what if I don't consent? This should prevent me from joining the channel in question. Or should it prevent me from joining any channel with 'listen permission'? Or do I have to make this choice for every single channel that is making use of the permission in question? Once I have made that choice, can I revoke my consent, and how?

What if a server listens on all channels or the default channel? I must given a warning and a choice before I join the server. How would that work? When I decline the listening option, are my actions removed from the logs? Am I being removed from the server?

Can the warning dialogue be skipped or hidden by server admins? This is possible for host messages, why should it not work for 'listening messages'.

All in all this would be a very complicated matter, in my opinion. Especially with the restrictions you mentioned in mind.

[fspower]

I see where you are coming from, but I personally (as a user) wouldn't like that too much.

A disclaimer would definitely be necessary. Maybe you do have good intentions with your bot, but can you say that about every single server admin out there? Certainly not.

Best would probably something like this:

A bot can register a chat prefix with the server, like '!', '.', '\' ... you get the idea. All registered bots will then get the chat messages with the prefixed character. But not the others.

[maggy]

TeamSpeak would be well-served by adding a web client capability, even if those web clients are not fully-featured like the apps. It seriously reduces the barrier of entry to get somebody on your server the first time by just being able to give them a link, as opposed to guiding them through a download and setup process.

The mobile app not being free has been discussed over and over on here. While I understand that there are costs involved for the mobile apps and TS passes them along, the reality is that the competition eats the cost of this and this is an area where TS is at a disadvantage. A business decision will need to be made to get onto par (how that cost is handled is not something I can speculate on given no knowledge of TS's business plan).

The benefits of a rich chat addition are largely overstated. If such a thing is implemented, it will need to have an option to disable it like with the animated avatars for performance.

Licensing is another sore point on here with constant topics about it. TS has an unusual amount of overhead for licensing due to its handling of NPLs, and the benefit of this additional weight is not immediately evident. Again I cannot see TS's books but I imagine something that may make more sense would be (in cases other than commercial server purchases) to have a web interface here where server owners input a server ID and pay a fee per slot on a scale, which is then communicated to the server over the accounting mechanism. Increase the free limit slightly (from 32 to maybe 48?) and then bigger organizations pay for what they want. Importantly, ensure that this pricing stays competitive with the comps.

A bona-fide non-profit organization can get a free membership from TS and in that case, the paperwork burden is only for the ones who get a free account instead of the current situation where licensing staff have to play detective examining the records of every NPL applicant. Something like a charity or an open source project will not be too bothered by this process as they often sign up for things like this to get benefits.

I've noticed that TS has started featuring games that integrate their API on the client news feed. Perhaps there is an opportunity for revenue here also? Not big advertisements or anything like that but perhaps a one-line text ad on the bottom of the client? Perhaps something like this could be used to pay for the cost of the mobile clients. Just a thought.

[Master_D]

To get a new point in the discussion of "Bots".

Why not implement a plugin-interface, as like the one existing in the client, within the server?
It gives you the change to define a "command", as usable in the client-plugins, to interact with the chat in every channel, instead of having to listen to the events within the query-interface.
And there will be the chance, to keep the high security, that is already there.

So @TS3-Devs, think about a plugin-interface within the server, which refers to all security-related issues, and also gives the administrators some more ways to customize their servers.

[AGamer]

Discord has everything done through bots, it's annoying.

I have a funny feeling discord will not continue support for anymore features, but simply they have the base of their app done then finish with the video call/screen sharing, fix a few bugs then end support for their product or sell it. Who really knows. Take a read at the owner of discord and his track record for projects he starts them then ends them while the project is barely finished and full of bugs.

Another thing, Ventrilo v4 (built from the ground up - no qt !! and I must say has a very sexy UI) is coming back and I'm curious to see what will happen with discord and teamspeak.

[numma_cway]

Another thing, Ventrilo v4 (built from the ground up - no qt !! and I must say has a very sexy UI) is coming back and I'm curious to see what will happen with discord and teamspeak.

In English, "would" is used for impossible conditions.

[Thomas]

In English, "would" is used for impossible conditions.

I would like to see less klugscheisserie here. But I would cry if that ever happened.

You're damn right, sounds impossible.


Sorry for the offtopic post

[Strychn1n3]

I've used both TeamSpeak and discord and from what it seems like is that there is a lot more choice and personalization on TeamSpeak you have abilities to grant powers and have multiple channels and do tons of cosmetic things discord to me seems more like skype where you have the ability to make groups but is more focused on the individual chats and communication with a lot less room to personalize it. it is also similar since it is free and everything is done for you. It also saves your messages like skype and you can look at them later and block people etc... It is very similar to skype and I personally prefer Teamspeak for gaming and large scale groups. Teamspeak also has the ability to make your server always online so people can constantly use it even if your not online and can easily see who's online in which channels of the server. I.E you see a group of people on a channel called "Gaming" and that way you know they are most likely actively online and are playing games while discord you can see people online but isn't as comprehensive. You can also personalize each channel and only allow specific people with specific privileges to access those channels so as I said before it is better for large scale groups I.E "Gaming clans/groups." It also allows you to grant much more control to specific people on your channel since management is required to keep large scale groups in order. It allows much more micromanaging of specific permissions and things similar. Teamspeak is also a bit more functional where discord is more cosmetic. The layout of Teamspeak is relatively simple but with options to check your connectivity, ping, packet loss and several other statistics of you and other people on the server. discord has a much better interface again similar to skype with a lot of cosmetic and flashy things that give you a better feel.

In conclusion, I would say use discord if you want to chat with a friend or something small maybe have a conversation with a few people about homework or something. But I would highly recommend using Teamspeak for large scale projects, micromanagment, and overall more stable connectivity. Yes, the cosmetics may not be the best but if you are using it to communicate while playing a game you won't really care. If you are having problems in a game with connection Teamspeak has functions that allow you to see if it is the game or your computer/internet. discord is also known to cause slight FPS drops since it does use more CPU and computer usage in general.

I am also aware I keep using lower case "d" for Discord but I started with lowercase and was too lazy to find every single error of the name.

[VJean]

Ventrilo v4

O_o Latest official version Ventrilo for Windows 3.0.8

[Morthawt]

I have tested Discord. Unfortunately I cannot fully share my opinion on it because while the TS staff might approve of my sentiment, the language I would use would not be in line with the forum.

Suffice to say it has major limitations in what is possible. I operate a somewhat large-scale (although not highly populated) server, with people taking care of their own piece of it, with admin power and everything I can possibly, safely make available to them. I find Discord to be worthless. I only agreed to install it as a test and thanks to seeing this thread and remembering about it, I shall be removing that trash from my phone. I just get bad vibes, like Unity interface on Ubuntu, like Metro on Windows 8, like Easy Mode on a Samsung Android phone.

[Congrats]

So few years back I was using TeamSpeak on my phone, so when I wanted to join a server and talk on-the-go, I could do so.

Today, my friend's situation forced him to use the telephone to talk, instead of PC. I suggested the TeamSpeak app, since I thought it's free - as it was before; turns out you have to pay for it.

Thank you for this decision.

Because of that, we seeked alternatives and found out that there is Discord, which is basically a better TeamSpeak. Seriously, creating a server was a piece of cake, so was joining, and once joined a server my friends won't have to take care to remember the address(and yes, I know you can do that in TS, but you can't transfer that easily between devices).

Ease of use and UI are also better than TeamSpeak. And guess what?

The mobile app is free.

Seriously, I can't see myself going back to TeamSpeak. The service is comparable at best, but creating a server is much harder.

I've seen many posts of people complaining about the paid app. This is definitely an issue for many people, but you seem to always look for some excuses, "muh money", etc.

It's probably time to rethink the business model, guys. Me and my friends are leaving, and we are not going back. We are another users you are losing... But by the posts from your staff, I see you are used to it by now.

Anyway, thank you once again. If it wasn't for you, I would still use your inferior program.