Quick answerSlack wins for serious workplace teams needing deep integrations and structured workflows; Discord wins for communities, gaming squads, and budget-conscious teams who love persistent voice channels.
Free Plan
Unlimited servers, 2-week message history
90-day message history, 10 integrations
Paid Starting Price
~$2.99/mo (Nitro Basic) — personal, not team
~$7.25/seat/mo (Pro)
Message History (Free)
Last 14 days
Last 90 days
Persistent Voice Channels
Yes — always-on rooms
No — huddles are temporary
Native Integrations
~30 official bots/apps
2,600+ app integrations
Video Conferencing (paid)
Up to 25 users via Stage/Go Live
Up to 50 users (Pro)
File Storage (free)
500 MB per server
5 GB per workspace
Thread Support
Basic forum channels + replies
Full threaded conversations everywhere
Guest Access
Yes, via server roles
Yes, paid guests only on Pro+
API / Workflow Automation
Basic bot API
Workflow Builder, no-code automations
Screen Sharing
Yes (free)
Yes (paid plans)
End-to-End Encryption
No
No (TLS in transit only)
Worth knowing
- Discord has over 500 million registered accounts, dwarfing most enterprise chat tools in raw user count.
- Slack's free plan quietly cut message history from unlimited to 90 days in 2022 — ouch.
- Discord's always-on voice channels let teammates 'hang out' without scheduling a call first.
- Slack has native Salesforce integration after Salesforce acquired it for $27.7 billion in 2021.
- Discord Nitro costs less per year than a single Slack Pro seat per month.
Discord was originally built for gamers to coordinate raids in MMORPGs — yet somehow it now hosts therapy communities, book clubs, and Fortune 500 side projects.
If you wantYou need enterprise-grade integrations and structured async work
Slack's 2,600+ integrations and Workflow Builder make it the undisputed hub for tool-heavy teams.
→ Pick Slack If you wantYou're running a community, open-source project, or gaming group
Discord's server model, roles, and free persistent voice channels were literally built for this.
→ Pick Discord If you wantYou're a small team on a tight budget
Discord is functionally free with no meaningful paywalls for small collaborative teams.
→ Pick Discord If you wantYou need reliable searchable message history on the free tier
90 days beats Discord's 14-day window when you need to find that link from last month.
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