When you want to gather a collaborative community online, where you can send messages to a lot of people or your small group of Internet friends, it’s important that you choose the right platform for doing so.
Being on the right platform makes all the difference, and that’s why it’s going to be very useful for you to look into these two platforms and decide which one has more features that fit your and your server’s members’ needs.
Discord has been a favorite for quite some time, but Guilded is another chat service that continues to gain popularity, so let’s get into the comparison!
Table of Contents
Guilded VS Discord – Side by Side Comparison
Discord is one of the most popular social media platforms among people on the Internet, and the number of Discord users and Discord servers is huge.
However, Guilded features a wide variety of new and interesting options, and that’s why it has been gaining more and more attention in the online spaces.
Guilded
Full review
Guilded is a gamer chat platform that was made with the idea to have a social chat service that has gaming and gamers at the forefront.
Discord used to be that, but ever since gaining popularity, more servers that have nothing to do with gaming started appearing.
That’s great in general, but it’s completely understandable that you want to use something that centers around gaming.
It comes with a lot of different and very useful tools, so let’s see what features stand out on Guilded, as well as what are the pros and cons of this platform.
Channel Types
There are 10 different types of channels that you can choose to have on Guilded, and depending on what you need it for, you will probably be able to find something fitting.
Here are the different types:
- Text channels – this is the basic type of channels that most people use services like these for, and you’re also going to be able to organize your chats, incorporate Forms and Polls, and pin up to 50 messages in a text channel
- Streaming channels (beta) – this option is still only available in beta, but so far, you’re able to stream in 4k with 60fps and have multiple streams with a maximum of 15 people being active simultaneously
- Voice channel – in Guilded voice channels, you’re able to have different rooms, depending on what you want to do, so you can choose between Broadcast and Whisper, and everything is done with a 256kbps voice bitrate
- Calendar channel – these types of channels are used to create events and customize everything about said events, so send out invitations, receive RSVPs, restrict some roles, and finally, have a form-fill type of RSVPs
- Scheduling channel – as the name suggests, this kind of channel is used for organizing and coordinating your community, for example, to see when people are available for events, meetings, or just to hang out; once everyone settles on a date, it takes just one right-click to create an event in the calendar
- Announcement channels – these channels are usually used to keep the community up to date with the news, but you can also customize them to look like a blog
- Forums channel – these kinds of channels are mostly meant to be used for topic discussion, questions, and just generally sharing opinions
- Lists – lists are mostly used to be channels for organizing and tracking the workflow, as well as for storing different ideas
- Documents channel – a docs channel is used for sharing different articles that you and your community need on the cloud
- Media channel – media channels are channels where you can upload videos and images, as well as leave links for YouTube videos, and all of that can be played in a pop-out player
Server Subscriptions
In Guilded servers, you’re able to deal with subscriptions and set them up from the server.
Basically, you use these settings to deal with pricing, perks, and tiers, which helps you generate your income in case you’re a content creator.
There is a lot of server customization with this one, and you’ll be able to set all of this on different servers.
Threads
Sometimes when you talk on a server, it can be a bit challenging if you lose track of a conversation, especially for new users.
With threads being a thing, you have a way better server overview, and you won’t get lost nearly as often.
All threads will be sent to the archive after 24h, but you can always go back there if you need to add something.
Applications
Something that server owners can deal with on a daily basis is not being able to decide who to let into the server, especially in the case of private servers.
You don’t want to have server members be just anyone, so one of the features that Guilded has are the application forms that people fill in before the admins decide that they want to let that person in.
Server Groups
Having a server group is basically what having a sub-server is, which is great for keeping the server organized.
You won’t have to deal with a variety of text and voice channels at once.
Server Bots
There are a lot of different bot options on Guilded that are built-in.
Besides that, you can customize them to the level where it seems like you create bots of your own, depending on what you need them for.
Role & Channel Cloning
Role and channel cloning are very useful when you have one server that can be used as a template for other servers.
This can be used when you want servers that have the same roles and permissions, so you don’t have to set each one individually, as that can take up quite a lot of time.
Whenever you have users join your own server, you’ll be able to have them have these cloned roles.
Integrations
In Guilded, you can connect other platforms to the servers.
Guilded offers integration with Twitch and Patreon, which is very useful for content creators.
Polls And Forms
Guilded offers you the ability to have chat tools like polls and forms that you can use across different channels whenever you want to ask your community some questions.
You can make the results private and visible only to you through role permissions.
Emotes
Emotes on Guilded is both unlimited and free.
And, since they partnered with Emoji.gg, you are able to even make your own custom emotes for every custom message you want to send.
Self-assignable Roles
With the server’s own bot, people are able to give some roles to themselves.
However, this won’t cause chaos like it may seem at first since everything needs to be enabled in role permissions first.
Server Customization With Vanity URL
On the server overview page, you’re going to be able to set a server banner and a logo, so you can make your server and all the channel types you have pretty personal.
Just remember to claim the vanity URL, and everything will be set.
Tournaments
Since this is a platform that’s focused on gaming, it doesn’t come as a surprise to know that there is a feature for having tournaments.
On Guilded, you can easily recruit other users, practice with them, and compete.
Pros
Cons
Discord
Complete review
Having a Discord server has become a must among all of the gaming communities; no matter if you’re into CS: GO or The Sims, there are popular Discord servers for all different games.
And besides games, people use Discord for different interests, so nowadays, there are a plethora of server types on Discord.
So, let’s see what it is that you need to know about this platform before setting up a Discord server of your own.
Server Customization
When you have Discord as free users, you have the ability to add a name to your server or an icon, and you have 50 free emoji slots.
With a Nitro plan, you can add a lot more.
You can upload your own custom-made emojis and stickers with all those emoji slots.
Profile Customization
When you make an account on Discord, there are a lot of things that you can customize on it.
You’ll be able to have a profile avatar, and you can also connect your profile with a lot of different accounts on other platforms.
Some of them include Reddit, Twitter, Steam, YouTube, Twitch, GitHub, and a lot of others.
As you might expect, in the case that you get the Nitro Classic, you can personalize your profile even more.
For example, you can have multiple avatars on different servers, an animated avatar, and similar additional features.
If you have just the regular Nitro, there is the option to have a profile banner.
Channel Types
There are a few different channel types that you can have on your Discord server, and here are they:
- Text channel – this is the type of channel where you simply just chat with people from your community
- Voice channel – this channel type is the one that’s used for voice chat, basically like a big group call or a bunch of voice messages
- Announcement channels – on Discord, this channel type is meant for sending announcements of all kinds to other servers and server groups
- Stage channel – this is something similar to Twitter Spaces or Clubhouse, where just a few people talk, and others are listening, so something like a live show
Calls and Messages
When it comes to messaging, Discord has some limitations depending on whether you have Nitro Classic or just the regular Nitro.
The file size is the main thing that differs, with the free one having a limit of 8MB, Classic is at 50MB, and regular is limited to 100MB.
Streaming Channel
While Discord has a great connection to Twitch, and they essentially go hand-in-hand, now you also have the ability to stream within Discord.
As you might have guessed, this experience is going to be much different than streaming on Twitch, so if you’re looking into something more low-key, then maybe Discord can be the choice for you.
Server Groups
Having a sub server inside your Discord server is a very important feature, and as you might’ve expected, Discord has it.
In said groups, you can have only a few roles, and you can have only a small amount of people join.
It’s very easy to make these, and it makes your life much easier as it organizes everything nicely, avoiding the chaos that can sometimes happen in servers that become too big.
Bots
You can have a countless number of bots on Discord, and that’s a big advantage that happens when a platform is available as long as Discord has been.
Besides all of the different bots that are already available, you can even try making your own custom ones, depending on what needs you might have.
There are a lot of online stores to choose from, and of course, many free ones.
Server Discovery
Even though Discord has been available as long as it has, and therefore now gained so many servers, it actually has a great Explore option.
This option can be used to discover many popular servers that you might want to be a part of, and you can do so relatively quickly since the explore works so well.
And not only is it good only in-app, but there are also third-party services that make this even easier, so you will be absolutely able to find everything you want on Discord.
Platform Availability
As it’s expected, Discord is available on all kinds of platforms and in all forms, no matter if you use Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, or even Linux.
The mobile apps work as well as the desktop versions of the platform, so there’s no worry about that.
Discord also has a web client and an upper edge, so that is a big benefit of it.
Prices
Compared to Guilded, which gives out all of its services for free, Discord has a free version, as well as different paid plans.
There are two paid plans that you can choose from:
- Nitro Classic – $5 a month
- Regular Nitro – $10 a month
You do get a lot of additional features and benefits when you opt for the paid options, but it all depends on what you want and what you need Discord for; that’s the only way to decide whether this is something that’s worth for you or not.
Pros
Cons
Conclusion
Discord has been a staple for such a long time now that it’s become hard to imagine that anything could ever replace it, especially because it has so many users on it, and it’s something that’s used among a lot of different communities, not just for gaming.
However, if you and your friend group are only getting into this, then looking into Guilded instead will definitely be worth it, as it has all of its features available for free, and there actually is a higher amount of features available overall.
This especially stands if you want to have your gaming community in one place since Guilded is mostly geared towards gamers, and Discord is more of a platform that’s good for a lot of different interests and communities.
FAQ
Is Guilded a Discord ripoff?
Guilded works similarly to Discord, and it’s the same type of platform; however, it has some newer features that are different than those on Discord, so it’s not exactly a ripoff.
Is Guilded connected to Discord?
Guilded and Discord aren’t directly connected, but for example, if you want to transfer over to Guilded from Discord, there is an option to import all your data from Discord.
Does Guilded allow NSFW?
As long as the NSFW content is not illegal and the users that consume that content are not minors, it’s possible to have NSFW on Guilded.
In all other cases, it’s not allowed to have that type of content on Guilded.
What is replacing Discord?
It’s hard to say that anything will replace Discord, as it’s widely popular among various communities; however, new similar types of platforms keep popping up with similar or even better features than Discord. Guilded is one of those.