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If they're worse are they equivalent?

They are equivalent in terms of the features I listed - the core product.

The big difference is in vibes. Slack is unashamedly corporate and would love to sell you premium SSO integration. They could cut out (or offend) the free community tier, no sweat. On the other hand Discord is more gaming aligned, and would love to sell you some premium custom emojis. Offending the free tier users or getting rid of the free tier is a lot less compatible with their business model.

Discord's core product is (or at least initially was) low-latency voice chat without needing to manage a server. Like Ventrillo or Mumble, but actually usable by most people. And there's text chat too, that actually works.

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