Discord is a great app for chat and community, but for daily standups and sprint planning, most remote teams need a collaboration tool that makes scheduled meetings just as easy as spontaneous conversations. That means features like calendar integrations, simultaneous screen sharing, recording, and meeting summaries and transcriptions.
If your team is exploring Discord alternatives, you’re in the right place and have more options than you might think. You have traditional meeting tools like Zoom or Google Meet, or chat-first apps like Slack.
Then there are tools like Gather: a virtual office where remote teams can meet, chat, and interact like they’re in person. We’ve had Discord teams switch to Gather when they’re ready for a more formal meeting tool but still want to keep a fun, interactive workspace.
To help you on your search, we’ve compiled a list of 6 Discord alternatives that could be your next favorite work tool:
Gather: Best for teams that want to keep the culture and casual connection Discord gave them
Slack: Best for teams that want a robust, chat-first workspace
Microsoft Teams: Best for teams already living in Microsoft 365
Google Workspace (Chat + Meet): Best for teams already living in Gmail and Drive
Zoom: Best for teams that want the most widely recognized video meeting tool
Whereby: Best for teams that want quick, no-download video calls
1. Gather
Best for teams that want to keep the culture and casual connection Discord gave them
Price: $12 per member per month (billed annually) or $15 per member per month (billed monthly). For large teams, contact for custom pricing.
Free trial? Yes, a 30-day free trial with no credit card required.
Main features:
Unlimited audio and video for meetings or spontaneous conversations
Unlimited chat, including channels, DMs, and in meetings
Customizable virtual office
Meeting recordings and transcriptions
Google Calendar integration
Discord’s chat and voice channels are great for helping people connect without booking meetings. Gather is built around that same feeling, but it’s designed for remote work instead of a gaming server.
In addition to chat channels, your team gets a custom virtual office where you can see each other and move around. In a single glance, you can tell who’s deep in a conversation, who’s heads-down and focused, and who’s free to talk. Starting conversations is as easy as walking over to someone, or you can always schedule a meeting for more formal calls.
Teams that make the switch enjoy how easy it is to connect and how fun it is to customize the workspace. You can decorate your office for the holidays, redesign it as the team grows, or just make it weird in a way that feels like your team.
"Gather makes you find moments of fun. It’s elevated our game in terms of keeping the team connected, even if you’re not in the same place."
Clara Daray, Co-Founder, Pegasus Content, a creative content agency based in Buenos Aires
The average conversation in Gather is less than 10 minutes. Teams have seen engagement improve by up to 70%, while reducing Slack and Google Meet messages by 80%.
Ready to try it yourself? Get started with a free 30-day trial.
2. Slack
Best for teams that want an all-in-one, chat-first workspace
Price: Limited free plan. Pro is $8.75 per user per month (billed monthly). Business+ is $18 per user per month (billed monthly). Enterprise+ is custom-priced.
Free trial? There is no set trial length, but Workspace Owners can request a free trial of Pro or Business+ with no credit card required. The Free plan is available indefinitely for smaller teams.
Main features:
Channels to organize conversations by team, project, or topic
Threads to keep side conversations out of the main channel
Huddles for quick voice and video calls
Slack Connect for messaging with external partners and clients
A large app directory that connects to almost everything else your team uses
Slack vs Discord:
Slack was built for business from day one, and it shows in the details: admin controls, guest access, and SSO are standard on the higher-tier plans.
Huddles give you a lightweight way to jump into a quick voice or video call without a calendar invite, capturing some of what people liked about Discord's voice channels. They don't fully replace the ambient, drop-in feeling. A Huddle is still something you start, not a space you're just hanging out in.
For teams that primarily want organized, searchable, text-first communication with the occasional quick call, that trade-off is an easy one to make.
3. Microsoft Teams
Best for teams already living in Microsoft 365
Price: Prices range from $4 per user per month (billed annually) to $23.50 per user per month (billed annually). Teams Phone (a calling add-on) starts at $10 per user per month.
Free trial? Yes. Microsoft Teams Essentials offers a one-month free trial (a credit card is required upfront and will automatically convert to a paid subscription if you don't cancel).
Main features:
Chat, channels, and threaded conversations
Video meetings with breakout rooms and Together Mode
Deep integration with Outlook, SharePoint, and the rest of Office
Enterprise-grade security and compliance controls
Teams Phone add-on for calling
Microsoft Teams vs Discord:
If your company already runs on Outlook and SharePoint, Teams is the path of least resistance. Meetings, chat, and file collaboration all live within the tools your team already has open.
Teams is also the most formal option on this list, built around structured meetings and channels tied to specific projects. If your team embraced the casual, drop-in voice-channel vibe of Discord, Teams may be a bit of a culture shock. For others, it may be exactly the professional app you’re looking for.
4. Google Workspace (Chat + Meet)
Best for teams already living in Gmail and Drive
Price: $7 per user per month (billed annually) to $26.40 per user per month (billed monthly). Enterprise plans are custom priced.
Free trial? Yes, a 14-day free trial.
Main features:
Google Chat spaces for team and project conversations
Google Meet for video calls, screen sharing, and recording
Built-in integration with Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Drive
Shared calendars for scheduling
An admin console for managing users and security
Google Workspace vs Discord:
For teams already using Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive, Google Workspace is the low-friction option. Everything integrates with the calendar and docs you already use, making the switch easy.
The trade-off is that Google Chat’s search and thread organization tend to lag behind those of dedicated chat tools, making conversations harder to track as your team grows. The same goes for Meet: it’ll give you the basics of a meeting platform, but it doesn’t go beyond that like some of the other tools on this list.
5. Zoom
Best for teams that want the most widely recognized video meeting tool
Price: A free basic plan is available with a 40-minute limit on group meetings. Paid plans range from $13.33 per user per month (billed annually) to $21.99 per user per month (billed monthly). Enterprise plans are custom-priced.
Free trial? No dedicated trial for paid tiers, but the Basic plan is free indefinitely and covers small, short meetings well enough to test the product.
Main features:
HD video meetings with up to 1,000 participants on higher-tier plans
Breakout rooms for smaller group discussions
Zoom Whiteboard for real-time brainstorming
AI Companion for meeting summaries and follow-ups
Zoom Phone and webinar add-ons for larger-scale needs
Zoom vs Discord:
Zoom is the tool most people already associate with "having a meeting," which fits teams that are deliberately shifting away from casual, always-open voice channels and toward scheduled, focused calls.
It's built for the meeting itself, not the time around it. There's a Team Chat feature for sidebar conversations during meetings, but it doesn’t persist after the call ends. If your team’s primary need is reliable, large-scale video calls, Zoom is a great option.
6. Whereby
Best for teams that want quick, no-download video calls
Price: A free plan is available (1 host, 1 room, 4 attendees, 30-minute limit). Pro is $10.99 per user per month. Business is $13.99 per user per month (3-host minimum). Annual billing saves 17%.
Free trial? Yes, a 14-day free trial is available on the Business plan. The Free plan also works indefinitely for very small, short calls.
Main features:
Persistent room links that don't expire between calls
No downloads or accounts required for guests to join
Custom branding and subdomains on paid plans
Screen sharing and unlimited recording on Pro and higher tiers
Shared and flex rooms for teams that need more than one space
Whereby vs Discord:
Whereby is a privacy-first video platform with minimal friction. You create meeting rooms and reuse those persistent URLs instead of generating a new meeting link for every call. (This will feel similar to Discord voice channels.)
Where they differ is that Whereby doesn’t have persistent chat or a way to see who’s around unless they’re in the meeting room. It’s a good choice as a lightweight way to hop on a call without the overhead of a large platform, but it may leave your team looking for a secondary tool in addition to Whereby.
FAQ
Do we have to give up voice channels if we switch off Discord?
Not at all! With Gather, you can hear conversations around you and easily jump in (similar to ambiently listening in a voice channel). Slack offers Huddles for quick voice calls, or you can always start a Google Meet call with video off.
Is switching tools going to be a huge lift for our team?
Less than you'd think. Most teams run a free trial alongside their existing setup for a week or two before deciding. For example, Gather's 30-day trial doesn't require moving anything off Discord first.
Can we keep Discord for some things and move only the work stuff?
Many teams do exactly this: Discord stays for the community or personal server, and day-to-day work moves to a platform built for it. There's no rule that says it has to be all or nothing.
What’s included in Gather’s free trial?
Everything! The first 30 days are free, so you have plenty of time to test everything with your team. That includes meetings, unplanned conversations, recording, AI summaries, full office customization, and more. View pricing and all plan features here.
To sum it up
Most of these tools solve the "we need something other than Discord" problem. Only one of them also solves for the part your team will actually miss: the sense of just being around each other.
If it's the hangout you're nostalgic for, not the chat, Gather gives your team a virtual office where that can still happen. Decorate it for the season, wave at a teammate across the room, and let conversations start themselves instead of scheduling them.
