Around
Discord
| Feature | Around | Discord |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $10/mo | Free / from $9.99/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.3 / 5 | 4.5 / 5 |
| Best For | remote-teams, hybrid-teams, developers, creative-teams | communities, gaming-teams, developers, creators, study-groups |
| Founded | 2019 | 2015 |
| Floating Bubbles | ✓ | ✗ |
| Noise Cancellation | ✓ | ✗ |
| Auto Leveling | ✓ | ✗ |
| Screen Sharing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reactions | ✓ | ✗ |
| Meeting Notes | ✓ | ✗ |
| Calendar Integration | ✓ | ✗ |
| Text Chat | ✗ | ✓ |
| Voice Channels | ✗ | ✓ |
| Video Calls | ✗ | ✓ |
| Bots | ✗ | ✓ |
| Threads | ✗ | ✓ |
| Forum Channels | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Around Pros
- Minimal screen footprint with floating video bubbles
- Excellent AI noise cancellation
- Auto-equalizes audio levels between participants
- Designed for casual always-on collaboration
✗ Around Cons
- Limited features for formal presentations
- Smaller user base than major platforms
- No recording on free plan
✓ Discord Pros
- Completely free for most features
- Excellent voice chat quality
- Huge bot and integration ecosystem
- Server organization with channels and roles
✗ Discord Cons
- Can be distracting with many servers
- Not designed for formal business use
- Message search can be slow
The Verdict
Around is built for remote teams and hybrid teams, with a focus on floating-bubbles and noise-cancellation. Discord targets communities and gaming teams and leads with text-chat and voice-channels.
Both tools come in at similar price points ($10/mo for Around, $9.99/mo for Discord), so pricing won't make the decision for you.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
Both tools are a solid fit for developers — in those cases, the decision often comes down to workflow style and how your team prefers to organize work.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.
