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diff --git a/indieweb-micro/content/posts/10-discord-rant.md b/indieweb-micro/content/posts/10-discord-rant.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..883410e --- /dev/null +++ b/indieweb-micro/content/posts/10-discord-rant.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Discord Rant" +date: 2026-02-19T19:17:04-08:00 +slug: 2026-02-19-10-discord-rant +type: posts +draft: false +categories: + - default +tags: + - default +--- +We've seen time and time again that there is "no such thing as a free lunch". The same is true for Discord. + +1. Offer a service that is much better than all the competitors +2. Attract a bunch of users +3. Burn VC money +4. Repeat 1-3 until its time to pay them back +5. Figure out how to make money + +Nitro doesn't fund the platform, hosting free voice and screenshare is more expensive than you think. Ultimately, any choice of software for me boils down to "what value do I get out of it". + +Look, free is free, and nothing can and will ever beat the value of free. There's still plenty of reasons to move even if you are a free user, but that's not the point of this. What I want to take a look at is what value you are actually getting as a paying user. + +If you wanted to take advantage of ALL of Discord's features, such as the higher quality screen share + audio or vanity for servers; you need to buy Nitro and boost your server. Nitro comes out to $99.99 a year for Nitro and around $490 a year for the 14 boosts to Tier 3. For me, it feels like the company if scavenging for opportunities to make money, making features like server banners and vanity links paid (which I suppose is how capitalism works, but for what you get at that price point it seems ridiculous). Even if we lower it down to no Nitro and just 2 boosts to get the additional custom emoji slots on a server, **that's still around $6 a month**. + +Let's say you do opt for this $6 price point. Is it good value? I suppose it depends. I can spin up Teamspeak 6 and Matrix on a CPX11 for 6 Euros a month from Hetzner. Services that give me all the features from the start without all the paywalling BS. In fact, Discord can capture this as well if they changed their pricing model, but I believe their too deep into this situation where they now have to fund the free users or risk everyone migrating elsewhere. + +Not to mention, the Discord client has gotten progressively worse over the years, all these accessories and animations do is lag out the client which they don't even seem to understand the codebase of anymore. + +What Discord sells is convenience, regardless of the Face ID or data collection, the value is not there and hasn't been there from a "running a small community" perspective. There's much better options where you have much more agency over your data, as well as have more fine-grain control over optimizing cost. I suppose you can think of it as going to McDonalds or actually making dinner. |