When deciding between Discord and Arena Community, consider the type of online experience you want to create. Discord is ideal for fostering communities centered around gaming, casual conversations, and group interactions, focusing on voice and text-based communication.
Arena Community, in contrast, is tailored for brands, publishers, sports teams, and creators who aim to build highly interactive and engaging spaces. It’s designed for those who want to transform their websites into dynamic hubs for real-time discussions, live content, and community participation.
Understanding the features and limitations of each platform will help you make an informed decision. Read on to discover the key differences between Discord and Arena Community.
Overview: Discord vs Arena Community
What is Discord?
Discord is a voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) platform for exchanging text messages, making voice calls, and streaming individual and group video calls. Simply put, it is a community space where users can connect and talk with creators, friends, and people with similar interests.
The interaction occurs on public or private servers, which are dedicated community spaces. Once on a server, the user enters a voice or text channel. Discord allows users to send Direct Messages (DMs), create Direct Message Groups (DMG), and share their computer screens with other servers or DMG members.
Discord’s primary focus is gaming, and the platform integrates with popular video game consoles such as PlayStation and Xbox. Users can also access Discord through a web browser or iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows apps. Additionally, the platform comes with an app directory, where users can download applications for gaming, entertainment, or moderation directly on their servers.
Although Discord doesn’t really compete with video game live-streaming platforms like Twitch, creators with ties to the gaming community can use Discord as a centralized hub for content, merch drops, and product launches.
Non-gamer creators and users mainly use Discord as a live group chat, logging in and joining conversations to watch shows, listen to music, study, share memes, or simply discuss a specific topic via video, audio, or text.
What is Arena Community?
Arena Community is a flexible engagement platform that helps customers move their audiences from social media to their websites or apps. Its no-code approach enables brands, creators, and organizations to foster stronger connections with their communities by promoting meaningful interaction and deeper engagement.
Although Arena does not currently offer voice and video call capabilities, the platform provides various integrated engagement tools.
Brands and creators can engage viewers through real-time group chats, dynamic live blogs for multimedia updates, interactive polls, Q&As, and community discussion forums—all designed to drive active user involvement directly on your site.
Arena Community also puts control in the hands of brands and creators, offering AI-powered features like automated content moderation, a writing assistant, and AI-driven Feed Search and Summary to help users quickly access relevant content.
Monetization is further enhanced through optimized ad placements, subscription models, and sponsored content partnerships. The platform is versatile enough to serve diverse needs, including sports and entertainment organizations, news media, gaming, e-learning, and e-commerce projects.
What are the Main Differences Between Arena Community and Discord?
Pricing in Discord vs Arena Community
Discord and Arena Community have similar features, such as Live Group Chats, DMs, Forums, and Events, but they cater to different customer and user needs.
Discord is mainly used by the gaming community, whether they are creators or simply gamers wishing to connect with others with similar interests. While other niche communities turn to Discord for real-time conversations with peers, the platform’s lack of live blog features makes it harder for communities to withhold valuable, evergreen content.
Arena Community, on the other hand, counts on a robust toolkit meant to engage communities and bring audiences back from social media to your website. Besides counting with features such as Live Group Chat, Live Blog, discussion forums and more, Arena Community also leverages social media content to help enrich your community feed.
Let’s see the price breakdown of each platform below:
Discord Pricing
Discord counts with a free plan for users who get by with limited capabilities, as well as two paid options:
- Free: While limited compared to other Discord plans, it is suitable for people looking for a free VoIP tool. Its features include group voice communication in channels, search filters, file uploads up to 25 MB, and unlimited file storage.
- Nitro Basic Plan ($2.99/month or $29.99 annually): This plan is ideal for active users who want additional features but aren’t necessarily content creators. It allows users to upload files up to 50 MB, give unlimited super reactions, and customizable stickers, app icons, emojis, and video backgrounds.
- Nitro Plan ($9.99/month or $99.99 annually): This is the most robust option. It has all the features from the previous plan, plus file uploads up to 500 MB, HD streaming, longer messages, two free boosts, custom server profiles, shop member pricing, exclusive items, enhanced customization options, and more.
Arena Community Pricing
Arena Community offers three annual billing options:
- Free: This plan is designed for individuals and small teams just starting their online communities. It comes with basic live engagement features, such as a live blog, group chat, and auto RSS feed.
- Starter ($49/month) – Ideal for communities of up to 200.000 monthly pageviews. It includes features such as Auto RSS Feed, Group Chat, Live Blog, Social Networks Content Stream, AI Summary, AI Polls, AI Search, AI Moderation, Q&As, Ads Monetization and much more.
- Professional ($249/month) – Designed for brands and creators with over 2 million monthly pageviews. It comes with everything from the Starter plan, plus UI Customization, Conversion Cards, Ads Revenue Share, AI Post Enhancement, Live Support from Arena’s team, and other benefits.
- Enterprise (Custom) – Suited for large communities, brands and creators. The Enterprise plan comes with everything from the aforementioned plans, plus Data Exportation, White Label, Full API Access, a dedicated Account Manager, and a Private Server, amongst other advantages.
To see Arena Community’s full pricing options, click here.
Discord vs Arena Community: Which Platform is Best?
Choosing between Discord and Arena Community comes down to your community-building objectives and strategies.
If you are looking simply for a live chat and live video solution that is already familiar to gaming audiences, then Discord might be the right choice for you. Although the platform presents limitations when it comes to building a centralized and complete community hub, Discord is fairly easy to use and has an established reputation amongst this niche community.
However, if your goal is to build a dynamic and interactive community where real-time engagement is crucial, Arena Community is the ideal choice. With powerful tools for live chats, forums, live blogs, and a range of AI-powered features, it’s designed for brands and creators who want to create vibrant spaces that go beyond traditional content delivery, encouraging audience participation and maximizing engagement.
When choosing between Discord and Arena Community, think about the type of community experience you want to offer. Evaluate your primary objectives, explore each platform’s features, and consider how well they align with your vision. If you want to explore all of Arena Community features in detail, take a look at our complete guide.
