XMPP vs Discord Detailed Comparison

started on: 2024-10-20 00:00

last updated: 2026-03-09

This page will attempt to consolidate and explain the similarities and differences between each platform/protocol and implementations of features.

Technically, XMPP is a protocol, whereas Discord is a client, so I should've written "XMPP vs whatever protocol(s) Discord uses."

Disclaimer: there are some things that I do not know. I am using Cheogram and Monocles Chat, which has more support for these kinds of things than some other clients.

Discord	XMPP
Server	N/A
This is probably the biggest difference to explain. In Discord, a server is a collection of voice/text channels. In XMPP, a server hosts accounts and chats. There is no "grouping" in XMPP to group channels to replicate a Discord server, like Matrix "spaces" feature.
Channel	MUC/multi user chat
See notes on Server.
DM/PM	DM/PM
Pretty much the same
Replies	Yes
Basically the same
Threads	Yes
Cheogram/Monocles feature, marks the chat bubbles with an icon. Does not "pull" the messages into a separate area.
Forums	No
Not really a thing. Just use a normal forum if you need something like that.
Polls	Yes
Various games and a poll creator available through WebXDC (see Cheogram)
Announcment channels	Somewhat
One can make a channel on their server that users are automatically joined to, where they can recieve announcements about server downtime or other notices from the server operators (ie Snikket "circles", web admin panel to send announcements).
Video channels/built-in voice chat and streaming	Implementations vary.
There is no equivalent to the screensharing+VC built in to XMPP. One needs to use software such as Jitsi or Mumble. You can do calls, but I think that's different.
Stickers	Stickers
One can use custom stickers without "Nitro" (Discord's premium tier)
Emoji reactions	Reactions
In XMPP, one can now use custom emoji (animated or static) and apply them to a message

eof