TeamSpeak
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 3 voice chat apps by recommenders
People recommend TeamSpeak as a long-running, low-latency voice chat server for groups. The most common caveat is a limited free tier and licensing fees for larger servers.
People recommend TeamSpeak as a long-running, low-latency voice chat server for groups. The most common caveat is a limited free tier and licensing fees for larger servers.
42 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 31
- criticize it
- 11
- approval share
- 74%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 1 month
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 31 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Long-standing, well-known voice chat option
“Teamspeak is the OG in that space and should've been the top of this list.”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Discord Alternatives, Ranked” “for discord emigres, teamspeak still exists”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “Communities Are Not Fungible” “TeamSpeak and Ventrillo still work great.”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally” Simple channels and easy setup
“Teamspeak worked fine for me... simple channels, voice or text chat if you want”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “In Search of a Discord Replacement” “mumble or teamspeak is pretty easy IMHO”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month” Low latency voice
“TeamSpeak handled VOIP over an actual DSL connection, with DSL latency, in the 00's”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Programming peaked” “lower latency on teamspeak”
Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “US hires over 2k video gamers as air traffic controllers” Better interface and chat rooms
“have gotten more advanced chat room options now”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Discord Rival Gets Overwhelmed by Exodus of Players Fleeing Age-Verification” “but now it's in a nicer interface”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Discord Rival Gets Overwhelmed by Exodus of Players Fleeing Age-Verification”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Free tier user limits
“Its in beta and you can't get more than a 32 slot server.”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Discord Alternatives, Ranked” “you need to email somebody for permission to have more than 32 users on your server”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally” “it is proprietary, supports limited numbers of users on the free tier”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Discord Rival Gets Overwhelmed by Exodus of Players Fleeing Age-Verification” Licensing fees and paid access
“Teamspeak from version 5 on is not teamspeak. It's matrix with a skin.”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally” “the licensing fees for larger servers would be cost prohibitive”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Discord Rival Gets Overwhelmed by Exodus of Players Fleeing Age-Verification” “They had cost money and weren't that great on audio quality”
Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “Discord will soon let anyone find public server messages through Google” Not a full Discord replacement
“TeamSpeak is the closest I can think of but it's not a 1:1 replacement for a number of reasons”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally” “alternatives [2] currently are nowhere near feature parity”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 on Hacker News Self-hosting setup and maintenance burden
“all "installation" software with "server addresses" and "setup your user config"”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “Ex-GitHub CEO Launches a New Developer Platform for AI Agents” “They were difficult to maintain since you had to install your own servers.”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Discord Alternatives, Ranked”
Other voice chat apps people recommend
The two most recommended other voice chat apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 3 voice chat apps, rankedWhat people said
39 of the 45 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“They had cost money and weren't that great on audio quality”
“Federation is a strictly worse model than what they got right two decades ago.”
“Significantly better than the older alternatives like Ventrilo or TeamSpeak.”
“It took down Teamspeak and several other alternatives last time discord tried this”
“lower latency on teamspeak”
“alternatives [2] currently are nowhere near feature parity”
“some of those were better than what Discord was offering for individual features”
“none of which were that great”
“I think I will try to push at least my more techy friends to a combination of Matrix and Teamspeak”
“simple things like changing your username havent been working for like 6 years now”
“Teamspeak worked fine for me... simple channels, voice or text chat if you want”
“Teamspeak, as far as I know, doesn't have a way to solve this.”
“It isn't siloed though, not truly - not in the way Teamspeak or Mumble used to be”
“but now it's in a nicer interface”
“it is proprietary, supports limited numbers of users on the free tier”
“the licensing fees for larger servers would be cost prohibitive”
“To DeDoS a Teamspeak server, it's enough to DeDoS a single server.”
“Seems weird that they have a hard cap on 10MB file upload sizes if its self hosted”
“TS was the solution for team play.”
“have gotten more advanced chat room options now”
“Community voice: Mumble, Teamspeak”
“for discord emigres, teamspeak still exists”
“all "installation" software with "server addresses" and "setup your user config"”
“you didn't have to pass around your teamspeak/ventrillo information to every rando you wanted to play with”
“I would rather go with ts6.”
“seems they where the default for a bit before discord”
“mumble or teamspeak is pretty easy IMHO”
“its design decisions are a little odd”
“Teamspeak is the OG in that space and should've been the top of this list.”
“Its in beta and you can't get more than a 32 slot server.”
“Its quite solid in my opinion, uses a peer to peer system with an option to host a central server for video.”
“They were difficult to maintain since you had to install your own servers.”
“enormous sign up friction”
“you need to email somebody for permission to have more than 32 users on your server”
“TeamSpeak is the closest I can think of but it's not a 1:1 replacement for a number of reasons”
“trialware system that required getting approval/serial code from the company every month”
“Teamspeak from version 5 on is not teamspeak. It's matrix with a skin.”
“TeamSpeak and Ventrillo still work great.”
“TeamSpeak handled VOIP over an actual DSL connection, with DSL latency, in the 00's”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.