Teleparty or Discord is the best way to watch with friends?

There are two great ways to start a party with friends: Teleparty or Discord . Both are great, feature-packed, and easy to use — but which is the best option?

5. Price: Which is cheaper?

Both Teleparty and Discord are appreciated for being completely free to use in the first place. Teleparty is a simple plugin, while Discord can be used from your browser or downloaded and installed as a standalone program. It is recommended that you install Discord to avoid any complications you may encounter when sharing your screen via your browser.

With that said, both Discord and Teleparty offer subscriptions.

Teleparty Premium will give you the essentials for hosting a watch party—full screen, real-time chat, synced video, and 1080p resolution—but if you want video or voice chat, you'll have to pay an extra $4/month. Plus, everyone will need to subscribe to whatever streaming service they're all watching from.

Discord, on the other hand, doesn't have that limitation. You can stream whatever you want, and everyone can turn on their webcam and chat. Most importantly, only one person needs to be subscribed to the streaming service. However, that person's stream will be capped at 720p unless you have a more expensive Discord Nitro subscription , which costs $10/month.

4. Streaming service compatibility

What might bother you (and your friends) is that Teleparty isn't compatible with every streaming service, whereas Discord works with pretty much everything. Discord can be a little touchy, though, but luckily you can fix screen sharing issues in Discord pretty quickly. It's mostly hardware acceleration that's causing the issue, so you'll need to disable it in Discord and your browser; otherwise, you'll just see a black screen.

Teleparty does things differently. Its free version supports a number of streaming services. The good news is that most popular platforms like Netflix , Hulu, Disney+, Prime Video, Max, and YouTube are supported. There's also support for Spotify , Pluto TV, and Tubi. If you want to hang out and watch something on Crunchyroll and Apple TV, you'll need Teleparty Premium. Same goes for Paramount+, Peacock, ESPN+, and STAR+.

Additionally, Teleparty is available as a plugin for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari, and as an Android app. Discord, on the other hand, works in the browser, on PC, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS.

3. Set up your viewing party

While neither is difficult to start a watch party with, Teleparty is definitely easier than Discord. With Discord, everyone needs to create an account, set up a server, add friends, and then start streaming. It can take you about 20 to 30 minutes to get started initially.

Starting a watch party with Teleparty is a little simpler. Once installed, you create an account, choose a streaming platform, and then find something to watch. You'll then see the option to start a Teleparty. The plugin will automatically put you in a room and also provide a link (in the top right corner) to share with friends and family.

2. User Experience

Overall, Discord isn't difficult to use. But that said, Teleparty also puts very little between you and your viewing party. While Discord is great for getting people together for gaming and even work, it's a multi-purpose platform. Teleparty's sole purpose is to provide a better overall user experience.

This is especially true when it comes to chatting with friends and family. Teleparty is divided into two sections – video and chat log on the right. Discord has a server list, chat, the stream itself, and a bunch of other icons and features. It looks too busy for someone who has never used it before.

1. Is Discord or Teleparty better?

Choosing between Teleparty and Discord isn't as straightforward as it sounds. Both are perfectly fine for hosting watch parties with friends, but Teleparty has the edge over Discord. Ultimately, Teleparty's user experience is much easier to pick up and use. While there are limitations on supported streaming services and everyone needs to sign up for their own streaming service, most of the time that's not a problem.

For starters, do people usually have a streaming service subscription? Secondly, Teleparty supports most of the popular streaming services for free, and the free option provides everything you need to get started. Streaming content in 1080p resolution is also useful when your viewing party is enjoying, say, a modern movie.

I still recommend Discord if you and your friends don't fit into any of those categories, even though it's a better tool for gamers. In the rare case where only you (or a friend) is signing up for a stream, use Discord. Do people subscribe to services that Teleparty doesn't support, even with Teleparty Premium? You won't have that problem with Discord.

Micah Soto

Update 26 May 2025