Diode Collab vs. Slack, Discord, and Teams

by MNJR | March 13, 2025 | Category: Diode

Diode Collab vs. Slack, Discord, and Teams

There is nothing more critical to your business than protecting your team and your confidential information - whether it be intellectual property, IT details, personnel data, or financial information. However, most team communication tools, such as Slack, Discord, and Teams, are not end-to-end encrypted, leaving your critical data exposed to the company behind the application.

In this article we explore the case for Diode Collab - a fully end to end encrypted team-oriented chat, file sharing, and remote access tool.

Why look for a team-oriented secure alternative to Slack, Discord, and Teams?

Slack, Discord, and Teams are great collaboration tools but they weren’t designed with E2EE security - none of those tools can ensure your data is not exposed. They are not using “mathematical security” to protect your data - your data’s confidentiality is a function of their business priorities.

That means your organization’s data is accessible to:

The organization who runs the app
Governments in the regions where the organization operates
Hackers when those organizations experience a data breach (Microsoft Hack, Slack Hack, Discord Hack)

If you share sensitive information, we argue that you should not trust platforms that don’t guarantee that it is only you that holds the encryption keys.

Why not use a consumer app, like Signal?

Apps like Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram, are not well suited for teams - they are “consumer apps” meant for individuals to chat with each other directly, or in informally created groups. This makes it difficult to manage an organization’s messaging footprint - many adhoc groups can be created with many different owners. If a person leaves the organization, a critical group may be orphaned.

Also, these apps require each person to provide a phone number - a piece of PII that an organization should protect their team from exposing.

Finally, although these apps do use a form of end-to-end encryption, the “group memberships” that define exactly which devices have access to the encrypted data are stored in a traditional server database, which could be tampered with.

Teams need to use a team-oriented chat app that has better security guarantees than a consumer app.

How do they compare to Diode Collab for team collaboration?

Feature	Diode Collab	Slack	Discord	Teams
Data Custody¹	🟢	🔴	🔴	🔴
Censorship Resistance²	🟢	🔴	🔴	🔴
Offline Access³	🟢	🟡	🔴	🟡
Endpoint Physical Security⁴	🟢	🔴	🔴	🔴
Sensitive Use Cases⁵	🟢	🟡	🔴	🟡
E2EE API⁶	🟢	🔴	🔴	🔴

^{1 - Users of Diode Collab retain full control over their data by only using the storage on the team’s own devices. The other apps store data on centralized servers where the platforms are able to access information.}

^{2 - Diode Collab operates on decentralized infrastructure, ensuring censorship-resistant communication with no central authority. In contrast, Slack, Discord, and Teams are centralized, creating a cloud data footprint and infrastructure that is vulnerable to censorship and deplatforming.}

^{3 - Diode Collab is a local first application which allows it to remain functional in low-bandwidth or disconnected environments. Other platforms rely on cloud infrastructure which severely restricts functionality when the Internet is not available.}

^{4 - Diode Collab encrypts contents on the end devices and has a sophisticated PIN protection system that can be enabled. The other platforms do not encrypt information on disk, leaving your information vulnerable to endpoint breaches and the loss of physical security of a device (e.g. border crossings, muggings, theft).}

^{5 - Diode Collab is designed from the bottom-up to strengthen existing security policies, while the other platforms rely on complex checklists, special plans, and configurations to support sensitive applications.}

^{6 - The end-to-end encrypted API in Diode Collab allows you to integrate internal business tools without exposing those systems to Diode or anyone else. The other app APIs not only expose system data to the provider, they sometimes create unintended information leakage to other integrations.}

Conclusion:

Collaboration tools should empower teams without compromising security or business continuity. While Slack, Discord, and Teams excel in usability and integration, they leave businesses vulnerable to data access concerns, censorship, and outages.

Diode redefines secure communication by putting ownership back in the hands of organizations with full self-custody and Zero Trust principles. It’s decentralized, end-to-end encrypted, and secure architecture ensures teams can collaborate freely - no compromises, no leaks, and nobody looking over your shoulder.

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