What is the best communication software? Please vote!
What is the best communication software? Please vote!
Mumble is super easy to use, quick, and lightweight. It delivers great audio quality with all the features I need from a voice communication app. No fluff—just straightforward functionality. People don’t seem to use Ventrilo much anymore, especially in my network. Same goes for Razer Comms and Google Hangouts. I only used Skype a few times, mostly for work. TeamSpeak works but has a lot of unnecessary elements; the interface feels cluttered and the sound isn’t as good as Mumble on any server I’ve tried. TS doesn’t have proper attenuation, and setting it up was harder than with Mumble.
This subject really depends on personal preferences. TS3 provides the most advanced tools, though it comes with a price tag. Mumble offers fewer capabilities, but I can secure a 5-person setup at no cost and it includes a mobile app. Hangouts is free, but not everyone prefers Google services or wants to link an account. Skype is free, yet it lacks strong security—you can easily reveal someone's IP address and need a Microsoft account.
I personally use TeamSpeak. I host a server for myself and a few friends on a low-end VPS from Ramnode—just one CPU core at 2GHz with 256MB RAM, plenty of extra capacity. Both the client and server run smoothly. The audio quality and stability are better than Skype, and it matches Mumble quite well. The Mumble package is simpler to install on Ubuntu, but since I’m comfortable with TeamSpeak, I don’t think switching makes much sense right now.