Telegramvs
Zoom
Zoom: Video conferencing that's easy, reliable, and secure
Telegram
Pure instant messaging — simple, fast, secure, and synced across all your devices
As of 30 August 2026, Telegram has a free plan and paid plans start at $4.99/month. Telegram is a cloud-based mobile and desktop messaging app with a focus on security and speed. Softwr lists it under Communication. Telegram is made by Telegram FZ-LLC, launched in 2013, available on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux.
Overview
What Telegram does
Telegram is a cloud-based mobile and desktop messaging app with a focus on security and speed. It's free, non-commercial, and open source. Telegram provides optional end-to-end encrypted chats, self-destructing messages, and massive group chats with up to 200,000 members.
What people use it for
- Group messaging and large channels with files of any type and size
- Private device-bound conversations with self-destructing messages
- Running bots and broadcast channels for an audience
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Telegram.
- End-to-end encryption applies only to Secret Chats; private and group Cloud Chats use server-client encryption, so Telegram holds the data
- Secret Chats are device-specific and are not part of the Telegram cloud, so they can only be read on the device they started on
- Logging out destroys all of your Secret Chats
- The Secret Chat self-destruct timer applies only to messages sent after the timer is set and has no effect on earlier messages
- Telegram states screenshot detection cannot be guaranteed on some Android and Windows Phone devices, so screenshots of Secret Chats can be taken silently
- Messages cannot be forwarded out of Secret Chats
- The self-destruct timer in cloud chats covers media only, not text
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Telegram
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- TelegramvsMicrosoft Teams
Microsoft Teams: Meet, chat, call, and collaborate in just one place
- TelegramvsLoom
Loom: Record instantly, share anywhere
- TelegramvsRingCentral Video
RingCentral Video: Connected cloud communications
Pricing
What Telegram costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Free
Free
- Unlimited messages
- 2GB file sharing
- Group chats up to 200K members
- Voice & video calls
- Cross-platform sync
Telegram Premium
$4.99 /mo
- Everything in Free
- 4GB file uploads
- Faster downloads
- Voice-to-text conversion
- Advanced chat features
- Premium stickers
Capabilities
Features
Cloud-based messaging
End-to-end encryption
Self-destructing messages
Large group chats
Voice and video calls
Bot platform
Channels and broadcasts
Cross-platform sync
Bot API
Integration with Bot API
Webhook integrations
Integration with Webhook integrations
Third-party bots
Integration with Third-party bots
IFTTT
Integration with IFTTT
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Does Telegram cost money?
Telegram is a completely free messaging application. There are no subscription plans, in-app purchases, or ads. The service is funded through cryptocurrency investments.
SourceBehind it
Who makes Telegram
- Company
- Telegram FZ-LLC
- Based in
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Founders
- Pavel Durov, Nikolai Durov
Keep looking
Where to go from Telegram
- Telegram alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Telegram pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Telegram badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Communication softwareThe full category
- Best Communication softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Communication software for
Compare Telegram with
- Zoom
- Loom
- RingCentral Video
- Slack
- Microsoft Teams
- Signal
- Webex by Cisco
- Twist
- Rocket.Chat
- Mattermost
- Textline
- Vowel
- Novu
- Messenger
- Twist
- Messenger
Other Communication software
Meet, chat, call, and collaborate in just one place
Free, then $4/mo13 researched notesDeployment flexibility and compliance across regulatory frameworks
Pricing on request10 researched notesOpen-source notification infrastructure for multi-channel messaging
Free, then $30/mo8 researched notesMeta's standalone messaging app for Facebook, with end to end encryption on by default since 2023
Free plan9 researched notesMeta's standalone messaging app for Facebook, with end to end encryption on by default since 2023
Free plan9 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Telegram, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Telegram
Telegram alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Telegram pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Telegram
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Telegram badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best Communication software alternatives
Chinese super-app combining messaging, payments, mini programs and identity, effectively required infrastructure in mainland China
Free to download, transaction fees on payments
Messaging app with its strongest user base in Eastern Europe and the Philippines, owned by Japans Rakuten
Free to download, paid business messaging and out calls to landlines and mobilesMeta's standalone messaging app for Facebook, with end to end encryption on by default since 2023
Free, funded by Meta's advertising business
Messaging app that dominates Japan, Taiwan and Thailand, now run by LY Corporation under joint SoftBank and Naver ownership
Free to download, paid stickers and business messaging tiers
The default messaging app in South Korea, bundled with payments, taxi hailing and other Kakao services
Free to download, paid emoticons, gifting and business messaging
Conversational messaging and CPaaS with a flat platform fee stacked on top of Meta per-message rates
Per message sent
Korean business messaging built on the KakaoTalk interface for domestic enterprise teams
Per user per month
White-label community apps published under your own brand on iOS, Android and web
Per month, flat fee with no transaction charge