Teamspeak vs Ventrilo was the question for several years in the past. The answer? The thing is that is not just Teamspeak and Ventrilo on the market anymore. Mumble was one of the first to come along, as open source, for free for anyone who could host a server. And now several years later many more are fighting for your voice over IP.
Ventrilo was believed to die a few years ago. Since 2014 no one heard anything from them. No new versions of the VoIP software. No more updates. Then in 2017, as a shock, a brand new version of Ventrilo came. Version 4 came on the market, as Discord was becoming increasingly popular. Stirring up the battle about Teamspeak vs Ventrilo.
Teamspeak has its history too. The first public version of Teamspeak came out in 2001. That is at the moment 17 years ago, many gamers are younger than that. Ventrilo came out the year after, in 2002. And younger VoIP applications have died. Mohawk Voice came out in 2009, only for Windows (at least on the server side) and pretty much died 5-6 years later. Some users even went on Skype?!?!
Teamspeak vs Ventrilo
Ventrilo version 3 allowed users to download and install their own server. Without any license, you could run an 8 slot Ventrilo server. Probably enough for most friendly online battles. Teamspeak, on the other hand, allowed a server without a license to run with 32 slots. Could probably be enough for many clans out there. Sadly there doesn’t seem to be any Ventrilo server available for download now. At least not on their own webpage. Did they gave up on Teamspeak vs Ventrilo.
Ease to use. Both Teamspeak and Ventrilo are relatively easy to use. Teamspeak offers an overlay on top of your game. So you can see who is online, who is talking and so on. No such features are known for Ventrilo.
I can not find a single point where Ventrilo will be better than Teamspeak. If you know of any, let me know in the comment field and I will update the article.
Other competitors who died
It is not only Teamspeak vs Ventrilo out there. Several other software died in the battle for VoIP Domination.
Roger Wilco came out in 1999 and only lasted a few years. They claimed to have 5 million users just before they died in 2003. That is when their last version came out.
Mohawk Voice was one of the last competitors who released a software. They came out first in 2010 and lasted until 2015. Their website is down and no one ever saw version 1.2 of Mohawk Voice.
Xfire came out in 2003 for the first time. They officially discontinued their VoIP software in 2015. One of their more popular features was the ability to record your gameplay for uploading to YouTube and other Video sites. Fun fact, Viacom bought Xfire in 2006 for $102 million.
Competitors still alive
Other companies and VoIP competitors survived the Teamspeak vs Ventrilo fight. Here are the most known software.
Mumble released for the first time in 2005. Last stable release in 2017. Their website is still up and both their client and server software available for download across several platforms.
Skype came out in 2003. Bought by eBay in 2005 and bought again by Microsoft in 2011. Still alive and kicking. But as the gamers say, only noobs use Skype as VoIP. Offers nothing to gamers other than voice and video chat and some sharing functions.
Discord was released in 2015 and is one of the latest competitors and the VoIP software that has stolen most users from all the others VoIP software. Discord uses a centralized server farm, unable to self-host. They have also monetized the software with customization options where you pay a monthly subscription to have animated avatars and stuff like that.
Check out Ventrilo.
Check out Teamspeak.
If you liked the Teamspeak vs Ventrilo article, check out my Alternatives to Teamspeak for gamers and other users article.