Whenever you want to use a VoIP app, two of the most popular options are Skype and Viber. There are lots of other apps on the market, but these two have been tested again and again by millions of people, and most of them declared themselves satisfied with the results. But in the end, which one of the two is worth installing? Let’s have a rundown of the criteria and see which scores better.
How Easy It Is to Use?
Truth be told, both Viber and Skype rely on some user-friendly interface. The installing process is quite straightforward, even though it differs. For example, for Skype you need to set up a username and a password, while for Viber you only need your cell phone number. Another difference is the fact that Skype started out as a desktop app, and you can use it as such too, while Viber is more recent and it is only for mobile.
How Much Do You Have to Pay?
The true rivalry begins here, since both Viber and Skype offer the same features for no money at all. You have free app, free calls and messages to everyone without any limit. However, Skype offers services that are not available on Viber, such as calling mobile phones and landlines, but for these options you have to pay. As such, we have to admit that Skype wins this round.
How Many People Use It?
Though popularity is not a warrantee for quality, it is often times an indicator of how good an app is. In this case, the bigger the userbase a VoIP app has, the more people you can call, it’s simple. Skype is again the winner here, since it has 5 times the number of downloads Viber has. However, it’s normal to be like that, since Viber has just hit the market.
Flexibility
Nowadays flexibility is a key component of everything. Here, Viber has a definite advantage, since it was conceived primarily as a mobile app. Meanwhile, Skype has had quite some difficulties in catering to various mobile platforms, since the developers had to changes all sorts of things.
Data Usage
The very concept of VoIP was intended to be a cheap alternative to calls. However, mobile VoIP is slightly more expensive than the desktop one, since you have to spend on mobile data usage. You have to pay attention to how much data you are using. For you to have an idea, Viber uses something around 250 KB/minute, while Skype definitely needs more than that. As such, the winner of this round is Viber, with the mention that indeed, Skype offers more qualitative calls than Viber.
Quality of the Calls
And since we’re here, let’s talk a bit about the quality of the calls too. As we already said, Skype offers a much better call quality than Viber, both when it comes to voice and to video. This happens because the app relies on HD voice and improved codecs. Moreover, Viber is still beta testing their video call feature, so we cannot really compare the two.
Features
Yet again, Viber proves itself to be quite limited. It doesn’t offer too many features, while Skype has had the time in a decade to gather up lots of interesting and useful features. The latter allows you to add several people to one call, record you call, set up various configurations and settings, you can choose premium plans and so on. You can even find special hardware for Skype, such as microphones, web cameras or headsets. Meanwhile, Viber is quite poor, offering much less, so we can say that Skype is a true winner.
I wouldn’t necessarily use any of those, but rather free open source messaging and call clients, like Pidgin for example. And anyway I would use VPN on every device that I’m using for calling and chatting, TracelessVPN is great solution for that.