The short answer
- Learning or a personal tool: Telegram. You create a bot in minutes with BotFather, there is no review, and the Bot API is plain HTTPS.
- A community: Discord. Slash commands, buttons and roles are built for servers, and you only need privileged intents if you read every message.
- Customers: WhatsApp, through the official Cloud API. It reaches people where they already talk to businesses, but it has the most rules and is paid per message.
Side by side
| Telegram | Discord | WhatsApp Cloud API | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account setup | Message @BotFather, get a token | Create an application in the Developer Portal, add a bot user | Meta developer account, a business portfolio and a phone number |
| How events arrive | getUpdates long polling or a webhook |
Gateway WebSocket, or HTTP interactions for commands | Webhooks only |
| Text length per message | 4096 characters | 2000 characters | 4096 characters for text messages |
| Documented send limits | About 1 message per second per chat, 20 per minute in a group, about 30 per second overall | 50 requests per second globally, plus per-route buckets | 80 messages per second per business number by default |
| Can the bot message users first? | Only users who started it | Through servers it was added to, or DMs with shared servers | Only with approved templates outside the 24-hour window |
| Cost | Free Bot API | Free API | Per-message pricing set by Meta |
Numbers come from the official documentation linked below; our platform limits table tracks them with sources.
Telegram
Telegram is the fastest path from zero to a working bot. A single token authenticates every call, updates arrive as JSON, and you can switch from long polling during development to a webhook in production with one setWebhook call. Inline keyboards and Mini Apps cover most interface needs.
Things to know: in groups, bots run in privacy mode by default and only see commands and replies to them. Telegram does not send messages to users who never pressed Start. And a token is a password: if it leaks, revoke it with /revoke in BotFather.
Next step: the Telegram bots guide.
Discord
Discord bots live in servers. Modern bots use application commands (slash commands, user and message context menus) and components such as buttons and select menus. Your bot must answer an interaction within 3 seconds, or defer and follow up within the 15 minutes the interaction token is valid.
Things to know: reading the content of ordinary messages requires the Message Content privileged intent, and Discord requires verification once an app reaches 100 servers. A bot that only uses slash commands avoids most of that.
Next step: the Discord bots guide.
Use the WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) hosted by Meta. Unofficial libraries that automate the consumer app break the terms of service and get numbers banned.
The model is different from the other two. Users must opt in. You can reply freely for 24 hours after the user's last message (the customer service window); outside it you can only send pre-approved message templates. Meta charges per message according to its published pricing, which depends on the category and the recipient's country.
Next step: the WhatsApp Cloud API guide.
A decision checklist
- Where do your users already spend time?
- Does the bot need to start conversations? If yes, WhatsApp templates or a Discord server you control.
- Do you need rich interfaces? Telegram Mini Apps and Discord components are both strong.
- What can you spend? Telegram and Discord APIs are free; WhatsApp is paid per message.
- How much review can you tolerate? Telegram has none for normal bots; Discord verifies at scale; WhatsApp needs business setup and template approval.
You do not have to choose forever. Keep platform code in thin adapters and your logic in one place, and adding a second platform later is mostly new adapter code.
Sources
- Telegram Bot API: core.telegram.org/bots/api and Bots FAQ on broadcast limits: core.telegram.org/bots/faq
- Discord rate limits: discord.com/developers/docs/topics/rate-limits and privileged intents: discord.com/developers/docs/events/gateway#privileged-intents
- WhatsApp Cloud API throughput: developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/cloud-api/overview and pricing: developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/pricing