Best programming language for a Discord bot

A Discord bot is a program that talks to the Discord API: it opens a WebSocket connection to the Gateway to receive events and calls the HTTP API to respond. Any language that speaks HTTP and WebSocket can do that. So the question "what is the best language?" is less about the language and more about the library available for it.

Nobody writes the Discord protocol from scratch. You use a library that handles reconnects, rate limits, caching and commands. Discord's documentation says the company does not maintain official SDKs and lists community libraries that implement rate limiting, are recently maintained and have active communities.

Which criteria matter when choosing?#

Five criteria settle almost every case, in order of weight:

1. What you already know. Learning a new language and the Discord API at the same time doubles the effort. If you already program well in a language with an active library, start there.
2. Library maturity. Recent releases, documentation, examples and an active support server count for more than raw speed. An abandoned library breaks when Discord changes the API.
3. Features your bot needs. Slash commands, buttons and modals exist in every major library. Voice is what separates them most: since March 1, 2026, Discord only supports end-to-end encrypted calls (the DAVE protocol) in voice channels, so a voice bot needs a library version that implements DAVE.
4. How big the bot will get. Up to 2,500 servers, one process is enough. Beyond that Discord requires sharding, and cache memory grows. That is where compiled languages start to make a difference.
5. Where you will host it. Make sure the host offers the language runtime (Node.js, Python, JVM, .NET, native binary) in the version the library asks for.

Language speed is almost never on the list. Discord gives you 3 seconds to send the first response to an interaction, and that time goes to the network, the API and your database, not to the interpreter.

What are the options, with pros and cons?#

Check each library's current version on npm, PyPI, NuGet or the project's GitHub releases page.

JavaScript and TypeScript (discord.js)#

discord.js is the most widely used library and the one with the most tutorials, answered questions and sample bots. The package ships its own type definitions, so you can write TypeScript without installing anything extra. For voice, current versions of @discordjs/voice already depend on a DAVE implementation and require a recent Node.js version. The official guide recommends the current Active LTS of Node.js.

It is the natural pick if you also build websites or APIs in JavaScript, because the same knowledge carries over to the bot's web dashboard.

Python (discord.py and forks)#

discord.py runs on Python versions that are still supported (the minimum is in its documentation) and gained DAVE support in version 2.7.0. The code is short and readable, which helps when you are learning. Python is also the most common language for AI and data work, useful if the bot will call a language model or process spreadsheets.

The catch is the forks. During a period when discord.py stopped receiving updates, py-cord, nextcord and disnake appeared. discord.py later started shipping new releases again and they all came to coexist, with similar but not identical APIs. Pick one and do not mix tutorials from different libraries: a wrong import produces confusing errors.

Java (JDA) and C# (Discord.Net, DSharpPlus)#

These make sense if you already work in those languages, or for large bots maintained by a team, where strong typing and IDE tooling pay for the extra code. JDA offers ready cache profiles (createLight, createDefault, create) that control how much of each server stays in memory, a choice that weighs heavily on the bot's RAM use.

Go (DiscordGo) and Rust (Serenity)#

They compile to a native binary, with no separate runtime to install. They pay off in bots with many shards, where every megabyte of cache counts. In return, the libraries offer fewer shortcuts and you write more code for simple tasks. For a first bot, that learning curve is not worth it.

What does the same bot look like in JavaScript and Python?#

The same /ping command, registered only in your test server, in the two most widely used languages. In JavaScript, with discord.js v14 and "type": "module" in package.json:

import { Client, Events, GatewayIntentBits } from "discord.js";

const client = new Client({ intents: [GatewayIntentBits.Guilds] });

client.once(Events.ClientReady, async (readyClient) => {
  // register /ping in the test server only (good for development)
  await readyClient.application.commands.set(
    [{ name: "ping", description: "Replies with Pong!" }],
    process.env.GUILD_ID,
  );
  console.log(`Online as ${readyClient.user.tag}`);
});

client.on(Events.InteractionCreate, async (interaction) => {
  if (interaction.isChatInputCommand() && interaction.commandName === "ping") {
    await interaction.reply("Pong!");
  }
});

client.login(process.env.DISCORD_TOKEN);

In Python, with discord.py 2.x:

import os

import discord
from discord import app_commands


class Bot(discord.Client):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__(intents=discord.Intents.default())
        self.tree = app_commands.CommandTree(self)

    async def setup_hook(self):
        # register /ping in the test server only (good for development)
        guild = discord.Object(id=int(os.environ["GUILD_ID"]))
        self.tree.copy_global_to(guild=guild)
        await self.tree.sync(guild=guild)


bot = Bot()


@bot.tree.command(description="Replies with Pong!")
async def ping(interaction: discord.Interaction):
    await interaction.response.send_message("Pong!")


@bot.event
async def on_ready():
    print(f"Online as {bot.user}")


bot.run(os.environ["DISCORD_TOKEN"])

The structure is the same: create the client with intents, register the command, answer the interaction and log in with the token read from the environment. If you understand one version, you can read the other. The token never goes in the code: see how to protect your bot token. The full walkthrough, from the Developer Portal to an online bot, is in how to make your first Discord bot.

Does the language change how much RAM the bot uses?#

It does, but less than you might think. In small bots, the biggest share is the base runtime and then the library cache: members, channels, messages and roles kept in memory. A library set to cache only what you need saves more than switching languages. To measure and estimate your own case, see how much RAM a Discord bot uses.

Music bots are a special case. Instead of playing audio in the bot process, many use Lavalink, an audio server that runs on the JVM (Java), separate from the bot. It talks to bots in any language, so the bot's language stays your choice. Lavalink supports DAVE since version 4.2.0, and the client library that talks to it also needs a version with that support.

Which language should you pick for each scenario?#

When in doubt, pick Python or JavaScript and move on. Switching languages later means rewriting the bot, but a small bot has little code to rewrite. That time is better spent writing your first command.

Which mistakes should you avoid when choosing?#

• Choosing for speed. In almost every bot, the network and the database dominate response time.
• Following an old tutorial. Code for discord.js v12 or v13, or for discord.py 1.x, does not work on current versions. Check the tutorial's version.
• Mixing forks. Examples for nextcord or py-cord do not run unchanged on discord.py.
• Ignoring voice. If the bot will join voice channels, confirm that the library already implements DAVE.
• Forgetting where the bot will run. The bot is online only while its process runs, and your computer is not on all the time. Plan hosting together with the language; the cost of each option is in how much it costs to host a bot.

How to do this on Square Cloud#

On Square Cloud, the language is your call. For Discord bots it supports discord.js, discord.py, JDA, Discord.Net or any Gateway library, with sharding and voice, and FFmpeg comes in the container. Runtimes include Node.js, TypeScript (no build step), Python, Java, .NET, Go and Rust, among others. A Lavalink server runs as a separate application in the same account.

You deploy it yourself with a ZIP upload in the dashboard, the CLI, GitHub or the VS Code extension. The squarecloud.app file is optional, because the dashboard generates it with the runtime, memory and main file; writing it at the project root is the alternative. The token goes in the application's environment variables.

The bot runs in an isolated, always-on container with automatic restart (on by default for dashboard deploys) when the process exits with an error. Each bot uses at least 256 MB of the plan's RAM pool, and Hobby costs R$12.49 per month with 1 GB of RAM. See Discord bot hosting.