Signal vs Telegram – Which is Better for 2026?

February 17, 2026 By Nancy William No Comments 7 minutes

Do you use Telegram? Or Signal? Which one is better? This guide highlights everything on Signal vs Telegram, and which one is the best messaging app today. 

Choosing the right messaging app often comes down to needing a balance. There should be a balance in privacy, features, and convenience.

When we talk about the best communication apps, two names apart from WhatsApp come to mind: Signal and Telegram. 

TIP – While Signal and Telegram are great options for communication apps, they’re not available everywhere. Accessing your accounts while you travel might be an issue in restricted locations. So, in case you need to use the apps urgently, you can do so with the help of a VPN. FastestVPN offers secure global servers you can connect to. 

While both offer modern communication, there is a difference in their philosophies, security structures, and target audiences. This guide highlights the various differences to help you understand which platform is the better fit for you. 

What is Signal?

Signal is a free messaging app that is an alternative to WhatsApp in some ways, but is built entirely around privacy. It encrypts every message, call, and file by default, so only you and the recipient can see or hear them. 

Signal itself won’t be able to tab in. This communication app comes without ads, no data collection, and the best part is that it doesn’t track you. 

The app is open source, meaning anyone can inspect its code for security flaws. You can use your phone number to sign up, but you can hide it from others and use a username instead. 

Another reason to love the Signal app is that it doesn’t store any data or trails on its servers. Your conversations are present solely on your devices. Security experts often recommend it and praise it for its privacy and trustworthiness. 

What is Telegram?

Telegram is another messaging app, but unlike Signal, it stores your conversations in the cloud. You can access your chats from several devices at the same time. This means you can start a message on your phone and then complete it or reply to one on your computer without interruption.

The service supports large file transfers and allows group chats with hundreds of thousands of members. Most conversations on Telegram are encrypted only between your device and the company’s servers. However, if you want your messages to be readable only by the recipient, you can start a “Secret Chat,” a feature that comes with a self-destruct timer.

Signal vs Telegram – Comparison

So, which is better? Signal or Telegram? Below, you’ll find some comparisons of how different and how efficient both the communication apps are. We’ve broken them down between the services’ security model, foundation, features, and usability. Let’s get started: 

Security Model and Foundation

This is the main and most critical distinction between the two apps. Let’s dive in: 

Signal

This app is built on a privacy-first, nonprofit foundation. Its entire design focuses on security and privacy. Signal uses its own open-source Signal Protocol, which offers end-to-end encryption (E2EE) by default.

 It’s included in every conversation, be it a one-on-one conversation or a group chat. The best part is that your messages, contacts, group lists, or profile information is never stored on Signal’s servers. It collects virtually no metadata.

Telegram

It is built on a “for-profit” foundation. Telegram is a feature-rich, fast, cloud-based messenger. Telegram offers E2EE (end-to-end encryption) only in its “Secret Chats” mode. 

However, you will need to manually initiate it for each contact. These chats are device-specific and not stored in the cloud. All standard chats and group chats are entirely encrypted only between your device and Telegram’s servers. This makes room for powerful multi-device sync and cloud storage.

However, this also means Telegram holds the decryption keys and can, in theory, access that data.

Features and Usability

Here are the core differences in features and how the apps can be used: 

Group Chats and Communities

Notable differences:

Signal

Group chats on this platform can include up to 1000 people, and every message is automatically end-to-end encrypted. The service comes with useful tools like admin controls, group descriptions, and messages that are automatically deleted. While it offers strong security, it lacks advanced features for managing very large communities, and this is where Telegram outshines it.

Telegram

Unlike Signal, Telegram dominates by managing massive groups up to 200,000 members and channels for one-to-many broadcasting. It offers sophisticated bots, quizzes, polls, and file sharing that goes up to 2GB. This service functions more as a social media platform.

Multi-Device Support

Here are the devices that these two communication apps are compatible with: 

Signal

With the Signal app, you can link one iPad or desktop computer to the phone you use, and it must remain connected. This helps maintain a higher security standard.

Telegram

You can log in to multiple standalone devices, like a phone, your tablets, or a desktop PC, simultaneously with full sync of cloud chats. This functionality is far more convenient but its server-side encryption model makes it possible.

Media and File Sharing

Signal vs Telegram, which one is better in terms of media and file sharing? For this, both services support images, videos, and voice messages. For comparison, Telegram allows significantly larger files up to 2GB, whereas Signal allows up to 100MB.

Other Features

Here are a few other Signal vs Telegram features that are worth mentioning: 

Telegram

This app boasts a vast ecosystem of custom themes, bots, and animated emojis, and includes a public sticker marketplace.

Signal

It focuses on core privacy tools like disappearing messages in all chats, sealed sender, which hides even the sender’s metadata, and an incognito keyboard to prevent keylogging.

Signal vs Telegram – Pros and Cons

Let’s talk about the pros and cons of the services: 

FAQs – Signal vs Telegram

In Conclusion

Coming towards the end of this guide on “Signal vs Telegram” we’ve highlighted the major differences between the two. However, when it comes down to which one is the best for you, the choice is clear but personal. 

For starters, you should choose Signal if your top priority is privacy and security features for your communication. It’s also perfect if you believe that corporate and third-party access should be protected from messaging.

For those who value a powerful, feature-packed platform where you can create or build communities, Telegram is the best choice. It lets you share content, seamlessly sync your account across devices, and provides the comfort of a cloud-based security model designed for most chats.

 You don’t have to pick just one. There are many who often download both Signal and Telegram, use one for creating private chats and the other for public communities or groups. 

Subscribe to Newsletter

Receive the trending posts of the week and the latest announcements from FastestVPN via our email newsletter.

Email Address