Deezer vs Tidal: Is Deezer Better Than Tidal

By Miley Swift Updated on 2023-06-09 / Update for Tidal Tips

Deezer and Tidal are both globally known music streaming apps. They have some similarities, such as both offering millions of tracks. But which is better, Deezer or Tidal?

Deezer is ranked third in the world, while Tidal is ranked seventh. But is Deezer better than Tidal? Actually, no. You should choose the one that suits you better and gives you more convenience. In this article, we will discuss the basic facts of Deezer vs Tidal. Hopefully, it will give you a deeper understanding of their differences.

View also: Deezer vs Apple Music

deezer vs tidal

Part 1. Overview of Tidal and Deezer

What Is Deezer

As a French music service, Deezer provides an easy-to-use option for music addicts. It allows users to listen to over 90 million songs, 160,000 podcasts, and over 32,000 radio stations. Users can enjoy Deezer music online on many devices via its own app or web player. The music comes from the following record labels, containing Warner Music Group, Sony Music, as well as Universal Music Group.

what is deezer

What Is Tidal

Tidal is famous for its music quality, including CD quality and MQA. Nowadays, it also provides a free option for users to listen to music, playlists, podcasts, and music videos online with ads. It has over 100 million songs and 650,000 music videos on its platform for users to discover new favorite music.

what is tidal

Part 2. Detailed Comparison of Deezer vs Tidal

After understanding how Tidal and Deezer work, we'll compare them in different ways. Let's take a deeper look!

1. Deezer vs Tidal Audio Quality

You can start by browsing the comparison table below. You can visually see the difference between Tidal HiFi vs Deezer HiFi.

Free Premium HiFi HiFi Plus
Deezer MP3 - 128 kbps MP3 - 320 kbps FLAC - 16 bit 1,411 kbps /
Tidal AAC - 160 kbps / FLAC - 16 bit 1,411 kbps FLAC - 16 bit, 44.1kHz or
MQA - 24 bit, 96kHz

(1) Deezer HiFi vs Tidal HiFi Plus

Let's focus on the highest quality first. Deezer's HiFi CD quality has gone to a higher note. It has been upgraded from the 'better' option which allows it to deliver exclusive results. It has landed on a 'HiFi' better offer at 1411kbps.

When it comes to Tidal HiFi Plus, it proves to be better than Deezer in terms of sound quality. Not only does it deliver HiFi sound at up to 9216kbps, but it also has Master Quality Audio, Dolby Atmos, and Sony 360 Reality Audio. All of them help users get the most out of their streaming quality.

Both Deezer HiFi and Tidal HiFi Plus offer uncompressed audio files encoded in FLAC format.

(2) Tidal HiFi vs Deezer Premium

Tidal HiFi users have the opportunity to enjoy and download HiFi music at speeds up to 1411kbps, which is available to Deezer HiFi users. This is up to CD quality in FLAC format based on 16-bit/44.1kHz. Meanwhile, Deezer Premium users can only stream and enjoy audio at 320kbps on their devices.

(3) Tidal Free vs Deezer Free

The audio quality is almost the same for Tidal or Deezer free users. Deezer free streams at 128kbps and the files are encoded in MP3 format. However, Tidal free streams 160kbps. In short, Tidal is a little better than Deezer. If you are more concerned about the quality of music, Tidal should be your first choice.

2. Tidal vs Deezer: Subscription Plans and Price

A comparative list of Tidal vs Deezer subscription plans is here.

Tidal HiFi Plus vs Deezer HiFi $14.99/month vs $19.99/month
Tidal HiFi vs Deezer Premium $9.99/month vs $9.99/month
Tidal Family vs Deezer Family $14.99/month vs $14.99/month
Tidal Free vs Deezer Free $0.00/month vs $0.00/month
Other Options for Tidal Users 50% off for Student, 40% off for Minitary, 40% off for First Responders
Other Options for Deezer Users 25% off for Deezer Premium Annual, 50% off for Student

Deezer Price Plans

Deezer brings 3 pricing tiers, including a free tier. Deezer Premium costs $10.99 per month. Although these options limit the sound quality to 320kbps, there are no annoying ads during streaming sessions. There is also an option for Deezer Family, which costs $17.99 per month. This option covers up to 6 profiles while allowing you to enjoy limited mobile app usage.

deezer subscription price

Note: With the free Deezer subscription, you can only listen to Deezer songs and playlists online. If you want to play them offline, you're better download music from Deezer using a professional Deezer music download tool. For example, AudFree Deezer Music Downloader is a good choice.

Tidal Price Plans

Tidal knows how to lock in its subscribers, a move evidenced by its 50% discount for students. All you need is a valid college email account to take advantage of these great discounts. Even with such discounts, Tidal has no free tier except for a 7-day trial, 6-month free trial, etc. However, its premium price includes 320kbps of "high quality". The possibility to get lossless content is also present in the Tidal Hi-Fi or HiFi Plus tier, which costs $9.99 and $19.99 per month.

tidal subscription price

Note: Similarly, you can't listen to Tidal music offline without a paid subscription. But you can take advantage of AudFree Tidal Music Converter. It allows you to download music from Tidal without premium.

3. Deezer vs Tidal: Music Library

When it comes to Deezer and Tidal's music libraries, both have millions of available tracks. Official figures show that Tidal offers more than 100 million songs and 650,000 music videos, while Deezer collects 90 million tracks, playlists, and podcasts. However, Deezer only offers audio content and songs, not videos.

4. Tidal vs Deezer: Devices Compatibility

Tidal Compatibility

The Tidal music streaming service can be accessed through desktop apps and mobile clients. In addition, Tidal has expanded to the TV app, Apple CarPlay, and iTunes. Other connected Hi-Fi products are among them, including Bluesound, Sonos, Cyrus Player, and Google Chromecast. Please note that Tidal has strict copyright protection, so you cannot listen to Tidal music on unsupported devices.

Tip: If you want to play Tidal music on an incompatible device, you can use the AudFree Tidal Music Converter. It allows you to convert Tidal music to MP3, FLAC, WAV, AAC, M4A, and M4B in lossless quality. Then you can transfer the converted Tidal files to any device to listen to them.


audfree tidal music converter

Below is a simple guide on how to use AudFree Tidal Music Converter to enjoy Tidal anywhere without Tidal Connect.

Step 1. Click on the 'Download' button above to install this software.

Step 2. Open the AudFree Tidal Converter, and Tidal will also open. Find the songs you want to listen to on Tidal.

Step 3. Drag and drop songs from Tidal to the AudFree software. Or copy and paste the song's link into AudFree's address bar and click on '+' to load songs.

Step 4. Click the 'Convert' button to start downloading Tidal songs at a 5X speed. (You can choose to customize the output parameters before conversion. To do this, click on the top 'menu' icon and then choose 'Preferences' > 'Convert'.)

Deezer Compatibility

Deezer is also compatible with many devices such as Android, iOS, Windows phones, Apple Watch, etc. It has a web player for Chrome, IE, Safari, and Firefox. Not only that, it also runs on Apple TV, Android TV, and other smart TVs. In addition, you can play Deezer music on Xbox and HiFi devices. Similarly, if you want to enjoy Deezer music on other incompatible devices, try AudFree Deezer Music Downloader.


5. Deezer vs Tidal: Availability Countries

In terms of applicability, Deezer has an all-inclusive portfolio that makes it available in 188 countries. This is a huge number and means that Deezer is available in almost every country.

Tidal has been on the rise, especially after it relaunched three years ago amid a flurry of celebrities. It is now available in 61 countries. While Tidal is on par with Deezer in this regard, Tidal intends to further expand its international presence in the near future.

6. Tidal vs Deezer: Music Discovery

Same to Tidal's distinctive high-resolution music, its feature of discovering new music is equally impressive. It comes with a "What's New" section containing expertly curated playlists, albums, artists, podcasts, Tidal videos, etc., which are categorized by genres, moods, events, and more. Also, it suggests tracks and playlists according to your preference and usual practice.

With a music library of 90+ million tracks, Deezer designs channels, playlist, shows, and search explore music. Not simply can you enter the specific artist, album, song, etc. in the search to bar to locate what you want from Deezer, but also go to channels for curated content based on your taste. As for the playlists and shows, the former is designed to automatically divide songs that you play into appropriate playlists, and the latter is for daily recommendation.

7. Deezer vs Tidal: UI Design

Even though these two streaming music services are among the highly rated, Tidal vs Deezer have nothing in common when it comes to usability.

Deezer has an easy-to-navigate kind of interface, inclusive of a lyrics feature. This lets you see the lyrics whenever you select a track to play. Furthermore, its appearance and interface are pretty clean with lots of space to make any good moves.

deezer interface

When it comes to Tidal, the flow functionality acts like an aiding agent that finds any genre of music to fit your mood at the moment. It can further play random music depending on your favorites or suggest new music for you.

tidal interface


8. How Much Do Tidal and Deezer Pay for Artists

If you have favorite artists and want them to earn more, you'd better know the remuneration of Tidal and Deezer for artists.

When it comes to the benefits for artists, Tidal can be judged as one platform with the best performance since it has the most payout rates for its users. It is known that Tidal is partly mastered by artists such as Jay-Z, so it goes without saying that its artists get the most compared with other music streaming services, for example, when Tidal versus Spotify vs Deezer. And Tidal even adopts the Direct Artist Payment(DAP) program, which makes 10% of users' payment directly flaws into the pockets of artists. Generally speaking, Tidal gives $0.013 per stream.

Resemble Tidal, Deezer also applies a User-Centric Payment System (UCPS), which distributes your subscription payment to the artists you stream most. However, it pays only $0.0064/stream, which is less than Tidal.

Obviously, Tidal is your best choice if you want your favorite artists to earn more.

Part 3. Deezer vs Tidal: Comparison Table

Here are the main differences between Deezer and Tidal, which hopefully will give you a clear answer to the question "Which is better, Tidal or Deezer".

Deezer Tidal
Music Library 90 million songs, 160,000 podcasts, and over 32,000 radio stations 100 million songs and 650,000 videos
Availability 188 countries 61 countries
Sound Quality 128 kbps for free,
320 kbps for Premium,
and 1411 kbps for HiFi
160 kbps for free,
1411 kbps for HiFi,
and 24-bit/96 kHz for MQA
Subscription Price $9.99/month for Premium,
$19.99/month for HiFi
$9.99/month for HiFi,
$14.99/month for HiFi Plus
Free Plan Yes Yes
Pay for Artist $0.0064 $0.013

Part 4. Which Is Better: Deezer or Tidal

Is Deezer better than Tidal? The answer depends on the aspects you consider. With this detailed comparison of Deezer vs Tidal, it's clear that both Tidal and Deezer have their pros and cons.

Tidal offers higher sound quality and more diverse content than Deezer. However, Deezer is available in more countries than Tidal. While it doesn't offer high-fidelity audio, it still works well for most users. And if you want to enjoy videos and higher-quality music, go with Tidal.

No matter what streaming platform you choose, you can use AudFree Tidal Music Converter and AudFree Deezer Music Downloader. They allow you to enjoy offline playback without having to pay for either platform.


Miley Swift

Miley Swift

Staff Editor

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Miley Swift is a professional content creator in the field of music entertainment and tech. Passionate about Tidal streaming technology, she is adept in offering and updating relevant tech skills and tools of Tidal music.
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