Even as workers return to the office, Slack still boasts 20 million users in 2023. As a team communication tool, it stands only second after WhatsApp Business and still dominates the market with a 21.93% market share.
This communication platform (or chat tool) integrates seamlessly with numerous third-party apps that make collaboration easy. It works both on Windows and Mac and has mobile apps for Android and iOS as well.
Slack makes it easy for employees to send messages, share files, make audio calls, video chat, and set reminders. It rose to prominence by allowing for collaborative work even when teams are remote.
However, it may not be the perfect solution for every business. Its paid plans can get costly for small businesses once the message cap on the free version has been reached. Plus, it doesn’t provide end-to-end encryption and may be overwhelming due to its barrage of notifications.
Fortunately, there are a large number of Slack alternatives in the team communication tools market.
TL;DR
- As a team communication tool, Slack makes it easy to send messages, share files, make audio calls, video chat, set reminders, and integrates seamlessly with numerous third-party apps. However, it may not be the best solution for every business.
- Slack’s paid plans can get costly for small businesses once the message cap on the free version has been reached. Plus, it doesn’t provide end-to-end encryption and may be overwhelming due to its barrage of notifications.
- Fortunately, there are a large number of Slack alternatives in the team communication tools market that offer project management, social media marketing, task management, and other important features. So you may want to look at Slack alternatives as end-to-end solutions for your business rather than just a workplace chatroom.
Slack Pricing
If you think Slack is the best collaboration platform for your business, you might want to invest in one of its paid plans. In 2022, Slack had about 170,000 paid users and the company generated more than $273 million in revenue in the first quarter of that year.
Its Basic free plan helps you save docs, files, and messages for 90 days only and integrates with 10 other apps. It also offers limited data security, supports only one-on-one huddles, and gives users access to standard customer support only.
In contrast, the next tier, Slack Pro, is priced at $7.25 per person/month. This drops to $3.50 and $2.90 if billed monthly and annually respectively. With the Pro version, you get unlimited file and message history, integration with more apps, more secure collaboration, and access to 24/7 customer support.
Slack Business+ is the next tier that costs $12.50 per person/month. Again, the price becomes $6 and $5 if billed monthly and annually respectively. This is a good option for businesses worried about security as it supports SAML-based sign-on and data export for all messages.
The most expensive Slack plan is known as Enterprise Grid and to know the pricing you’ll need to contact their sales team. Besides offering additional collaboration features, it supports HIPAA compliance and prioritized customer support.
Slack Alternatives
As mentioned above, there are a number of different tools in the market that can help you boost team productivity and collaboration—if Slack isn’t the right solution for your needs. Let’s take a look at some of the most notable ones.
1. Microsoft Teams
Instead of buying Slack, Microsoft decided to create its own collaboration tool to compete with the company. It is now one of Slack’s biggest competitors with 270 million active users daily. Apart from the free version, Microsoft Teams offers four price tiers starting from $4 per user/month for its 365 Business Essentials tier, going all the way to $22 per user/month for the Enterprise tier.
Unlike Slack, you can get unlimited message history with the free version of Microsoft Teams. However, the reason why it’s one of the best alternatives to Slack is its group chat feature. It supports OneDrive integration and allows employees to delete and edit messages and start new message threads. The tool integrates smoothly with all MS Office apps and offers video chat, video recording, and video meeting scheduling features.
2. Discord for Business
If you think only gamers use Discord, think again. It’s a great Slack alternative for businesses and comes in three pricing options. Apart from the free version, the Nitro Classic and Nitro tiers are priced at $4.99 per user/month and $9.99 per user/month if billed monthly.
These Nitro plans are better suited for businesses as they offer more customization and allow the uploading of large files. These price tiers also support HD video chat but Discord, in general, is lacking in terms of integration with other apps.
Discord can be best used to create communities and users can use its channel settings to mimic the private and public channels in Slack. One of Discord’s most unique and popular collaboration features is its push-to-talk functionality. The tool allows for easy creation of subtopics and threads using voice and text channels.
3. Trello Communicate
Trello Communicate is a great Slack alternative that offers excellent project management features. Slack is best used as a team messaging tool where employees can exchange messages, docs, files, videos, etc., whereas Trello allows users to track and manage projects. With it, project managers can track the progress of projects, task owners, issues, etc. on a neat and organized interface where data is presented in lists, cards, and boards.
With all project workflow-related tasks in one place, Trello allows businesses to monitor projects even when their teams are remote or hybrid. There are numerous specialized templates that can be used to improve bonding and create project hubs in remote teams.
As an Atlassian product, Trello integrates seamlessly with other Atlassian tools such as Jira. It also integrates with a large number of third-party automation, analytics, communication, and file-management software allowing businesses to upgrade the tool and customize it according to their needs. Trello’s Standard, Premium, and Enterprise plans cost $5, $10, and $17.50 per user/month respectively when billed annually.
4. Zoho Cliq
Zoho is an excellent option for businesses looking for free Slack alternatives. The company offers a suite of professional software to manage the needs of businesses such as CRM, email, accounting, and HR apps.
Zoho Cliq is their team messaging app that has many of the collaboration features that are only available to paid users of Slack. Naturally, Cliq integrates with Zoho’s Suite of business apps and also with popular business software such as Dropbox, Trello, and Mailchimp.
The free version of Zoho Cliq supports screen sharing, OAuth with Google, and SAML-based sign-on, unlike Slack. Zoho Cliq also has a paid unlimited version that is priced depending on the number of users. Businesses can also contact Zoho’s sales team to avail of custom plans.
5. Mattermost
For those looking for open-source Slack alternatives, Mattermost may be your best choice. If you are looking to self-host a team communication app for your business and want more security than Slack offers, Mattermost is the right tool for you.
As it is built on open-source technology, you can access its libraries, source code, and APIs to customize the tool for your specific requirements. Mattermost does not support video conferencing but does integrate with about 700 third-party apps.
Best known for its data security and privacy (as it can be self-hosted and the app can run on any OS), it supports web, desktop, and mobile access. The Starter version of Mattermost is free where file storage is capped at 10GB. The Professional version costs $10 per user/month and businesses can opt for the Enterprise version if they want custom rates.
6. Flock
Flock is a chat software built for the workspace that looks and feels quite similar to Slack. If your employees are already familiar with Slack but you want to switch to a Slack alternative, Flock will probably make for the best transition for small teams. Similar to Slack, Flock has chat, video calling, and audio features but it also provides notes, polls, reminders, and to-do list options.
The one feature that makes Flock stand out is that a user can select a certain discussion and convert it into an action item. Also, once action items have been created in a to-do list, they can be tagged to different team members along with due dates.
Flock is free for up to 20 users and the number of searchable messages is capped at 10,000. The paid version supports 100 users and costs $4.50 per user/month, which unlocks the unlimited message history feature along with many other useful options.
7. Chanty
Chanty is an AI-powered software that offers smart responses. The tool completes a user’s message when they start typing. It is a clean, simple, and user-friendly workplace communication tool whose free plan supports up to 10 users. This version offers unlimited group conversations and private chats. Best of all, the free version of Chanty offers unlimited message history for its users.
Its project workflow management features such as the Kanban board allow users to create and track projects. It also integrates with other project management tools like Trello and Asana for businesses that are looking for more robust project management software. The paid Business version of Chanty costs $3 per user/month, which unlocks features like group video chats and priority customer support.
8. Rocket.Chat
This is yet another open-source software that has Samsung and Intel in its roster of clients. Unlike other slack alternatives in this list, Rocket.Chat wants to replace email threads and improve team collaboration with public and private messaging channels.
As an open-source application, it supports open Github coding and businesses can customize Rocket.Chat for their unique needs. It also offers tiered permissions and self-hosting options so that businesses have complete ownership and control of their data. The app has better security than Slack due to its end-to-end encryption. It can also translate messages in more than 20 different languages so it’s an excellent tool for teams spread across the globe.
Rocket.Chat is best known for its omnichannel feature that allows employees to communicate with external stakeholders such as vendors and clients. It also allows communication with other messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Telegram.
Besides the free version, Rocket.Chat has an Enterprise version that costs $7 per user/month. The price rises to $35 per agent/month for businesses looking to support more than 5 omnichannel agents. Of course, custom pricing is also available to businesses that want more add-ons.
9. Twist
This team messaging software is different from the others in this list as it is geared towards structured communication rather than just instant messaging. It uses threads to accomplish this goal where different conversation threads can be created for specific topics. This allows team members to follow only certain topics and easily find what they are looking for without having to crawl through loads of messages on an instant team chat app.
These asynchronous threads ensure that discussions in the thread are related to that topic. Outside of these threads, users can have one-on-one and group conversations. Threads make Twist a good project management software too as threads can be collected and sent to one inbox, so team members can work on and prioritize tasks.
As it does not focus on real-time communication, Twist does not offer audio and video calling, notifications, or status messaging features. The app has a free version as well as a paid, unlimited version that costs $6 per user/month.
10. Ryver
Ryver is a real-time communication tool as well as a task management tool. Its chat section allows for open forums and private channels, direct messaging, and topic segregation so it feels quite similar to Slack.
However, it is one of those Slack alternatives that also doubles as an efficient task management system for teams. Users can convert messages into workflow tasks and create Kanban-like project management boards with these tasks.
Users can also set reminders for these tasks and share files with each other through integrated file-sharing apps like Dropbox and Google Drive. It also supports video calls and voice calls with no cap on the number of users on such calls. Its Single Sign-on authentication feature is a good secure collaboration bonus.
Unfortunately, Ryver does not have a free version but users can avail of its 14-day trial for free if they want to check out its features. The Medium Pack costs $4.67 per user/month but businesses need to buy pricier versions for a larger number of users. The Ryver Starter version costs $69 per month for 12 users and the Standard version costs $129 per month for 30 users. Businesses looking for more customizable features can avail of their Enterprise version that has custom pricing.
Final Words
As remote and hybrid working becomes increasingly popular, the collaboration software market is being flooded with Slack alternatives that work on Windows, Android, and iOS platforms. Many of these Slack alternatives have great features that make them more appropriate for your business needs.
Based on your budget, requirements, and technical knowledge, you need to explore the best Slack alternatives instead of settling for the most well-known one in the market. A few Slack alternatives are almost exact copies of Slack and can be a better option as they are priced more reasonably or geared towards small businesses or small teams.
In many cases, these communication tools also offer project management, social media marketing, task management, and other important features. So you may want to look at Slack alternatives as end-to-end project management solutions rather than just a workplace chatroom. Carefully analyze your business needs before choosing a solution.
FAQs about Slack and its Alternatives
Q: What is Slack and how does it operate?
Slack is a team communication tool that integrates seamlessly with numerous third-party apps to ease collaboration. It enables employees to send messages, share files, make audio calls, video chat, and set reminders. It works on both Windows and Mac with mobile apps for Android and iOS.
Q: What are the limitations of Slack for businesses?
Slack’s paid plans can become costly for small businesses once the message cap on the free version is reached. It doesn’t provide end-to-end encryption and may become overwhelming due to a flood of notifications.
Q: What are the pricing tiers of Slack?
Slack has a free basic plan limited to saving docs, files, and messages for 90 days, and integrating with 10 other apps. The paid tiers are Slack Pro priced at $7.25/person/month, Slack Business+ at $12.50/person/month, and a custom-priced Enterprise Grid plan.
Q: What alternatives to Slack are available in the market?
There are numerous alternatives to Slack in the market. Some of these include Microsoft Teams, Discord for Business, Trello Communicate, Zoho Cliq, Mattermost, Flock, Chanty, Rocket.Chat, Twist, and Ryver.
Q: What are the unique features of some Slack alternatives?
Different Slack alternatives offer specific features suitable for different business needs. For instance, Microsoft Teams supports group chat and OneDrive integration; Discord excels with its push-to-talk functionality; Trello Communicate offers exceptional project management tools; Chanty uses AI for smart responses, and Rocket.Chat allows businesses to communicate with external stakeholders.
Q: Are Slack alternatives cost-effective for small businesses or startups?
Yes, several Slack alternatives provide pricing plans that are more suitable for small businesses and startups. Some examples include Zoho Cliq’s free version with comprehensive collaboration tools and Chanty’s cost-effective plans that come with AI-powered responses.
Q: Can Slack alternatives provide better security than Slack?
Yes, certain Slack alternatives such as Mattermost and Rocket.Chat offer better security than Slack. As open-source software, they provide more ownership and control of data with options for self-hosting.
