Business is not conducted with physical operations anymore. Thanks to technology, Business is no more location-specific. Slack and slack alternatives offer features like meetings on video calls, team collaboration, project management, team communication, video conferencing, chat, and many other technology-based communications tools have made day to day communication extremely comfortable. The Google suite, Microsoft teams, Skype, and other communication channels (through chat, voice, and video calls)made it possible to collaborate across the globe with a simple click on the mouse.
There have been tons of tools that offer voice and video calls.
However, each tool/ software seems to have its own set of limitations. Chat, file sharing, video conferencing, and other means of communication are a part of a day's work. Slack enables employees to make calls, organize conversations, connect applications, search and manage message history. Slack helps create a workspace with permissions, manage teams, send messages, share files, and send messages to people on other channels, making it an excellent option for companies to manage teams.
Slack works as a centralized channel for your team to manage their work. Slack enables you to connect with services like office 365, google drive, and a few others. Slack helps you automate recurring work, search history, share files/ deliver documents from anywhere, and collaborate with teams/ employees across the globe. "Slack" is not available on open source. Engineering, finance, HR, sales, IT, marketing, and project management are some of the teams that can best utilize slack. Slack is also available for free. However, the features are restricted in the free version and have limited search history available.
However, if you are a freelancer/ small-sized business and want to use slack for free, then you can opt for the free version and begin reaping the benefits of managing your team/ work in one single channel. Slack works as a communication app that is easy to use and can be an excellent choice for real-time chat, audio and video calls. Let us look at the paid subscription plans of Slack.
Features of Slack
- Pinning up to 100 files/ messages/ documents across channels make it easier to search for essential details in a few clicks.
- Advanced search options make searching and sorting information easier.
Syncing up with Google Drive/ Dropbox helps in managing and tracking documents effortlessly. - Integration across workspaces enable teams from different organizations to stay connected on a secured communication channel.
- Completing tasks, managing all the meetings, updating files, and attending events can all get overwhelming. The reminder set up feature along with the Google calendar app enables your team to stay on top of all the commitments.
- The free version of Slack is available for unlimited time and works best for small teams. The free version enables you to access up to ten thousand of the most recent messages, one on one audio and video call between teammates, and up to ten integrations with apps like office 365, google drive, and a few others.
- The Standard subscription plan costs $6.67 per month and is an excellent fit for small and medium-sized Business. The standard subscription covers audio and video call for groups of up to 15 teammates, secured collaboration with guests, full message history, and unlimited integrations along with the basic features covered in the free plan.
- The Plus subscription plan costs $12.50 per month and works well for large Business since it offers additional administration needs. The plus subscription plan covers all the features available in the standard subscription. Secure export for all message history, 24/7 support with a response within four hours, and advanced identity management.
- The enterprise grid is an excellent fit for regulated industries. The enterprise grid covers the advanced level of security & compliance, centralized controlling, customized policies, collaboration with up to five lakh users, and designated customer service team.
Integration
Slack offers integrations with tons of apps to make your daily life hassle-free. Jira, Trello, Github and many others are available for integration with Slack. Jira integration with Slack enables developer, management, and other teams to get notifications on updates. Trello integration with Slack enables communication to reach all groups like updation of a content calendar to ensure members from all the groups receive it.
Github integration with Slack allows automation of workflow and much more. Slack offers tons of features that enable users to stay connected collaborate, and share documents with a click.
Does Google have any Slack alternatives?
GSuite works well as a slack alternative. Google Hangouts, Gmail, Google Drive, sheets, docs, jam board, hangouts, and a few other features available in the Google suite are excellent slack alternatives. We all are users of Google and quite familiar with the Gsuite features, except we all have used it mostly for personal purposes. If you were a freelancer/ small team looking to stay connected with teams and clients remotely, then GSuite works well as an alternative to Slack.
Is Slack for free?
Slack offers a subscription plan that is free and covers the most recent ten thousand messages, and one on one voice and video calls. However, if you are looking for unlimited message history access and other vital features, then the paid version would be a better idea. Most freelancers and small teams would like to explore the free plan to see if their work/ business can work well with Slack.
What are the disadvantages of Slack?
Slack offers tons of cool features and integrations to make daily work activities more comfortable. However, employees may find it uncomfortable due to all the time tracking, making it feel like corporate surveillance. Your boss can read the messages you sent to your team members. While its features work great, it may be causing some serious productivity issues, and your team might be losing their peace of mind too!
What are some of the slack alternatives?
However, there are always other alternatives that are available for various requirements. The market has numerous slack options. Let us discuss the best options, their features, uses, pricing, and integrations.
Chanty, Flock, Hive, Fleep, Twist, NiftyPM, teamwork.com/chat/, Workplace by Facebook, and Ryver are some of the best slack alternatives. Each of them offers tons of features that work very well with all sizes of organizations without costing a lot. These slack alternatives also provide integrations with apps that make daily work activities effortless. While all of them offer communication, collaboration, and inclusion, its suitability mainly depends on individual requirements. Let us look at the features, pricing, and combinations provided by each of these slack alternatives.
Chanty makes your team a lot more productive with its integrations, message history, focus, organize, connect, and communicate with your groups with a single click. Chanty also enables you to import your team from any third party messenger. Sharing snippets of codes, push notifications compatible with mobile, and much more is possible with Chanty.
File sharing, project management, online payments platform, webmail, CRM, and collaborative software are all a part of Chanty, making it one of the best slack alternatives. Dashboards, conversations, pinned ideas, highlighting members with @mentions, automated task management, voice messages, and a Kanban board can all make daily work life very comfortable. Let us look at the pricing of Chanty.
Task management, video conferencing, mobile access, file sharing, real-time chat, third-party integration, discussion thread, and news feed are some of the features that enable teams to work effectively and efficiently.
Automated workflow, instant voice messaging, chatting, chats on the go, and many other features make it a one-stop solution for tons of challenges that teams face daily.
The features, integrations, pricing, and uses make it an excellent choice among the slack alternatives.
Integrations
Google forms, Salesforce, Gmail, Jira, Stripe, Mail Chimp, Trello, Google Drive, and many other apps can integrate with Chanty. The integration with the other apps enables your team to perform tons of activities by just staying connected on Chanty.
Send documents, call, chat, work and have fun all in a day's work with the help of Flock. It offers some of the best features that enable collaboration and communication. Making your everyday work communications effortless, virtual meetings from remote locations, and allowing your team to stay productive are some of the benefits of using Flock for your Business.
- Collaboration - Chats, group conversation, video calls, file sharing, search history, share updates, manage a mailing list, pin messages, and instant audio conference are some of the features that help your teams across the globe stay connected.
- Productivity - Creating task boards, create polls, manage reminders, share code snippets, and automate workflow to improve productivity.
- Integrations - Accessing files on Google drive, staying updated with Google calendar, integrate your most vital apps, and much more to manage all your activities on Flock.
Integrations
Bring all your work tools to one place with third-party app integrations. Flock offer integration with apps like - GitHub, Jira, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Trello, Twitter, and many more. The excellent features, pricing, and integration make Flock a superb fit for various organization sizes for communication and collaboration with teams across the globe.
Hive is among those slack alternatives that enable teams to manage projects with Kanban, Gantt, and much more in a few clicks. Hive suits best to freelancers and small size businesses. Workflow automation, group messages, file sharing, chat, and work templates are some of the features that make Hive one of the best slack alternatives.
Planning, tracking, and automation of workflows with Gantt, Kanban, portfolio, calendar, and a few other features.
Hive offers Customized forms and templates, streamlined communication through Hive chat and mail.
Content calendar, New hire onboarding template, marketing plan template, and a few others make daily work activities a breeze.
Integrations
Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, Gmail, Github, Jira, Outlook calendar and a few other apps integration is available.
Connect with your team, plan your project, coordinate with teammates, pin your ideas to the dashboard, make announcements, and much more with Fleep. Fleep offers tons of features like screen sharing audio-video calling, voice messages, and much more.
Workflow automation, message history, pinboard, file drawer, project planning, stay connected on the go, one on one and group conversations are all some of the features of Fleep. These features make your daily work activities more comfortable and stress-free.
Integrations
The Fleep integrations are not limited but comprise of Gmail, Google Sheets, Google Calendar, Trello, Asana, and many more making communication and managing work a lot more comfortable with a few clicks.
Multiple stages of the project, communication with internal and external customers, status reports, audio and video calls, instant messaging with fellow team members can all get chaotic and chances are you will lose your focus on the actual work. But with slack alternatives like Twist, work schedule can become effortless and hassle-free.
Message history, task management, topic-based discussion thread, powerful search, collaborate with guests, and many more features are a part of Twist.
- Twist offers a free plan that covers 5 GB file storage, access to messages of previous thirty days, unlimited guests and up to five integrations.
- The unlimited plan costs $5 per month and covers unlimited - guests, file storage, integrations, and access to a full history of messages with priority support.
Integrations
Skype, Todoist, Auto-reports, Giphy, Bindle, doorbell, and a few others are available with Twist.
NiftyPM enables you to collaborate, communicate, and manage your project on one single platform. Tracking assignments, time logs, real-time project reporting, status updates, chat, audio and video calls, are all made easy with NiftyPM helping your teams to work effectively and efficiently.
Discussions, tasks, time tracking, milestones, reporting, project portfolios, and files are a few features that make project management, communication, collaboration, and online meetings comfortable.
- The enterprise plan is fully customizable and offers most features in the business plan. The remaining elements and cost can be customized. Agile development, client management, marketing teams, digital agencies, and products teams are some of the areas that you can use NiftyPM.
Integrations
Asana, clickup, Trello, and a thousand other apps are available for integration with niftyPM.
7. Teamwork Chat App
Teamwork is one of the best slack alternatives that you can consider. Communication, decision making, automated workflow, collaborate with fellow teams across the globe, file sharing, teamwork integrations, and chat apps (mobile and desktop) to do tons of work with more efficiency.
Communication with the team, outside the team/ company, one on one and group conversations.
Collaboration with various teams through file sharing, searchable chat history, and dedicated channels of discussion for the project are beneficial.
Improved productivity through task management, time tracking, instant messaging, voice messages, teamwork chat, audio and video calls, calendar share, and online meetings help teams to perform efficiently.
- The Pro plan costs $4 per month for each user.If you are looking for a chat software for one on one and team communication. Unlimited messages, team members, public and private channels, with audio and video calls.
- The enterprise plan is customizable. The enterprise subscription also offers companies with training, support, and security controls. Priority support, Singly sign-on, and enterprise customer support are available for the enterprise subscription. The Pro plan features are also available in this plan.
Integrations
Gmail, Google Drive, youtube, chatify, Zapier, and many other applications make sharing, connecting, communicating, and much more in a few clicks, making workplace fun.
8. Workplace by Facebook
We all know Facebook as a social media platform. Similarly, at the workplace by Facebook, you can join groups, share information, manage team communication with the messaging tool and do a lot more in a click. Teams can create profiles, connect through instant messages, and create groups with the other departments of the organization.
For companies, though this is a favourite because then can manage Centralized communication, instant messaging, events scheduled with calendar sharing, video conferencing, and a lot more can all be executed on a single platform without burning their pocket. Integration, collaboration, and communication are all covered with the workplace by Facebook.
Unlimited data storage, live video streaming, voice and video calls, secured collaboration with other platforms are available.
Administrative controls, enterprise features, tool monitoring by IT, single Sign-on, and active directory support are some of the features offered by the workplace by Facebook, making it one of the best slack alternatives.
- Workplace by Facebook offers a free trial for the standard subscription plan which covers features like unlimited data storage, voice and video calls, live video streaming, communication features, and integrations.
- The premium subscription plans per user per month cost $3. Desktop notifications, one one one email support for administrators, secured collaboration, monitoring tools, APIs for customized integrations, and a few other features are a part of this plan. The premium plan also comprises the features available in the standard subscription.
Integrations
Integrations with Gsuite, Windows Azure Active Directory, Okta, and a few others.
If organized task management and collaboration with teams are on your mind, then Ryver might just be an excellent fit for your requirements. Task management, voice and video calls, and group chat are some of the best things that you will enjoy using with Ryver. You can now stop the cluttered and haphazard task allocation, lack of timeline tracking, and other hassles of the day to day work schedules with Ryver.
Team communications are made easy with customized conversation channels.
Single platform for people(one on one interactions), teams, and forums are some of the communication and public channel features.
Searchable collaboration spaces like chat-based on topics and tasks are helpful for new team members. Screen sharing, voice and video calls are a part of the available features.
Integrations
GSuite, office 365, Asana, Zapier, Github, Jira, Trello, and many other apps are available. It works as a single stop for all the daily activities at work.
Overview of Slack and its alternatives
Project management tools. Communication and collaboration tool like chat, instant messaging, voice and video calls, and video conferencing. Integration through dozens of apps like Gsuite, Skype, Teams, Asana, one drive, Trello, Hubspot, and many more apps are a part of the integrations with Slack and its alternatives. Task management, automated workflow, chat threads, video conference, calls, and much more are all a part of Slack and the other options like Slack.
Working, pinning ideas on the dashboard, push notifications for updates, team meetings with video conferencing and staying connected on all your apps enables an effortless and efficient way of working. However, it can also be too much surveillance and take away the fun of letting off steam at work. Sharing a GiF with a colleague at work can be fun, but we can't forget that the boss is still watching all the messages. The one platform for all your work is a very convenient way of working. Microsoft Office had been the one-stop solution for various official work. However, it did lack a few things. But Teams has covered the chat tool, video chat, and a few other things.
Conclusion
The collaboration with public channels and a few other collaboration features make slack and free slack alternatives more useful. There are tons of free options like slack alternatives that include various features to facilitate team communication, team collaboration. Some subscription plans offer unlimited users, while other charges per user. Most of them charge per month per user. Free Slack is not available and Slack is not available in open source.
The slack alternative is available for free/ free trial. Both "slack" and slack alternative offers unlimited users in various plans. Freelancers/ companies considering aspects like a communication tool, team collaboration, and many other such tools to make the daily work activities hassle-free. Slack alternative also offers various subscriptions with different pricing based on users. Microsoft teams work as a communication tool. Slack and its replacement is not available on open source.
If you like slack and are wondering "is slack for free". Then the answer is - no, you can't use "slack" for free. Each organization has different requirements. While a freelancer/ small team requires a communication tool, team chat might be a vital requirement of another. Some of the slack alternatives offer chat messages history archive that is searchable. While some of them depend on the plan, the others rely on the number of users.
All users may not use the team chat or other chat tools. Still, Slack and the slack alternatives offer a variety of features that are useful for performing tasks, staying connected with calendars, staying connected through team chats, meetings through video conferencing, and a many more. It is advisable to use the free trial and find what works well for individual requirements. Even the pricing can be accomplished based on the customized plan. In comparison, some companies can manage with the Microsoft teams. Slack or its alternatives are sure to make daily work activities more comfortable. The right option and plan to achieve the best results.
Questions asked while looking for Slack Alternatives:
Kateryna is a blogger from Ukraine and has been traveling across countries from the last decade. Blogging and traveling have been her passion since she got a knack of writing blog on WordPress. Kateryna is a regular guest contributor for web publications, write reviews for business productivity applications.
