We’ve Tried 9 Slack Alternatives (Our Team’s Feedback)

It looks like you’ve tried Slack and it doesn’t meet your needs. You’re not alone.

Perhaps you’re looking for a tool that’s faster, less complicated and more affordable than Slack.

It looks like you’ve tried Slack and it doesn’t meet your needs. You’re not alone! Many users are looking for Slack alternatives that are faster, easier and more affordable. If you’re looking for a team chat tool that’s less complicated than Slack, you’ve come to the right place.

We’ve been there too and we’ve tried a few Slack alternatives to find the app that suits our needs the best. After trying out a number of options, we have come up with a list of the best alternatives to Slack, including the following:

• ✓ Chanty
• ✓ ClickUp
• ✓ ProofHub
• ✓ Pumble
• ✓ Fleep
• ✓ Flock
• ✓ Microsoft Teams
• ✓ Ryver
• ✓ Google Chat

We’ve used Slack and realized that it doesn’t perfectly meet our needs. Since we realized that there’s a market for a team chat app that’s less complicated and more affordable, we decided to create a tool of our own—this is why we created Chanty.

Chanty is a super simple team chat app. Before we created the app, we spent at least a few weeks researching and actually using our competitor apps which we mentioned above. So, this article is based on our own experience, so you can be confident in our app’s suggestions.

The apps mentioned on this list are the few that we’ve chosen as the very best Slack alternatives. 

There are 100+ Slack alternatives. Or are there?

If you do a quick Google search for “Slack alternatives”, you’ll find plenty of results listing various apps as Slack competitors. The problem is, that a good number of these tools are CRM apps which are hardly a true Slack competitor. This can be confusing for those specifically searching for tools that match Slack’s communication and collaboration features.

The reason for listing CRMs (and other types of apps) as Slack competitors is probably just to add some numbers to their posts. If you want to know the real number, you can head to alternativeto.net and find out that there are more than 100 different Slack competitors out there. However, we are here to focus on quality, rather than quantity, so here are the very best.

Why do people choose Slack?

There are three main reasons why people use Slack as their application of choice. Communication, collaboration, task management, and integrations. It lets you chat with your team, share files, and use different integrations, as well as stay up to date with notifications, all the while taking your communication away from your email inbox. Here is what we had to say about Slack in a video:

If you want to find out more about Slack in detail, you can read our Slack review. Let’s briefly discuss the advantages of using Slack instead of its many competitors.

• It’s hip. While talking to a large number of CEOs and founders, I found that they all love Slack. No matter their management styles, their industry, niche market, or size of their company, everyone knows about Slack. It also has this air of being cool, probably thanks to its fancy bots and the fancy copy on its website. Usually, when I ask people what’s cool about Slack, they have a hard time explaining it. It mostly boils down to “It’s popular and everyone else is using it”. Integrations are one of the best parts of the app, but very few Slack fans actually integrate Slack with their other apps at work.

• Integrations. At the moment of writing, there are more than 2400 different integrations for Slack. If you don’t know what integrations are, here’s the best way to explain them. When you integrate your other work apps with Slack (such as MailChimp, Zendesk, Salesforce, etc.), you can get notifications from them within Slack in real time. You don’t have to open any of these apps and check them all the time – you have everything in one place. It acts as a single notification hub for your workplace.

• Powerful search. When you create a lot of messages daily, you’ll have to search for them quite frequently. Slack allows searching through messages and files, and even the content within the files. More precisely, you can search through Google Docs, Office and Dropbox files that you shared in Slack. There are advanced search operators (such as quotation marks) that let you search for a specific phrase, for example.

Okay, now that was enough about Slack, let’s take a look at some of the top Slack alternatives. Hopefully, you’ll find the one that suits your needs the best.

The top Slack alternatives

Chanty

It’s our blog, after all, so we’re putting Chanty as the first one on this list. We’ve been building Chanty for the past 7 years as the strongest Slack alternative out there. Putting our love for technology and communication together, we’ve created an app that people love using. If you haven’t tried Chanty yet, this up-and-coming team chat app is worth your time.

Chanty vs Slack. How is it different?

The main goal of Chanty is to create an intuitive experience for our users. For this reason, we focused on making our onboarding and user interface as simple and clean as possible. You may get the feeling that using Slack is getting more complicated, with more features being added every day. At Chanty, we want to keep the right balance between features and usability. This is why we stay simple but also have enough powerful features that teams need to work effectively.

Compared to Slack, Chanty is more affordable (up to 75% cheaper) and doesn’t limit messaging history.

Chanty also comes with a built-in task manager – you can turn any message into a task, assign it to your team member and get notified when it’s done.

Chanty offers audio and video calling with screen sharing.

You can view all your files, links, tasks and conversations in our Teambook.

By the way, there are unlimited messages, even in the freemium plan. That means that you can have an unlimited number of messages and search for them. On the other side, Slack only allows access to the past 90 days of message history in their free plan.

Here is a neat video on how you can use Chanty to improve your team’s productivity:

In the past few months, Chanty has rolled out useful features. You can now connect a large number of apps using our Zapier integration. Moreover, you can use high-quality audio and video calls with your team members. Also you can send voice messages besides just writing text.

We are strong believers in work-life balance. We continue improving our app so you can spend less time working and more time getting some rest. Feel free to give Chanty a try, we look forward to your feedback!😊

ClickUp

Unlike some of the other tools we tested, ClickUp did not begin as a video conference or chat app. Instead, it took a task-first approach to work management and collaboration, incorporating chat as a direct part of a broader project management system. Their goal is to be the “one app to replace them all,” aiming to either replace or integrate will all your other tools to help you keep track of all your work from one place.

ClickUp vs Slack: what’s the difference?

ClickUp and Slack take opposite approaches to workplace collaboration. While Slack begins from the perspective of messages and notifications, ClickUp begins with the work being done and builds its messages and notifications on top of that.

Here’s what makes ClickUp different from Slack:

• Includes a full project management functionality, including multiple project views to improve how your team collaborates (Table view, Board view, Gantt view, Calendar view, Whiteboards).
• Messages and notifications are directly tied to specific tasks or ongoing projects.
• Gives you a place to store files, notes, or reminders (that does not require your to send them to yourself), and includes a search function to help you find them later.

Our experience using ClickUp

We asked the ClickUp team which features Slack users might be interested in exploring, and they did not disappoint. To begin with, ClickUp offers a built-in chat feature that operates similarly to a Slack channel but can be added anywhere within the ClickUp hierarchy to discuss ongoing projects.

In addition to this Chat feature, ClickUp lets you add chat-like comments on any of its tasks, Docs, or whiteboards. This is especially useful when paired with Assigned Comments, which turn chats or comments into action items for you or your team that can be tracked towards completion alongside ongoing tasks or projects.

ClickUp also has granular notification settings that help you control exactly when and how you receive notifications – not just for tasks or projects, but for assigned comments or “@ mentions” as well. While ClickUp does not have the same “chat” feel that Slack does, it is very effective at driving conversations about work towards actionable outcomes.

It’s not all sunshine and roses, however. Some ClickUp users have complained about noticeable slowdowns, and while their SVP of Engineering addressed these concerns in a blog post, it is difficult to estimate when these changes will be implemented. Unless you’re planning on importing a library’s worth of information into ClickUp, you probably won’t have to worry.

ClickUp summary

You will like ClickUp if:

• You need to keep track of all your work in a single place, with a single platform, or via integrations.
• You want to collaborate on work from the same place you are tracking it.
• You work with dispersed or remote teams.
• You’re ready for a new approach to workplace collaboration.

ProofHub

An award-winning business collaboration app, an easy-to-use interface, and an almost never-ending list of features are the USPs of ProofHub. Besides standard Group chat, ProofHub also provides its users with a dedicated space where they can carry out real-time discussions. You also get an online proofing tool, which is fantastic if your team has to collaborate quite often on creative files. The tool is available in more than half a dozen languages, which makes it truly global.

ProofHub vs Slack: which one stands out

ProofHub stands out for being a lot more than just a simple communication tool. It has an easy-to-use interface, with features that can help teams in overall work management.

Here’s how ProofHub stands out from Slack:

• Makes working in teams easy as teams can create custom workflows using Kanban boards.

• Brings flexibility in the way teams can work with its multiple project views (Table view, Board view, Timeline view, Calendar view).

• Helps in keeping things organized with in-built Note-taking and advanced file management capabilities.

• All-in-one tool for planning, collaboration, and keeping work organized.

• Built-in calendar and time-tracking software to help manage all your tasks.

• Simple, no per-user pricing (unlimited users and unlimited projects) means that ProofHub proves to be a highly cost-effective option where you don’t have to pay for standalone tools for every team member.

Our experience using ProofHub

As a communication tool, ProofHub allows you to have one-to-one conversations as well as group chats. You can share files, and links, use emojis, and carry out all the basic functionalities that are available in Slack.

However, compared to Slack, ProofHub has the advantage of having some top project and task management capabilities.

For example, it has online proofing features that make collaborating on creative files a breeze. It has this cool feature called Quickies in which you can add quick links or jot down random information to keep it handy – it works just like quick notes.

The interface is super-easy to use, and despite having all the advanced features this all-in-one project management and team collaboration software has little to no learning curve.

ProofHub summary

ProofHub is a must-have app if:

• You use several apps for managing your daily tasks.

• You are tired of paying for a per-member subscription for all the apps.

• You want your team communication tool to be as easy to use as possible.

• You want a tool that can help you with more than just communication.

Pumble

Pumble is an excellent Slack alternative that allows teams of all sizes to collaborate for free. 

It enables real-time communication through 1-on-1 and groups direct messages, as well as public and invitation-only channels. Additionally, Pumble users can easily share files, save messages and set reminders about important tasks. When sending text messages is not practical, users can take advantage of sending voice messages or making voice and video calls with a screen-sharing option. 

Pumble vs. Slack: What’s the difference?

Compared with Slack, Pumble provides a better cost-value ratio, which is the main reason why users switch to this business messaging app, aside from an easy and user-friendly approach to communication. 

On top of that, unlike Slack, Pumble lets you see message history for free. 

Namely, while Slack offers access to the past 90 days of message history and file storage, Pumble users see the entire message history of all conversations from the beginning for free. 

Furthermore, in Pumble’s free plan users have 10GB of free storage space for the whole workspace. 

However, while Slack allows 3rd party app integrations, Pumble still doesn’t have this feature (it’s in the planning stage). 

Our experience using Pumble

Generally speaking, Pumble is very similar to Slack in terms of user-friendliness and functionality, but far more affordable than Slack. Plus, it’s very easy to sign up and set up. 

Unlimited free chat history is undoubtedly the greatest advantage, which is very important for many departments. There’s also a notification preferences feature, which allows you to customize web and mobile notifications and schedule messages.  

The quality of both voice and video calls is excellent, but there’s still no option for group calling. 

Pumble Summary

You should opt for Pumble if:

• You want a more affordable team messaging app than Slack

• You need maximum data security 
• You need to keep track of conversation history from the beginning
• You want an easy-to-use and user-friendly messaging app

Fleep

The first thing you should know about Fleep is that you can send a message to anyone who uses this app. All you need to know is their email and you can connect with any Fleep user out there. In theory, this app should fit somewhere between email and a team chat app. Instead of creating a sandbox such as Slack, Fleep’s idea is that you can communicate with anyone who uses the app.

Fleep vs. Slack – how do they stack up?

We personally asked the Fleep staff about the differences between Fleep and Slack. This is what they answered us:

1. Fleep is an open network and you can chat with anyone who’s using the app. If you want to be a member of several teams or projects at once, you need one account only. In Slack, you need an account for each team you’re in.
2. Fleep is completely free if you don’t need admin controls, i.e. you don’t need to control your company’s accounts and conversations. The cheapest paid package is called Fleep for Business and it costs 5 Euros per user per month.
3. In the free Fleep package, you get unlimited message history and unlimited integrations.

Our experience using Fleep

The way that Fleep is set up, with users being in the focus, actually makes it more complicated for use in teams. It’s similar to Skype but with the option of sending and receiving emails. This isn’t such a bad idea, but then again, Skype is not ideal for team communication.

Just like Slack, Fleep also has the option to send a message to yourself. In other words, you can click on your own name and send yourself a note or copy and paste a link so you can save it for later. Fleep has the same option and you can create unlimited monologues with yourself. It’s kind of easy to get lost in them, but the good news is that you have the option.

Fleep summary

You should use Fleep if:

–   You communicate more outside of your team than with your team members

–   You’re not a fan of emails

–   You need more than access to the past 90 days of message history in Slack for the free plan

–  You require more than 10 app integrations for work on a free plan

Flock

Founded in 2014 in India, Flock is a messaging app that has been around almost as long as Slack. Besides standard messages, it supports group chat, video and audio calls, screen sharing and more. You also get polls and to-do lists, which require third-party integrations in Slack. Flock is available in several languages, including Spanish and Portuguese.

Flock vs Slack. What’s better?

We went and asked the guys from Flock what makes them better than Slack. Here are some of their points:

–   Flock claims to have a better UI than Slack. We decided to test this out and we spent a week using Flock. We found out that the 5-column interface can be a bit complicated.

–   According to load time and file sharing tests, Flock is faster than Slack.

–   Flock is cheaper than Slack.

–   Flock offers a limited 10,000 searchable message history and unlimited integrations in the free plan.

Our experience with Flock

Compared to other team chat apps on this list, we’ve used Flock the longest. The interface and design are pretty good. We especially loved their parakeet green color for the app. As mentioned before, the interface is split up in 5 columns, which is a bit too busy. However, Flock turned out to be fairly easy to use.

We had one big issue though – we lost our message history one day and couldn’t access it for over 8 hours. It happened on the third day of testing Flock. We couldn’t access a single private or channel message, which slowed us down for the day significantly.

Flock summary

You should use Flock if…

–   The disappearing message history in Slack makes you mad

–   You don’t mind being left without your message history for more than 8 hours

–   You want a cheaper price than Slack

–   You want a Spanish or Portuguese interface in your team chat app

–   You want more than 10 integrations that Slack Freemium offers

Microsoft Teams

The main target audience for Teams is the enterprise sector. However, judging by the way it looks and feels, it takes some inspiration from Slack, so we decided to give it a go.

Microsoft Teams vs. Slack. Are they similar at all?

One of the biggest selling points of Microsoft Teams is that the app seamlessly integrates with Office 365. This makes it especially useful if you already depend on this suite for your daily operations. 

If you’re interested, we have an in-depth comparison of Microsoft Teams vs Slack on our blog.

Our experience using Microsoft Teams

Setting up this app was not an easy task. We assigned it to the most patient guy on our team, who spent an entire day setting it up as part of the Office 365 Business Premium package. If a guy with over 15 years of experience in development can’t install and set up an app within a day, something’s not right.

Particularly annoying is the fact that you have to set up a unique email for each user in your team, such as user@teamname.onmicrosoft.com which you have to use every time when you log in. If you forget your email or password (which happened to me, twice), tough luck – it’s another 30 minutes of struggle to get them back.

If you want to set up Teams yourself, make sure you have an experienced admin on your team. By the way, the app now supports drag-and-drop uploads.

Microsoft Teams is a great product. However, the user experience leaves much to be desired. According to our team, although it is difficult to set it up, Teams meets their business needs.

Microsoft Teams summary

You should use this app if:

–   You already have a contract with Microsoft and have no choice but to use this app

–   You have no problem with technical obstacles when using apps

–   You use other Office 365 products every day

–   You have a boatload of patience

Ryver

Launched in 2015, Ryver came into the team chat app game when Slack was already doing great. To get the upper hand, Ryver attacked Slack with Twitter ads.

Ryver’s main selling point is its combination of team communication and task management. It’s like Slack and Trello rolled into one. The idea of this mix sounded interesting, so we were eager to try it out.

Ryver vs. Slack – what’s the difference?

According to the Ryver team, having both communication and task management in a single tool is crucial for productivity. Besides the native task management feature, they also have integrations with Google Drive, Dropbox and Box, so you can choose and upload files directly from the cloud. The app allegedly integrates with more than 2000+ different apps through Zapier.

Compared with Slack, setting up Zapier is much more complicated. Each integration you set up has to be tested, which can take quite a bit of time and a few errors. We wrote an in-depth comparison of the two tools on our blog if you’re interested. The main takeaway is that Slack’s search options, notification management and integrations are much more advanced and intuitive. 

Of course, price is one of the main considerations. The freemium Slack plan is fairly limited, so you will have to switch to a Pro plan or Business+. Ryver’s pricing has changed over the years and since December 2018 they no longer have a freemium version, even for small teams. 

Ryver also comes with audio and video calls as native features. We tested them out and the quality was pretty good. However, there were no advanced call features. You cannot record calls (like in Microsoft Teams) or react with emojis to what a colleague has said in the call (like in Slack). However, the quality was pretty good.

In Slack, there is a limit of 15 people in audio and video calls. If that’s not enough, you can use any video conferencing tool for meetings with your entire team.

Our experience using Ryver

The first time I opened Ryver, it seemed confusing and not very intuitive. What’s the difference between Forums and Teams? What do I do with All Hands? Tasks were split up under Task Stream and Personal Tasks. Overall, the user experience seemed like it could be much better.

Ryver conversations are organized in Open forums, Private teams and Direct messages, similar to Slack. Also, there are Topics, similar to threads in Slack.

We also tried the task management part of the app, which didn’t go as smoothly as planned. I wasn’t able to assign tasks to my colleagues from the messages that I sent to them. Search results couldn’t find any forums or teams I was looking for, while the Assign field was disabled. Therefore, I couldn’t assign a task to any team members

Ryver summary

You should use Ryver if…

–   You like using Kanban for your projects

–   You don’t mind potential UI and UX issues

–   You need lots of integrations and you’re already paying for Zapier

– You prefer a flat rate plan rather than a per member per month plan (not sure if needed)

Google Chat

Google Chat is available as part of the Google Workspace suite, and it’s tightly integrated with the rest of its tools. One of the main benefits is the ability to view files from Drive and Docs directly in conversations.

Similar to Slack, Google Chat has a dedicated space for group conversations. It’s called Rooms, and it’s similar to a channel in Slack. You can also send private and group messages within the tool. There are more than 50 integrations available, including tools such as Asana, Box, and Zendesk, but there is no Zapier integration.

Google Chat vs. Slack – which works better?

First of all, Google Chat doesn’t have a free version of the app, unlike Slack. Second, Google Chat organizes communication in threads, while Slack has public channels.

Third, all Rooms in Google Chat are private by default. Unless you invite someone to a room, no one in your Google Workspace can view or join it. On the other hand, when you create a channel in Slack, you can choose if it’s private or public.

Our experience using Google Chat

When we explored Google Chat, we found some pretty unique features. For example, there is a Smart Reply feature, similar to what you have in your Gmail inbox. When you start typing, Smart Reply will suggest the right word or phrase to you.

Google Chat summary

When comparing their functionality, Google Chat seems not to be as good as Slack, but it is fairly easy to use. 

If you have a Google Workspace subscription, using Google’s messaging platform seems like a reasonable choice. However, bear in mind that you cannot use Google Chat for free. 

If you do choose this app, you need to be comfortable with using Threads to communicate. Also, make sure to check if your favorite integrations are supported.

Will Google Chat replace Slack at some point? It’s difficult to say.

The result

The Chanty team has used different team chat apps for several weeks. Our goal with Chanty is to create a team chat and collaboration tool that ranks higher than the competition. We want to create something easy to set up and more importantly, meet all your business needs. Give it a try and let us know what you think!

This article was initially posted in 2017, updated in November 2024.