Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, and Webex. The industry that Slack began is growing more crowded each day. Now, full of loads of great alternatives to Slack.
Email is not completely dead yet.
But it's no longer the only way for people to communicate at work.
The following apps are all considered Slack competitors:
With the sheer amount of apps in the market, there are now too many alternatives to Slack than you can digest.
So, we've done the hard work for you! Here are our top 50 apps like Slack. If you use a platform that doesn't feature in this list, please reach out in the comments and we'll get it added.
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Not too long ago, the two most significant competitors in the enterprise messaging space were Slack and Skype.
Since then, Microsoft has upgraded its enterprise chat strategy with Microsoft Teams, a tool more focused on cloud-based collaboration and real-time messaging. Microsoft even introduced a free version of their Teams app to help drive adoption from non-Office 365 users.
Microsoft Teams offers:
Microsoft Teams released a free version of their application this year for up to 300 users, ideal for those who want to “try” the Teams system before they buy it. A nice tactic from Microsoft in deploying an alternative to Slack free.
Although Cisco's "Spark" application for workplace messaging has been around for a little longer than the last year, 2018 is when Cisco decided to rebrand its service as Webex.
With the rebrand not only changing the icon and name, it also paved the way for plenty of new updates to the app. This includes everything from Giphy integrations to whiteboards for sketching and sharing ideas.
Other features include:
When Cisco purchased BroadSoft, it also upgraded its chat solution with the enterprise-ready solutions of a telecoms giant. Combining the Spark collaboration features with the BroadSoft calling and core voice components gives Cisco a unique position in the market and easily makes the list of alternatives to Slack.
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Blink Employee App is the Slack competitor created for frontline industries.
The Blink employee intranet is unique on the market that it was created especially for organizations with large frontline workforces.
Employees in industries like retail, hospitality, transport, logistics, or healthcare have no access to workplace technology that their desk-based colleagues enjoy, which is where the Blink employee app enters the scene.
It’s a branded mobile-first portal with all frontline employees need in one place.
Features include:
Google Chat is one of the most exciting Enterprise chat tools to appear in the last year. Google Chat emerged in February 2018, offering a platform for messaging, SMS, video chat and VoIP.
Part of the Google G-Suite for office productivity, features include:
Google Chat is particularly effective for voice chat and instant messaging. Combined with the other G-Suite services, it can provide a rich selection of communication and collaboration tools for the modern business.
It might be surprising to see Google on the list of alternatives to Slack but their collaboration offering is maturing quickly.
Workplace from Meta is a version of the world's most popular social media channel, adjusted to suit the needs of the modern business.
Combining targeted corporate news feeds with instant messaging and live video, Workplace is an easy way to keep teams connected.
Along with standard collaboration capabilities like file sharing, Workplace also includes features like "auto-translate" for groups that span countries.
Other features include:
Amazon just delivers shopping right? They don't provide alternatives to Slack.
Amazon Chime is a collaboration tool that embraces the power of video. Chime delivers exceptional video quality and reliability.
When you need to keep your team working together with face-to-face interactions, Chime is a great solution powered by Amazon Web Services. Chime comes with built-in chat and screen sharing tools and the app automatically calls each participant when it's time for a meeting.
Other features include:
Brosix is a team communication solution that helps businesses take control of their internal communication through a private team network.
Created with security and privacy in mind, Brosix gives teams encrypted communication on an all-in-one platform.
You’ll find numerous administrative features on Brosix, allowing you to tailor your team communication to fit your needs.
Brosix comes with a range of chat options, custom chat rooms, and screen sharing, along with many other collaboration features to boost your team’s productivity.
Other features include:
Troop Messenger recognizes that emails and one-on-one meetings are a thing of the past. Participate in productive team communication without ever leaving your seat. Troop Messenger makes it possible for you.
Try out Troop Messenger – a shortcut to office chat that protects your corporate interactions without compromising on privacy.
Troop Messenger includes:
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A simple, yet effective communication tool by Doist, Twist is designed to give businesses a "calmer" way of working together.
Twist provides a hub where team members can come together and share knowledge quickly. It was named the best communication app by PCMag and has been featured on multiple industry publications.
Twist is built on a foundation of threaded conversations, as they believe that a message stream is too difficult to track.
Other features include:
An open source team collaboration tool, Rocket Chat is advertised as a way to "replace email".
With customers like HTC, Samsung, and Intel, Rocket Chat gives teams a way to speak both privately and in groups.
You can use @Mentions to send content to specific users, or @all to message an entire group. The open-source nature of the app also means you can add functionality to suit your specific needs.
Other features include:
Missive is a collaboration app that feels similar to an email inbox. Combining asynchronous messages with real-time chat, it ensures that you'll never lose track of the conversation.
Through Missive, you can assign specific tasks to users to drive workplace productivity and organize conversations with team labels.
Where most collaboration tools aim to move the conversation away from email, Missive embraces email, SMS, and social media.
Other features include:
Spike is a Slack alternative that brings the best team chat features to your Inbox.
Using just your email account (Google, iCloud, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc), Spike lets you chat one on one like a direct message in Slack or start a Spike Group to recreate the functionality of the Slack channel.
Spike includes advanced search, file sharing, collaborative notes, video meetings, a calendar that syncs with your work calendar, and integrated tasks functionality to give you a single app for everything you need tool-wise.
Other features include:
ProofHub is first-and-foremost a project management tool, but it also provides opportunities for collaboration too. With Proofhub, you can keep all your teams and work together in the same place.
ProofHub is a fully-featured piece of project management software, combined with the basic group chat and discussion features you need to keep your workplace connected.
Other features include:
Hive is an application that tries to eliminate the stress of jumping between multiple apps throughout the workday, by placing everything you need on the same page.
You'll see everything from your real-time conversations to your files, and your to-do list in the same environment.
There's also an integration available between Slack and Hive that brings Slack functionality into the Hive space.
Other features include:
According to the team responsible for JANDI, this is a collaboration app designed to suit the modern workforce.
It makes communication quick and convenient through real-time messaging, and integrations with a number of popular apps.
Forbes calls it the number one contender in South Korea to become the ultimate business communication app.
Other features include:
HiBox is a collaboration tool that gives your teams multiple ways to connect, including video and instant messaging. What makes this tool really stand out is its artificial intelligence integration.
There's a virtual assistant included with the app that helps you with assigning tasks and delivering information to users. It's a collaboration tool and robotic helper all in one.
Other features include:
Zoho Connect feels very similar to Slack.
Through real-time activity streams where people can collaborate and share ideas in real-time, you can keep your business running smoothly. You can also switch to the calendar view and organize your tasks for the week ahead.
Designed to be an alternative to the standard social intranet, Zoho gives you everything you need for collaboration in a single place.
Other features include:
An enterprise chat tool with a focus on simplicity, Blizz from TeamViewer is ideal for companies sick of notification overload.
All the functionality you need for messaging, calls, and even scheduling is located in the same simple interface. You can also record your sessions with other people if necessary, or host group meetings with up to 300 people.
The app works on Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows, with a free download available.
Other features include:
Formerly known as ClearChat, HighSide is a highly secure alternative to Slack for companies with a focus on privacy.
ClearChat gives businesses a place where they can share highly sensitive or regulated data. HighSide claims to be immune to man-in-the-middle SSL attacks, spoofing, and phishing.
Other features include:
Moxtra delivers "embeddable" omnichannel collaboration features into your existing application or chat strategy.
Another app with a heavy focus on secure business messaging, Moxtra comes with access to encrypted video conferencing, real-time conversations. There's even a "binder" where you can find all of the latest tasks, content, and information shared through the app.
Other features include:
Chanty is a relatively new AI-powered collaboration tool.
Designed to simplify team chat, Chanty comes with things like "smart responses", so you don't even need to finish typing your own messages to colleagues. When you're in a hurry, you can simply start typing and Chanty's AI will do everything else for you.
The app also promises that it will continue to be "free forever".
Additional features include:
Similar to Rocket Chat, Mattermost is a Slack alternative built on open-source technology.
Both self-hosted and designed for customization, Mattermost gives businesses the opportunity to build the app that's right for them.
There's support for multiple languages, and a free or enterprise version depending on the kind of capabilities you need.
Other features include:
More of a basic instant messaging tool when it comes to looking for complete alternatives to Slack, Hubgets allows teams to reach each other instantly over the web.
According to the app, it's a "millennial-friendly" approach to the workplace conversation. There are also boards and topics where people can come together in a forum-style environment to share thoughts about projects and supply knowledge for colleagues.
Enterprise-level PBX is available for business customers.
Other features include:
Crugo is a good option when looking for alternatives to Slack, and an option for businesses that need help making the most of their workflow.
As well as standard team chat and video calling, Crugo provides calendars and task assignments. You can even save different versions of a document for auditing purposes. It's a useful all-around tool with workflow support built-in.
Other features include:
Originally designed as intranet software and then upgraded for the collaboration market, Jostle is a unique team tool.
A lot of the Jostle user interface is built on channels where users can share specific information. There's one section of the application specifically intended for one-way announcements, while another section handles instant conversations.
Jostle is one of the few tools on the market that comes with SAML SSO too.
Other features include:
Designed with everything you need for collaboration. On this app, you'll find voice and video calling, team chat, and so much more.
Fleep is intended to be the best solution for companies that frequently work with people from outside their organization. There are no silos between you and guest users. Instead, anyone can be added into your team, regardless of where they come from.
Other features include:
The main difference is that when you're using Flock, you can highlight a specific discussion and turn it into a task.
Once you have your "to-dos", you'll be able to assign them to members of your team, and add due dates depending on your upcoming deadlines too.
Other features include:
The Flowdock app is less focused on traditional collaboration but still makes the list of alternatives to Slack.
It's more committed to bringing your entire workflow together in a simple way. It's an application designed to pull team chat and email inboxes together into a single dashboard, so your teams can spend less time switching between apps.
You'll also be able to integrate other services that are valuable to your employees and Flowdock even talks you through the integration process.
Other features include:
Ryver is an effective collaboration tool that combines group conversations with a strategic solution for workflow and task management.
Designed to support teams of any size, Ryver integrates with multiple apps to deliver enhanced functionality. Within the tool, you'll find everything you need to keep your team members focused on the challenges at hand.
What's more, the flat-rate pricing makes Ryver appealing from a budgetary perspective.
Other features include:
eXo provides solutions for businesses that want to harness company knowledge and empower their workforce.
As an open-source platform, it's also possible to enhance and transform your strategy according to your unique employee needs.
Features include:
Riot.IM is a combined selection of mobile and web-based tools which you can use to connect to the "Matrix" open network for decentralized communications.
You can also use Riot to interconnect with other services that use IRC, including Slack. Even though you can connect with Slack, this app still makes the list of great alternatives to Slack.
Features include:
Let's Chat comes with @mentions, file uploads, and multiple rooms. It's easy to host by yourself and install, and you can use Docker to set-up if you prefer.
You can also integrate Let's Chat with your existing LDAP authentication server too.
Other features include:
Created by the NextCloud communications company, NextCloud Talk is a secure collaboration platform where businesses can share screens and conference in real-time.
Perhaps the most impressive feature of the NextCloud environment is its security strategy. Metadata is kept private, along with content through end-to-end encryption.
Other features include:
Designed for busy teams who want to integrate their chat tools with project management strategies, Bitrix24 helps companies to get work done.
Bitrix24 is known in multiple industries as one of the most effective project management tools, but it can also be a fantastic alternative to Slack, with features like Chat and web-based calls.
Other features include:
On the surface, Workzone is more of a project management application than a standard team collaboration tool.
However, it features many of the capabilities that Slack is known for, including file sharing, real-time comments, and instant notifications sent to a user via email.
You can keep your whole team connected while accessing a tool for better workflow management too.
Other features include:
Glip is a collaboration hub created for more than just messaging.
In this immersive environment, you can share and edit team tasks, check your group calendars, and even create helpful professional knowledgebases.
On top of that, there's access to video calling, which is great for businesses who want more immersive conversations between remote workers.
Other features include:
We often see lots of cases of Glip vs Slack as enterprises look for a Unified Comms provider to provide both the messaging and collaboration play, as well as the telephony aspect.
Looking for a communications tool specifically designed for knowledge workers? Try Kaleo.
The advanced dashboard that comes with Kaleo is excellent if you rely on data to keep your business running smoothly.
Essentially, you get everything you need for chat and messaging, combined with an advanced knowledge management strategy.
Other features include:
Here's an alternative to Slack that does what it says on the tin. Samepage keeps all of your employees connected in the same collaborative environment, to improve knowledge sharing.
Alongside real-time messaging via "Page Chat", you'll also be able to browse through various pages including everything from Dropbox files, to ongoing projects.
Other features include:
HeySpace is an easy-to-use team chat software with task management features.
HeySpace allows you to chat with your team in different channels and in specific tasks and one-to-one chats to organize communication and avoid distraction from messages that don’t concern you.
Acting also as project management software, HeySpace comes with a kanban board view, calendar, list view, and timeline.
You can benefit from integrations with Gmail or external calendars to keep track of all your assignments.
Other features include:
Pumble is a free alternative to Slack that keeps employees connected through well-organized conversations.
You’ll be able to converse in topic-specific private and public channels, as well as start, follow, and reply to threads. You’ll also be able to converse through one-to-one and group direct messages.
One of the app’s highlights that makes it stand out is that Pumble allows you to search your entire messaging history, at any time, for free.
Other features include:
nTask is a collaboration application that combines team chat and conversations with project management features.
Through the app, you can track, monitor and communicate about project performance on a single platform.
Independent workspaces also mean that team members can work on multiple projects simultaneously while keeping everyone in the loop.
Other features include:
While many collaboration tools battling for the top spot with Slack aim to eliminate the email inbox, some applications are building on email instead.
Loop Email believes that email is still the preferred means of communication for modern workers.
That’s why it gives today’s employees a way to access their email and real-time chat in the same environment. All you need to do is sign up and connect your email to get started.
Other features include:
Wimi looks nothing like a Slack alternative at a first glance, but it's committed to helping you get more productivity out of your teams.
Wimi features independent workspaces for your teams and supports secure file sharing in a single location. You can also invite guest users to come and collaborate on your projects with bespoke access rights.
Other features include:
When Wire first entered the communications marketplace, it was simply a secure instant messaging app. Since then, the addition of various additional capabilities has made Wire into a full collaboration tool.
Enhance your group communications with an app that's dedicated to end-to-end encryption. Wire's selling point has to be its level of security.
Other features include:
Advertised as a "workplace technology" for private team communications, uShare provides a similar experience to Slack.
In the app, you'll find chat and sharing technology, along with conferencing tools and group calendar management.
One unique feature of uShare is that it can be privately labeled by service providers. This is something you can't get from Slack.
Other features include:
Quip is excellent for combining your spreadsheets, documents, and checklists into an advanced team chat environment.
This tool is a lot more than just another Slack alternative. According to the company behind Quip, they're on a mission to create a new kind of productivity tool.
Quip doesn't focus on team chat like other options on its list, but simply combines chat features with documents, spreadsheets, and other capabilities.
Other features include:
Created to support smoother, simpler workflows in the business world, Azendoo is a work collaboration and communication app that helps teams to share and plan tasks more efficiently.
Azendoo features one of the most extensive lists of features you'll find in the collaboration space, including polls, team calendars, and more. However, it doesn't include video and audio meeting options.
Other features include:
Stackfield is a unique team management and collaboration tool.
This app combines project management software with team chat to keep everyone in your workforce on the same page.
Stackfield offers a number of impressive features that have been enhanced with state-of-the-art security standards. It's compliant with GDPR and a range of other EU privacy laws.
Other features include:
Make every day at work a little easier with a Slack alternative designed for agile teams.
Monday.com is a collaboration and project management tool that helps companies plan, organize, and track their workflow all in the same environment.
It's easy to use and setting up new employees is as simple as sending an email. With Monday.com, you can get your entire team up and running in the same environment for communication and track their performance with projects too.
Other features include:
Discord is one of the most popular communication apps on the web for gamers. Recently, however, it's also become an impressive option for business teams too.
The tool divides communications channels by text and voice, depending on how you prefer to stay in touch with your team members.
Unfortunately, Discord doesn't offer any integrations with the apps you might enjoy using at work.
However, other features include:
Research shows that from 2016 to 2017, the “other” category of enterprise messaging has grown from 8.3% to 23%... and even more in 2018.
The brands covered in this post are just a small snippet into the alternatives to Slack.
In fact, there are 137 alternatives to Slack listed on Alternativeto.net, and 224 listed on Capterra.com!
The apps above are just a handful of the alternatives to Slack. As employees continue to receive a wider range of choices for their enterprise messaging needs, it's important to make sure that choice doesn't lead to fragmentation.
Chat apps certainly deliver a productivity boost. However, many will prefer to work with the productivity tools they feel comfortable with.
In fact, 91% of people suggest they use more than one messaging app in their business life.
Rather than attempting to choose the right app in an environment where options are constantly changing, businesses are better off prizing interoperability with a tool like Mio instead.
With Mio, you don't have to worry about finding the chat tool that's right for everyone. Instead, you can unify every tool into one simple, streamlined method of communication.
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Learn more at m.io.