11 Most-Promising Slack Alternatives in 2021

Comparison of 10 Innovative Slack Alternatives 2021

Comparing the best alternative Slack app alternatives in 2021 for group & instant messaging.

There are many reasons which led businesses to look for Slack Alternatives. In November 2019, Microsoft revealed the number of people who have been using its Slack competitor ‘Microsoft Teams’. It reported 20 million daily active users.

This figure was much more than the total count of Slack’s daily user, which was revealed to be ‘12 million,’ around the same time.

Ever since MS is keen to share with the world that they are one of the best slack competitors. MS Team’s win over Slack has also opened doors for other slack alternatives who are vying for the attention Slack has received over the last few years.

And now there is a sea of Alternatives to Slack out there. Some of the slack alternatives are free, some offer more features than Slack’s free plan. There are also few slack competitors who allow to host the app on your server and rebrand it as your app. There are also some who don’t restrict the message search limit.

Another reason for businesses looking for Slack alternatives is the cost. The majority of slack alternatives are offering similar features at a lesser price value. All of this adds up as a benefit, mainly for startups and small teams working remotely with limited resources.

In this article, we’ve put together a list of 10 most-promising competitors as Slack Alternatives of 2020:

Microsoft Teams: One of the Best Slack Alternatives 

• Getting Started:
  • MS is a chat-based collaboration tool
  • It provides global, dispersed and remote teams with a common space to work together

• Features:
  • Threaded conversations.
  • Video and voice conferencing
  • Multi-Channel Guests
  • Instant messaging/Chat
  • Team chat and private discussion
  • Virtual assistant bots
  • Open API for integrations
  • Contact search by email address or name
  • Conversation search and contact search.
  • Customization feature for each team
• Pricing:
  • Microsoft Teams: Free
  • Office 365 Business Premium: INR 660 per user/month
  • Office 365 E3: INR 1320 per user/month
• Integration:
  • 800+ integrations supported in all teams plans
• Storage:
  • Free Plan: 2 GB per user & 10 GB of storage
  • Premium and Essential Plan: 1 TB storage per organisations
• Users:
  • Free Plan: Maximum number of users is 300
  • Office 365 Business Essential: Maximum number of users is 300
  • Office 365 Business Premium: Unlimited Number of Users

Troop Messenger: Feature-Packed Alternative To Slack

• Getting Started
  • User-friendly compact office chat application
  • Loaded with contemporary features to address business communication & collaboration needs

• Features
  • Global Search
  • Fingerprint Security
  • One-on-One Messaging, Unlimited Groups
  • Audio & Video calling with screen sharing
  • One-to-One Search
  • FIlters (links, Attachments, and more)
  • Data Record
  • Advanced Notification
  • Message Scheduler & Autoresponder
  • @Mentions
  • Live Tracking & Analytics
  • Orange Member
  • Burnout, Forkout, Shoutout, FizzleOut
  • Customer Support
• Pricing:
  • Premium Plan: INR 71 per user per month
  • Enterprise Plan: INR 355 per user per month
  • Self-Hosting: INR 355+ per user per month
• Integration:
  • Dropbox
  • Google Drive
  • AP/LDAP
• Storage:
  • Premium Plan: 150 GB Storage
  • Enterprise Plan: 1 TB Storage
  • Self-Hosting: Custom, I TB+ Storage
• Users:
  • Premium Plan: Teams up to 200 Users
  • Enterprise Plan: Suitable for teams of 200-500 Users
  • Self-Hosting: Suitable for teams of 500+ Users

AirSend: Get work done in one workspace 

• Getting Started:
  • AirSend is a simple and easy-to-use collaboration tool that minimizes context switching
  • It provides built-in essentials that help in getting work done better and faster

• Features:
  • Built-in task management
  •  Built-in file storage and organization
  • Built-in audio/video calling
  •  Built-in notebook/wiki
  • Streamlined conversation spaces through channels
  • Community features, such as a public channel and establishing roles
• Pricing:
  • AirSend Free version: unlimited channels, 15 GB file storage, three documents for
    e-signatures per month
  •  AirSend Pro: Free for a year if you sign up before August 15th. Usually $4 per user per
    month. Includes 100GB file storage, unlimited e-signatures, custom branded channels
  •  AirSend Business: Coming soon $7 per user per month. Includes everything in the pro
    version plus active directory authentication, data residency, and data governance.
• Integrations:
  • Office 365
  • Email
• Storage:
  •  Free plan 15 GB
  • Pro and Business 100GN
• Users:
  • Unlimited for all plans

Fleep: Easiest Instant Messaging Slack Alternative

• Getting Started
  • An innovative team communication application
  • Fleep combines a built-in collaboration medium with a robust business messenger

• Features:
  • Full message history and facility to retrieve any message shared irrespective of time
  • Unlimited private conversations between team members
  • Unlimited group conversations in the business and custom plans, which is limited to 3 groups in a basic plan
  • Native apps
  • User account management
  • Premium conversations
  • White labelling of applications with which organizations can customize fleep with their brand name and logo
  • Organization settings
  • Retention policy for files
  • Status message
• Pricing
  • Basic: Free plan
  • Business: €5 per user, per month, when billed annually
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing plans
• Integration:
  • Email, Trello, Zapier
  • Fleep API
  • Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive
  • JIRA, Slack Confluence, Whereby,
  • GitHub, Webhooks, Sameroom, Bitbucket Server
• Storage:
  • Basic: 10 GB file storage
  • Business: 100 GB File Storage
  • Enterprise: 100 GB File Storage
• Users:
  • Basic: Ideal for teams of students, friends, and communities
  • Business: Ideal for teams small & medium-sized business
  • Enterprise: Ideal for Large Businesses and corporations

Twist: Slack Alternative that Prioritizes Clarity

• Getting Started
  • A team communication and collaboration application
  • Known for a functional and clear interface which focuses on making the workplace more productive
• Features
  • Access full history of comments
  • Access full history of messages
  • Organised discussions into threads
  • Prioritise focused and productive threads
  • Information is easily accessible
  • Document Management
  • Project Management
  • Real-Time Editing
  • Discussion Boards
• Pricing:
  • Free Plan: C$ 0 per user per month
  • Unlimited Plan: C$ 6.50 per user per month
• Integration:
  • Free Plan: Up to 5 integrations supported in the free plan
  • Unlimited Plan: Unlimited Integrations
• Storage:
  • Free Plan: 5 GB file storage
  • Unlimited Plan: Unlimited file storage

Mattermost: Open-source, and Self-hosted Slack Alternative 

• Getting Started
  • An open-source slack alternative
  • It brings team communication at one place, making collaboration possible anywhere
• Features:
  • Private and group messaging
  • Fully searchable message history
  • Screen sharing, voice and video call
  • Integrated file sharing
  • Supports Windows, Mac, and Linux
  • Supports mobile iOS and Android
  • Multi-factor authentication
  • Highly available configuration
  • LDAP authentication
  • Multi-language translations
  • Enterprise-grade security and scalability
  • Priority support
  • White labelling: Custom branding & custom emojis
  • Unlimited integrations
  • Guest Accounts
• Pricing:
  • Enterprise E10: $3.25 per user month, billed annually
  • Enterprise E20: $8.50 per user month, billed annually
• Integration:
  • E-discovery tools, DLP, EMM
  • 100s of pre-built tools ready to integrate
  • Connect with internal company tools and third-party app
• Users
  • Enterprise E10: Scaling up to 500 users
  • Enterprise E20: Scaling for 1000+ users

Rocket chat: Unlimited & Open Source Alternative To Slack

• Getting Started
  • A web-chat server which has been developed in JavaScript
  • An ideal solution for companies willing to host their own chat servers, privately
• Features
  • Unlimited message history
  • Unlimited private and public channels
  • Dedicated conferencing server
  • Multi Language Interface
  • White label branding and custom domain
  • Advanced agent routing rules
  • OmniChannel Integrations
  • LDAP/Active Directory
  • Multi Factor authentication
  • Hourly Analytics Reporting
  • On-Call Upgrade Assistance
• Pricing:
  • Community: Free
  • Pro: $3 per user, when billed monthly, and $30 per user, when billed annually
  • Enterprise: Tiered pricing
• Integration:
  • Community: Unlimited
  • Pro: Unlimited Integrations
  • Enterprise: Unlimited Integrations
  • (GitHub, Trello, JIRA, Guggy, Google Calendar, Moodle, Sentry, and more)
• Users:
  • Community: Up to 1000 users recommended
  • Pro: Unlimited users
  • Enterprise: Unlimited users

Milanote: Get Organized, Stay Creative

• Getting Started:
  • It is a tool for organizing creative projects into beautiful visual boards
  • By design, it feels a lot like working on the wall in a creative studio - visual, tactile and sometimes a bit messy - Milanote is a great fit for designers who work in teams remotely
• Features
  • Write notes & to-do lists, upload images & files and save things you find on the web
  • Organize visually using the flexible drag and drop interface
  • Boards by default are a private place to think, but with a single click you can create a shared workspace for collaboration with your team
  • Milanote is filled with hundreds of built-in templates to help you get started with a variety of different projects, from creating a mood board to writing that perfect creative brief
• Pricing
  • Free version available with no time limit
  • PRO version $9.99 per month (monthly and annual plans)

Toasty: The interactive alternative to Slack

• Getting Started:
  • High-resolution video conferencing platform
  • Secure with E2E encryption
  • Live Q&A and interactive tools for virtual meeting
  • Ready-made meeting templates for Team Reflection, Opposite Thinking etc
• Features
  • Breakout rooms
  • E2E encryption
  • Live chat
  • Q&A
  • Conversation Cards
  • Group Discussion and Response
  • Poll
  • 100+ meeting templates
  • Customer Support
• Pricing:
  • Standard: 9USD/month/host
  • Professional: 39/month/host
• Users:
  • Up to 50 team members at a time

Monday.com: Slack Alternative where Workflow is Made Simple

• Getting Started:
  • Leading communication and collaboration app for businesses working remotely
  • Monday.com sync empowers all the team members and stakeholders to make real-time decisions, together
• Features
  • Unlimited Boards and Free Viewers
  • Embedded forms
  • Kanban View, Timeline View,
  • Calendar and Chart View
  • Dashboards and Automations
  • Two-factor authentication
  • Audit Log
  • Single Sign-On (Okta, One login, Azure AD, Custom SAML)
  • Self-Serve knowledge base
  • 99.9% uptime
  • HIPAA Compliance
  • Session Management
• Pricing:
  • Basic Plan: $39/month for a team of 5 users
  • Standard: $4/month for a team of 5 users
  • Pro: $79/month for a team of 5 users
  • Enterprise Plan: Custom Pricing
• Integration:
  • Basic Plan: 0 actions/month
  • Standard: Up to 250 actions/month
  • Pro: Up to 25,000 actions/month
  • Enterprise Plan: Up to 2,50,000 actions/month
• Storage:
  • Basic Plan: Up to 5GB Storage available
  • Standard: Up to 50GB Storage available
  • Pro: Unlimited Storage
  • Enterprise Plan: Unlimited Storage

Zenchat: Team messenger with built-in task management

• Getting Started:
  • Zenchat is a team messenger with built-in task management
  • The combination of chat and tasks creates a complete communication experience

• Features:
  • Group chats and personal chats
  • Audio and Video messaging
  • Search function for messages and tasks
  • Built-in Task Management
  • Attachments
  • Task Chats
  • Reminders
  • Dark Mode
  • Offline Support
  • Enterprise Ready
  • 2 Factor Authentication
• Pricing:
  • Zenchat Personal: Free
  • Zenchat Plus: 5$ per user/month
  • Zenchat Business: 19$ per user/month
  • Zenchat Enterprise: Contact us: https://zenkit.com/en/contact/
• Integration:
  • 1000+ integrations in all plans via Zapier or via API to build your own direct integrations
• Storage:
  • Zenchat Personal: 600MB
  • Zenchat Plus: 6GB
  • Zenchat Business: 600GB
  • Zenchat Enterprise: unlimited
• Users (in this case Chats with other users):
  • Zenchat Personal: up to 5
  • Zenchat Plus: up to 50
  • Zenchat Business: unlimited
  • Zenchat Enterprise: unlimited

Best Slack Alternatives 2021 - Conclusion:

Apart from these 11 tools, there are over a dozen paid and open source business collaboration tools. All these tools are available in the market as an alternative to Slack.

For more than 10 million users, these slack competitor applications have become the first tool they open to kick the workday on.

What’s more, these 11 slack alternatives have shaped themselves into a pioneer of team collaboration. They’ve everything that makes them a promising slack alternative.

Post Contribution by Mohsin Ansari, who is a Marketing Manager at Troop Messenger – a business messenger that comes with all the requisite features. It is a viable Slack Alternative that is spreading its wings across all industries by bringing all the internal communication at one place. Mohsin is accountable for analyzing the market trends, demographics, and dealing with all promotional and media channels.