Microsoft Teams

Pricing

Free plan available; paid plans start from $2.50 per user per month.

Microsoft Teams is a widely used Slack alternative that offers a variety of features for hosting meetings and webinars, chatting, collaboration, and data security. It also offers integrations with productivity apps, project management apps, and apps for specific departments and industries.

As it integrates well with the rest of the Microsoft 365 suite, Microsoft Teams is naturally a great option for any company that uses other Microsoft apps such as PowerPoint and Excel or wants to use features like email hosting, custom domain name for email addresses, OneDrive storage, etc.

It has some very innovative features for calls and meetings, such as Intelligent Speakers, which can differentiate the voices of up to 10 speakers in a Teams Room. You can also merge calls to bring different people together and move a call from your mobile phone to your laptop.

Pros

•      250+ integrations with apps including Trello, ClickUp, Azure Boards
•      Unlimited number of chat messages even in the free plan, unlike Slack
•      Free 30-day trial available for paid plans
•      Team video calls are possible for up to 100 participants in the free version, unlike Slack
•      10 GB file storage available in the free version, and 1 TB storage per organization plus 10 GB per license in paid versions

Cons

•      UX is not as intuitive as other apps such as Slack
•      Desktop versions of Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Publisher are not included in the free plan 

Flock

Pricing

Free plan available; paid plans start at $4.50 per user per month

Like Microsoft Teams, Flock has a variety of features for communication, productivity, and security. You can create public and private channels, share files, set reminders and to-dos, and bookmark or pin certain messages to make them easily accessible. Flock also allows you to create polls to facilitate teams' decision making.

Although it is quite similar to Slack in its limitations, the paid 'Pro' plan is $4.50  per user per month, which is cheaper than Slack's cheapest paid plan of $6.67 per user per month (if billed annually). So if you have a small team and are okay with the basic features, you can save some bucks by switching to Flock.

Pros

•      5 GB free storage available in the free plan (which is lower than that in Microsoft Teams though)
•      Paid plans have 20 GB of file storage allotted to each team member
•      30-day free trial available for paid plans

Cons

•      Has a limit of 10,000 searchable messages in the free version like Slack does
•      Screen sharing is only available in paid versions, just like Slack

Allows a maximum of 20 team members in the free version whereas Slack imposes no such limits for its free plan

Discord

Pricing

Free plan available; paid plans start at $9.99 per month

Although many may think of Discord as a personal space to hang out with friends and gaming buddies, organizations have come to consider Discord an efficient, free Slack alternative for daily communication.

Discord allows the creation of public and private servers and channels. You can create text and voice channels on Discord, call others, share files, and more. Discord also allows you to make threads, which are temporary channels made to discuss one-off topics.

You can upgrade to Discord Nitro for streaming and screen sharing in higher resolution, upload files with sizes up to 100MB, or get server boosts. But the free version will suffice if you just want a platform for text, video, and voice communication.

Pros

•      Unlimited message history even in the free version
•      Ability to give members custom access
•      Unlimited file storage

Cons

•      While Discord may allow YouTube and Twitch integrations, webhooks, and bots, the truth is that it will not have the integrations with other apps commonly used for work that you can enjoy in Microsoft Teams, Flock, and Slack
•      The interface often requires some getting used to
•      You can send files with sizes up to only 8 MB with the free version