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Slack

Features
Ease of use
Ease of management
Quality of support
Affordability
Market presence
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Pricing from
$7.25 per user per month
Free Trial
Free version
User corporate size
Small
Medium
Large
User industry
  1. Information technology and software
  2. Media and communications
  3. Arts, entertainment, and recreation

What is Slack

Slack is a team communication platform centered on persistent chat channels, direct messaging, and file sharing. It is used by organizations to coordinate work, share updates, and integrate notifications and actions from third-party business systems. Slack also provides huddles for lightweight audio conversations, searchable message history, and admin controls for managing users, retention, and compliance. It is commonly deployed as a hub for internal communications and cross-functional collaboration.

pros

Channel-based team communication

Slack organizes conversations into channels that map to teams, projects, and topics, which helps reduce reliance on email threads. Message threads, mentions, and reactions support lightweight coordination and decision capture in context. Shared files and link previews keep common artifacts close to the discussion. This structure is well-suited to ongoing operational communication across distributed teams.

Broad integration ecosystem

Slack supports a large catalog of integrations and APIs that connect chat to common business applications and internal tools. Workflow Builder and app actions allow teams to trigger simple automations (for example, routing requests or collecting structured inputs) without building a full custom system. This makes Slack effective as an event and notification layer across systems. Centralized admin controls help govern app installation and permissions in managed environments.

Enterprise administration and compliance

Slack includes enterprise features such as SSO/SAML support, SCIM provisioning, eDiscovery integrations, retention controls, and audit-related capabilities (plan-dependent). Admins can manage workspace settings, user access, and data policies across teams. These controls support regulated or security-conscious deployments when configured appropriately. The product also provides organization-level management options for larger enterprises via enterprise plans.

cons

Not a dedicated work manager

Slack can coordinate work through conversations, reminders, and lightweight workflows, but it does not provide full project planning depth such as advanced task hierarchies, portfolio views, or native resource management. Teams often need an external system of record for tasks, roadmaps, and program governance. As a result, execution tracking can fragment across chat and other tools. This can increase process overhead if integrations are not well maintained.

Knowledge capture can be fragmented

Slack search is effective for recent conversations, but long-term knowledge management can be difficult when information is spread across channels, threads, and direct messages. Important decisions may be hard to locate later without consistent naming, pinning, and documentation practices. Content quality depends heavily on user behavior and channel hygiene. Organizations frequently supplement Slack with dedicated knowledge base tooling for curated, versioned documentation.

Cost and plan gating

Key capabilities such as longer message history, advanced admin controls, and certain compliance features depend on paid tiers. For larger organizations, per-user pricing can become significant relative to lightweight communication needs. Some governance requirements may necessitate higher-tier plans, increasing total cost of ownership. Budget constraints can lead to uneven feature access across teams if not standardized.

Plan & Pricing

Plan Price Key features & notes
Free $0 USD — Free forever 90 days message history; up to 10 app integrations; 1:1 audio/video (Huddles); 1:1 external messages; Basic AI features (conversation summaries, workflow generation, AI search, daily recaps, file summaries). See official pricing page for details.
Pro $8.75 USD per user/month (monthly) or $7.25 USD per user/month (annual) Unlimited message history; unlimited app integrations; group audio/video calls (up to 50); Basic AI (channel summaries, huddle notes); no-code Workflow Builder; priority support. 30-day free trial available.
Business+ $18 USD per user/month (monthly) or $15 USD per user/month (annual) Everything in Pro plus Advanced AI (AI conversation summaries, workflow generation, AI search, daily recaps), SAML-based SSO and SCIM provisioning, data exports and enhanced admin controls; 30-day free trial available.
Enterprise+ (Enterprise) Contact sales / Custom pricing Enterprise-grade features: enterprise search across connected systems, HIPAA support/configuration, multiple SAML configurations, enhanced security, governance, and compliance; negotiated pricing via sales.

Seller details

Salesforce, Inc.
San Francisco, CA, USA
1999
Public
https://www.salesforce.com/
https://x.com/salesforce
https://www.linkedin.com/company/salesforce/

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