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Discord is free. Gitter is free (for up to 25). HipChat is free. WhatsApp is free. There are already plenty of free (forget cheap) alternatives to Slack. Nothi

by dvt 9y ago

Discord is free. Gitter is free (for up to 25). HipChat is free. WhatsApp is free. There are already plenty of free (forget cheap) alternatives to Slack. Nothing to see here. I mean, the thing reads like a sponsored piece anyway.

Juliate 9y ago
Notwithstanding the cohorts of (even large) corporate users that stay in the free plan, not so much because of the price (which isn't that high, but only if compared to the free plan) but because of the purchase process it would imply.
lwhalen 9y ago
Don't forget Mattermost - they're the most Slack-like of the free Slack alternatives (and pretty doggone spiffy, IMHO).
- jsiepkes 9y ago
  We actually moved from Mattermost to Zulip. Mattermost and Slack work fine for highly specific project teams but when used in an Enterprise for the day to day operation the poor threading solutions in both become a drag. Especially the ability to react outside of a thread created chaos for us. We've switched to Zulip which has a real nice messaging threading model. For us it was really a productivity saver and I really recommend anyone to try Zulip!
- it33 9y ago
  Mattermost team here, thanks for the mention! Yeah, a lot of enterprises are using Mattermost these days. Uber left Slack and HipChat to use Mattermost for company-wide deployment: http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-ditches-hipchat-slack-to-create-its-own-work-chat-app-uchat-2017-7 http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-ditches-hipchat-slack-to...
chrisbolt 9y ago
Comparing Slack to WhatsApp or Discord seems disingenuous. For an employee, that means adding every other user in your company. And what about integrations? With slack it's easy to send messages to channels with an HTTP request, which (for me) replaces email spam. Also, Slack has a free plan, so Slack is free.
- EGreg 9y ago
  Gitter is free :)
- briandear 9y ago
  WhatsApp? What company in their right mind would use a Facebook service for their proprietary communications? Have you read their terms and conditions? Facebook already collects device-level usage information through their Facebook app in order to keep track of emerging competitors.. what’s to prevent them from using WhatsApp to further enhance their competitive intelligence?
  - what_ever 9y ago
    Uhhh - https://www.facebook.com/workplace/stories https://www.facebook.com/workplace/stories
me551ah 9y ago
Flock has a free for lifetime plan which supports unlimited users. You can check our pricing page here: https://flock.com/in/pricing/ https://flock.com/in/pricing/. Also Gitter and Discord don't have a platform as powerful as flock does. https://dev.flock.com/ https://dev.flock.com/ PS: I work for flock.
balladeer 9y ago
Yes, this is a PR piece. But no, WhatsApp, for me - and many of my colleagues, is a complete no-no for professional communication. I have refused to join the team group many times and I am unapologetic about it. While I really don't find Slack much useful, to be honest is's another source of distraction, I definitely see its use case in a professional set up unlike WhatsApp.

by dvt 9y ago

Juliate 9y ago

Notwithstanding the cohorts of (even large) corporate users that stay in the free plan, not so much because of the price (which isn't that high, but only if compared to the free plan) but because of the purchase process it would imply.

lwhalen 9y ago

Don't forget Mattermost - they're the most Slack-like of the free Slack alternatives (and pretty doggone spiffy, IMHO).

jsiepkes 9y ago
We actually moved from Mattermost to Zulip. Mattermost and Slack work fine for highly specific project teams but when used in an Enterprise for the day to day operation the poor threading solutions in both become a drag. Especially the ability to react outside of a thread created chaos for us. We've switched to Zulip which has a real nice messaging threading model. For us it was really a productivity saver and I really recommend anyone to try Zulip!
it33 9y ago
Mattermost team here, thanks for the mention! Yeah, a lot of enterprises are using Mattermost these days. Uber left Slack and HipChat to use Mattermost for company-wide deployment: http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-ditches-hipchat-slack-to-create-its-own-work-chat-app-uchat-2017-7 http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-ditches-hipchat-slack-to...

chrisbolt 9y ago

Comparing Slack to WhatsApp or Discord seems disingenuous. For an employee, that means adding every other user in your company. And what about integrations? With slack it's easy to send messages to channels with an HTTP request, which (for me) replaces email spam. Also, Slack has a free plan, so Slack is free.

EGreg 9y ago
Gitter is free :)
briandear 9y ago
WhatsApp? What company in their right mind would use a Facebook service for their proprietary communications? Have you read their terms and conditions? Facebook already collects device-level usage information through their Facebook app in order to keep track of emerging competitors.. what’s to prevent them from using WhatsApp to further enhance their competitive intelligence?
- what_ever 9y ago
  Uhhh - https://www.facebook.com/workplace/stories https://www.facebook.com/workplace/stories

me551ah 9y ago

Flock has a free for lifetime plan which supports unlimited users. You can check our pricing page here: https://flock.com/in/pricing/ https://flock.com/in/pricing/. Also Gitter and Discord don't have a platform as powerful as flock does. https://dev.flock.com/ https://dev.flock.com/ PS: I work for flock.

balladeer 9y ago

Yes, this is a PR piece. But no, WhatsApp, for me - and many of my colleagues, is a complete no-no for professional communication. I have refused to join the team group many times and I am unapologetic about it. While I really don't find Slack much useful, to be honest is's another source of distraction, I definitely see its use case in a professional set up unlike WhatsApp.