Microsoft Teams and Slack are the two most popular and best business collaboration software available today. Teams was launched in 2017 while Slack was launched in 2013. It was rumored that tech giant Microsoft Corporation would buy Slack in 2016, however the news just turned out to be false. Instead of purchasing Slack, Microsoft decided to revamp its own video conferencing software, Skype for Business. However, they released Microsoft Teams to bring a direct competitor to Slack and eventually replace its communication software Skype for Business with Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams surpassed Slack’s market share with 13 million daily active users.
Just after the launch, Teams reached 13 million daily active users in under three years, while it took Slack around six years to reach 10 million.
Just six months back Microsoft made an announcement of crossing over 75 million daily active users, a figure that has now raised 50% to 115 million.
Slack vs Microsoft Teams: Details
This article Microsoft Teams Vs Slack has everything you need to know. The biggest difference between the two collaboration apps is that Slack is easy to set up and administrate. While Microsoft Teams is designed for both small medium and larger enterprise companies and its setup is a bit complex. But it offers excellent integrations with Office 365 applications. Now, let’s have a look at the key features of Microsoft Teams and Slack.
| Slack | Microsoft Teams | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Freemium Available Standard Plan at Rs. 5880/usr/Yr. (billed annually) Plus Plan at Rs. 10950/usr/Yr. (billed annually) | Freemium Available Microsoft 365 Business Basic: Rs. 1500/Usr/Yr/. Microsoft 365 Business Standard: Rs. 7000/Usr/Yr/. (billed annually) You can try both paid plans for free for 30 days |
| Audio/video calls | Unlimited 1:1 video and voice calls in Free plan Conference calls for up to 15 participants in Paid plans | Voice/video calls with up to 250 people in a meeting. |
| Integrations | 10 integrations limit in Free plan, 800+ integrations in paid plans | 180+ apps and services |
| Message history limit | 10K messages in Free plan, unlimited in Standard and Plus plans | Unlimited in all plans |
| File storage limit | Free plan: 5GB file storage for a team Standard plan: 10GB per user Plus plan: 20GB per user | Free plan: 2 GB/user and 10GB of shared storage Paid plans: 1 TB per organization |
| Interface color options | Custom sidebar themes. | 3 themes (light, dark, high contrast) |
| Conversation threads | Yes | Yes |
| Screen sharing | Unavailable in Free version, available in Standard and Plus versions | Available in all plans |
Reasons Why Microsoft Teams is better than Slack
There are many reasons why Microsoft Teams has captured Slack’s market share? Well, below are some reasons to compare Microsoft Teams vs Slack features:
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Integration with Office 365
Microsoft played smart by bundling Microsoft Teams with popular business productivity suite Microsoft 365 (Previously Known as Office 365). Microsoft Teams is available for free as well as part of Office 365 plans.
Microsoft Teams is integrated with other Office 365 applications by-default, while Slack also offers integration with third-party applications. Slack has been working on improving its integration with GoogleWorkspace, which is a competitor to the Microsoft Office 365 suite.
If you want to collaborate with colleagues and work on Excel or doc file concurrently, Microsoft Teams is a much better collaboration app as you don’t have to download the files locally to work on them. The integration with the Microsoft Office tool makes it easy to complete your tasks without switching apps.
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Better Storage Limit
Teams provides storage of 1 TB per organization in M365 Business Basic and M365 Business Standard plans along with the upload limit of 15 GB per file. While Slack only allows 20 GB of storage in its top plan with an upload limit of 1 GB per file. The ‘Search’ option in Microsoft teams allows you to search through unlimited messages, while in Slack it’s limited to the recent 10,000 messages only.
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Advanced Security & Compliance Capabilities
Microsoft 365 comes with in-built security and data leakage prevention facilities while in Slack there are no default data protection features to prevent data leakage by identifying and controlling access to critical data. Both Microsoft Teams offer Multi-factor authentication while Slack offers two-factor authentication and SSO via AD or SAML. Slack has been vulnerable to data leaks in the past.
Microsoft Teams is a great choice specially when it comes to security, Microsoft Teams is governed by compliance and security guidelines guaranteed by Microsoft. Microsoft provides enterprise-level security features while Slack doesn’t buy it is compliant with many regulatory requirements including GDPR.
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Better Video/Audio Conferencing
Microsoft Teams has a simple user interface while Slack is pleasing with all the visually appealing features. Microsoft Teams has a navigation bar on the left side that has options to switch from. One major advantage of Microsoft Teams is that it allows up to 250+ participants to be present on the call, while Slack offers only 15 participants. Hence, Slack is not advised for enterprise customers with large teams.
Slack vs Microsoft Teams: Pricing
As mentioned in the above comparison table, both tools offer free plans and a free trial. However, if you want to use all the features of Microsoft Teams and Slack, you’ll need to buy a paid plan. Microsoft Teams comes in a bundle with its SMB plans so you need to buy an M365 Business Basic Plan or M365 Business Standard Plan.
Read More: Microsoft Teams paid vs Microsoft Teams free, what’s the difference?
The most affordable Office 365 Plan is M365 Business Basic Plan which has Teams in it. It costs Rs.1500/usr/yr and you have to buy M365 Business Basic annual plan to get started. This M365 SMB Plan is actually much affordable than Slack’s cheapest plan (Standard), which costs Rs.5880 /user/Year. Well, it’s no hidden fact that Rs.1500 spent on M365 Business Basic plan also gives you access to Microsoft Teams, 1 TB One Drive, Sharepoint, Office Web Apps, and Business email, which makes the price much more attractive.
These are many reasons why Microsoft Teams has an advantage over collaboration app Slack. With a combination of integrated features and superior collaboration features, Microsoft Teams has not only competed with Slack but surpassed it in the race of market share. Now, what would you choose – Teams or Slack?
If you are looking to leverage the power of Microsoft Teams as your primary collaboration software, Wroffy will help you out in deployment and procurement. Contact us now!
