Microsoft Teams Vs Slack: How Do They Compare?

Microsoft Teams now has more registered users than Slack, which puts Slack users in an interesting position. Is it time to switch to Microsoft Teams or stay with Slack?

Both collaboration platforms have many features, but there are some clear differences between the two options.

It’s more about whether you prefer specific strengths of one or the other, so let’s take a look at the Microsoft and Slack teams and how each option stands out in certain categories.

Text Chat & Channels

Both Slack and Microsoft Teams have great text channels and chat tools. You can create multiple text feeds and customize privacy settings for each.

The powerful search feature on both platforms makes it very easy to find specific past chats in one search. You can direct messages to specific users using quick @mentions, using @everyone will notify everyone in that workspace in Slack, or using @team will notify everyone on that team in Microsoft Teams

There is no clear winner, just know you can expect great chat functionality in both Microsoft Teams and Slack.

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Voice Chat & Group Call

If you want your communication to go beyond plain text, Microsoft Teams has a significant advantage over Slack. Slack has free one-on-one voice and video calls, but if you need more, you’ll have to pay for a subscription. Even so, you are limited to conference calls with a maximum of 15 people.

Microsoft Teams offers conferencing for up to 250 people and this is included in the free version. You can also record meetings in Microsoft Teams, and screen sharing is free. It’s a feature that’s hidden behind the standard paid subscription for Slack users.

You can still create one-to-one calls in Microsoft Teams, and scheduling appointments via email is easy. Microsoft Teams offers the best voice and video calling experience without a doubt.

Integrations and Third-Party Applications

For third-party integrations, Microsoft Teams will be the best choice for most. You get 140 app integrations across all price tiers, including the free version of Microsoft Teams More importantly, Microsoft Teams is perfectly integrated with Office 365.

The integration with Office 365 makes it very easy to collaborate on documents and files, and you can even use the Microsoft Team search bar to search the documents themselves. This integration beats anything Slack has to offer in this regard.

You can integrate up to 10 apps into Slack for free, and up to 800 for a fee. However, for most people, 10 is more than enough. 800 is overkill.

So it all comes down to whether your team will find the benefits of integrating with Office 365 or not.

File Sharing and Storage

If storage space is a concern and you’re on a tight budget, you might like the free 10GB storage space in Microsoft Teams Slack only offers 5GB for free.

Teams will also keep an unlimited number of messages in their journal, while Slack will only keep 10,000 messages. If you’re willing to pay to upgrade, Slack offers 10GB per user for the standard subscription, or 20GB per user for the Plus subscription. Teams, on the other hand, offers a huge 1TB of online storage if you’re subscribed to Office 365 Business.

If you need to share large files, another thing to consider is that Microsoft Teams has a maximum single file size of 15 GB, while Slack has a maximum single file size of 1 GB. With more free storage and even more storage for paid members, Microsoft Teams wins here by far.

Robotics and Automation

Both platforms offer many bots through their app catalogs. Most bot developers see value in providing their bots for both platforms, and there is nothing stopping them from doing so.

This means you can expect popular bots like Polly and Zapier on both platforms, and of course, there is integration available on both platforms via platforms like Trello and SurveyMonkey.

The only significant difference comes from the built-in helper bots built by both platforms. Slackbot vs. WhoBot. You can talk to Slackbot for answers on how to use Slack, or get customized answers created by owners or administrators. You can also create personal reminders and automatic replies.

Microsoft Teams used to offer T-Bot to help you learn Microsoft Teams, but it has since been superseded by the traditional help system. WhoBot, on the other hand, can be useful for quickly gathering employee data to create new teams or collaborative tasks.

Slackbot certainly wins the crown for this – if you like automation with customizable reminders, automatic replies, and FAQs about Slack or your team, Slackbot is your best bet.

Microsoft Teams vs. Slack – Summary and Pricing

In many ways, Microsoft Teams has outpaced Slack. While Slack is doing well financially, Microsoft has much more purchasing power, which gives them the flexibility to offer more storage, larger team sizes, and conferencing on a larger scale for both free and paid members.

That being said, the functionality that Slack offers is still exceptional, and thanks to Slackbot, third-party app integrations, and new bots, you can customize a system that makes collaboration easier no matter your team size. If you already use Slack, it doesn’t make sense to upgrade to Microsoft Teams

For many newcomers to collaboration platforms, Microsoft Teams may be a better choice due to their more generous offering for free users.

If you’re willing to pay for additional storage and other features, then you must pay per user on both platforms. Slack starts at $ 8 per user per month for a monthly subscription or $ 6.67 per month for an annual subscription. This gives you 20GB of storage per user.

For Microsoft Teams, you must purchase Office 365 Business, which is $ 8.50 / month / user for an annual model, or $ 10 / month / user for a monthly subscription. This is obviously more expensive, but you also get 1TB of storage per user. Slack Enterprise Grid has 1 TB of storage per user.

Hope this helped you decide which platform to use. You can set up Slack here and Microsoft Teams here.

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