They both support GIFs but Teams simply provides a more robust method of messaging and security (which we will touch on later). Teams and Slack offer very similar conversation threads for messaging and chat, including plain text and tagging. In this post, we will compare Microsoft Teams and Slack to see how their pricing, innovative features, capabilities, and usability stand up to each other and how they might help you decide which application is best for you.įirst off, if you need some help getting started, make sure you read this guide for Teams or check out Slack’s official getting started guide after this post. No matter where you are on the spectrum, workspace and chat tools are more important than ever to keep up productivity, normalcy, and communication. Slack, meanwhile, has been around a lot longer and is more comfortable as an independent application to startups, and cooler to younger, independent developers for collaboration. Microsoft Teams is adding massive numbers of users through large organizations, schools, government agencies, and its existing Office 365 customer base. It didn’t help when Slack filed a competition complaint against Microsoft in Europe, alleging that Microsoft “illegally tied its Teams product into its market-dominant Office productivity suite.”

Of course, Slack is still growing too but not at the same pace. Microsoft and Slack have been dominating the workspace market for the last few years, but COVID-19-related stay-at-home orders led to more remote working and skyrocketed Microsoft Teams’ user base to a reported 75 million in the first half of 2020. The timing could not be better as the updates have been slow but sure in the face of top competitors like Slack. Most people have been confined to work from home for the foreseeable future and these updates, along with the integration of Sticky notes and the rebuilt Whiteboard, will help even more companies handle their tasks and meetings in the new-normal fashion. All these features and more will be available to Office 365 paid users this month and as free trials to the rest of Teams users. Teams will also offer branded virtual lobby rooms for meetings in the coming months. Over 1,000 participants can join two-way video conferences but 'view only' mode is implemented after the limit is met.

Microsoft Teams recently announced that their collaborative work tool will allow over 20,000 participants in a one-way conference.

Slack official website