Team Communication & Chat
Alternatives to team chat platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams. Discover self-hosted, open-source, and more affordable messaging tools for your team.
Popular Team Communication & Chat Tools
Slack
Team messaging and collaboration platform
- ✗ Expensive at scale — costs add up quickly with large teams
- ✗ Free plan limited to 90 days of message history
Microsoft Teams
Business communication hub with chat, meetings, and file sharing
- ✗ Confusing integration with Microsoft 365 licensing tiers
- ✗ Heavy desktop app with high RAM usage
Alternatives in Team Communication & Chat
Mattermost
Open-source, self-hosted Slack alternative for team messaging
Free self-hosted, $10/user/mo cloud Professional
- ✓ Self-hosted with full data control
- ✓ Unlimited message history on all plans
- ✓ Open-source with active community
Rocket.Chat
Open-source team chat with omnichannel support
Free self-hosted, cloud plans from $4/user/mo
- ✓ End-to-end encryption support
- ✓ Omnichannel — combine team chat and customer support
- ✓ Built-in video conferencing
Element
Decentralized, encrypted messaging built on the Matrix protocol
Free self-hosted, Element Server Suite from $5/user/mo
- ✓ End-to-end encryption by default
- ✓ Decentralized — no single point of failure
- ✓ Bridges to Slack, Teams, Discord, and IRC
Replaces: Slack , Microsoft Teams
Visit →Zulip
Topic-based team chat designed for both live and async conversations
Free self-hosted, Cloud free for small teams, $8/user/mo Standard
- ✓ Topic-based threading keeps conversations organized
- ✓ Designed for asynchronous communication
- ✓ 100+ native integrations and webhooks
Replaces: Slack , Microsoft Teams
Visit →