Companies have increasingly invested in technology and tools to enhance workplace productivity. Slack has benefited from this trend as a provider of workplace messaging software that increases productivity by cutting down on unwanted emails. However, Slack users have now realized that emails are an integral part of an organization and it cannot be replaced solely by chat messages.
In addition, complex integration issues with add-ons, high cost of ownership, and the “noise” created by frequent chat messages in Slack channels has made the ‘email killer’ a ‘productivity killer’.
As per a finding by RescueTime, when Slack was down for a few hours on June 27, 2018, productivity increased! If the NPS and product-market fit scores of Slack are anything to go by, it is noticeable that a sizable segment of the user base is looking for alternatives.
Here are some alternatives to Slack that offer the same value proposition but at a lower cost and with some unique features.
- Wire
Wire claims to be the most secure 100% open source, end-to-end encrypted collaboration platform with certifications from ISO, CCPA, GDPR, and SOX. Wire features include group messaging, conferencing, audio calls, file-sharing and search. It offers native apps for mobile and offers good customer support.
The company also claims it can reduce emails by up to 43% when using wire pro as the collaboration tool. Wire supports all devices and operating systems. What is quite unique about this company is it is offering various deployment options for clients – private cloud or on-premise. The product also supports many third-party integrations. Yes, you can access Wire from mobile, tablet and desktop.
USP: World-class security.
- Clariti
Clariti is a powerful cloud-based work app that lets you work smarter and faster. It uses a path-breaking Thread methodology to automatically organize all your related work based on topics. Topics provide context as you do your day-to-day work, reducing stress from having to rely on memory and increasing your productivity. For instance, once you receive an email, you can start chatting with your colleagues from the email, without having to forward the message. Since the recipients see the same email message with your chat, they have context.
A Clariti Thread preserves the history of all work related to a topic be it through email, chats, to dos or even social feeds like tweets, so you can refer to it at any time in the future without having to do multiple searches.
Clariti supports many other features including calendar, to-do, cloud storage integrations, built-in document folder, multi-format document viewers and world-class safety and security offered by AWS. Unlike other apps, Clariti has found a way to let you seamlessly work with all the tools you are accustomed to like email and chat, without having to use multiple apps.
USP: Maintains context using Threads for all digital work
- Riot.im
Riot is another open source software that offers commonly used features such as voice calling, video conferencing, organizing chat rooms, and sharing files. You can even bridge-in users and groups from other chat apps into an ongoing conversation.
Another added convenience is that it offers one-touch mobile voice and video calls and conferences. External clients or partners can join your audio/video call using the link that you share through the browser, without installing the Riot software. Riot is available for mobile and desktop platforms. Riot users can own their data by hosting in their own server or selecting one that they trust.
USP: Data ownership
- Zulip:
Zulip is yet another open-source software that facilitates chat between distributed teams. Zulip uses topic-based threading model where every message has to have a topic which makes it easier for people to find relevant messages instead of having to browse through a plethora of messages.
Zulip supports over 100 integrations and provides enterprise-grade security. Apart from all the in-built features including one-to-one chat, group chat etc, Zulip users can add other customized features to suit their needs as it is an open source tool. Zulip is available in both mobile and desktop versions and it supports all OS.
USP: Threaded chat conversations
- ChatWork
ChatWork, a cloud-based communication platform for global teams, offers one-on-one & group messaging, file-sharing, video calling and task management through a single application. ChatWork targets less tech-savvy business professionals in the US market, who are looking for a simpler UI and features. One notable feature of ChatWork is it allows non-company representatives to participate in chat rooms. For example, a marketing manager will be able to interact with his company’s clients using ChatWork, without granting access to everything.
It has a good task management system whereby you can assign a task to yourself and others so that everyone in the team knows who is responsible for what. Chatwork works across different operating systems and devices, providing ease of access.
USP: In-built task management
We hope this article will help you consider alternatives to Slack which may be a better fit for your needs.
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