Microsoft Teams vs Slack

Microsoft Teams is Microsoft's workplace chat, meetings and collaboration app. It launched in 2017, replaced Skype for Business Online in 2021 and took over Skype's users when Skype shut down in May 2025. Bundled with most Microsoft 365 business licences, it is the default tool in many companies.

Teams combines persistent channels and chats, video meetings with recording, transcription and live captions, webinars and town halls, optional cloud phone calling, and file collaboration backed by SharePoint and OneDrive. Microsoft 365 Copilot adds meeting recaps and drafting; Teams Premium adds advanced meeting protection. A free personal version exists, Teams Essentials is the cheapest business option, and most companies get Teams through Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard or Premium.

Teams fits organisations already on Microsoft 365, especially those that need Outlook, Office documents, Entra ID and compliance tooling in one place. Slack is faster and friendlier for chat-heavy and developer teams with a richer app ecosystem, Zoom still has the edge for large external meetings and webinars, and Google Meet is simpler for Google Workspace shops. Teams can feel heavy, and file permissions follow SharePoint's logic.

Buying tip: on 1 July 2026 Microsoft raised Business Basic from $6 to $7 and Business Standard from $12.50 to $14 per user, while standalone Teams prices were not part of that change. Under commitments the European Commission made binding in September 2025, Microsoft 365 suites are also sold without Teams, so compare both variants.

Slack is the channel-based messaging platform launched in 2014 by Stewart Butterfield's team and acquired by Salesforce in 2021. It popularized organizing workplace communication into channels by team, project or topic, with threads, direct messages and shared channels that connect separate companies through Slack Connect.

Around messaging, Slack offers huddles for quick audio and video calls with screen sharing, clips, canvases for lightweight documents, lists for tracking tasks and Workflow Builder for no-code automations. Thousands of integrations bring notifications from tools such as Jira, GitHub, Google Drive and Salesforce, and apps let users act without leaving Slack. Slack AI summarizes channels and threads, searches across history and answers questions, and Salesforce's Agentforce brings AI agents into Slack. The free plan hides messages and files older than 90 days and limits integrations, which pushes active teams to Pro; Business+ adds SAML SSO, data exports and a higher uptime SLA, and Enterprise+ supports multiple workspaces, DLP and key management.

Slack fits tech companies, startups and distributed teams that rely on many integrations and fast, informal communication. Constant notifications can hurt focus, and costs add up for large organizations. Microsoft Teams wins in Microsoft 365 companies because it is bundled, Google Chat suits Workspace users, and Discord or Mattermost serve communities and teams that want self-hosting.