Slack
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Slack is commercial team chat software made by Salesforce, Inc. It was first released in 2013. Its English Wikipedia article has about 8.4k readers a month on phones.
- Made by
- Salesforce, Inc.
- Since
- 2013
- Wikipedia readers on phones
- 8.4k a month
- Source code
- Closed
Judgement
- What it is
- Complete system
- What it does
- Team messaging organised into channels and threads, with huddles, shared channels between companies, workflows and thousands of app integrations.
- Adopt it when
- A team wants the chat tool with the widest integration ecosystem and is willing to pay per seat.
- Watch out
- Per-seat pricing is high, the free plan hides history older than 90 days, and Salesforce keeps tightening API access.
- Ready for
- Production-ready
- Runs as
- Cloud service, desktop app and mobile app
- What the license allows
- Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code.
Judged on 2026-11-03 from the maker's description and Wikipedia. The license and age lines are worked out directly.
Compare Slack
Open-source alternatives to Slack
-
1
Zulip zulip
Zulip server and web application. Open-source team chat that helps teams stay productive and focused.
Complete system Production-ready Your team finds Slack threads chaotic and wants organised, asynchronous conversations, self-hosted or hosted.
★ 26k Apache-2.0 Python Active, pushed today -
2
Element-web element-hq
A glossy Matrix collaboration client for the web.
Complete system Production-ready You use Matrix and want the most complete client, or want to host your own web client.
★ 14k AGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today -
3
Chat tinode
Instant messaging platform. Backend in Go. Clients: Swift iOS, Java Android, JS webapp, scriptable command line; chatbots
Complete system Usable You want to embed or run your own messaging service with ready clients.
★ 14k GPL-3.0 Go Active, pushed 8 days ago -
4
Synapse element-hq
Synapse: Matrix homeserver written in Python/Twisted + Rust
Complete system Production-ready You want to run your own Matrix server for a team or community that can federate with others.
★ 4.8k AGPL-3.0 Python Active, pushed today -
5
Quiet TryQuiet
A private, p2p alternative to Slack and Discord built on Tor & IPFS
Complete system Experimental A small group values running chat with no server at all and accepts missing features compared with Slack.
★ 2.7k GPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today -
6
Colanode colanode
Open-source and local-first Slack and Notion alternative that puts you in control of your data
Complete system Experimental A small team wants chat and docs together on its own server with offline support.
★ 5.2k Apache-2.0 TypeScript Slowing, pushed 7 months ago -
7
Raven frappe
Simple, open source team messaging platform
Complete system Usable Your company runs ERPNext or other Frappe apps and wants chat inside the same system.
★ 839 AGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today
Other commercial team chat apps
-
1
Discord Discord Inc.
American online communication software
Complete system Production-ready You run a public or semi-public community, such as gamers, an open-source project or a creator audience.
42k readers a month Since 2015 Commercial -
2
Microsoft Teams Microsoft
Team collaboration application
Complete system Production-ready Your business already pays for Microsoft 365 and wants chat and video meetings without another vendor.
20k readers a month Since 2017 Commercial -
3
Google Chat Google
Learn how Google Chat helps individuals, groups and businesses to connect and collaborate online with secure messaging and powerful features from Google Workspace.
Complete system Production-ready Your company runs on Google Workspace and wants basic team chat that is already included.
2.5k readers a month Since 2017 Commercial
Under it
Every program, Slack included, runs on a microchip.
The description is the maker's own, quoted as written. Facts come from Wikipedia and refresh weekly. Readers are counted on Wikipedia's mobile site only, because automated traffic that Wikimedia does not flag inflates desktop counts.